Song analysis is the first thing anyone should do - I strongly recommend not trying to just serially learn the tabs all the way through and instead spend a little time to understand the song.
Music is almost always structured in to a relatively small set of common, repeating parts. It’s a whole lot easier to break a song down and learn those and then how they fit together.
Okay so it turns out that Gangsters by The Specials is actually really easy to play. It puts a huge smile on your face and It’s also near impossible to not bob your head or shake your booty when playing it too. Go on….try it.
See?
Currently working on “Walkin’ On the Sun” by Smash Mouth. Very similar feel to All Star, though it opens with some bass chords and the transition from the bassline back to the chord section in the middle is where I’m having trouble at the moment.
Trying to get some James Jamerson under my belt but needed a break learning “Heard it Through the Grapevine” so I started on “Bernadette” tonight. Bonkers fun and absolutely kicking my ass. Maaaybe by 2027 I’ll be able to play at tempo
I’ve decided to work on Bombtrack by RATM, I love it and I think it’ll be a good “play me something” trick. Most of it is pretty doable but I can only do the intro at like 80% speed right now. The chords in the main riff are tricky too. The verse riff is SO fun to play though.
Currently working on “Lucretia My Reflection” by Sisters of Mercy, which was one of my goal songs when I first started. The bassline itself is very simple, but it’s a test of endurance to get through to the end! Playing this one with a pick, which is also new to me.
Update “Bernadette” did not kick my ass, but did in fact pull my left bicep. Doing a quick position shift into a finger roll apparently was a bit too much I had thus managed to avoid any bass related injuries (not even a calloused fingertip or soldering iron singe!) so one was inevitable. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself while I take a break from playing for a few days tho!
If Songsterr doesn’t have the tabs, you can create them yourself with their AI (paid subscription provided). I did that already a couple of times and I think that’s pretty cool.
Besides that, when I’m learning a song, I often listen to the isolated bass lines. This helps me a lot. There are many videos with isolated bass lines out there on YT, for example on this channel: https://youtube.com/@rbstems
I don’t usually post on this topic, but maaaaan, I’m working on a very simple song (3 chords, that’s it) but I just can’t find the groove!!!
The song is the 4 Non Blonds tune, What’s Up. Try as I might, I simply cannot gel with it. I’ve listened to the isolated bass, it’s pretty simple, it’s also pretty slow, but aaaaagggg!! Why are we playing it in the band!!
I haven’t really been working on anything bass-wise ever since I picked up a telecaster and started working on guitar chops. My journey continues on the quest for Hysteria
Yesterday I started by opening my songbook and figuring out LH fingering. It’s so easy to play too fast for my own good. the open string part came naturally so I focused on the fretted parts. Today I came across Josh’s YT video for how to approach that song. I’m pretty good on the 16th notes. Let’s see how this next week goes!
I was working on White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane.
It’s a really tough bassline on the verse because you have to play this really fast triplet. I’m not good enough with a pick yet to handle that, but luckily my fingers are just about able to pull it off.
So I started learning all the little fills in the chorus which are easier to play but harder to remember.
Once I got it all down, I thought I was ready to record, but then I suddenly found that I had lost my ability to play the verse. Now it sounds terrible.