Because in music I cannot tell the rhythm. The drum is mixing with the bass. If the bass is clear cut ok if I listen to bass more then i can tell now. When mixing i can only listen to a bunch of rhythm. In this case, I am watching him stop and make the music like that it became more clear.
I’ve seen that video, so cool to see up close!
Yeah, picking out bass lines by ear can be tricky. I used to be terrible at it! I remember once when I first started I was listening to an AC/DC song (can’t remember which one) and I was convinced there was no bass on the track at all because I could only hear drums and guitar. I told my dad (who’s also a bassist) there was no bass line, and he told me “Uh, yeah there is! It just doesn’t stand out very much.”
Ear training to learn bass lines is a mix of getting better at picking low notes out of a mix, and also doing a mix of “hearing” with your ears and “feeling” with the rest of your body, because of the way low notes hit you.
Maybe try starting with music where the bass is super super obvious to you. Or like you, said, check out isolated bass tracks, then see if you can hear the bass in context.
Cool thing - the whole Blood Sugar Sex Magik album is on Youtube with isolated bass tracks (who knows where they came from!)
So you could listen to this -
And then listen to the full tracks again and try to key into the bass part.
Hope that helps!
5 Likes
Tina Weymouth of Tom Tom Club on “Genius of Love”
3 Likes
Favorite bass line or favorite bass player 
2 Likes
The David J mention got me thinking of my other favorite goth band, the Cure. I love the bass line from Love Cats:
3 Likes
Hey, that’s a really novel idea @muff I have a debit card about to expire soon and I’ll have to give this a try! 
Thanks and all best, Joe
2 Likes
Reminds me of a video of Janek Gwizdala using a credit card pick…
1 Like
That’s cool, but I cut the picks out of the card after the card is dead! Never tried with the whole card!
2 Likes
Yes… and talk about making “bass faces” Off with the glasses and down the rabbit hole…
1 Like
Love this song. I’ve been playing along with Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street. Love the Sax solo too.
2 Likes
(months-later reply to @muff way up there) - Hooky’s easily my favorite bassist. Pretty awesome that he passed it on to his son Jack, too, who is now the touring bassist for Smashing Pumpkins.
He’s friendly to fans, too. Love this bit of him showing a fan how to play Love Will Tear Us Apart:
Just hands the guy his BB, lol.
I kind of have to set aside all of his work when picking favorite basslines as it’s hard to separate what they mean to me versus what others would appreciate. So with that in mind, to throw out a favorite, I’m going to go with this one from Gang of Four instead:
bass comes in at 0:33.
3 Likes
Love both of these. What a cool dude.
“no - it’s wrong. it’s wrong…”
Classic.
1 Like
Digging the bass in both of these songs. Marcus Miller is great, Watched the video of SMV doing Beat It. Do they still perform together?
I don’t think so, they toured with each other for a year or maybe two, but they’ve all got other stuff happening now. I’m seeing Victor play with the Flecktones in June!
1 Like
Where?
My tastes are so all over the board from classic country, motown (I mean James Jamerson come on!) to modern metal etc. One i’ve always loved that is relatively simple, but drives the entire song is this one.
1 Like
I’m seeing them in Oakland, but they’re hitting a bunch of places, looks like mostly Midwest and West Coast at this point.
https://www.flecktones.com/
Nice Winger vid @rgroxx! That bass tone is nasty good.
1 Like
I was working on this one with a student this week.
I LOVE THIS BASS LINE!
It is so satisfying in every way.
That Fm chord in the chorus is SO AMAZING!!!
I really really love Stevie Wonder.
5 Likes
Yessss the Fm7!!! Reminds me of a sad story…
Once upon a time, I had a jazz quartet gig, bass/drums/sax/guitar. The guitarist was the bandleader… or was supposed to be anyway. Of his many failings, one was that he called Sir Duke… and didn’t know the change in the chorus. I believe he went to a vi m7 instead.
Then I chopped off his head. 
4 Likes
HAD.
IT.
COMING.
It would be like someone saying, “Oh, yeah, sure. I love pizza. I make pizza. Here’s pizza.” And then handing you, say… a grilled cheese sandwich.
4 Likes