Songs you wish you could play?

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So many, but I’ll stick to my list of what I try to work on in terms of technique.

Anything by Geddy Lee but mostly Time Stand Still. If I could rock out one Rush song in a bass store it would be Digital Man. YYZ is a bit too show-offy :smiley:

I would like to have the endurance for AC/DC, ZZ Top and Iron Maiden songs played one after the other.

For muting, I Can’t Feel My Face. I love listening to bass only covers of this song.

I’d be happy to play Planet Earth, or any John Taylor bassline too :slight_smile:

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43

You’re not the only one. Joe Dart is a definite influence for me to get back into playing bass, but his riffs are definitely out of my league for now.

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Joe Dart was one of the things that made me want to pick up bass to begin with. I’ve been working my way through my favorite songs. Here’s what I’ve learned that may help you:

  1. His basslines range from super simple to pick up (Funky Duck or 1612) to zomgwtfbbq?! (Dean Town). Start with the simple stuff first because…
  2. He tends to use the same pattern across all his songs. He friggin’ LOVES the pentatonic and blues scales and loves to do chromatic walk ups. Once you get the hang of it in his easier songs, it makes his harder stuff more workable.
  3. Even his more complex stuff can be deceptively simple. He tends to start with a simple riff and build on it. The hard part comes in with the little solos and fills he throws in. Otherwise, 90% of most of his songs are manageable.
  4. The transcriptions of his songs are universally crap. We’re talking fetid, festering piles of excrement raining down in torrents of hurricane-like proportions. You have to REALLY compare what is in the tabs with what you see in the live recordings to see which ones are even remotely close to the Dart way.

On a side note: saw an interesting interview with Cory Wong and he said that Vulfpeck has never actually practiced any of their songs. There are many cases where they’ve played a song live that they’ve only ever played three times before because “that was how many takes it took to record it for the album”. It’s really amazing how talented that group is. Jack really wants to give off that session musician vibe with everything they do. With any other group it could have had disastrous results.

Anyway, here’s a couple of great videos on the Dartnification of Bassery. At some point, I plan on taking Joe’s bass course that he launched even if it is a bit pricey.

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45

I’ve also fallen into a Joe Dart sinkhole as of late! Been working on 3 on E but would really love to dive into Disco Ulysses. Dean Town is a whole different beast altogether…

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Great advice, thanks for that!