Looking for a little help on transcribing a song. I’m working on “Tougher Than the Rest” - the Emmylou Harris cover of Bruce Springsteen’s song.
Bass kicks in around the 55 second mark. It’s got a root-fifth pattern kind of like Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. But, to me the fifth sounds more like really short slides rather than hammer-ons. I think this because it sounds like a slur rather than a quick hammer. Do you all agree that these are little slides rather than hammer-ons? Maybe just sliding one fret to the fifth.
IMO they’re quick hammer ons, it sounds like they repeat and I think it’d be a bit awkward to slide up just to jump back for the second slide. I’ll listen to it again on my good headphones when I get home, but I’m fairly confident
Thanks! I appreciate you listening to it. Yes, that makes sense about trying to repeat the slide a second time. I think when I tried the hammer-ons, I’m doing them too slow so they don’t sound the same as the track, so I’ll have to practice that. Thanks again.
I agree that it sounds like a slur.
To do that quick slur the second time, you can finger it thusly:
Root with index, first time you play the 5th, you play with pinky (and you can slide in if you want the slur sound).
The second slur you play with your middle finger, sliding into the fifth.
It’s a slick little maneuver and sounds real good!
Thanks, Gio…I’ll give this a try as I was trying to do both slides with my pinky, but your method sounds like it would be a smoother sequence of movements and result in a cleaner sound. Appreciate it.
Just got a chance to try this out and this works great. Really appreciate it! Yeah, the middle finger is right there to do the second slide, so that just smoothed out my technique on this one a lot. Thanks again and enjoy the weekend!