"War Pigs" -- Geezer Butler

[jmrunning3]

My instructor gave me the bass transcription to War Pigs last night to work on. The theory portion of the lesson had to do mainly with the pentatonic scales involved in Geezer's bass line, concentrating on the 12/8 intro. I never knew how sweet and savory that was to play until now! The "feel" is incredible!

 

In this song Geezer uses lots of half- and whole-step string bends. Of course, the technique is brand new to me so my learning curve is huge at this point in time. When I was trying it last night, it felt very difficult to do. Practice, practice, practice!

 

Would lighter gauge strings serve this technique better, or would that in turn cause the low end sound to suffer? I currently have EB Slinkys 45-105. I'm of the opinion I should work on my technique rather than attempting to "compensate". What are your opinions?

[josh a]

Just play it normally with your own strings.

[Tim C]

Originally posted by jmrunning3:

I'm of the opinion I should work on my technique rather than attempting to "compensate". What are your opinions?

My opinion is the same as yours, as you said yourself: practice, practice, practice

[alexclaber]

Did Geezer originally use a shortscale bass? Or drop tune?

 

Great song, great playing, just great! Rock on.

 

Alex

[DONUT]

I would just learn how to do it with the standard guage strings. It'll serve you well later. Its just going to take some practice and some time, thats all. Be patient.

[Fred TBP]

It has nothing to do with the tools but a lot to do with the technique and passion. Geezer did fine with an old (long-scale) P-Bass, but he put feeling into what he played and that came across on those albums. If you practice and play out enough, in time you can bend steel cables.

(and if more musicians played with feeling, I'd be out of work.)

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

I think it has more to do with were you are on the fretboard than anything else. I'm covering "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain and the I can nail the bends. Then when I cover "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, not so good. For MQ, I do on the D, 5th fret and trilling the A on the 7th fret. SoYL bend is same string, only on the 3rd fret. I know I'm bending, but I'll be darned if I can hear it.

 

The lower you are on the fret and the larger the string, the less effective that bend will be.

[Fred TBP]

Originally posted by Social Critic:

I think it has more to do with were you are on the fretboard than anything else. I'm covering "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain and the I can nail the bends. Then when I cover "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream, not so good. For MQ, I do on the D, 5th fret and trilling the A on the 7th fret. SoYL bend is same string, only on the 3rd fret. I know I'm bending, but I'll be darned if I can hear it.

 

The lower you are on the fret and the larger the string, the less effective that bend will be.

Honestly I don't know what bending has to do with either song. Finger vibrato, maybe, some bending on the G or D strings (upper neck) maybe for blues phrasing, but I'm missing your point here.

 

On "MQ" I usually stick to the bass/keyboard figure on the studio version so that there's a rhythm structure still there when the guitarist takes off. IIRC I saw Felix jam a little once on MQ but he was more into long sustained notes and hammer-ons.

 

On "SoYL" I'll alternate the first part of the signature riff between the octave (DDCD on G string) and the root (DDCD on the A string) and the 2nd half of riff (AG#G-DFD) between the D and E strings. That lets the bass alternately cut in and out of the overall mix, as Jack did it in Live Cream Vol 2.

 

Best thing I can recommend when covering a song is to try to listen to a couple of versions of the same song and try to execute it so that the audience recognizes the song while tossing in a little accent of your own. in the bass player's native style. (unless you're Billy Sheehan or Stu Hamm in which case you do it your way)

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

I'm going by the actual sheet music, BMG Songs for MQ and Dratleaf, Inc. for SoYL. There is a half-note bend of the high G at the end of the last measure of the intro and the first measure of the refrain, followed by a vibrato of the E. And the song has caused me to become really good at pull-offs.

 

I concede the point of SoYL as I've just looked at the sheet music again for the first time in a while and what I assumed was a bend wasn't a bend.

 

Really doesn't matter much, I try and faithfully reproduce the bass lines as the original bassist intended and then I get mixed up with a bunch of kids that want to rewrite everything anyway.

[Fred TBP]

Hey SC, it matters. I know a couple of guys who transcribe for Tin Pan Alley in NYC and there's very little in terms of quality control there, not to mention anywhere. I've actually gone into GC and pulled out three or four Beatles transcriptions and shown them to prove that, 40-somethng years later, there's mistakes all over the place in sheet music. Try that yourself and see.

 

Not to discourage your use of the sheets, it's a necessity to do sight training as part of your discipline, but I'd reinforce your work by listening to the recordings and making your own notes. This way if you choose to do transcriptions someday you'll be better at it than these day-job hacks who get it wrong more often than not.

 

Hope this is coming from a good place. I wish more musicians would take the time to do the homework you've done here with these songs.

PS: I'm still looking for an accurate transcription of the opening riffs Geddy Lee plays in "Spirit of Radio", specifically that speed-demon moment he does with Alex just before the theme kicks in. Perhaps I need to follow my own advice and get that Tascam CD trainer unit.

[jmrunning3]

I apprecite the input. I haven't played the other two songs you mentioned so I can't comment on them.

 

I'm getting there with bending the notes. The fingerings are around the 7th fret and I've been able to incorporate some but not all of them. It currently depends how they fall within the measure. But, as was noted earlier, practice goes a long way!