This is the music for “Helpless” by Neil Young that my instructor gave me last night. Yes, I know it’s only 3 notes but I have questions.
Should I assume it’s written in 4/4 time? And that the D and the A in the first bar are half notes on the 1 and the 3? And that the G in the second bar is a whole note? I Googled the tempo (97 BPM) so at least I’ve got that figured out. I listened to multiple renditions of this last night but I can’t tell exactly where I come in. Just jump in and start playing? I didn’t hear ANY notes that sounded like these ones but my instructor likes to change the original notes and tune them down an octave or two so we get that “fat, beefy sound.” Am I playing these 3 notes all the way through the song? Am I overthinking all this?
I need to have this locked down by Saturday. More than happy to pay for this advice! I don’t know why I have such a disconnect learning stuff from my instructor when I can just sail along with Josh’s lessons. Well maybe not sail, more like float.
D, A and G are the chords of the song, so they are also the root notes that are safe to play as a bass line. It’s a great song and easy to play. Have fun.
A good resource for playing from a chord sheet like this is ebassguitar.com/. He often gives tutorials on how to play bass parts when all you know is the key and the chords.
What you have from your teacher is… not what Josh would send you home with.
It’s a chord chart that is written quickly and without any helpful details.
Yes to your assumptions above, as already verified by @MikeC .
BUT!
I think you should play two half notes during the bar of G.
One big fat whole note doesn’t carry the rhythm of the song as well as two big fat half notes.
So:
| D (D) A (A) | G (G) G (G) |
Where the parenthetical notes are held, and each note represents one beat - that would be a good simplified bass line to start with.
As a teacher who has certainly sent his students home with similar, underprepared, underdetailed, underexplained music scribbles… I apologize.
I definitely like your version of the song better but I spent an hour last night playing it the way my instructor wrote it and we must, at all times, stick to The Program.
I can’t see that this in in 97 BPM, the regular version of the song from “Decade” the live version and the 1970 one from Crosby, Stills, Nash and young is either 57 bpm or 114.
This is not a great song to transcribe, the bass is barely audible and every version is different This might as well be a “write your own bass line” exercise instead of a transcription
I don’t want to ruin it but… (there are other notes in there too)
It totally depends on the version though… He also performs the song in the key of C too (C, G, F) which is the first version I listened to and started playing with and was like “this isn’t in D???”
This is why I hate transcribing stuff, I end up spending 3 days trying to figure out what the perfect “correct” bass line is Like when I transcribed Ringo’s drum part for “come together” that almost everyone plays wrong.
With this song you can play pretty much anything… roots, roots and fifths, some thirds, some chromatic approach notes… and you’re ok being that it’s a 1-5-4 progression, it’s a pretty easy pattern too.
These three chords back up the entire song, so the bass line is simple. Just play and repeat, verse after verse.
This might as well be a “write your own bass line” exercise instead of a transcription 
Like when I transcribed Ringo’s drum part for “come together” that almost everyone plays wrong.