Vision Music

[nylenny]

As a guitarist, I try to transcribe bass lines. I've found that it helps me follow the changes when playing with bass players. The best two tricks I know for doing this are:
a) use good-quality headphones (otherwise the bass gets lost); open-backed are best
b) sing the bass line

I'd be interested in hearing what others think. Are there other guitarists out there that work on bass lines?

[Larry_DC]

Great topic, Lenny. When I started transcribing I would focus only on the instruments that soloed. Listening to them slowed down really got me interested in what rhythm section was doing. Nowadays when I transcribe I usually include bass and piano comping. Headphones are a good idea I had not thought about. The bass can be tricky to pick out, especially in the low register. And singing the bass line goes hand in hand with singing the solos in making it easier to remember and notate the material. I have found that transcribing bass lines has made it easier for me to develop my own lines when arranging chord melody. On a further note, transcribing what little I can from the piano parts has given me understanding of how to use rhythm and chord fragments.

[nylenny]

Good point Larry. There's so much more to transcribe than just the soloist's notes.

Right now, I'm focused on blues. My practice includes playing along with the likes of Robben Ford. I've learned so much from doing this. For example, use of stacatto, how to end a phrase (some air and maybe a little bend or gliss), etc., etc.

Transcribing involves learning by assimilation. If you play along with a great player, you will pick up so much subtlety. At least I've found that to be the case with Dexter Gordon, Robben Ford, Jeff Beck, etc. I'll play along with them for several weeks, and then my phrasing, tone, vibrato, bends, etc. etc. magically get better.

Glad you liked the headphones idea. I'm addicted to open-backed headphones, because they allow me to focus on a given part. I've tried EQing in Transcribe! for that purpose, but haven't found it as effective. EQing removes the "pocket;" that makes it harder to capture the feel.

[Mark]