Is this difficult to play? Is it unnecessarily complicated?

[bass_dinger]

This bassline was created by software, to go over the chords to "Oh little town of Bethlehem".  The Musical Director selected "funky R&B" (or somesuch) as the option for the bass style.

 

 

Is this difficult to play for a competent reader (which I am not)?  Is it unnecessarily complicated?  I am struggling with it, and will probably simplify it.  Does anyone have any hints or tips, to help me to create a funky yet playable line. 

 

 

 

[itu]

First impressions without trying to play it through. 

1) What's the tempo? 

2) Is there some pattern that repeats itself over the parts? I am not able to see anything like that, yet, but most likely I should play it through first. 

3) Done by a machine (see the first notes in bar 15)? How does it sound straight from the computer? 

4) What kind of band is playing? Is it even possible to go up high if there are keys close by? Soundwise it may be feasible to stay in the half and first position. 

5) I think (this is my very biased opinion) that bass should be rhythmic instrument in modern music. Compared to say baroque music I believe melodic content was more important then than rhythmic if we look at older and today's music. Therefore many melodic jumps seen in the score might be possible to "reduce" to smaller intervals without "reducing" rhythmic content. Ghost notes should not be forgotten. 

 

Wishing to see comments from the pros here, like TKenrick, Bilbo, Tom Read, Chris Dev, et al. 

[TKenrick]

1 hour ago, bass_dinger said:

This bassline was created by software

Instant red flag for me right there. 

 

Yes, it's hard to read/play, because a human wouldn't come up with some of those ideas (bar 11!). The main thing is not the unnecesary complexity, more that it lacks musicality - as @itu said above, there's no discernable bassline for the listener (or even the bass player) to latch onto as it lacks rhythmic or melodic repetition. 

 

My advice would be to ask the MD for a chord chart and do your own thing, starting with the bare minimum of accompaniment - people (and machines, it seems) often think that 'funky' = make it as busy as possible, but that's rarely the case.