Ok, so I'm certainly no spring chicken at 58. Been playing since I gave up violin and picked up bass at 13 years old. Had a bit of instruction early on, but mostly self taught. Have been playing more than ever lately with a group of long time friends playing cover tunes in local dive bars, breweries and private gigs. Having fun and sounding pretty darn good as well!
Got a text from the BL yesterday saying a memory came up in her phone of us at a rehearsal three years ago. One of the other members said Happy Anniversary. That made me think of the Little River Band tune by the same name, so I replied with a link to the song.
I hadn't actually listened to that song in years, and honestly it was a LOT more disco than I remembered. The other singer said she liked the harmonies and the bass line. So that made me think I should learn it.
Full disclosure: I'm a dyed in the wool fingerstyle player. (Now you can see where this is going...) I've messed around with slap style a time or two, but never really dug in to learn good technique to play a tune.
So I hop on the old University of YouTube and look up Happy Anniversary bass covers. Low and behold, who should have a tutorial but none other than George McArdlel himself, the very man who wrote it!
So long story short (too late, I know), my introduction to learning a slap style tune at my ripe old age is the classic Happy Anniversary by Little River Band. I'm not saying I've got it dialed yet, but by golly I'm getting there and what's better is that I'm expanding my range as a bassist.
Got a text from the BL yesterday saying a memory came up in her phone of us at a rehearsal three years ago. One of the other members said Happy Anniversary. That made me think of the Little River Band tune by the same name, so I replied with a link to the song.
I hadn't actually listened to that song in years, and honestly it was a LOT more disco than I remembered. The other singer said she liked the harmonies and the bass line. So that made me think I should learn it.
Full disclosure: I'm a dyed in the wool fingerstyle player. (Now you can see where this is going...) I've messed around with slap style a time or two, but never really dug in to learn good technique to play a tune.
So I hop on the old University of YouTube and look up Happy Anniversary bass covers. Low and behold, who should have a tutorial but none other than George McArdlel himself, the very man who wrote it!
So long story short (too late, I know), my introduction to learning a slap style tune at my ripe old age is the classic Happy Anniversary by Little River Band. I'm not saying I've got it dialed yet, but by golly I'm getting there and what's better is that I'm expanding my range as a bassist.
