Author: admin

Posted on

The Wonder Of You – Elvis Presley – Jerry Scheff’s bass line

The Wonder Of You was one of the first bass lines I learnt when starting out on bass. Which means it’s not a difficult bass line at all. I still see people get it musically wrong. Many years later, I’m now playing this song with an Elvis tribute act.

This is transcribed from the Elvis Presley single version recorded in February 1970. The main reason I decided to transcribe such an easy line, was that one day, I noticed a low E during the guitar solo. I never played a low E. I wondered how much more I’d missed. Not many players aim to play it as the recorded version and that’s fine by me, I like to get close and certainly in the style of the original recording. I think that is what helps a tribute artist stand out from the rest. It’s great getting one part correct, but if the rest is wrong, it won’t sound as close as it could do.

Click the title below for the transcription.

The_Wonder_of_You

Posted on

Never Been to Spain – Elvis Presley – bass transcription

Working with an Elvis tribute artist (ETA) Lee Memphis King (LMK) I play lots of Elvis music. Jerry Scheff who played during the 70’s with Elvis was a favourite bass player of mine even before I started working with an ETA.

The version of Never Been to Spain LMK wanted the band to copy was from the box set Elvis : Live in Las Vegas. Most people would probably be more familiar with the Madison Sq Garden Version. It has a few different bass patterns Jerry uses for each verse and solo. The whole song builds to a huge climax at the end and Jerry’s bass part does a similar thing. I kept getting some of the patterns mixed up, was it pattern A for this verse or the next verse. So I decided I would write it out. It always seems simple when you start, then the bass disappears in the mix, there is interesting timing to work out and so forth. For me a great excise to help with reading music as well. A skill I don’t need to do that much, yet one I still try to keep going by transcribing and reading music.

I’ve not included all the slide Jerry does in the music, the notes are there. If you listen to the recording, you can hear the slides. I may go back and add them at a later date. The main thing for me was getting those different patterns down. While transcribing this I was also more aware of some of the rhythmic lines Jerry does, in this example going from E to A. He follows the drums quite closely, my backing track I think is based from the Madison Sq Garden recording, so the drum fills are different and don’t quite match up.

I hope you may get some benefit from this as I did writing it out.

Never_Been_To_Spain

Posted on

Ray Brown’s All The Things You Are bass transcription

I’ve been told to progress in Jazz we need to listen and copy other players. Exactly as we learn to speak, we then use all this information to create our own sentences or bass lines. Ray Brown in one of the great upright Jazz bass players. I found his version of All The Things You Are, which had a few ( well a lot actually) nice lines in it, so I decided to transcribe those parts, or verses containing the lines I like the sound of.

The song is played at quite a fast tempo for this song.

In the first verse the section over the ii-v-i (bars 17-20) are particularly interesting. I also liked the sequence he used in bars (61-63). There’s a lot more to it, but I think analysing it yourself is much more useful than someone doing it for you. I certainly has given me many more ideas when playing walking bass lines. Anything part you like in this.

I’ve only written the chords over the first verse. Also note, I used iRealPro for the backing, which meant I couldn’t replicate the same turnaround in the first verse, but it’s written in the music.

All_The_Things_You_Are – Click title to open transcription

Posted on

Jazz Blues with Charlie Parker’s Billie’s Bounce

My Walking bass lines particularly over the jazz blues progression all seemed the same, so I decided I needed to do something about it. I’ve studied some Charlie Parker sax lines which mostly full over jazz blues, at least the lines I’ve currently looked at have. The next thing would be to listen to the bass line on these recordings and listen to lines I could use in my own playing. I find it easier to write them out, that way I will always have a record of them to look at. Of course, these old recordings don’t have the best sound sound separation as more modern recordings. Picking out the bass was really hard in places. For this reason, I only transcribed the first 4 progressions (48 bars). Curley Russell is the bass player.

One thing to note in the transcriptions is that I have written the standard Jazz Blues chords over the top, the Charlie Parker Omnibook, doesn’t have this track as a standard  jazz blues, iRealPro, which I used in the YouTube clip, uses the standard Jazz blues progression. You can hear a few clashes. Particularly bar 26, where Curley Russell plays A, the usual sequence would be Bb. Also we don’t hear the diminished chord in the sixth bar as usual.

Billie’s_Bounce – Click for music pdf

Posted on

Locked Out Of Heaven – Bass cover with transcription

My most recent YouTube upload and bass transcription is Bruno Mars’ ‘Locked Out Of Heaven’. This was played by Nick Movshan who isn’t the regular bass player with Mars.

Like my previous post of ‘Sign Sealed Delivered’, this is again popular for function bands. I decided it would be an interesting one to transcribe. Not too difficult. In the breakdown section towards the end, I wasn’t entirely sure what was the electric bass, and what was covered by the synths. I’m quite sure that bars 58-61 didn’t have the octave jump on the bass part as earlier in the part, instead, it sounded just like the synth bass playing the octave. Also the breakdown section I added a bass part closest to the recording, I would play if on a gig.

Locked_Out_Of_Heaven click for music

Posted on

Bob Babbitt’s Sign Sealed Delivered bassline transcription | Stevie Wonder

I thought I would try to transcribe and notate a Motown bass line. I choose Bob Babbitt’s line on Stevie Wonder’s ‘Sign Sealed Delivered’. A popular tune for function bands, so I’m quite sure many bass players already know this. However, there are a few nice little phrases in this, check out bars 19-20 and 47-48 both over and F chord. Babbitt has a few nice little rhythmic changes during the fade out.

The run at the start (which repeats through out the song) gave me a few issues. Was it an A or Ab? In a clip of Bob Babbitt playing this, he plays an Ab, listen carefully and you can hear the note is an A sliding in from the Ab. The music show a slide, so bare in mind its a slide from a semi-tone below.

Sign_Sealed_Delivered <– click song title for pdf

Posted on

Afternoon In Paris | Jazz standard played on Electric bass

Many of the bass players I like all have a background in jazz music; James Jameson, Jerry Scheff, Carol Kaye, the list can go on. It made me consider learning jazz. 5 years ago, I started. I would say my general playing has improved. Anyway, on to this post. I was trying to record directly into my phone using an iRig attached to my interface. It works, but I still needed to increase the volume in iMovie for upload. Any suggestions to increase the recording level and do it all in the phone would be appreciated. Here’s the track I recorded.

1st time through I played the tune, 2nd a bass solo, final time, I just played a bass line. Like a jazz jam, but on my own.

Posted on

Joss Stone’s L-O-V-E / Bass line by Raphael Saadiq

When I first heard Joss Stone’s version of L-O-V-E, I was instantly drawn to the bass line. Not surprising being a bass player. This one stood out to me. I was going to transcribe it myself, then found it online, with a few mistakes. I decided to record it. Not easy!

I’m quite sure the original version features Raphael Saadiq on bass, playing a Fender Precision bass with flatwound strings. However, when I tried to record the bass with the Bass-less backing track, it just didn’t sit right in the mix. I then tried with round wound strings and the tone rolled off. Eventually I settled   with the tone full up. Almost the complete opposite to the original recording I’m comparing to.

My next hurdle was a few techniques that I hadn’t used before. Trills, between frets, I’ve still not got them a well as I’d like. The final hurdle, was that I’ve always played slightly ahead of the beat. Not a problem with the music I had been doing. On this track, it needed a relaxed, approach.

Overall a good study for me.

 

Posted on

Runaway – Jerry Scheff bass line with Elvis Presley

Every now and then I decide to write out an interesting bass line I hear or even play. In this instance I play this track with an Elvis Tribute show. The song is called Runway, which was originally recorded by Del Shannon. Elvis performed this when he returned to live performing in 1969. It’s from the Album ‘Elvis Presley : In Person’. (See note at bottom).

Elvis and the band take this track and transform it into their own track. Jerry Scheff’s bass line on a standard song always amazes me. Jools Holland’s bassist, Dave Swift said he liked how Jerry Scheff takes a standard pop tune and transforms it with his playing. He certainly does that with this track. When I transcribe to notate it, I go in depth a lot more than usual. I’m shocked at how much I missed when I originally learnt the bass to this version. Unlike myself, Jerry plays with just one finger, a little like Jameson.

Below is a link to the transcription. I have also added a clip of myself playing along to a bass-less backing track, which doesn’t have the same oomph as the Elvis version, even though it’s based on that. The intro is also slightly shorter. The bass guitar is recorded direct to film, no mixing, just into a mixer and then to camera.

Note: I thought I’d transcribed the version from the Elvis in Person Album. Although this track was recorded during the August 69 engagement, it was released on the February, 1970 On Stage release. However, on listening to the album recently, I realised I’d transcribed from the box release Elvis Presley – Live in Las Vegas. Apologies for my error.

click for Runaway music pdf

Runway_TAB

 

Posted on

Elvis Tribute – Suspicious Minds

Playing bass in theatres with Lee Memphis King, the Elvis Tribute Artist, there are few clips because video isn’t allowed. People that do manage to sneak a clip, don’t tend to put it on YouTube. Instead, they probably just show their friends to show them what they have been doing and seeing.

I just found this one clip of suspicious minds recorded at Northampton Derngate Theatre. You can see the audience are having a great time, and why not, it’s a great show.

I have transcribed the bass part for this from Elvis’s ’72 show at Madison Sq Garden. Jerry Scheff, Elvis’ bass player, played it different every time. I’ll post a link to the transcription in due course. Meanwhile, enjoy the one and a half minute clip with myself on bass.