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Your first tune.


RobF

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My first bass line was... on guitar.

That was the first time i ever took an instrument: the old beaten guitar from my father. And the first thing i've ever tried to play by ear was the bassline of "Scatterling of Africa" from Johnny Clegg. As i wanted to learn guitar, I became guitar player for 7 years, before falling definitely into bass. I've understood way after this first try that it was "a bass line". At this time, i was sure to play a guitar part :biggrin:

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The Jam for me. Probably 'Start' was my start (!) but played along to This Is The Modern World / All Mod Cons / Setting Sons / Sound Effects albums almost constantly from about 1980 - 82/3. Bruce Foxton was God to me back then.

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On ‎04‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 22:05, Dazm1966 said:

Transmission by joy division. Remember getting excited cos it sounded like the record and that was enough to fall in love with playing bass. 

Similar this end - Shadowplay popped my Bass cherry.

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7 minutes ago, HengistPod said:

Around early 1981 ... probably "Jailbreak", followed swiftly by the rest of "Live & Dangerous". I do recall putting the album on and playing along with the whole thing.

If not that, it would have been "Touch Too Much" by AC/DC.

It’s not really my thing but a while ago my friend put , Highway to hell , on the pub jukebox , what a great tune, I loved it 🙂

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On 03/03/2019 at 14:23, SH73 said:

Wrathchild

A fine tune! My early days of working songs out by ear were spent on Maiden stuff (Rhyme of the Ancient, Phantom of the Opera and The Clairvoyant to name a few). Seventh Son was just coming out as I got into playing and I was already a keen Maiden fan - Live After Death on a loop 😀   

 

EDIT - Oops back on thread. Before I tried to tackle the above metal classics  I’m pretty sure that the first recognisable  tune that I managed to squeeze out of a bass would have been either Bad to the Bone, Stand By Me, The Chain (well the F1 bit anyway) or of course With or Without You.

Edited by Deedee
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I was working playing keys and singing lead vocals 6 nights a week residency gig at the second biggest hotel in Jersey . One breaktime in the dressing room the bass player showed me the fingering for a major scale on her backup bass unplugged , so I played and sang " A Whiter Shade Of Pale " . When the drummer came back from the bar he said " I didn't know you played bass , Dave ! "  :laugh1:  ( I had already been playing the bassline for years with my left foot on Hammond .)

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On 03/03/2019 at 23:42, Skinnyman said:

Sunshine of Your Love by Cream.

My first, suggested by my teacher, who then showed me the minor pentatonic scale it's based on. Lightbulb moment. 

On 05/03/2019 at 12:26, lozkerr said:

Games People Play, by Joe South. 

I've never learned this, but I got dropped into it by the mighty Victor Brox at my birthday jam last month. The first time I've been able to blag a bassline on a song I didn't know and have it sound like I did know it 🙂

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the year, 1978, I tune my new Cimar Jazz bass with TUNING PIPES, YES, TUNING PIPES! lol

Plug in to my 30 watt Coronet amp, yes 30 watts !

 

 

and played along to the first song that came on the radio, lucky for me it was Bob Seger's Night Moves, yep, all three notes of it hehehehe

Coronet.jpg

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8 hours ago, josie said:

My first, suggested by my teacher, who then showed me the minor pentatonic scale it's based on. Lightbulb moment. 

My impression, looking at people's tabs on places like Ultimate Guitar, is that surprisingly few people experience that lightbulb going on. 80% of tabs seem to include huge random stretches that could be avoided by using a scales based approach.

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37 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

First thing I learnt on the bass was either 'Interstellar Overdrive' (Syd era Floyd) or 'Fohat digs holes in Space' (Gong), probably about 1974 I reckon.

I watched pink floyd - live at Pompeii, on sky arts the other day, really good program , worth watching 🙂

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The first few I learnt weren't with the assistance of the records, it was just the guitarist saying what the chords were and me making something up. Back in the USSR, All Right Now (and I played in the verse), Sweet Jane, and some originals that we wrote spring to mind (it was 1976 so details are a bit hazy).

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1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

My impression, looking at people's tabs on places like Ultimate Guitar, is that surprisingly few people experience that lightbulb going on. 80% of tabs seem to include huge random stretches that could be avoided by using a scales based approach.

I get that impression, too. The only tabs that I trust - and even then not completely - are Songsterr's tabs that can be played back.  Even then, I transcribe a stave before playing them. 

And it doesn't help that some of the stuff I'm working on seems never to have been tabbed. Passions songs apart from I'm In Love With A German Film Star, anyone?

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On 03/03/2019 at 13:40, Slappindabass said:

Crazy little thing called love.

Think this might have been my first 'proper' bassline learned from a book but I might have worked out most of Peaches by the Stranglers by ear (which I'm still rubbish at) slightly before that. Flushed with enthusiasm I then ploughed on to have a crack at Living In the past😃

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1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

Me too, it was in a bass lesson with my teacher playing telecaster. I was totally in rapture and this is why i don’t mind 12 bar 

There was a little tab of it in Bassist magazine (about 1997) and I was in awe that I could play something instantly recognisable. My mum was washing the pots and said “was that YOU?!?” I was so chuffed.

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