paul h Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 As a follow up to leschirons thread about a guitarist who couldn't improvise, I have to confess...it's the only thing I can do. I have only ever learnt a couple of bass lines in my life. 99% of the time I just work out what key the song is in and roughly what happens during it and then make the rest up on the spot. And when I say key, I actually mean I just work out a couple of chords on the guitar because I am never 100% sure what the key is. I tend to just go by the first chord and use my ears for the rest! So when I learn songs for a band, I actually learn it on guitar. And when I say learn it I really mean find the first chord of the verse, chorus and middle 8 sections. The exception to all this being original compositions where I tend to closely stick to my original bass part. Close to 25 years of playing bass and I still can't be bothered to learn someone else's bass line. Paul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 I thought I was alone... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberthot Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Most of the songs we do with the wedding band, the bass line is sh*t. We are a very punchy band. eg the monkeys' Daydream Believer' is pretty lame but we do a different version of it. In fact it was about 4 years after we started playing it that I heard it for the first time and couldn't believe how bad it was. Unless its something where the bass line is integral to the song like "Billy Jean" then I play it the way I believe it should be played Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGit Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 [quote name='paul h' post='359867' date='Dec 20 2008, 08:49 PM']As a follow up to leschirons thread about a guitarist who couldn't improvise, I have to confess...it's the only thing I can do. I have only ever learnt a couple of bass lines in my life. 99% of the time I just work out what key the song is in and roughly what happens during it and then make the rest up on the spot. And when I say key, I actually mean I just work out a couple of chords on the guitar because I am never 100% sure what the key is. I tend to just go by the first chord and use my ears for the rest! So when I learn songs for a band, I actually learn it on guitar. And when I say learn it I really mean find the first chord of the verse, chorus and middle 8 sections. The exception to all this being original compositions where I tend to closely stick to my original bass part. Close to 25 years of playing bass and I still can't be bothered to learn someone else's bass line. Paul.[/quote] Whatever gets you though the night er, gig ............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mewsie Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 heh. i used to be verrrry hung up on getting the bassline perfect to the original, and used to sit and listen to the song til i got it exact. now i am much more relaxed about it and will improvise a little, unless the bassline is really distinctive. the initial obsession has at least given me a good ear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AM1 Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 [quote name='paul h' post='359867' date='Dec 20 2008, 08:49 PM']As a follow up to leschirons thread about a guitarist who couldn't improvise, I have to confess...it's the only thing I can do. I have only ever learnt a couple of bass lines in my life. 99% of the time I just work out what key the song is in and roughly what happens during it and then make the rest up on the spot. And when I say key, I actually mean I just work out a couple of chords on the guitar because I am never 100% sure what the key is. I tend to just go by the first chord and use my ears for the rest! So when I learn songs for a band, I actually learn it on guitar. And when I say learn it I really mean find the first chord of the verse, chorus and middle 8 sections. The exception to all this being original compositions where I tend to closely stick to my original bass part. Close to 25 years of playing bass and I still can't be bothered to learn someone else's bass line. Paul.[/quote] That's EXACTLY what I want to be able to do and the way I would prefer to learn but decided to take some lessons instead, mainly for technique reasons. Regards AM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemmywinks Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 [quote name='Delberthot' post='360045' date='Dec 21 2008, 04:51 AM']Most of the songs we do with the wedding band, the bass line is sh*t. We are a very punchy band. eg the monkeys' Daydream Believer' is pretty lame but we do a different version of it. In fact it was about 4 years after we started playing it that I heard it for the first time and couldn't believe how bad it was. Unless its something where the bass line is integral to the song like "Billy Jean" then I play it the way I believe it should be played[/quote] Exactly! We do party covers and most of the basslines are pretty awful. We were doing the same thing, learning the structure and chords then setting about it to make it sound half decent! We still do Sweet Home Alabama cos girls love it when they're drunk, but it would be unplayable without some tinkering and improvisation, such a dull song to play! I think the only songs where i play the exact line are Mr Brightside, all Chilis stuff and Fake Tales... by the Arctic Monkeys. A lot of the more modern stuff needs keeping as it's fresh in everyone's minds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 [quote name='lemmywinks' post='360703' date='Dec 22 2008, 09:23 AM']Exactly! We do party covers and most of the basslines are pretty awful. We were doing the same thing, learning the structure and chords then setting about it to make it sound half decent! We still do Sweet Home Alabama cos girls love it when they're drunk, but it would be unplayable without some tinkering and improvisation, such a dull song to play! I think the only songs where i play the exact line are Mr Brightside, all Chilis stuff and Fake Tales... by the Arctic Monkeys. A lot of the more modern stuff needs keeping as it's fresh in everyone's minds[/quote] And the modern stuff (generally) might be a smidge more memorable as us low-enders have gradually raised our profile over the years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 Used to do Oliver's Army in a band many years ago, and I was going to do something simple until I took the time to listen closely to the bassline. Ohhhh, it's wonderful. I just had to copy it... took a while to work it out, but was worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noirpunk Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 I pick out the chords play those with a little improvisation in breaks and emphasise any hard hits our drummer makes. Apparently I'm more like a drummer than a guitarist when playing bass haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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