Hi there Bass fam! One of my fave bands of all time is The Stone Roses and Mani’s bass lines (see I wanna be adored).
I have always loved the bass line in Waterfall. I have looked up tab, played along with the original etc but I feel like I fight the timing on this line, always.
I am trying to figure out the “1 and two and 3 4” counting to try and help me lock this down as it brings me so much joy to play!
Any help is appreciated!
Try to focus on when the notes land relative to the steady beat. Looking at this measure..
The first note is played on the ONE.
The F# on the 11th fret of the G string is on the AND of TWO.
The C# on the 11th fret of the D string is on the AND of THREE.
And then the B on the 9th fret of the D string is on the AND of FOUR, then hammers on to C# on the UH.
So it would be kinda like:
-deleted-
EDIT:
It’s more like this:
| ONE - and | two - AND | three - AND | four-AND-UH|
Ugh. Or something like that.
THANK YOU! I truly appreciate the help and effort! I will take any help I can get.
Oof. This is the sort of rhythm that I don’t count. I just have to feel.
I think of as a sort of swell, always shifting from being behind to ahead of the beat. Sort of always stumbling on either side.
I wouldn’t try to count it by tapping my leg. I’d hold the rhythm in my chest in a big, circular, rolling arc starting from my solar plexus and rolling up to my chin. That way you keep the same length of time for a measure, but the actual beats are fuzzier.
That hammer on from the B to C#, I wouldn’t count the rhythm of the B. I’d aim to hit the C# on a specific beat, and play the B as the shortest interval you can enunciate to lead into the C#.
More great advice! Thank you! I appreciate it.
Listened to the whole song this morning and thought about this.
That B before the C# is definitely an embellishment. He does not play it every time. Maybe half the time.
Listening to it, it sounds like… when singing you sometimes scoop up into a note for dramatic effect. This sounds like that same idea.
UPDATE!
First off thanks to the family here helping out!
Now for the update…
I went down a youtube rabbit hole watching nayone and everyone play it while playing along.
This player did something different with his fingering or maybe I didn;t notice until i tried exactly what he did….
He uses his pinky for both the second and third notes of the line. I tried that even though my pinky is weak (crooked from years of death gripping the trumpet!).
I started to feel the timing and the groove! If you watch at the end the song fades while he keeps playing and you can hear a “tap” type pause between the first and second note! This also helps me with the timing. Not that i can do it yet but hearing him do it helps me!
Yes, I looked up some tab for that and the B is shown in the standard notation (Ultimate guitar) as a grace note and that’s what it sounds like to me. So it doesn’t really get it’s own count; you hit it and immediately hammer onto the C#.
Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to check it out. I appreciate it.
