Most Difficult Music You Ever Learned

[Sternodox]

I played in a Roky Erickson cover band and those were the easiest (and coolest!) basslines I ever played. Roky sure had a way with chord progressions.

Then I joined a Zappa cover band.

Oh dear! Everyone else in the band reads. I don't, sadly. So, essentially, I had to memorize everything. "Holiday in Berlin" took me 6 weeks to get right. And I had to sing "Willie the Pimp" while playing bass, because I was the only voice who could get that Beefheart gravel.

My proudest moment in almost 5 decades of playing was getting all the way through our first gig. It was so good. We ended up with a 28 minute version of "King Kong."

 

[5StringBlues]

Close to the edge by yes. This was during a time when I was not playing in front of people. Generally the music that I play with bands is not terribly difficult.

 

[Killing Floor]

Seventeen by Winger made my whole arms hurt.

 

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Incantation and Dance, by John Barnes Chance, bass and contrabass clarinet parts. Crazy syncopation!

 

[Sternodox]

Incantation and Dance, by John Barnes Chance, bass and contrabass clarinet parts. Crazy syncopation!

Holy smokes! Just listened on YouTube. Thanks! New stuff for me.

 

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Holy smokes! Just listened on YouTube. Thanks! New stuff for me.

Yeah, Grade 6 competition piece - my HS band won a silver medal in a national competition in DC based on our performance of it. Later did it again with NY All State, but my HS band's version was way tighter.

This version's pretty darned good. I love it when the low winds get "bubbling" leading up the dizzying fast run parts up top... I've always wanted to do a metal version with guitars... \m/

 

[Spidey2112]

I'm going to say all of it... I swear, everytime I hear a song we cover, played on a different device, I hear something 'new' which I had missed previously... to me, it's a worthy pursuit in getting things as close to the original as possible, but sometimes it can be a curse.

 

[arbiterusa]

Any musical theater. It's not the music. It's that you have to learn all of it, and you're working with actors.

 

[Discount Bassy]

I've never really struggled to learn anything as much as playing the drums. If an instrument has a reed or strings, I feel blessed. The kit makes a fool of me every time. At least I can competently tune and muffle drums to spec and have added a new way to get fired if I need it.

Of note, I am not speaking of complicated drum work. A straight, simple beat puts me to task in a way that humbles me without measure.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I played in a Roky Erickson cover band and those were the easiest (and coolest!) basslines I ever played. Roky sure had a way with chord progressions.

Then I joined a Zappa cover band.

Oh dear! Everyone else in the band reads. I don't, sadly. So, essentially, I had to memorize everything. "Holiday in Berlin" took me 6 weeks to get right. And I had to sing "Willie the Pimp" while playing bass, because I was the only voice who could get that Beefheart gravel.

My proudest moment in almost 5 decades of playing was getting all the way through our first gig. It was so good. We ended up with a 28 minute version of "King Kong."

I do read standard notation, so most difficult music I've played on my 50 plus year of bassing, are arrangements from very self indulgent arrangers who are on a ego driven power trip to make everybody's life miserable.

 

[Joshua Pickenpaugh]

Tie: King Crimson's "Discipline" on Chapman stick, and Zappa's "Village of the Sun/Echidna's Arf". Both learned just for the heck if it.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

A life-long project:

Holidays. Steve Swallow.

 

[Sam Evans]

Just jazz in general. I'm minimally decent enough that I don't fall flat on my face, but I'll never really be good at it.

 

[J Wilson]

There's been some Steely Dan that had me alternately teaching for Icy Hot and Tylenol . . . .

 

[pbass74]

I'm currently working on "Song for America" by Kansas. I may never totally get there, but I'm doing better and better at it.

 

[DRBP]

the bass score for The Producers. i've worked hard in musical theater but that one was tough because Mel Brooks wrote the music but he isn't a musician. so keys and time signatures can actually change every measure. great music and great show so it was definitely worth the work. and yes, i know there are FAR more complicated musical scores out there. getting this one right with the actors and the pit band took more effort than i thought it would, but it was sure worth it and lots of fun.

 

[ryco]

Probably "Tarkus" ELP, David Sancious & Tone ","Transformation (The Speed of Love)",
and "The Ikon" Todd/Utopia ! just because of their sheer lengths.
And "Hello Jeff" Stanley because of sheer speed; fortunately had a turntable that had 16rpm on it.

And yes, Zappa isn't an easy feat either!

 

[ChrisAlan]

Seventeen by Winger made my whole arms hurt.

I have to admit, that's a fun one to play. Especially that middle part doubling the guitar.

 

[Carl Hillman]

I've played some shows that were pretty tough. Mainly because you get 6 hours of rehearsal during the day (for a 3 hour show), then you have to play the show that night.

Wicked was, well...wicked. Five string, fretless, and upright. Completely written out, non-idiomatic fills that span 2 and a half octaves, exposed Jaco-istic parts on fretless, arco upright, odd meters, there's a tune that alternates between 5/8, 2/4, 6/8, and 4/4...

West Side Story some gnarly parts, and odd phrases. I don't think Bernstein played the bass.

Les Miserables hard (for me) because it's very operatic, tempos constantly change. If you take your eye off the conductor, you're toast.

When I was in college, I was in a small group that consistently pushed me. We also played Zappa's "Echidna's Arf", as well as "Joe Frazier" and Return to Forever's "After the Cosmic Rain" & "Majestic Dance".

 

[NZBassman]

I once tried to learn some Iron Maiden.... bad mistake!
luckily the bands I've been in haven't played any songs with very difficult bass lines
my last band used to play Stevie Wonder 'Master blaster' but we only played it every 3-4 months and I could never get that run part 100% correct
same band we did RHCP 'Around the world' and the start of that was faster than my fingers could move... we only did it a handful of times before it was dropped from the set list