Simple song for Hypno and me!

[KikkyMonk]

I cant help but feel some kinsmanship to you hypono.. I've been playing for a long time (5 years) but am now trying to actually improve as a musician (not simply at the physical nature of playing bass) and am trying to learn songs by ear... Its all mirrored by your posts

 

I really liked your entries on the what keeps us from greatness thread b/c I am a victim of negative thoughts (stinkin' thinkin'...) (Well, I think we all are really)

 

ANYWHO, what are some songs that are easy (relativly) to learn by ear on bass?

 

So far we got U2's "with or without you" and the cranberries "zombie"

 

Alrighty...

 

Yeah I do agree this board is frickin' awesome!

 

Dave

 

oh yeah the topic is suppost to be plural (songs)

heh

[patrick_dont_fret]

TOOL's "Sober" is an excellent song to learn by ear. Extremely easy, just make sure you're detuned to drop-D. Then, you just trash.

 

Don't try to learn Pink Floyd's "Money" by ear, that's a tough one. But "Sober" is a good choice.

[g.]

Neil Young's ROCKING IN THE FREE WORLD. IT's so easy you'll almost wonder if that should be a bass part ; } ...Anything by AC/DC should do as well. Nickelback, Matchbox20 - the bass parts are easy, but sometimes the songs have little bits - extra measures or extensions at the ends of verses or choruses in them that may take you awhile to remember which goes where. Then it helps to map the song structure out, as some of us have suggested.

 

There's lots of easy songs; you should be able to hear what is within your grasp. As time goes by you will begin to notice that the version of the bass line you've been thinking is It has more nuance than what you've heard previously, so it's always a growing process - even for those songs : }

 

Creedence stuff for instance {man, don't I know anything from this century? ; } as played either by Stu Cook, or by Bob Glaub in the more recent live versions are great studies in economy and nuance. It's interesting to learn where Glaub copped the lines, and where he has tailored them more for current consumption, to fit with a different trap set delivery.

[sbrock1san.rr.com]

"Black Magic Woman" by Santana. I bought "The Best of Santana" to learn the song "Europa" and I discovered some good basslines and rhythms..

 

"Tush" by ZZ Top- Classic rock doesn't get much easier than that.

 

"Owner of a Lonely Heart" by YES- It's got to be the simplest song YES ever did and the rhythm is stiff but the basslines are perfect for the song and easy to learn.

[chewstermaniac]

Don't know how much of fan you are ( myself, a little, but not much ), but for some ear training purposes learning some R.E.M songs would be great practice!

 

Also, pick some blues lines and not just get the notes, but the FEEL of it. That could be a tremendous boost to your playing style as well as your ear.

 

Have fun!

[_Sweet Willie_]

Originally posted by patrick_dont_fret:

Don't try to learn Pink Floyd's "Money" by ear, that's a tough one.

I disagree. "Money" by Pink Floyd would be very good and it was one of the first I learned by ear. The tempo is very manageable and the line is repetitive -- even during the breaks. It's easy to get it in your head and there aren't any ghosted/muted notes, strange hamonic choices, etc. in the song. The main figure also fits neatly in a "box" pattern on the fingerboard (i.e., single position).

 

Originally posted by chewstermaniac:

Don't know how much of fan you are ( myself, a little, but not much ), but for some ear training purposes learning some R.E.M songs would be great practice!

R.E.M. songs also helped me a lot too. The lines usually aren't ball-breakers, but Mike Mills does some interesting stuff. I wasn't a huge fan, but we played a bunch of R.E.M. in my high school band, so I learned it.

 

Enjoy!

[g.]

Heh. Some jams I've been to seem get their starts from any player who knows a easy but cool riff, line or set of changes. And those ones must be butt-simple - because as soon as the song would normally go to another section the participation factor goes way down and the bad sounds really come rolling out ...Then someone jumps back in with the riff regardless of timing and everybody goes, well yeah dude like I can do that, uh-huh uh-huh ; }

 

So, go to some jams and check out the assemblage of mismatched riffs, and you is on your way ; }

[g.]

Most Doors songs are easy to learn because the bass line is easy to hear. But many are harder to play than hear because they were originally conceived on keyboard [bass]. TAKE IT AS IT COMES is a good example of this. In Am, the change is

 

| Am / F / | E(7) / / / |

 

but you're way down by the nut and each chord gets outlined - root-third-fifth (and octave-dominantseventh-fifth for the E chord) and it's clipping along pretty good. Fairly typical Manzarek bass line styling. When you can actually jump octaves for the entire line or parts of it, and back again, you know you've done some growing : }

 

A better easy Doors tune is ROADHOUSE BLUES. Shuffles along in E for ages, then... well, I won't give it away. That would be cheating you ; }

[BenLoy]

Yeah, I'm sorry but "Money" was one of the first ones I learned too. I used to play that bassline over and over until my sister threatened to kill me!

 

Here's a good exercise that took me a long way:

 

Learn every one of Roger Waters' and David Gilmour's basslines on every Pink Floyd song...including the weird stuff on Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma. Extra Credit if you tackle "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (I didn't. )

 

Then, when you have all those lines down, pull out the "Delicate Sound of Thunder" and "Pulse" live albums and try to cop the funkier feel and slick fills that session ace Guy Pratt throws into the mix.

 

Puts a challenging spin on familiar material, yes?

[patrick_dont_fret]

quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by patrick_dont_fret:

Don't try to learn Pink Floyd's "Money" by ear, that's a tough one.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I disagree. "Money" by Pink Floyd would be very good and it was one of the first I learned by ear. The tempo is very manageable and the line is repetitive -- even during the breaks. It's easy to get it in your head and there aren't any ghosted/muted notes, strange hamonic choices, etc. in the song. The main figure also fits neatly in a "box" pattern on the fingerboard (i.e., single position).

I'm not saying that "Money" isn't a good song to learn, it's just a little difficult to learn by EAR. It's got everything you need in a solid bassline, as well as a lesson in odd meters, but for me (without any prior training in ear stuff, music, etc.), it was a little hard, and I had to break out a little cheat. I've never taken lessons, and the "music" classes they had in elementary school did absolutely nothing for me, either.

 

Otherwise, I also like to play some Incubus stuff. All that's pretty easy to learn as well. 311 is not hard at all, so break out the 5 string, cause here I come.

[g.]

Spurred by MONEY (not that hard, is it?): I'm going to steal what I think I remember of how GREEN_EYED LADY sounds ; }... and put together something a little different on top of it.

 

POLITICIAN by Cream is a good trainer for the minor-major third Blues dichotomy. When you have it, try singing it at the same time ; } - Bruce was amazing at either and amazing at BOTH.

[Fred W]

Kikky: not knowing how varied your musical tastes are will not stop me from throwing my 2cents in.

I would suggest learning "I got Rhythm" by Gershwin. The changes are the basis of literally thousands of songs of the last century. When you get it down you'll be able to figure out tons of tunes.

[BenLoy]

Yup, "I Got Rhythm": iii-VI-ii-V-I

 

You will use this EVERYWHERE, and your life will be much easier if you learn this progression in all keys before some bandleader turns to you and says "This one's in F, go!" without telling you what song it is or how it goes. You'll be PRAYING for familiar progressions like this.

 

If it's a country or swing band, you'll be sweating less, 'cause you KNOW this progression's gonna show up sooner or later!

[Dan South]

Hmm, some of the above suggestions seem a little aggressive for players who are JUST BEGINNING to learn to play by ear. Money is harmonically simple (minor blues), but it's got complicated rhythms because it's in 7/4 time. I'd put that on the back burner for the time being.

 

Santana's Black Magic Woman is fairly straightforward. The rhythms are repetitive, and the chord progression cycles over and over. The first half of Europa is mostly simple except for a few measures, but the second half is a more adventurous with synchopated rhythms and two octave jumps from high F to low F.

 

If you're new to learning songs by ear, I'd suggest that you start with one or two EASY pop slow songs. Musicians often cringe at the thought of learning songs in this genre, but I think you'd do well to take a mature attitude, suck it up, and learn a few slow songs as an ear training exercise. In these songs, everything happens in slow motion, so you can hear the relationships of the notes in real time. Some suggestions:

 

- I Can't Help Falling In Love With You - Elvis

 

- Hey Jude - Beatles

 

- Always And Forever - Commodores (???)

 

- Every Breath You Take - Police

 

- any of the Lionel Richie/Commodores love songs from the 70's/early 80's

 

- Chicago pop ballads

 

- Whitney Houston/Celine Dion style slow songs

 

I understand that this may not be your favorite style of music, and that's okay. It's just an exercise to get you to be able to hear the relationships between notes without having to struggle with complex rhythms or a fast tempo.

 

Start slowly and work your way up. Good ears aren't built in a day.

[g.]

"Money"? Just because the number 7 appears in the time signature when the bassline is notated doesn't make it a ball-buster for a beginner to learn ; } - Hell, lots of bands making music with odd time signatures don't even know they are not in 4/4 - or what 4/4 is, even.

 

Probably some of the things you've named are tougher for many beginners.

[fig]

How about "Lowrider"? Easy and fun bassline with a nice groove.

[g.]

Funny. Looking back to my beginner years (or have they ended yet), I nver had any trouble finding things that sounded cool to try and play. Don't think I ever had to ask anybody what would be cool to try - it was all around me.

 

And now, observing the kids of some of my friends who are working at having bands with their friends, very few of them have teachers or lessons, but seem to have that same fire for tackling what they hear around them. When I commented on MONEY last night I was thinking of some of the stuff I've heard these kids pulling off in very short time.

 

Old duffers: if you can remember when you were a kid, think about it.

[BenLoy]

I'm not kidding when I said that "money" was the first bassline I learned. I knew nothing about technique and I sounded awful...but harmonically it's not that tough to figure out...it's all roots and 5ths, which is a good place to start.

[g.]

Figured you weren't, BenLoy. Really, when we were first attracted to music we didn't KNOW SQUAT. And that was probably a good thing at the time ; }

[_Sweet Willie_]

Yup, "Money" really was one of my first too. I wasn't kidding either, BenLoy!

 

Yeah, when I first started and didn't know squat I learned what I liked to listen to -- this included Pink Floyd, Led Zep, Black Sabbath (you know, back when WPLJ in NYC was a real radio station! ). I also learned what the other guys in the band wanted to play -- the same stuff, plus R.E.M., David Bowie, the Smithereens, Cream, Jimi H., Grateful Dead, and more! At some point I felt like I could have been the bass player for K-Tel's "best of the best of's" LP collection!

 

Peace.