Hey everybody, my first thread here. I looked up if there was something similar already, feel free to point me to existing threads if I missed any.
I’m going to meet with a band for a first session together in 10 days or so, and they have a Motorhead-heavy playlist. Trying a few songs for the first time it kind feels more like playing guitar rather than bass (Ace of Spades to name one). It is kind of fun, I played guitar in the past and I’m not completely out of my depth, although the speed is still a bit lacking. But it is not quite the style I learnt or experienced in most other songs so far. Hence I’m a bit worried about this will match with guitar and especially drums when playing together… my plan would be to dial it back a bit at least for the first few times, mainly focus on getting the first beat right and “squaring” some of the fancy rhythmic stuff - if that makes sense.
However, I would be interesting if anybody has similar experience or ideas about how not to lose the “Lemmy” feeling too much while keeping it reasonably simple.
Thanks
Paolo
From the Lemmy Wikipedia article:
“Lemmy quickly developed a distinctive style that was strongly shaped by his early experience as a rhythm guitarist”
"Lemmy described his style as “I play a lot of notes, but I also play a lot of chords. And I play a lot of open strings. I just don’t play like a bass player. There are complaints about me from time to time. It’s not like having a bass player; it’s like having a deep guitarist.”
So you are not wrong XD
As far as not losing the “Lemmy feel” maybe try doubling up on the picking/plucking? Like eighth notes vs quarter notes, or sixteenth vs eighth depending on tempo, while the fretting hand isn’t doing anything too crazy?
Wait, what? You left the last part out of the quote 
Or have I completely misunderstood your suggestion, that is: keep the fretting simple and speed up (with a simple pattern) the picking?
that’s what I was suggesting, yes.
Oh well, I practiced a bit but was far too slow to properly keep up with Lemmy… and after Ace of Spades my pinky hurt every time.
But after all it didn’t go too bad with the band, for what it matters. I guess I’ll have more motivation to keep improving speed and endurance if they do want to see me again XD
@paolo.pfm Hey as a keen student of Lemmiology myself I’m actually kicking myself about missing this thread. Which songs did you play? Did they just want you to just play the bass or do the full Lemmy cosplay with the microphone stand and sunglasses etc?
Seriously though, I would have thought your guitar experience would have served you well with Motorhead covers. From what I’ve seen, most of the work is strumming octaves on the 2nd and 3rd strings with the ring finger glued to the 7th fret - I guess this would make sense if Lemmy is also singing.
Do you think you’re going to push ahead with this band? If so post a cover 
Thanks for the reply, hopefully I’ll get to play with them again (or at least I would like to), so I might still need your wisdom
Luckily they did not ask for the full cosplay, my beard can barely called that 
(not to mention the charisma)
Definitely something about holding a pick and playing powerchords has remained in my brain/muscle memory, but I was no fast guitarist anyway, and with the “casual” strumming I tend to drag heavily on the bass. Not the best introduction to a new band…
Practice helps, of course, but given the time constraint for this session I just went for more regular octaves (or half notes on the powerchords when in doubt).
Somehow I managed to (sort of) nail the ending on the first try though, which was not expected 
We played Ace of Spades and the cover of Heroes, which instead was a perfect warm up. A few others Motorhead songs are on the list like Killed by Death and God save the Queen - they seem to like Motorhead’s cover - but so far I only just tried the tabs a couple of times to get an idea
I’ll gladly post a cover if we ever get to that 
Hey it sounds like you all had a good laugh and that’s what it’s all about am I right ? Motorhead is definitely one of those things you can’t afford to worry too much about getting it record perfect, as long as you get the feel and the sound 
I am way jealous. If I could find a motorhead cover band in my area I’d be like a pig in mud…
Hope they ask you back. Make sure you film it this time 
Back to this lonely thread…
I’m on board now and went yesterday to play again with the band, we mostly played non-Motorhead, surprisingly.
However, I tried to record the one Motorhead song with the phone, with some success. At least the loud volume did not blow up the microphone
The singer definitely was not having his best session, but at least there is some feedback to listen to. Here is the google drive link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ApaXYxMlNhJy08WjoJlqYCDqn33Mz-G5/view?usp=sharing
because I’m lazy to upload it elsewhere
Hey I’d pay to see that in a pub sometime! Try and sneak a camera in next time