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My Whitesnake transcriptions


neilmurraybass

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20 hours ago, neilmurraybass said:

Crying In The Rain (1987 version). Trivia: the chord sequence through the whole guitar solo was my idea, but because the song had already been recorded without it on Saints An' Sinners (1982) I didn't receive a credit.

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Crying In The Rain.pdf 394.42 kB · 4 downloads

One of my all time favourite Whitesnake songs. Both versions of this song are great. Thank you Neil. I wonder whether you have thought about putting a book or ebook together which could include these transcriptions, stories from the road, performance notes and instruction. I know I'd be happy to buy it. Kind regards A

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Take Me With You (live) from Live In The Heart Of The City (1980). On all tracks from this album, I am playing a customised Kramer 350 bass with 2 Di Marzio P-bass pickups in reverse configuration, close together, with probably La Bella Quarterwound strings. I think at this time I was using a Sunn Coliseum Bass amp into an Acoustic 408 4x15 cabinet. I'm sure I could have transcribed it using lots of repeat signs, taking up less space, but writing it out in full means that any slight changes are mostly written out.

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Take Me With You (live).pdf

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  • 3 weeks later...

I know I commented earlier about how generous it is of you to do this, and ,in reality I will probably never use this resource because I seem to have retired from bass playing but, once again...THANK YOU 

And..

@ped  This really needs to be preserved, pinned, Archived...what ever . I don't know I am useless with computers! I do know that you should also be proud to have created a forum that has won the trust of a well respected musician.

Hat's off to you both.

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13 hours ago, Raymondo said:

I know I commented earlier about how generous it is of you to do this, and ,in reality I will probably never use this resource because I seem to have retired from bass playing but, once again...THANK YOU 

And..

@ped  This really needs to be preserved, pinned, Archived...what ever . I don't know I am useless with computers! I do know that you should also be proud to have created a forum that has won the trust of a well respected musician.

Hat's off to you both.

1774637685_hatsoffemoji.gif.cbb652740a07f89db93f5e5c3cfd3cf2.gif

A fan and friend of mine linked the copies of these transcriptions that are on my Facebook page Neil Murray Bass Guitarist to a FB page to do with Berklee music college in the US and their associated bassists. A very respected bass player and teacher, Steve Bailey, who I've met at Warwick Bass Weekends in Germany, saw the transcriptions and quite rightly made the criticism that sometimes the notation is not exactly 'correct' - I assume he means that you’re supposed to see where each crotchet/quarter note starts in each bar, by using e.g. two tied quavers/eighth notes instead of a crotchet, indicating that one of the four beats in the bar lands in the middle of that particular note. In my defence, I would make the following points:

Although in certain situations (Gilgamesh 1973, National Health 1976-7, We Will Rock You 2002 onwards) it's been necessary to be able to read music (but not sight-read), for the entirety of the rest of my career playing by ear and not requiring the 'dots' in order to do the job has been the most important skill.

I assume, perhaps wrongly, that the bassists who are interested in my playing are more likely to look at the tab, with help from the notation, particularly for the rhythms. Tab is probably banned at Berklee, and mostly I wouldn’t use it much myself, but I didn’t transcribe these bass lines for Berklee students, and if I'd known they would be scrutinised by one of the instructors, I would have made sure they were notationally perfect.

For me to do these transcriptions, my abilities are not good enough to use a pure notation app such as Sibelius. I need to be able to hear the notes sounding similar to a bass guitar, and to at least enter the notes in tab, based on the fret positions I used when the songs were recorded. The program that is best for this is Guitar Pro, though certain bends and effects are difficult to notate, even in an app designed for guitarists.

Some parts took a huge amount of time, partly just hearing and working out what I played, particularly on the live versions, given that I often haven’t listened to some of these tracks for 35+ years. So occasionally if I got it sounding correct rhythmically, I left the notation as Guitar Pro had entered it, even if I knew it wasn’t 100% 'correct' according to the rules. Given that I am not earning anything from the transcriptions, I feel they're good enough for people’s purposes.

The criticism has left me less enthusiastic about continuing with more transcriptions, though anyway at the moment I am extremely busy with non-musical family situations, soI don’t have time. My main plan was that the transcriptions were just an add-on to videos of me replaying these songs, but that’s a more difficult task, to do well, especially as I'm not an extrovert who loves seeing their face on social media etc.

Thanks for everyone’s very kind words!

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With absolute respect to Steve Bailey, I would ignore the comments about them being 'incorrect'. Useful as that feedback may be, I would argue that finding transcriptions of anything is something of a lottery and the more obscure the music (or the more it is performed by non-readers), the less likely it is that there will be a 'correct' version out there. If I am trying to get my head around a bass part, I would much rather an imperfect transcription to work with than none at all. Unless Steve is willing to proof read everyone's transcriptions, the bass community is going to have to live with the inadequacies of those of us who are trying to get some of the stuff down on paper without the support of professional proof readers, publishing houses and extensive training in musical engraving.

 

My main reason for not monetising my transcriptions website is specifically related to those imperfections of which Mr Bailey speaks. I don't beleive it is morally defensible for me to try to earn money from transcriptions that I know are probably technically imperfect. I share them because I am enthused by the idea of written notes and transcriptions of stuff that is not readily available otherwise, not because I think there is a buck to be made. If that offends anyone, then that is their problem. I have said it before; transcriptions are an attempt to record what one thinks is happening and there are no guarantees that we get it right every time.

Edited by Bilbo
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1 hour ago, neilmurraybass said:

A very respected bass player and teacher, Steve Bailey, who I've met at Warwick Bass Weekends in Germany, saw the transcriptions and quite rightly made the criticism that sometimes the notation is not exactly 'correct' - I assume he means that you’re supposed to see where each crotchet/quarter note starts in each bar, by using e.g. two tied quavers/eighth notes instead of a crotchet, indicating that one of the four beats in the bar lands in the middle of that particular note.

I think Steve Bailey is a great player, but really.... who cares? 

Sure, maybe writing tied notes to show the off beat might make it easier to read  but it's not a big deal. Most competent sight readers will still be able to play it fine, and most weaker (or non) readers can break it down and count. Easy.  If someone is going to take the time to transcribe their own basslines from well known songs and literally give them away, there is nothing to criticise.

On a side note, I've never really listened to Whitesnake beyond the 2 or 3 songs that I've had to learn over the years but I've been using these transcriptions to help keep my sight reading in shape while there are no gigs, and it's turned me on to some great music.

Thanks @neilmurraybass

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I can't read pitch from notation to save my life, but I have no problem understanding the rhythms from your transcriptions.

The vast majority of transcriptions (rather than original compositions that start off on the page) must be approximations anyway, unless the player is a robot with no feel...

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8 hours ago, neilmurraybass said:

A very respected bass player and teacher, Steve Bailey, who I've met at Warwick Bass Weekends in Germany, saw the transcriptions and quite rightly made the criticism that sometimes the notation is not exactly 'correct' - I assume he means that you’re supposed to see where each crotchet/quarter note starts in each bar, by using e.g. two tied quavers/eighth notes instead of a crotchet, indicating that one of the four beats in the bar lands in the middle of that particular note.

And.. so what? Your job isn't writing transcriptions so that other bass players can see what you were doing, you are doing it because people have asked (neh, nagged!) you too, as a favour.

Before you did it, there wasn't a definitive version, now there is. The world has gained something.

If the transcriptions aren't right, and it bothers someone, they can just take those transcriptions and redo them now they are on the internet, or they can just ignore them.

But for those of us who wanted to see them, they are fantastic, and we can listen to the tracks and look at the transcriptions and know how to do it, and it keeps us going waiting for your video lessons :D

 

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