Yeah I listened to Cover Solutions and also the separate bass track from Moises.
It didn’t sound right so I used the tab I posted above.
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Well I’ll post my transcription when I’m done with it. I got it 99% right there’s just a couple spots where the tabs say to play a C and to my ear it’s a B. In the mix it sounds okay so I think I’m just gonna roll with what I got!
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Still working on Glide. Might have overestimated my readiness for that particular song but sunk cost fallacy is forcing me to carry on.
Currently, I’ve got the intro part at about 85% tempo at this point.
I’m struggling like hell with that note run that is played between lines of the verse. Played slow it just doesn’t sound right to me at all and I my fingers refuse to function if I try to speed it up as a test. Been working on that part alone for 5 days straight now and I don’t feel like I’ve gained any ground.
Something that’s really bugging me is that I have a very good tab for the song but every tutorial and person I watch on the Tube plays it differently from not only the tab but from each other. Blah blah skin a cat etc etc but when you’re trying to figure something out it really gets frustrating.
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Exactly, I keep running into that as well. My favorite is when they’re “playing” with the giant tabs scrolling across the bottom.
Is this to avoid copyright issues? Or do they just want to give these songs their own twist?
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Copyright issues probably. The companies that put out “official” tabs are very VERY protective of them. Honestly, I don’t actually mind the visual reference because listening to someone spend 15 minutes saying “now pluck on the ___ string ___th fret” can get monotonous.
There’s been a few, though, where the tab they display doesn’t actually match what they’re playing which is even more annoying to me.
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Agreed! I’ve noticed that sometimes their fretting hand is somewhere else entirely, or playing an octave lower instead.
So, do you find yourself taking bits and pieces you like from each cover and working them into your own? Or inwardly groaning and trying to play close to the original?
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Option C: Obsessively scour every single tablature source I can possibly find and pour over each option available to find the one that seems closest to the song I want to learn and just go with that while complaining that it still isn’t close enough.
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Trying to learn Boom Boom Boom by John Lee Hooker taught me some lessons. It’s an old blues song, and I believe it’s Jameson on one of the recordings. The tabs from Songsterr and Ultimate Guitar differed, and didn’t match the recording. So I listened to the Blues Brothers version, and it was different too. I started listening to different live versions and no two had the same bass line. Sure the riff was present in all, but everything in between and the walking bass lines were different. And some of the versions had two or three different walking lines within the same song.
It was as if every bass player took and made the bass line their own.
LaGrange ZZ Top is another example. The studio recording and live performances are significantly different bass lines. Don’t get hung up on tabs, take inspiration from them. Perfect is the enemy of good
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You’d need another middle finger on your left hand to make it sound right, lol. There are 2 path for that one is the easy but direct where your left hand stay put and the other not as confusing but you’d be moving your hand quite a bit. I’m as smooth as a Patron tequila at 80% but 100% Hmmm! Lol.
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Nice one @Barney
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We’re still at “I Want You Back”, @Al1885 ?? 
Yeah, I am moving my hand quite a bit when playing this - tricky!!
Hm, only know Jose Cuervo Family Reserve 
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I’m still on I Want You Back. Doing it on the fretless introduced me to new levels of tricky. But I’ll get it
Also looking at 25 or 6 to 4,; which is way easier but has cool syncopations
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A static lullaby-charred fields of snow. I’ve never actually heard the band, or this song ( that i know of)- but the tab looked good so I’m working on it.
I’ve maybe a little less than 2 hours on it so far.
I’m really enjoying learning it. It’s a big jump for me, because it’s really stretching my abilities to try to learn it.
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Wow! I just looked that up on YouTube and tried to listen to it-turns out it’s really not for me. But it’s still a really cool bassline and I’m still going to learn it best i can.
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Wasn’t sure where to post this… but this seems a good spot.
So, back around February, when I “finished” the BtBA course and started posting covers (also one of the reasons I’ve not been posting those of late), I posted a couple of them to my Facebook as well. Interestingly this got attention from an old high school buddy (who’s been playing guitar on-and-off since high school and whom I mostly lost real-life contact with for quite a few years). He reached out to me asking if I wanted to jam sometime and work on some of the songs he’s been working on over the years (we still have fairly similar tastes in music, mostly old school thrash and some more modern aggressive styles, plus the fairly typical tastes in late 70s/early-mid 80s metal).
Anyways, long story short, we’ve been working on those on and off when we’ve been getting together and its been a heck of a lot of fun. However, ultimately, I personally find much of what he’s written to be kind of lacking. He just kind of strings 4 or 5 riffs together and calls it a song. He does have a lot of love for his creations, so I’ve not been wanting to tinker with them at all… so, my solution? Create something myself!
This left me with a number of challenges, as I to not think of myself as extremely creative, but I kept tinkering around with some riff ideas and chord progressions (plus watching a bunch of youtube videos on music construction, structure, song writing tips and theory). I finally hit gold with a little groove that got stuck in my head. Last week when he came over, I played it for him a bit and we tossed around some other ideas and cobbled togther the beginnings of song. A fun collaboration, indeed!
So over the past week, I’ve recorded and re-arranged everything a few times… and getting anxious for him to do the guitar bits, decided to download and install some demo virtual guitar and drum (plus some effects) plug-ins to my DAW and started writing out his parts (also a fun adventure, I must say! I’m also, right now, using tabs to re-create a Metallica song in the DAW using the virtual instruments to get a feel for how to make the guitar plug-in sound “realistic”). Cobbled together the skeleton of a song, based on what we worked on. Then cut and paste things around to my satisfaction. The end-result of all this work I sent a copy of it to him the other day.
He texted back with a “Holy Hell Brian! That sounds friggen amazing! We are totally working on that next time I come over!”. I showed him everything today and played my mock-up in the DAW and showed him what I was doing on my bass parts on the bass, and parts of his guitar bits that I worked up. Overall, I feel its coming along nicely. Even got a “wow, that was a killer riff you wrote for my guitar part… totally different than my usual style, but I love the rhythm and groove… we might have to build another song around it, as it just stands on its own.” We spend a couple hours working on that one particular riff together today as it was kind of tricky, then just used it, as is, in the current song skeleton. Jammed for a while, using the structure and drums I worked up. So, end result, we’ve got the beginnings of a second song and need to re-write some parts of the first one still and flesh them both out a bit.
Whew! Much longer post than I anticipated doing. I’m still on the “creation high”, I guess!
I’m not sure what the end result will be with all this, he’s definitely pushing more towards recording and, perhaps, live shows, as its been one of his life-long dreams to “record and produce an album, even if its only for me an a few friends.” I think I can get behind that, not so sure about getting out and performing, but I guess time will tell if we are able to recruit a drummer, second guitarist and possibly a singer (that we can work with and get along with creatively). Time will tell on that.
But, in the meantime its just fun to play with another person and collaborate! That’s the most enjoyment I’ve had out of playing since I’ve started playing again, and I’m very excited by it all and wanted to share with the BB fam. Thanks for reading my ramble… lol.
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very cool, thanks for sharing…look forward to more updates
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Great to hear this development. I have to admit that - halfway through your story - I was afraid your guitar buddy might turn out to be very negative to your ideas and input, but, luckily that wasn’t the case at all! Really cool to find someone who has (almost) the same goals and “philosophies” towards music.
If I may ask, which virtual guitar plug-in did you use? Is it for metal only? Is it only good for “demos” or would you use it in a final version even?
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Really cool! This is basically how my bandmate and I work together. I’ll lay down a drum track and add bass, and he will send me guitar parts for it; then I edit it, mix and master in the daw.
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Yeah, for sure. We’re developing well together so far. A lot of give and take and a collaborative mind-set between us, overall. I think my only real complaint about him is that he dislikes doing cover songs (claims that he’s afraid to mess them up). Also, I don’t get the impression he does much practice/work outside of our sessions for a variety of reasons, but that’s mostly speculation on my part.
Well, I’m “demoing” a few at the moment, to be honest (I don’t condone this in the slightest, but laying out good money without knowing what the software is really capable of, is not something I personally like doing blind).
I’m sure you could even use a more “jack-of-all trades” electric and layer in effects plug-ins, I’ve not gone down that rabbit-hole (yet). I’ll be purchasing in the future most likely, because they seem well worth it, and can duplicate many “real” guitar effects (strumming, pick scrapes, bends, legatos, hammer-on/pull-off and so forth). Here’s a blog post with some freebies available for download: Best Free Guitar VST Plugins and Sample Libraries - Happy Composer - Native Instruments has some demos and freebies available as well which are worth checking out: Free Products | Komplete | Native Instruments - Ample Sound has a few demos available as well: amplesound.net (Ample Sound seems to have the most variety and best sounding ones I’ve seen so far, but NI is right there as well).
For the sound quality, for the most part I think they’re fantastic for demos and jam-tracking and working out ideas. I’ve seen YouTube examples of them being used as final products and full songs, that sound convincingly real - but, from what I can tell, that also requires quite a bit of tweaking and fiddling and skill to get that truly authentic sound.
I guess it depends what you’re looking for at the end of the day. At least check out some videos and sound samples and make your personal judgement as to whether they’re suited for what you’re looking for.
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I’m working on Man in the Mirror by Lari Basilio, Nathan East carried the low end. I just finished transcribed it. It’s not a technically difficult song but the difficulty lies on the nuances and pick up notes, very small subtle things. It’s a great song with all of the iconic players.
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