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What song did you learn RIGHT NOW?

#21
gonzilla said:
There needs to be a guide as to practicality of a song for people at different skill levels. You actually think II-V-I is the most important part important part of bass? No, the most important part of the instrument is getting people to actually pick it up to play it, and if it requires a level system to get people to progress, then so be it. So if you're looking for a thread where people talk about the virtues of TAB rather than getting them to actually play something, I invite you to find one of the other trillion threads that already exist on it.

That's the first and last I'm going to say on this.
Click to expand...

There needs to be a rating system for people to get up and play the bass? Seriously? So I guess for the thousands of years musicians have been training and performing nobody got any better because there was no rating system. Now, thanks to your brilliantly designed system, people can actually progress and play their instruments.

Thank you. So very, very much.
 
#22
gonzilla said:
There needs to be a guide as to practicality of a song for people at different skill levels. You actually think II-V-I is the most important part important part of bass? No, the most important part of the instrument is getting people to actually pick it up to play it, and if it requires a level system to get people to progress, then so be it. So if you're looking for a thread where people talk about the virtues of TAB rather than getting them to actually play something, I invite you to find one of the other trillion threads that already exist on it.

That's the first and last I'm going to say on this.
Click to expand...

I virtues of tab and intensive mode study are some of the most UNimportant aspects of playing music. Trying to quantify pop songs' difficulty level and having people measure their progress against them is ridiculous. What happens when you master the song? Are you done with it? Do you go to Guitar Center and show off ur leet skillz?

In that case let's add another category to your system: How well can you write out and read the song? 1 - 5 stars.

That's the first and last I'm going to say on this.
 
#23
I'll take the bait-

HaVIC5 said:
There needs to be a rating system for people to get up and play the bass? Seriously? So I guess for the thousands of years musicians have been training and performing nobody got any better because there was no rating system. Now, thanks to your brilliantly designed system, people can actually progress and play their instruments. Thank you. So very, very much.
Click to expand...

Irrelevant. You are evading the issue: what is wrong about rating the difficulty level of a song for someone who is looking to learn songs?
 
#24
There needs to be a guide as to practicality of a song for people at different skill levels. You actually think II-V-I is the most important part important part of bass? No, the most important part of the instrument is getting people to actually pick it up to play it, and if it requires a level system to get people to progress, then so be it. So if you're looking for a thread where people talk about the virtues of TAB rather than getting them to actually play something, I invite you to find one of the other trillion threads that already exist on it.

That's the first and last I'm going to say on this.
Click to expand...

Your missing the point of what he is saying...

You get to a point after a few years of playing where its not really about the amount of notes or tempo that makes a song difficult/easy. The average walking bass line is almost all quarter notes... Except the chord progressions are far more complex and the lines don't repeat so it takes a lot more work to study the line enough to memorize the progression/study the note choice in order to recreate it. "Anyone can play Jaco, it takes a master to play like Jaco."

Your rating system only takes into account technique which for a lot of people here doesn't matter anymore.

I do see your point in making this thread beginner friendly though. Maybe it would be better served with something like:

Challenges: Speed, Technique, Frequent Fills
or
Challenges: Progression, Improvisation
or
Challenges: Feel/Rhythm, Stamina
or
Challenges: Time Changes/odd time, Song Structure
or even
Challenges: Playing across multiple strings, 8th notes

...The idea being you write why you are learning the song and others will understand if they can play it/want to play it or not.

All that being said:

The Band
"Don't Do It"
Rick Danko
Classic Rock
Challenges: New to transcription by ear, live recording
Technical Difficulty: **?
 
#25
DudeistMonk said:
Your missing the point of what he is saying...

You get to a point after a few years of playing where its not really about the amount of notes or tempo that makes a song difficult/easy. The average walking bass line is almost all quarter notes... Except the chord progressions are far more complex and the lines don't repeat so it takes a lot more work to study the line enough to memorize the progression/study the note choice in order to recreate it. "Anyone can play Jaco, it takes a master to play like Jaco."

Your rating system only takes into account technique which for a lot of people here doesn't matter anymore.

I do see your point in making this thread beginner friendly though. Maybe it would be better served with something like:

Challenges: Speed, Technique, Frequent Fills
or
Challenges: Progression, Improvisation
or
Challenges: Feel/Rhythm, Stamina
or
Challenges: Time Changes/odd time, Song Structure
or even
Challenges: Playing across multiple strings, 8th notes

...The idea being you write why you are learning the song and others will understand if they can play it/want to play it or not.
Click to expand...


My general point, and what you've touched on, is that, to a relatively newer instrumentalist, it serves as a great benefit to see a general system that notes technical difficulty and recommends something that may be more in line with a current skill level. It's the whole concept behind having a music teacher or a book: it provides a guideline and a system that helps you evolve into what you want to be. A new bassist picks up Hal Leonard Volume 1 before Volume 3 because its more in tune with where they are.

To HaVIC5 and onlyclave, they may have so much experience at this point that they're beyond measuring their improvement, but that is most certainly not the case for the median player. Should a challenges category be added? Maybe, but it just adds further and further to the complication. The comments following the ratings are supposed to already take all of that into account anyway. My Money review, for instance, already noted the odd time sig.

So the question remains: what's the issue?
 
#26
My general point, and what you've touched on, is that, to a relatively newer instrumentalist, it serves as a great benefit to see a general system that notes technical difficulty and recommends something that may be more in line with a current skill level. It's the whole concept behind having a music teacher or a book: it provides a guideline and a system that helps you evolve into what you want to be. A new bassist picks up Hal Leonard Volume 1 before Volume 3 because its more in tune with where they're at.

To HaVIC5 and onlyclave, they may have so much experience at this point that they're beyond measuring their improvement, but that is most certainly not the case for the average playerwho is near the beginning of learning techniques.

So the question remains: what's the issue?
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I'm not sure what the issue is either...From hanging around these boards I know Havic and OnlyClave are two of the most experienced guys around...I believe they are just trying to get across to you and others that technique doesn't mean much and that you should start focusing on theory and understanding as soon as possible, and that technique will take care of itself. Although they may have put it rather harshly IMO.

...I know I would be a much better player today if I started doing these things earlier.
 
#29
gonzilla said:
I would tend to disagree with that. You can pick up theory while you play. Bass is a logical instrument. You can't pick up hands-on technique while you discuss II-V-I over an internet forum.
Click to expand...

You have recently learned Tom Sawyer, correct? Did you learn it all by ear on one or two listens? Could you give me a complete harmonic, formal and rhythmic analysis of the tune? Or maybe there's more to learning music besides just playing the dots on the fretboard?

My main complaint with all of this is because it turns music into a competition based upon an entirely arbitrary system. "Leveled" beginners books are fine, I suppose, because it provides a framework for the beginning student to obtain a foundation for the rest of their studies if they don't have the immediate means for a private instructor. However, beyond the beginning level, creating "challenges" and "ratings" smacks of artifice and doesn't really teach anything, it just feeds a ridiculous machismo attitude. There is no pedagogical purpose.
 
#30
All That Remains - Two Weeks
Jeanne Sagan
Metal
**
Tuning C#,F#B,E
Song is in key of C#, At about 224 BPM
Song is pretty easy, bass is not easy to hear through the mix
Mostly 8'th and 16'th notes, except the chours which is tied whole notes, timing the hammer-ons and pull-offs is the only hitch.
 
#31
HaVIC5 said:
You have recently learned Tom Sawyer, correct? Did you learn it all by ear on one or two listens? Could you give me a complete harmonic, formal and rhythmic analysis of the tune? Or maybe there's more to learning music besides just playing the dots on the fretboard?

My main complaint with all of this is because it turns music into a competition based upon an entirely arbitrary system. "Leveled" beginners books are fine, I suppose, because it provides a framework for the beginning student to obtain a foundation for the rest of their studies if they don't have the immediate means for a private instructor. However, beyond the beginning level, creating "challenges" and "ratings" smacks of artifice and doesn't really teach anything, it just feeds a ridiculous machismo attitude. There is no pedagogical purpose.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with that. You can be a bassist without being retentive about theory. It doesn't mean you're just a human jukebox, either. There is a benefit to learning songs (rhythm, timing, dexterity) even when you don't break it down to its tiniest minutiae, and it's unrealistic to expect the average person to have a career-like understanding of their instrument. You're arguing from a pedestal.
 
#32
gonzilla said:
I would tend to disagree with that. You can pick up theory while you play. Bass is a logical instrument. You can't pick up hands-on technique while you discuss II-V-I over an internet forum.
Click to expand...

If that is your logic the perhaps this thread should be moved over to the Technique forum. Music Theory and the general discussion of music teaching is instrument agnostic. How is the flute player that participates in this forum going to work in your ratings system?
 
#33
HaVIC5 said:
You have recently learned Tom Sawyer, correct? Did you learn it all by ear on one or two listens? Could you give me a complete harmonic, formal and rhythmic analysis of the tune? Or maybe there's more to learning music besides just playing the dots on the fretboard?

My main complaint with all of this is because it turns music into a competition based upon an entirely arbitrary system. "Leveled" beginners books are fine, I suppose, because it provides a framework for the beginning student to obtain a foundation for the rest of their studies if they don't have the immediate means for a private instructor. However, beyond the beginning level, creating "challenges" and "ratings" smacks of artifice and doesn't really teach anything, it just feeds a ridiculous machismo attitude. There is no pedagogical purpose.
Click to expand...

You elitist. ;)
 
#34
onlyclave said:
If that is your logic the perhaps this thread should be moved over to the Technique forum. Music Theory and the general discussion of music teaching is instrument agnostic. How is the flute player that participates in this forum going to work in your ratings system?
Click to expand...


That would be my only crime here. I chose this forum because it's a general topic on bass playing.
 
#37
Aside from the childish ****ing contest by people who are obviously far too good to benefit from any sort of guidance, this particular newb appreciates this thread, gonzilla. After spending hours immersing myself in mind-numbing theory texts and scribbling out pages and pages of notes on modes and scales, it's helps to find songs that I like that I can actually play halfway decently to give me inspiration to keep on pushing on.

It's easy to scoff about songs that any idiot can play after having studied bass for a year when you've already got that year and quite a few after that under your belt. But when you've got another 11 months before you get that first year under your belt you need something, because "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" gets pretty ****ing old after the 50th variation. So thank you, gonzilla.
 
#40
This is a good idea for a forum (I'm sure it's been other places before, but this is the one i came across), it gives people like me more songs to learn and a basic (approximate) difficulty in a simplistic form. It saves me from trying to play songs that are too easy and gives me an incentive to improve my technique so i can perform that song better.

Yes it isn't the best system, but i find it helpful, so can we stop the comments about this thread and just add to song list of the thread.
 

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