Repetitive lines that repeat repetitiously

[lark_z]

"guitar wankfest" ... this is a phrase worth remembering.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

That video of Lee Sklar sounded like Bush Comedown at first. And then scrolling through what do I see Bush “Comedown.”!

Sometimes just to mess with people we should just start removing notes until we are only playing one note in the same rhythm.

“With or Without You” on just D the whole time. See what kind of looks your mates give you.

There is a really good bass player I know who did not do his homework on the INXS song “New Sensation,” so he ended up just playing E through the whole thing.

 

[JRA]

my jazz band plays riders on the storm Fm to Bb --- try that stretch for 5-6 minutes. it's killer!

 

[bassdude51]

I Want a New Drug.

 

[ILIA]

Bass lines that some people call easy, are often not played well. Take, for example, "Looks That Kill" by Motley Crue or "You've Got Another Thing Comin" by Judas Priest. Geddy-Lee-wannabe bassists like to joke about Niki Sixx's and Ian Hill's infantile bass lines in those songs. But play those bass lines and really try to play them right, and you'll find that it's not that easy. In fact, it might be easier to just spray a bunch of fast notes all over the place, than play a bunch of moderate tempo 8th notes with even and consistent amplitude envelopes (attack and sustain) where the tempo doesn't drift, either sporadically or slowly over the course of the song, and is placed exactly (and I don't mean close, I mean exactly) with the the drums, and where the tone is not compromised by shifting and string crossing noise and overplaying/underplaying picking technique. Hell, some bassists can't even tell that their index finger tone sounds different from their middle finger tone or that their up stroke with a pick sounds different from their downstroke (even through a compressor). If you're bored with a repetitive bass line, you're probably just tone-deaf to what's really coming out of your bass or you do hear it and you just don't care to fix it. And don't give me any line that an audience cannot tell the difference. They can. Maybe they can't describe it the way I did, but they'll know something is "off."

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

1st song I ever learned.. and I still love it.
I play the bass, and have since 1963. Love it. And a ton of songs have very repetitive lines. Just saying.

 

[MrLenny1]

Yep, that's rock/pop music.
Repeat and repeat.

 

[ToneMonkey]

That’s pretty much Tina Weymouth’s whole schtick in a nutshell. At least it was when I saw the Stop Making Sense rehearsal show. No.Variation.Whatsoever. Nice lines though.

 

[groovaholic]

Did I miss it, or am I the first person to mention “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent?

Repetitive and boring while the guitar just wanks and wanks...

 

[Robscott]

Surrender to the groove. Lose yourself to going deeper and deeper into the timing, the lock, the spaces.

Of course it helps if the line is funkier than the one in Riders. But you have to get the trance happening, then everyone can feel it.

Till they wake you up and tell you it's 4 am and everyone's gone home

 

[ToneMonkey]

OP, you got me in one. My band was doing this one. Big crowd pleaser, can't understand why, I freakin' hate the song (and the band), on top of it being a repetitive snoozefest. But, you gotta give the people what they want.

It's a song I have to be careful with, most bars we play in have TVs running and I'll end up VERY OBVIOUSLY watching whatever sporting event is up on the tube if I don't constantly keep in mind that doing that looks REALLY BAD to an audience.

How to not go bonkers? Well, keep in mind that someday, the song ends. And I always try to keep the big picture in mind; even if I'm playing that POS song, hey, I'm not at my day job dealing with staggeringly inept computer users, so I'm still winning at life.

And being a keyboard bass line I found it a bit challenging to play right. It’s harder than it sounds.

 

[Scott Shaw]

 

[fourstringburn]

Anyone mention Silly love Songs? Course not, it's Paul!

It's a long and fairly repetitive with few changes. I still find it interesting and enjoyable to listen to cause every repetitive line is slightly different.

 

[FunkHead]

I Want a New Drug.

You mean Ghostbusters?

 

[Relayer71]

Three notes? Last time I checked it has 4 notes! You may not be playing it right... D A B G

Duh! Yeah, meant 4.

 

[obimark]

Duh! Yeah, meant 4.

That 4th note is where the "magic" happens!

OT- Tainted Love

 

[DigitalMan]

La Villa Strangiato can get boring if you play it enough times. Focus. Take one of those boring songs and record yourself playing it in one take.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

Sometimes, you're signed up to play something with a distinctive bass line, which doesn't lend well to improvisation, that repeats, repeats, repeats, repetitiously.

How to deal with it and not go bonkers?

A good example might be Doors, Riders on the Storm.

It was I'm pretty sure, a Rhodes key-bass line. Not hard to play at all. But the main riff just repeats and repeats. Then there are the extended keyboard solos and the inevitable 28-minute long guitar wankfest. Even if the band is pretty disciplined and sticks with the "as-recorded" song, there's still a lot of da-da-di-da-da-duh-da.... over and over stuff, without a lot of "re-centering" cues if one wanders off the charted bass line.

Thing is it sounds tight, played right.

But my mind starts to wandering about stimulating topics, such as "what thread size is a garden hose anyway? Why is it called a thread? If I don't have a garden, is it still a garden hose if used only to wash a car?" and of course eventually, "uh, what beat are we on?"

Rap

 

[bass.slinger]

Paul S. Denneman is one of my favorite players.

A great teacher once told me something to the effect of "If you're not happy playing something simple and repetitive, you might be playing the wrong instrument." He also then proceeded to show me I wasn't doing it as consistently and accurately as I thought. It was an invaluable lesson.

Did he ever have to play Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’ ever single gig with two (not one, but two) back to back guitar solos that were each several minutes in length? With the added benefit that the first guitar solo by the singer was always out of tune (cheap guitar that was only tuned once a set of or needed it or not, too much booze, too much hairspray, too much posing...). Sometimes I think it would have sounded better if he had just dropped the guitar down a flight of stairs.

However, I never get tired of playing the ostinatos in Livin’ On a Prayer (Killer bass line throughout), Love Song (verse is just awesome), Tainted Love (fun line), Billie Jean (with the octave of course)...

 

[phillipkregg]

This type of thing is really a blessing in disguise.

If the song requires you to play a repetitious part for the duration of the tune while other folks are soloing, you should just focus on the rest of the band and listen to their solos.

Do they just play the same tired licks? Or are they taking risks and attempting to be exciting and musical? Do you find yourself getting bored listening?

Depending on how you feel during these jam sessions, the audience probably feels similar. You have a real opportunity here to learn what kind of band you’re involved with and whether or not you should branch out and start looking for other musicians who challenge each other more.