Last night I met Billie Jean for the first time

[Alex_G]

@Snoopy

You are not alone.

Thank you. Feels good!

[athosmr2003]

OMG I just found out that even though Michael Jackson used a real bassist live, the actual recording was done on a keyboard!
Legendary Basslines You Think Are Played on Bass (but aren’t) - YouTube

[JoshFossgreen]

As always, very interesting discussion hearing how people have tackled this!

I feel compelled to contribute my 2 cents on this topic:

@thomas

BTW: in MJ’s original version there is NO BASS, the riff is played by a syntie.

I’m 100% confident this isn’t the case. Isolated tracks for Billie Jean are floating around the internet, and:

• There IS a synth bass doubling the entire riff
• However, there is a SECOND bass track that is clearly live electric bass played by Louis Johnson (who is credited on the track as far as I know)
• Fun fact - on beat 1 and the “and of 2” of the main riff, Louis is doubling the root note down an octave by reaching over with his thumb (ya know, the thing I tell you never to do )

It’s super common now to have synth doubling electric bass on pop tunes - MJ and Quincy may have been early innovators in that field. (i.e. Dua Lipa “Dont Start Now” - most of the bass line is doubled on a sub synth to add fatness)

Louis Johnson deserves his cred!

[skydvr]

@JoshFossgreen

Louis is doubling the root note down an octave by reaching over with his thumb

wait - so he’s playing 2 octaves? Or he’s doubling the synth by playing the octave below it?

[howard]

He’s playing the F# on both the E and D strings. The lower F# is probably doubling the synth, but he’s playing two octaves on the bass simultaneously for that note.

He’s doubling the synth for the entire bassline but the lower F# is probably the same note the synth is playing, I mean. He’s playing both octaves on that note. It’s not easy.

The REAL Way To Play Billie Jean on Bass (The Bass Wizard)

[thomas]

@JoshFossgreen

I’m 100% confident

Very interesting insights on the history of this song @JoshFossgreen. Thank you!

[autumnsdad1990]

Stick worth it! You’ll get there. I got these huge sausage fingers ( think captain caveman’s club. )
So this one was really frustrating. I worked on it for days. Got frustrated with it and left it alone. Came back to it and took it in bites, got frustrated again. Slowed it down, slowed it down more
Played it and played it and played it until I hit it one day.
Note it’s a daily part of my warm-up, and I even added thriller just because.
It’s there. You’ll see it.

[Snoopy]

@autumnsdad1990 amazing! Good job sticking with the excercise. It’s really frustrating in the beginning, but by slowing it down, it can be done.

Also, the support from the forum and learning that other people were also struggling with that excercise helps to stay calm and keep working on it, slowly, bit by bit.

Thanks for sharing your experience.