Happiness Is A Warm Gun

This gem off of the white album is a strong contender for the most complex song ever performed by the fab four. As stated in my previous post, this song was an inspiration for the Let It Be-project due to the fact that it required everyone to be on the top of their game and not simply session men for the songwriter.
 Lennon's composition is almost schizophrenic in it's constant change of style and time signature. But it all sounds very natural; an effect of this being a very tight group who had played together about ten years at this point in time (a couple of them far longer). Everyone pulls together and the result is really amazing. McCartney is on fire and John delivers one of his most compelling vocals of the whole album. Give it a few good listens whilst reading along with the music to get a feel for the song before attempting to play along.
A few clarifications may be in order; 12/8 is of course shuffle, so 9/8 is basically 3/4 in shuffle time. I orginally wanted the 5/4 measures in letter F to be 10/8 but Finale doesn't recognize this as a valid time signature. Just listen and read along and you'll get it.

For No One

A quickie today. I've chosen For No One off of 1966's brilliant Revolver  to show McCartney's ballad sensibility.  Paul (who also played the guitar, piano and clavichord parts) manages to be melodic without ever getting in the way of the vocals.
While the sixteenths may look busy and can be tricky to pull off they never sound that way. And that is the real lesson here :)
The song is almost a solo song in that the only other Beatle on the recording is Ringo Starr on drums and tambourine.

Thoughts or feedback? Drop me a line in the comments.

With A Little Help From My Friends

What better place to start this celebration than the universially acclaimed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The band were through with touring and dead set on making the most out of the recording studio. This can very much be seen as McCartney's record, featuring a wealth of hs compositions as well as him playing both piano and guitar on a number of tracks. This is where his meticulous attention to detail in his bass lines came to the forefront as well.
Each track features a unique line, peppered with McCartneyisms. Apparentley he often recorded the bass last, after the rhythm section was already in place, and was therefore afforded to really sculpt his line to fit into all the spaces left by the others. Even the usually throwaway song sung by Ringo got treated to a great line.

 With a Little Help From My Friends is usually attributed to Lennon, but the arrangement is very Paul-centric. This is a very good example of Paul taking the sub-hook role. The verse's descending line feature roots and thirds and is played quite staccato. The line is easiest to pull off if you star off around the twelth fret, that way the fills won't require you to change positions. Slightly palm mute (especially if you're using roundwounds) and play it with a pick.

Thoughts or feedback? Drop me a line in the comments.

 

Beatlemania-month

Yup, you read it right. Starting today, december will be Beatlemania-month here at Carl Greder's Bass Transcriptions. A whole month featuring the Fab Four and their many great basslines. Paul McCartney will be the star of the show, but he wasn't the only one to supply the bottom end on the records. We will feature huge hits, obscure gems and a special surprise come christmas eve.

Look for updates mondays, wednesdays and fridays.

The first song will be up shortly.