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Most difficult bass riff...


Bass_god_offspring

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just outta curiosity, what do you think is the most difficult bass riff or line that you have every heard/played?

 

thanks a lot.

 

:D

-BGO

 

5 words you should live by...

 

Music is its own reward

 

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

My Band: www.Myspace.com/audreyisanarcissist

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I find it's often riffs that aren't that complicated, but require a very specific 'feel' which can be the most difficult.

 

We still haven't added Jaco's 'Come On, Come Over' to our band's rep, because I just can't get the stuttered 16ths in that riff to sound right from a 'feel' perspective. And it's so annoying, because technically the riff is a piece of cake for me to play.

 

Doh!

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Yeah, feel is key. I just got a list of songs for my new band and one song on it is Ike and Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" in a live version. I didn't even listen to it at first, considering there were songs by Tower of Power, Incognito and so on that I thought would have more demanding lines and needed attending to first. I mean, 4 chords, basic rock/soul feel, how hard could it be?

 

I sat down and listened to the record last night and thought woah! First, most of the line is nearly inaudible, and when you eventually start to make it out, whoever is playing it is playing like a mother throughout the "fast" bit that takes up the second half of the record. Most players would just take the simple chords and do their own thing, but as a late starter on bass I just don't have the background in rock bands, blues jams etc to find it easy to play that style at that speed, and keep the feel tight. I've mentioned this to my bandmates but they are not buying my excuses.

 

The end result is I'll probably spend a lot more time on this than on conventionally "difficult" parts like Tower of Power, because I'll be learning a style rather than a bass line. (What makes it worse is I don't even LIKE that kind of thing - it'll be the least enjoyable song of the set for me, even without the work needed to learn it). :(

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Wicked Game covered by H.I.M. just try and see :P

 

In a serious note, I am not qualified to decide the hardest line. The songs I study now wouldn't even qualify to be very hard. (Hysteria by Muse, Around the World by RHCP, Misty transcribed by Mike Dimin [by the way thanks to Mr. Dimin for providing such a lovely study material]

oops my signature dropped
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Everything Les Claypool every played.

 

The middle bass solo in YYZ I've never gotten right. Ditto the bass solo in La Villa Strangiato and the first transitional run in The Spirit of Radio.

I soooooooooo completely agree with you....

I've tried and tried and tried to get that solo in La Villa right and have failed miserable each and every time. I won't even talk about how bad my Tommy the Cat sucks...

Tenstrum

 

"Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face."

Harry Dresden, Storm Front

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Hmm...

The whole "hardest bass line" thing is so relative.

 

I have a buddy who is just starting outhe's having trouble with Green Day's "Longview."

 

Ask Stanley Clarke the same question, and he'd probably mention a tune that only few of us could get our heads around, let alone play.

 

Now I know it sounds kind of stupid (obtuse, even!), but I'm generally not interested in the kind of music that is really technically difficult for me to play. At this point, I have enough technical ability to play the things I hear in my head as well as the other music I find interesting... and that works for me.

\m/

Erik

"To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

--Sun Tzu

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Smoke On The Water. Did you even realize the bass part is different than the guitart part! :eek:

You can stop now -jeremyc

STOP QUOTING EVERY THING I SAY!!! -Bass_god_offspring

lug, you should add that statement to you signature.-Tenstrum

I'm not sure any argument can top lug's. - Sweet Willie

 

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Originally posted by tatudbassman:

Hey Lug, I'll take you on...I suck more!

You MUST be out-yo-mind. :rolleyes:

You can stop now -jeremyc

STOP QUOTING EVERY THING I SAY!!! -Bass_god_offspring

lug, you should add that statement to you signature.-Tenstrum

I'm not sure any argument can top lug's. - Sweet Willie

 

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I'm new to the board, but OTHER than Tommy the Cat, I don't find any of Primus' Bass lines that difficult.A lot of it is just pattern memory, and just basic 1 note lines that are Barred or strummed barred. For me, the truly difficult stuff is the "Out-there" stuff that when you hear, you ask "How did he do that?"

band (bassist) examples:

1.Stump- A Fierce Pancake (Bassist Kev Hopper)

probably the hardest, most original

bass playing iv'e ever heard. Makes Les

Claypool look like Michael Anthony

 

2.Japan- Tin Drum (Bassist Mick Karn)

Amazing rubbery-ProtoFunk Bass

 

3.Ruins- Tzomborgha (Bassist Hiroshi Sasaki)

Japanese Drum & Bass Duo

basically, a punk Mahavishnu thats 2

people

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Welcome to the Lowdown, spacedHaitian!

 

You mentioned the Ruins. That was quite a group.

I remember that one student brought me in a cd and asked me to transcribe it for him!

 

I wonder if their music is still available. Some of the people on this forum who are into ground-breaking stuff might want to hear it.

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Wicked Game covered by H.I.M. just try and see

 

In a serious note, I am not qualified to decide the hardest line. The songs I study now wouldn't even qualify to be very hard. (Hysteria by Muse, Around the World by RHCP, Misty transcribed by Mike Dimin [by the way thanks to Mr. Dimin for providing such a lovely study material

lol.

 

dude, i love Muse.

 

Hysteria was one of the first songs i learned by them, really fun, and you can impress people by playing it :thu:

 

Longview-i remeber when i first tried to play that, damn, was that hard. same goees with a song called "Carousel" by Blink 182. any beggining bassist should learn how to play the intro.

:)

-BGO

 

5 words you should live by...

 

Music is its own reward

 

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

My Band: www.Myspace.com/audreyisanarcissist

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Jeremy's favorite: Nelly's Hot in Herrrre

 

Try playing those two notes per measure all the way through the song.

 

In fact, try recording it all the way through into the DAW of your choice and then see how tight you are about 3 minutes into the damn song. :mad::mad::D

"For instance" is not proof.

 

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Since Stump is out of print since 1990..(Still, FIND IT!!!)...The bassist has some amazing solo stuff out...Here is a snippet....Let me know what you think!!

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/clipserve/B00004Y6TN001002/0/102-9680233-0313722

 

It's a snippet...But this guy is amazing!!

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maxwell murder by rancid

 

oooo my new bass player has it transcribed! goody! :D

"I'm thinkin' we should let bump answer this one...

Prepare to don Nomex!"

-social critic

"When I install my cannons, I'm totally going to blast their asses back to the 16th century; Black Beard style"

-bumpcity

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spacedHaitian,

 

I listened to the samples by that Kev guy. I didn't hear any bass except for a few flurries of harmonics.

 

I seem to have a lot of trouble hearing basslines on my computer...I've just got the cheap $10 speakers connected to it so I have a hard time hearing bass on any of the samples people post.

 

But I did listen to your band.

 

In the dialect of the town where I come from:

youse guys is crazy.

 

And I mean that as a compliment. :thu:

 

That's quite some stuff you come up with. And quite a bio as well. ;)

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I agree with Maxwell Murder, the solo inspired me to go buy a bass.

 

However, at this point in time in my mediocrity, I am struggling with some of the fills in "Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin. And after all this work my guitarist can't play the solo anyways so as far as attempting to cover it it is a waste of time, but I will get it. I will.

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Bass_God i totally remember learning to play that Blink song, it almost bloody killed me in the first two weeks of playing. As far as hard bass lines go im having touble with "Bright Size Life" when he played with Pat Metheany, awsome song, freekin hard bass line.

 

Its not that i dont know how to play it but (as was mentioned earlier) its the feel Sir Jaco put in the notes i cant get right,any one else play this?

 

Much Love :thu:

Dave

"I am just an instrument cos the lord is playing this funk"-T.M Stevens
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