Miscellaneous: Bass Transcriptions

The hit off of his comeback album.  A little dated sounding but a solidly supportive bass line.   He starts adding subtle variations during the outro of the song.

As stated in The Rolling Stones review - "Happiness Bastards offers close to zero reminders that it's a 2024 album"  If you like The Black Crowes you'll like this song.  Another open G tuning song, with Sven Pipen laying down solid, supportive bass.  That doesn't stop him from playing a tasty double stop and a cool descending lick appearing to outline a Gmaj7 before the start of a pumping 8th note rhythm. 

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I've been in an 8 bar blues sort of mood lately. Sometimes you need a song that breaks up the shuffle rhythms in a blues set.  What do you do after you've already played the Thrill is Gone?  Here's an suggestion from left field.   Be ready to play it in Em rather than Ebm.  

Another great song by JJ Cale. Bass is played by the legendary David Hood Co-Founder of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.  Playing notes.  Song is transcribed in Drop D tuning.  It can be played in standard, there are ** above notes that need to be played an octave higher.  Watch for the staccato markings.  There were lots of rests after my first pass thru the song.  Hopefully it's an easier read with the staccato markings.

Update 1/18/24 :  Fixed a cut and paste error as well as a few msuescore anomalies where there was a Bb and an A# in the same measure.

 A radio hit back in 1993 , a long with the song Low, the bass line is quite busy for a pop song.  The entire song is a I vi IV I progression.   Here is another example of why its a good idea to transcribe a song. There are a lot of different and interesting ways he handles this straight forward chord progression.  I would never try to play this note for note but I would Identify the motifs that I like and learn a few. I did my best to get it note for note but there are 1 or 2 measures I'm not confident that I got correct.  Even if your not a fan of this band its worth listening to this song  while following a long with the transcription

So there's a couple of reasons I transcribed this song.  Cracker writes some catchy songs that usually have interesting bass lines. 

If your working on your sight reading this is a good song to practice.  The notes pretty much stay the same but the rhythm varies.

If your a relatively new bass player look at the last 4 measures of the Chorus.  The Chords are F C G G.  He plays the root of F , the 3rd of C, the 5th of G and the Root of G.  So you get a nice melodic walk down F E D G.

An easy song that's a I - V - IV - I progression for both the Verse and Chorus. Check out how the bass player plays a great 2 Feel while swinging the eight notes.  A great example is what he plays over the D chord in the verse.  This song is a great example of playing with feel,keeping it simple and defining both the chord changes and song transitions.  Check out the G chord when going from Verse to Chorus and Chorus to verse.  In a song with the same chord progression in the verse and chorus, it's usually up to the bass player to outline the structure.

Another example of a hearing an artist for the first time and being blown away.  Run and check out this great blues rock album.  Besides great songs, the bass playing is fantastic.     #AlastairGreene

Check out the blog entry for this song to learn more about Nick Movshan the bass player on this track.    One thing to watch out for within the transcription is changes between swing and straight 1/16 notes.  Musescore (as far as I can tell) only allows you to select one or the other)  I elected to use swung 1/16 notes so the measures with straight will sound funny. 

I'm a big Nick Movshan fan.  I first heard him on the Mighty Imperials - Thunder chicken album, which was released when he was just 19 years old.  Take some time to check him out.  Here he is playing some classic blues rock, but of course he adds his own style to it. Check out the opening bass line. 

A great song in 6/8 that has a great bass line.  Starts off with a really cool intro, and like any good bass line slowly builds over the duration of the song.  The 2 chord vamp at the end lets the bass player stretch out without getting in the way of the singer.

Ever wonder what the Blues Filtered through Mali might sound like.  Here you go.  This isn't world music, this is blues influenced by world music.  They have definitely listened to Ali Farka Toure as well as western blues rock.   There's a cool V IV I bass turnaround in the song, one worth adding yo your blues vocabulary.  There's some cool syncopation at the end, if your working to improve your music reading skills this is a good one to practice on.   Updated 10/2023 - It was pointed out to me that there was an Fb note used instead of a E in the transcription.  I use the tab interface to enter a transcription (because its quicker for me)   Also based on his feedback I updated the ending of the song using more staccato markings to make it easier to read.

A David Grissom written song performed  with the Double Trouble rhythm section of Shannon/Clayton. 

On the surface this is a weird key for a singer song writer.  However from a  guitar player perspective one can capo at the 2nd fret or at the 4th fret for open chord voicings. On this song they do both, which creates a pretty cool sound.   What I love about the bass on this song is how melodic it is while still grooving and supporting the song.   And check out the cool pickups in the verses. Fun Fact:  John Ciambotti played bass on this.  He played in a band called Clover famous for backing Elvis Costello on My Aim is True.  Some of the members of Clover went on to play with Huey Lewis and the News.