Yeah, it’s a doozy! Just fyi, the ultimate guitar tabs are accurate, but they make the song harder than it has to be… it just dawned on me the other day that it could be made easier by moving vertically on the fretboard rather than horizontally…. Silly me!
For the last week I have been putting some significant effort into The Call of Ktulu. Hardest song I have attempted so far, but I am making slow and steady progress. Struggling with pull offs a bit, never could get the hang of them. So time to nail it down.
I realized last month that I know like 50 bass riffs but I only knew 2 songs in their entirety. Decided that I need to start focusing on that. As such, I’ve learned a couple more songs since then (up to 5 now!).
Currently learning “Sir Duke”. I’ve got the main part of the song down (the bum bum badum badumbum part) and am today starting to learn the part where the bass matches the melody (the bum badadum badadum badada bum bum badda bum bum part). This has gotta be one of the most fun songs to play that I’ve learned since “Good Times” by Chic.
In thinking about it, I probably technically know more than 5 songs at this point since some songs just use the same exact riff through the whole thing.
Current song is ‘One of Your Girls’ by Troye Sivan. Love the bassline and it’s not too complicated. I’ve been seeing a teacher for the past month or so and he’s helping me with my technique, so I apply what my teacher says to learning a song. Previously I’d play lots of different things for fun, which is fine, but in terms of improving my skills it wasn’t really intentional/deliberate practice. So I’ve chosen this song as it’s manageable and I’ll leave the ABBA basslines further down the road
This is why I failed at guitar, but am succeeding at bass. Learning complete songs IMHO is really good for your playing. Recording yourself is even better. Why? Because you can’t bullshit yourself about if you’ve learned the song when you listen back to it.
Been working on this song now for almost two months. I really wanted to challenge myself, and wasn’t sure I’d even be able to learn it at this point in my bass journey, but I took it slow and have been able to make it to the final 30 seconds…which also happens to be the most challenging and intricate part of the song. I can’t wait to get a clean play through and am eagerly anticipating the dopamine
If you haven’t listened to this album I HIGHLY encourage it. I am absolutely in love with the bass tone on this album and Graham Maby absolutely shines at the forefront of the mix in almost every track. My favorites are Sunday Papers, One More Time, Baby Stick Around, and Pretty Girls. I hope to learn them all in time.
I made a goal for myself that I was going to learn “warmup” songs and then at the end of a month learn a big one as kind of a capstone. I didn’t have one for November but this month was just to get ready for the December song because I had to learn how to record on the computer and also learn my way around a DAW and video editing software. So for December I’m working on Wake Up by Rage Against the Machine.
I have it down outside of some tricky bass fills in the verses and the build up to the bridge. I wanted to do this song because I wanted to challenge myself to be able to do longer songs with minimal to no mistakes.
After learning “Sir Duke”, I felt like I was ready for one of my major goals I’ve had since I started: Dean Town. Not counting the 24 bars of 16th notes for the opening, I’m currently 16 bars in to the meat of the song. I’m trying to learn and memorize 2-4 bars a day. I currently have 16 bars to go until I get back into the other round of 16th notes…which are more challenging the second time around because it’s not just a repeating pattern there.
Without a doubt, the most technically challenging song I’ve learned so far.
Hey @mr.crispy, I love the bum badum school of describing rhythm, for real.
Cheers
Antonio
PS: I’m working on finding my version of the Irish song “Foggy Dew.” It’s challenging because there’s no standard version out there, so I have to make my own, however simple it’ll be.