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Going crazy trying to play Amy Winehouse


meshik

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Sorry if this is posted in the wrong place, I just signed up to write this question because I'm going nuts.

My buddies and I are meaning to play He Can Only Hold Her by Amy Winehouse, and I simply can't seem to figure out the notes to this super simple song.

It feels like the bass in the song is out of tune because no matter what note I hit it always feels off.

Can anyone confirm that I'm not losing my mind?

 

Thanks!

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OK, just had a quick listen to this on Youtube - I think you'll need to detune your bass about a quarter of a tone to be in pitch with this whilst you learn it.

Then the chords are just D - Em and back to D, and now and then it's D - Em - Bm - Em.

I suspect you might have had problems as the bass is so mixed in with the kick - this makes it a bit tricky to discern, and if you add in the quarter tone drop this wouldn't have helped.

Hope this helps!

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Quite right. I've found  many YT vids/tunes to be out by a quarter tone, which is a pain, as it it's bass re-tune.  If it was a semi-tone out you could simply play one fret down ( or up, depending ).  I dont know whether thats a side effect of YT itself, the person who uploaded, or the original recording

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People sometimes modify the pitch, the speed and (for videos) the aspect ratio to avoid Youtube automatically recognising and blocking their upload as copyright infringement.
Though in this case the "official" upload on Youtube and the version on Spotify also sound the same, so it seems like the original recording is probably just wonky. Used to happen a lot in ye olden times when they'd fiddle with the tape speed after recording - seems unusual for an album from 2006.

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Download the Best Practice app for Windows.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/bestpractice/

You can slow down a song to make it easier to follow what's being played, or change the pitch in tiny increments to allow for the varispeeding you've just bumped up against, or do both at the same time.

Highly recommended.

 

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When I'm learning a song that's a little bit out, tuning wise, I import it into logic, pitch shift it the appropriate amount to bring it into tune then bounce a copy of it I to my collection so it's always there for reference 

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I always wanted to release an album that not only was it not recorded at A=440 but each individual track was off by a different amount. And then to mess with people's minds even more the tunings of the individual tracks would also be different depending on the format - CD, Vinyl, iTunes download, Amazon download, Spotify stream etc.

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16 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I always wanted to release an album that not only was it not recorded at A=440 but each individual track was off by a different amount. And then to mess with people's minds even more the tunings of the individual tracks would also be different depending on the format - CD, Vinyl, iTunes download, Amazon download, Spotify stream etc.

"It's people like you what cause unrest."
Monty Python

 

Edited by SpondonBassed
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used to be that recordings were slowed or sped up to fit a 4min radio slot but not sure that's still applicable these days.

Many chart bands had that done back in the days before software and Apps could adjust it for you.

Dave

Edited by dmccombe7
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I once had a brain fart when trying out a Warwick Vampyre 4-string that I knew was strung for low tuning. I assumed it was BEAD, turns out the Vampyre Dark Lord (for unbeknown to me  'twas one of those) is strung F#BEA... 😕😀

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On ‎22‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 22:49, BigRedX said:

I always wanted to release an album that not only was it not recorded at A=440 but each individual track was off by a different amount. And then to mess with people's minds even more the tunings of the individual tracks would also be different depending on the format - CD, Vinyl, iTunes download, Amazon download, Spotify stream etc.

hehe I always wanted to record a silent dog whistle and stick it in a song and watch the mayhem haha

we are recording our debut album at the moment, so I might try this hehe

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Can anyone confirm that I'm not losing my mind?

Thanks!

 

 No, You're not losing your mind.

There was (supposedly) some sampling going on with the AW track (from the single - She's a Fox). If there was some sampling going on, that might account for the tuning being in the cracks. (Also the horns sound like they are from an older soul track as well, so maybe there were samples from more than one source used?).  I do remember reading an article, in which P-Nut said he put the backing track together for her, but others claimed along with album notes, that it was just a demo track. The interesting thing with all this was; P-Nut sued AW/Mick Ronson or the record company, won, and he was then credited...:D

Sorry for getting busy on a tuning issue, but it's all out there on the World Wide Web. 

 

 

"Lonnie Youngblood & Jimi Hendrix - She's a Fox"

 

 

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On 23/07/2018 at 16:22, bode said:

We used to detune half a tone, then a full tone down to D. Kept it that way for years. It's messed up my relative pitch precision hearing for life!

I was trying to tune a new bass at 440 and was lost. I need to re teach my brain.

I can see where you`re coming from, for a while I was standing in on bass for a mates band and they did a lot of drop D/drop C# stuff and I just couldn`t work out the pitch at all.

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Ooooh good jimi track,

5 hours ago, lowdown said:

 

 No, You're not losing your mind.

There was (supposedly) some sampling going on with the AW track (from the single - She's a Fox). If there was some sampling going on, that might account for the tuning being in the cracks. (Also the horns sound like they are from an older soul track as well, so maybe there were samples from more than one source used?).  I do remember reading an article, in which P-Nut said he put the backing track together for her, but others claimed along with album notes, that it was just a demo track. The interesting thing with all this was; P-Nut sued AW/Mick Ronson or the record company, won, and he was then credited...:D

Sorry for getting busy on a tuning issue, but it's all out there on the World Wide Web. 

 

 

"Lonnie Youngblood & Jimi Hendrix - She's a Fox"

 

 

ooooh good jimi track, anymore like this?

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