About 6 months ago I put together an old timers group via craigslist and we get together once a month. We agree on a couple of new covers each month to practice ahead of time. The songs that don’t turn out so well just disappear from the next practice, and the better ones get added to the set list for next time. I’ve been playing for 2 years and this is the first time I have played live with others, so I am having a blast. Hopefully we progress enough to maybe play out somewhere later this year.
Lovin’ the tone out of the new Stingray @lee_editorial! I can tell that you were really locked in and having fun with this song. Great attack, and using a pick really enhances the tone of the SS in the song - really makes it sort of “Shine”… Great bass playing!
Thanks I reapply appreciate the comments, especially because of the length of time you have been into playing music! I’ve enjoyed seeing some of your covers in the past from your website complete with background info for each song as well. Money For Nothing was always one of my favorites back in the day- pretty damn cool that you were able to come up with that rendition “by ear.”
Looks like you’ve only been on the bass since last year, but I realize you got decades of experience as a guitarist so that makes things a bit easier I would imagine. I have loved music my whole life and was always interested in bass (I think primarily from reggae since the bass is so prominent) but it took me until I was age 56 to finally buy a bass and get going. I hope to be able eventually hear what a guitarist is doing and at least find some root notes by ear.
At this point I am surviving on learning from tabs if its an existing song/cover- or if its an original bass riff I have written, I can turn that recording over to my guitarist and then he creates stuff that somehow mysteriously fits. I would love to go in the other direction- hear a guitar section, and then create the bass lines for it. I have started to do that a little bit working with guitar recordings online on one of those music sharing sites that someone else has composed, but it is a very slow process of hen pecking away on my fretboard until I find a note that fits and then writing it down in tab format. (but at that moment when I do, its magic!)
First and foremost, thanks for all the kind words @lee_editorial. I think that as we all get a little older, music, no matter if we’re hearing it or making it kind of takes on a different meaning in life.
I use the same trick Playing my bass as I did playing my guitars. That is, since I typically always play classic rock and country, I would simply find the key that the song was being played in and then just play notes in the pentatonic scale that fit the groove of the song… bend a few, double up on a few and just rock out!
I kinda do the same thing on bass when I’m just noodling around with a sound track. Hell, even the last cover I did (Funk#49) was nothing more than an A Pentatonic scale song…
I always ask what key they’re playing in, or what the chord progression is. If worst comes to worst, I have just (sort of quietly) hit a few notes on my E string until I find a note that fits and then work from there.
It has helped, but I did have quite a few bad habits on guitar. Mostly because “most” (me especially) guitarists are probably the worlds laziest musicians in the world and will always find a way to do things the easiest way possible with as little effort needed:rofl:… Even if it means stealing the bass line and playing over it:joy: (speaking from experience)…
Although I don’t mind tabs, I prefer sheet music. I may make tab notes on the sheet music, but being able to listen to a song and transcribe those notes somehow helps build a personal relationship with the song that somehow makes playing it easier in a way (at least for me). One of the applications that I find most useful for this is one that @JoshFossgreen recommended at the end of the B2B course (Transcribe). In fact, I use this app more than any other when learning to play a song…
Good guess, @Lanny!
I am split between: Pluto Crevé, Sleuthfoot and Awooga…
@terb, you are nailing most of them pretty well, and some of those that are probably “easy” for you would have been extremely hard for me (maybe not least because I don’t play with a pick!?!), but these three above were challenging to you, for various reasons, as far as I could tell!
Anyway, neat little task to make us re-visit all your nice covers
OK, here it comes - my first (and likely only) video cover. I promised this to @terb and I am happy I did this as I learned so much, but making a video on top of the audio recording is just a little too much, really. Here is a bit of background about the music and the process:
I chose King Crimson’s “Red” from the eponymous album because I like it and have liked it for 30+ years, because it is a classic in (heavy) prog, because it has influenced a lot of (heavy) music that came after it, and because it gave me a chance to “play” alongside one of my drumming idols, Bill Bruford. The track is from 1974, recorded as a trio (though with several guitar tracks overdubbed)
I did quite a bit of research to find existing covers, tabs and/or sheet music, and - needless to say - none of them agreed with each other on what to play exactly. After watching John Wetton himself in some videos and seeing him play it differently also, I decided to put together what I thought made most sense and sounded the best.
EQ’ing this (to filter out the original bass) was difficult, as there are a some motifs high up on the neck/fretboard, and also I didn’t want the guitars to sound too tinny. As a result, the high notes that John Wetton plays shine through a bit, and it is especially noticeable the very first time around that high flourish comes when he famously plays it a bit too late (and I didn’t follow him )
one of the main differences style-wise is, of course, that Wetton played with a pick - and I don’t… my attack is thus different (softer) and I really had to work hard on my chugging for certain passages
I really had to practice this! Among other things, there are some interesting time signature changes in there; but, on the other hand, just follow the drummer, right I don’t know how many times I played it before I had all the different parts down, but it was certainly more than 20 times or so… a lot of grinding and a lot of honing the skills at the same time… so, these are all awesome “side benefits” of learning a cover… and potentially long-term benefits as well
playing (and recording) this tune all the way through with as few mistakes as possible is tricky, and it took me a number of takes to get it to an acceptable level… to do this while videotaping, I find is almost impossible… not least because I use two pieces of hardware for recording and videotaping, respectively, and controlling everything AND playing a challenging tune is just too demanding… so, I Milli-Vanillied it, just like @Lanny recently described as one of the ways to present a video cover.
sync’ing the audio and the video is fiddly at best, but inexplicably to me the two tracks gradually went out of sync again the longer the tune went on… I am not sure what is going on, but I blame it on software issues when exporting from Garageband to mp3. In any case, I had to fudge it a bit by inserting a photo instead of the video track in the middle, such that I could re-align the video and audio for the rest of the song.
finally, tone-wise, I was trying to mate a chorus and some overdrive, but I am not sure I succeeded nor that it is actually noticeable in the mix… I am still challenged when it comes to tone shaping I guess, a different bass than the Yamaha would have been preferable for this song; but neither my Jazz nor my P-bass have 24 frets, which was necessary for the high flourishes…
Alright, here it is - I hope it works (EDIT: used to be a YT link, now on Vimeo):
Thanks, @terb (and others who have posted one or more video covers) for pushing me… I am more into original music than covers, but this was a demanding, invigorating and educational experience!
@joergkutter great job, ambitious tune to take on and I agree with the other Joe If you hadn’t mentioned it, no one would think it was your first video, either!
that’s great @joergkutter ! you did not choose the easiest song for a video cover anyway I really LOVE King Crimson and this song, and you played it pretty well, I’m impressed. there are a few timing issues but nothing critical, that’s really good overall and you can be proud to be able to play such a bass line !
in my opinion you did well also with the track EQing , your bass tone, your attack. I like the tone you have with your Yamaha. we don’t care if it doesn’t sound like the original track, it is even not the goal. you managed well to appropriate the song and your line works really good.
even the video part is fine ! sometimes I have some small sync issues too, but I think it’s not very important for this purpose. the video part is just an ornament, an add-on to make the experience more fun. but what really matters is the audio track : we’re talking about music here !
Damn!! Joerg @joergkutter, you NAILED it in both the audio and video portions of this cover!! Bravo! Bravo!!
This was not (as @terb mentioned) an easy song to cover - not by any means. Your technical abilities on bass were certainly pushed to some extremes on this song. In fact, so much so that it left me wanting more…
Making covers is certainly a great learning experience - not to mention that it’s not only fun, but very rewarding in an “accomplished” sort of way. You should be proud of this cover Joerg… Oh, and sliding things into the middle of a video cover to readjust audio/video synchronization is a great hack. I do it quite frequently at times when I have a long and taxing song to play. Learn/record the first half… Learn/record the second half… Put the two together…
Some things I learned from your cover:
I really liked how you played your bass directly in front of the camera so that we could see every move on both hands. This is something that I know I can work harder at doing.
Your chugging of those 8th notes at a fast tempo are way beyond my wheelhouse skills… Great Job!
Your attack was pretty consistent given the difficulty of the song and I really liked the tone of the plucked notes, but do wonder a bit on how the song would be expressed if you were to use a pick - I’m thinking (or hearing in my head) a more vicious, aggressive tone that would probably completely change the songs ambiance and color.
The above comment just gave me an idea… Wouldn’t it be cool to hear one half of the song using finger plucking, and the other half using a pick??.. I know I did the “Two Bass” thing on one cover, maybe a “Pick/No Pick” thing… Might be kinda cool…
Damn man, you’re just a down-right GOOD bass player!!
I’m already looking forward to the next Joerg Kutter Creation!!
Great cover, Joerg, I figured you’d pick a tough one, then really think it through, and just nail the execution! I can really appreciate how you guys who do video covers have to go back and sync both the audio and video, I never even knew that was going on before, and yours is another example in which I wouldn’t have guessed. Nice hack on inserting a pic in the middle to re-sync - man, getting a video and sound file to sync has got to be hard! And yeah, got that fast chugging down.
You may have posted about it somewhere, but, how much do you think being a drummer previously, has helped you with bass playing? You have this look that you’ve just got that rhythm down, and I can’t help but think that drumming has helped with this.
@Lanny Man, that really showed off the fact you have a lifetime of music on your side. Really great job.
The idea of using the BEAD bass to change your playing position to give some relief. That’s wicked smart. I wouldn’t have thought of using it that way.
@joergkutter +1 to everything else that has been said.
It’s kind of funny, because this was exactly what I would have expected. The difficulty and attention to detail all seems very you. Excellent work, sir.
… Even if it means stealing the bass line and playing over it:joy:
(speaking from experience)…
I don’t know how many times I played it before I had all the different parts down, but it was certainly more than 20 times or so… a lot of grinding and a lot of honing the skills at the same time… so, these are all awesome “side benefits” of learning a cover… and potentially long-term benefits as well 
I guess, a different bass than the Yamaha would have been preferable for this song; but neither my Jazz nor my P-bass have 24 frets, which was necessary for the high flourishes…
anyway I really LOVE King Crimson and this song, and you played it pretty well, I’m impressed. there are a few timing issues but nothing critical, that’s really good overall and you can be proud to be able to play such a bass line !
