Whats the hardest bassline you've ever played?

[Kevin Dean]

You will never be able to do a bass line exactly the same as the original artist because you are not them , That's my excuse & I'm sticking to it .

[rogerstodge]

Cupid's dead by extreme, took me weeks and I still have a fumble whilst playing it.

[skywalker]

For some reason I struggle with Hotel California but mainly because my fingers refuse to do what my brain tells them.

[FuNkShUi]

[quote name='joeystrange' timestamp='1423175915' post='2681976']
I never got to grips with Maxwell Murder by Rancid. Fine up until the solo part then I get lost. As does my patience.
[/quote]

I remember trying to learn that when i first started playing bass.
Got it to what i thought was passable at the time.
We have videos of us playing gigs when we were 16 that my best man at my wedding screened to our guests in his best man speech.
Maxwell Murder was the song shown.
There were more, shall we call them "fusion" notes than i remembered

[lowdown]

[quote name='jakenewmanbass' timestamp='1209720251' post='190343']
The hardest tunes I played are numbers five and six on my myspace page.
It was my first album session, which made it 'the hardest'. I dare say I've played trickier parts since but the fact that this was recorded FOR EVER makes it feel 'hardest' in relative terms
[/quote]

Jake, you must have smashed a mirror just after you typed that.
Talk about bad luck, the thread died for over seven years.

[JTUK]

Anything too rigid, turns me right off and bores me silly.
One reason why I'm never much interested in ripping the
thing note for note.

[xilddx]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1423227234' post='2682453']
Anything too rigid, turns me right off and bores me silly.
One reason why I'm never much interested in ripping the
thing note for note.
[/quote]
Same here. I rarely play the same thing twice. Can't stand it.

[paul h]

I'm a terrible bass player, musician and person so I never even try to learn most bass lines!

I much prefer making stuff up on the fly so I learn the chords (roughly) and then just throw in the odd riff reminiscent of the original to keep the rest of the band off my back

[lowdown]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1423171329' post='2681866']
However, to not play them on a fretless would be a crime against music and would sound quite hideous,
[/quote]

And of course, for the Fretless Bassist that is Intonation challenged,
that is also a crime against music.

[SpaceChick]

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1423228435' post='2682481']


And of course, for the Fretless Bassist that is Intonation challenged,
that is also a crime against music.
[/quote]

Lol, yep true

[xgsjx]

The hardest bassline that I managed to get to gig standard was Shy Boy by Talas. Took me a damn long time, but I got there.
I didn't try rhythm stick until a few years back as I never thought I'd be able to play it & then surprised myself that I could.
Sir Duke, I can play most of, but where the bass starts to get more technical, I get my thumbs in knots.

[MacDaddy]

[url="http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0eKMCGYLBkU"]http://m.youtube.com...h?v=0eKMCGYLBkU[/url]

I was particularly pleased when I nailed the above.

Also the below.

[url="http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jaRipA5_M"]http://m.youtube.com...h?v=t5jaRipA5_M[/url]

[tom5string]

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1423175593' post='2681973']
Ask me how long it took me to nail it!! Ask me!!
[/quote]

Errrr .... how long?

[Bilbo]

I, too, have never even looked at Rhythm Stick. Like most players, I went through that 'play all the chopsy basslines' phase: Donna Lee, Teen Town, Silly Putty, YYZ, Wrathchild etc etc but, because I was not a fan of funk or pop music, HMWYRS was just never on my radar. I did pick up a few Jamerson lines when everyone was looking at the In The Shadows of Motown book and a few function gigs have forced me to deal with some other stuff but, to be blunt, I approximate rather than learn for no other reason that the gig I do are seldom important enough to warrant the investment to that level of detail. As long as it grooves, we don't seem to care whether it is the [i]right[/i] groove

[mingsta]

I don't really do any technically challenging basslines as everything I do nowadays is geared towards playing pubs and parties. Truth be told, it ain't like the old days, where I could spend hours as a teenager wood shedding my chops, nowadays I'd rather learn 5 easy songs that I can gig than one really tricky song that'll never see the light of day.

But some of the one's that I found quite difficult in recent times...

[b]Overture 1928 - Dream Theater:[/b] our guitarist is a DT fanatic and so we humored him on doing this one though we never gigged it, for obvious reasons. Took bloody ages to learn due to all the changes and fast runs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNKjuC2kSPs

[b]I was made to love her - [/b][b]Stevie Wonder[/b][b]: [/b]its a busy bassline and lets face it, even if you can play the notes right, anything you do is going to sound a bit cr*p next to the master that was James Jamerson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pYux5-d1Es

[b]Kings of Leon - Sex on fire (!!!!): [/b]the bassline is as simple as it gets but I had all sorts of trouble with it and kept losing count of the changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF0HhrwIwp0

[steantval]

Spirit Of Radio by Rush

Black Dog by Led Zep especially when played correctly when the guitar riff/bassline goes out of time with the drums.

[51m0n]

Bach's Cello Suite No.1

In the original key, in the original octave

[KevB]

Moondance. Trying to arrange a one-to-one lesson with Bilbo so I can nail it.

[TomDuff]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1423227618' post='2682465']
Same here. I rarely play the same thing twice. Can't stand it.
[/quote]
Me neither, its much more than that.

[Count Bassy]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1423227618' post='2682465']
Same here. I rarely play the same thing twice. Can't stand it.
[/quote]
Me too. I go with a theme, but very rarely play the same thing twice. I think it got me sacked from one band.

[Woodinblack]

There are a lot of songs with one basic riff and then a series of slightly different fills, in our set there is Dani california, pump it up etc. They always seem to come out in a random order. Has the advantage that it is interesting to me to see what my hands choose to play when I am doing it!

[scalpy]

Absolutely any tune, even the root fifth mid tempo snooze-athons you find in some shows was impossible with the Duracell bunny (running low on go go juice) of a drummer I had to work with in December.

Edited February 6, 2015 by scalpy

[leschirons]

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1423175593' post='2681973']
Ask me how long it took me to nail it!! Ask me!!
[/quote]

Just out of curiosity (don't know why this occurred to me to ask) how long did it take you to learn it?

[xgsjx]

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1423238852' post='2682671']
Bach's Cello Suite No.1

In the original key, in the original octave
[/quote]
In G major?
I transposed it to C to play it on 4 string bass.

Another you might enjoy playing is Fur Elise. Again in the original key.

[jonnythenotes]

Easiest way to play Sir Duke is by keeping your wrist fixed at your start point, and play the lot using only one octave....The whole thing is done using a tight pattern, and your hand never moves up or down. Some how it looks even more amazing than flying up and down the neck, as even though it is only using one octave, in a band environment, it sounds no different, apart from all the bottom end DOESN'T drop out in the high register parts.. Try it...7 notes and no hand movement whatsoever..