How would you play this bit?

Technique
1

Hello fellow players!

I have been tasked with learning a new song that I need to be able to play by next week with a group of work colleagues for a company gig.

The song is a funk cover of “Levitating” by The Scary Pockets (originally Dua Lipa).

I’ve got most of it down, but I have been working through the cool bits in the tab to add a bit of flare to the bass line. This is it here: Levitating Bass Tab by Scary Pockets | Songsterr Tabs with Rhythm

There are two bits that I’ve been trying to figure out the right fingering for without getting all twisted up - bars 47-48 and 51-52!

I don’t know if it’s best to start with my middle finger on the 7th fret of the A string, then go pinky, middle/ring/pinky, pinky/middle/index - which requires a pinky roll jumping from the G string back down to the D string. It’s a similar thing in bar 51 - both seem pretty tough to pull off smoothly.

What would the optimal way to play this for 16th notes?

I’ve been trying to think “what would Josh do?” but I can’t think of anything better…help!

2

I can’t see the bit you are referring to but remember that 4 and 9, 3 and 8, 2 and 7 are the same if you use the string below or above.
Personally I would listen to listen to it until it was stuck in my head, play along and brute force any difficult bits into my muscle memory.
Once you get the rhythm in your brain it should fall into place

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3

Slow it diwn to say 70-80% and keep playing it until your brain and fingers are one. You got this.

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4

Thanks guys, a screenshot probably would have been better. This is the first bit with the pinky-roll bit selected:

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Then the variation a couple of bars later:

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I’m getting a bit better playing it with the fingering suggested but with one modification. Instead of the pinky roll which is tricky to get right when there are so many notes flying at you, I can reach my ring finger down to the A string and hit that fret almost in parallel. I’ve practised it a bit now and I think that might be the best solution.

I’m still interested to hear how any more experienced players would approach this. I’m only a few months into bass playing (60% of the way through the course), so this has been quite the challenge to learn and I’m keen to take the path of least resistance!

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5

I’ve decided I’m going to chill for that variation bit - I think it’s a bit beyond my abilities right now to nail it as it’s written in such a short time frame. I’ll come up with a slightly simplified version to get through that specifically.

If nothing else, this has been an interesting exercise. :sweat_smile:

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6

For 47 in particular, when I was trying it out just now, I found it easiest that no matter what you play those first Es (7s) on the A string with, that you then do pinky, index, middle, ring, and then come down to the B on the D string (9) with your pinky, which sets you up tp more easily use your middle for the A, then index for the B# and back to pinky for the F# on the A string. You can then do the same walkup heading into the 48th measure and go from ring to pinky as you move from the D string to the A string (B to F) and then the low B with your choice of index or middle.

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7

That’s what I would suggest.

Don’t use them independently. Stick them together and roll between them with a whole-hand motion.

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8

For 47 in particular, when I was trying it out just now, I found it easiest that no matter what you play those first Es (7s) on the A string with, that you then do pinky, index, middle, ring, and then come down to the B on the D string (9) with your pinky, which sets you up tp more easily use your middle for the A, then index for the B# and back to pinky for the F# on the A string. You can then do the same walkup heading into the 48th measure and go from ring to pinky as you move from the D string to the A string (B to F) and then the low B with your choice of index or middle.

Yeah, I think this is what I’m going to go with.

Changing the shape of my hand when going down a string from ring to pinky then microshifting down to hit that low fret with the index feels like quite a stunt to do quickly.

I’m already getting faster at it though, so thanks for that confirmation. It gives me some confidence that I’m practising effectively and not building any bad habits.