Monday, November 30, 2009

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Bassline for Led Zeppelin's "The Lemon Song"

Hi again. Here's my transcription of John Paul Jones' awesome bassline for "The Lemon Song". Legend says that he improvised it from beginning to end and recorded it in one take. If that's true, thay guy is not from this planet.

The Lemon Song Bassline

And here's my attempt at it:

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Bassline for Rush's "Freewill"

Hey! here's my transcription of the bassline for this awesome song:

Freewill Bassline Plus Tab

Notice that, for the sections in which the song's tempo shifts to half speed, it would be more appropriate to write "quarter note = 80" instead of "eighth note = 160" since the pulse is still based on quarter notes (just at half speed), but I preferred to annotate the tempo change that way just to give the idea of same tempo, but different beat unit. Here's a video of myself trying to play the line:



I've just noticed that Yvon and rd have joined as followers of this modest blog. Thank you so much! :)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Perhaps the most rhythmically complex song in The Beatles catalog

Here's the bassline for "Happiness Is A Warm Gun". Nothing complicated from a technical standpoint, but it's a really interesting song because of the many meter changes it has. There are lots of cool stuff going on there, like the final 3/4 section in which the whole band is playing in such meter but Ringo keeps pounding in 4/4. At some points it seems that the bassline was doubled an octave higher by a guitar, so I added some octave double stops where I judged them to be appropriate. And yes, there's a low C at the very end of the song.

Happiness is a Warm Gun (Bassline)

Monday, July 20, 2009

More Super Mario Bros stuff

Here's another Super Mario Bros ditty:



And of course, here's the transcription. You'll notice that I didn't transcribe the "coin effects" since they are played at random, but it's easy: Just tap the G and D strings at the 21th fret with your right (left for lefties) hand's index and middle fingers.

Mario Bass Tab

And finally, here are my videos playing the SMB 3 intro theme and the bassline for Budgie's "Breadfan" (both featured in the two previous blog entries):





:)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

My first arrangement for two-handed tapping ala Stu Hamm!

Hey! I'm pretty excited because this is my first (sort of) creative effort in the vein of my biggest influence on bass, the awesome Stuart Hamm. I had a very simplistic version of Super Mario Bros 3's intro theme, but after listening carefully to the actual tune in the video game, I decided to create a more faithful (and elaborated) arrangement, which I want to dedicate to Stu.

Of course, this is a really short piece of music, but anyway it means a big achievement for me. Hopefully I will be able to work on a longer tune. Here's the transcription, just in case you are interested in giving it a try:

SMB 3 Start Theme

Stay tuned for the video! :) EDIT: After a long time, here it is:

Friday, June 19, 2009

Budgie's "Breadfan"

Have you heard about Budgie? Have you heard "Breadfan"? Of course the band has its own fan base, but it's pretty limited compared with huge acts like Metallica, the band that covered this awesome song. Chances are that you've heard Metallica's version but not the original one, so here's a video:



Budgie has been compared in some aspects with Rush, although they have notable musical differences. But both are power trios, in both bands the bassist is the lead singer and he has a high-pitched voice, plus at some point both bassists looked very similar. One of the things I like the most from Budgie is that, in my opinion, Burke Shelley's bass tone is the quintessential example of superb P-Bass tone within a rock context. Here's the bassline for this terrific tune:

Breadfan (Bassline)

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Van Halen's "Everybody Wants Some!!"

Another TalkBass request. I was a huge Van Halen fan back in the day (still consider Eddie one of the biggest guitar geniuses ever) and, for some reason I can't recall, I was so disappointed with the band's third release "Women And Children First". So many years later I gave the album another listening and now I still ask myself what made me hate it so much. "Everybody Wants Some!!" is one of the coolest songs there, and here's the bassline:

Everybody Wants Some Bass Line)

Tears For Fears' "Sowing The Seeds Of Love"

Someone at TalkBass requested the bassline for this song and, since it's the TFF song I like the most (along with "Woman In Chains") and it's not so complicated, I took some time to transcribe it:

Sowing the Seeds of Love Bassline

First upload: Learning to use the blog

OK. Here's my first attempt at posting material to my blog: The bassline for The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". A pretty simple line that I've never liked. I mean, Mr. Bill Wyman or whoever devised this line should have tried better note choices, in my opinion. Usually I like to transcribe entire basslines note for note, but this one becomes very repetitive with very slight variations after returning to the Segno, So I decided to leave it that way. Anyway, you can have for sure that you'll find everything you need to know in order to play this famous song. Don't forget that the icon on the upper right corner of the Scribd document's options panel below will allow you to see the document full screen. Don't hesitate to ask if you need some clarification (BTW, "AMGA" are my initials). Enjoy!

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Bass Line)

First post: Some generalities

Hey! After so much time of thinking about this, I've decided to create a blog. I'm still learning to use this thing. In the meantime, I can tell you that I want to share the transcriptions for bass I've created and of course, publish every new one as well.

Some of you may already know some things about me. I'm a bass guitar/double bass player who lives in Bucaramanga, Colombia. I love the double bass and I think I accomplished many things on that beautiful instrument thanks to my Polish master, Mr. Janusz Kopytko, who's like my dad to me. But my heart and soul are definitely closer to the bass guitar. It's the instrument I dedicate most of my efforts.

"Martín" is my middle name, not my last name as many people seem to think. "Gómez" is dad's last name and "Acevedo" is mom's maiden name. So, if someone is going to call me "Mr.", it should be "Mr. Gómez" instead of "Mr. Acevedo". Anyway, I prefer to be called simply "Alvaro" or "Alvaro Martín".

Many friends have asked me why I always post YouTube videos in English and why I'm subscribed to English language forums, being Spanish my native language. It's simple: There are lots more people worldwide who speak English. Besides, and in my opinion, learning English isn't a luxury but a necessity in the modern times. That's what have helped me to take the most advantage of the WWW.

That's all by now. Talk to you later!