That’s probably a blessing in disguise then. Down the track when I’m much better at it, I can do a comparison/progress video and stick it on Vimeo.
Thanks @JerryP ! I usually take new songs a bar at a time. Sometimes the ‘simple’ looking bits can be bloody tricky, like a small slide and string crossing in Rosanna that I can’t quite get down yet.
I love watching those one year/etc progress videos people make, and I know I’ll kick myself down the track if I don’t record my early efforts 
Kudos for posting your progress here! Best way to get some feedback.
What I would suggest is to find a (much) easier song to learn first and use that to get better with fretting precision and memorizing a song, but much, much more so to work on rhythm and timing.
You are trying to run before you can walk, I am afraid 
You might not find such a song in Rush’s repertoire, though! Josh’s course has you covered - 100%! The songs he has picked to work on during the course are specifically chosen to zero in on the main important aspects of playing bass and practicing them while having fun!
Ahhhh but the point of my recording myself for this particular song is more for a progress comparison for say a year or so down the track and to keep this song as a personal challenge to see how I improve bar by bar-- I’m definitely aware it’s a running before I can walk choice! I’m also working on much easier stuff such as the 50 songs list where it’s still fairly challenging as well as practice exercises etc… I will get Billie Jean one day!
I think you posting this is:
You are well on your way, keep at it @StartedAt48!
Never lose sight of your goal song(s).
I agree with everything @John_E said above and I’m also going to add something: your timing (tempo) is pretty solid for a beginner.
Adding to that, @JerryP, I use a website to automate exactly what you’re saying: https://looper.tube
I put a song in there, reduce the speed to whatever percentage I want and I can also set what part of the song I want to repeat. After I set all that stuff, this part will keep repeating itself over and over again so no need to even touch the computer anymore!
That’ so cool! Geddy is such an inspiration, keep it in perspective for sure, but keep at it. La Villa Strangiato is something I never stop trying…still far far away, but so much to learn from Rush even if we can’t play it note for note. I covered Closer to the Heart a while back and found it a little more accessible, but even then I had to leave out a billion notes. Still it was fun to pretend
@StartedAt48 This is the approach I use just like @robbp helpfully suggested.
I grab the original song or sometimes a bass cover with tab / notation underneath from YT. Copy that in Endless Video then use the ‘edit timing’ function to drag the sliders to a small section I want to work on. Then just loop it, really slow to start until I get the mechanics of the fretting / plucking and repeat (a lot, like a lot.) Hours and hours and hours of repetition until I don’t have to think about it. I end up thinking a few bars ahead so i can get into position for a fill etc.
I’d grab this video
Then paste in into Endless Video and I’m away. I’ve cut / pasted it into the link so you can see it in action.
Thanks folks. I usually slow down the videos on YouTube but that Looper site would be so much better-- thanks @robbp ! @Barney the tab video you linked to is the one I’m using to learn the song, so that’s awesome-- thanks!
It helps me to put it out there that this is a goal, because I really feel bass is my ‘calling’ after a lifetime of feeling like I have zero musical talent but I realise now that I just didn’t try enough instruments to see what suited me. But I also need to put it out there for accountability because my ADHD brain has the superpower of getting really interested in a topic for a short period and then losing interest. It can be an expensive superpower but on the plus side there was that time I had to binge watch beginner drummer videos without actually having any drums, and I ended up being able to air drum Paradise City like a badass. I still play drums under the table if I go to a restaurant or do the chicken-neck when I hear the bass…
I was noodling today with Fortunate son and came up with this. I just changed the chord progression in the chorus to make it sound a little more melancholy and boosted the verse using chords. It was really just an exercise so I didn’t think it was worth ‘cover’ status (plus it’s still pretty rough around the edges…).
Personally, I’m not happy with the chord part - it sounds too busy with the vocals and drums - but melodically I think it’s ok
Haven’t been very active here (which is probably normal considering my semi-retired state in this forum), but thought I’d share this work in progress:
I think it’s great to come up with variations and try out own ideas - that’s a nice creative process!!
Hey @JerryP - you know I might try to iron out the links a little and get a proper cover done 
. I’d need to figure out the worse section though - for some reason whatever line I come out with sounds really busy…
Thanks ! That’s the big question though isn’t it - whether to completely accurately reproduce a cover verbatim or to do your own interpretation 
So, verbatim might be a great exercise, and you should always try to reproduce signature riffs or motifs that are just inexorably linked to that tune. Other than that, and unless you are in a cover band or tribute band that gets a kick out of playing any tune exactly as heard on this or that record, then I would say interpretation and bringing in your own ideas is always going to be more musical, in my book.
That shouldn’t be seen as a free pass to play just anything and called it “my interpretation”, but as long as you serve the tune and play “in the spirit” of the tune, I would always prefer that to being slavishly bound to what some dude played x years ago.
I think I (and others) said it elsewhere: that dude probably played it exactly like that only once on that one record, which just happened to become what people “expect” to hear. That same dude probably played that tune in a hundred different ways during concerts, but it is that one version that is known.
PS: if you are bound by a certain backing track, then that might, of course, limit your options 
Very cool man.
Agree a bit busy but a really cool deal all around.
Super cool @joergkutter
Can you give some insight in how you got that tone?
And what bass that is?
It’s in the fingers 
Well, that’s my Mayones Jabba PJ4 Hadrien Feraud, strung with TI rounds. I have dialed it in a good deal towards the bridge pickup, and, as you can see, I pluck close to that pickup as well. That should give that slightly burpy sound. The bass EQ is flat, and even the BAmp’s EQ is almost flat. There is a bit of reverb on it and the BAmp’s variable compressor is on, and I have added a bit of compression in Logic as well. But, that’s pretty much it.
(I know we have talked a lot about woods, but this bass has a spruce top, which I think contributes quite a bit to the tone. And a pau ferro fretboard. Gregor liked the bass a lot )