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A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE TRANSCRIPTIONS ON THIS WEBSITE
 

Most of the transcriptions are self-explanatory and straightforward to play. However, there are a few things which will need to be clarified if you are to make the best use of the music.

When I write down a bassline I try to make it as accurate as possible while at the same time making it easy to read. Have a look at the three barres below...

fig. a shows the 'correct' way to notate a barre of detached quarter notes (Think of something like the bassline in Give Me A Bullet by AC/DC), but I find that it's a bit unwieldly to read and it doesn't visually convey the simplicity of the line. Also, it would take so much longer to enter this kind of line into the notation software that I use. fig. b is a much easier way to show the same thing by using staccato markings but is still a bit of a pain in the arse to have to click every note and add the dot so I usually just notate it as fig. c.

Remember; always listen to the original recording in order to hear how a bassline should be played.

 
As shown in the example above, rythms that cross a beat will be 'properly' shown as in fig. a below...
I'm sure you'll agree that fig. b is much easier to read, so that's the way you'll see this kind of rythm presented in these transcriptions.

 

Key Signatures

It's very common in rock music to use the dominant 7th. Take a look at the riff in E Major below...

 
The accidentals clutter up the page when trying to read, so occasionally I'll use the wrong key signature in order to clean the page up...

As you can see from this version, simply using a key signature of A Major removes the need to chuck loads of accidentals all over the place. Expect the same sort of thing in other keys. eg. A Maj becomes D Maj, D Maj becomes G Maj etc.

 

Harmonics

Harmonics will be shown with a diamond shaped notehead, normally in one of two different ways...
The above two notes are showing the same thing, ie. a harmonic on the 5th fret of the G string which sounds as a note two octaves above the open string.

 

Timing

This one's just a bit of a caveat in case it comes up. When I first started transcribing stuff I was still learning and some of my timings may be off. As an example, for that Status Quo-y boogie-y rythm thingy, I tended to use dotted 8th notes and a 1/16 note (fig. a) in 4/4 time instead of 1/4 note and 8th note for 12/8 (ie. swing time fig. b). Here's an example of what I'm talking about...
I think what I'm trying to say here is that I used fig. a instead of fig.b! This shouldn't be an issue and if it does affect anything then it will only be on my very early attempts at transcribing. In later years I always used 12/8 to avoid clutter on the page with triplet markings. One notable exception to this is the Pink Floyd song Money which is in 7/4 swing time. To avoid reading 21/8 I have marked it as 'swing!' on the manuscript.

 

Missed Notes

I try to be as accurate as possible when transcribing but it's not always possible to hear what the bass guitar is doing as it's so buried in the mix. Have a listen to bands like Alter Bridge or Black Stone Cherry and you can feel that the bass is there but it's difficult to tell what notes are being played. In these cases I try to put down what seems like the right notes but I can't guarantee that it's exactly the same as is played on the recording.

Talking about recording.... I work from MP3s a lot and I think (I may be very wrong here) that the data compression can cause missed resolution of the music and therefore notes are not heard. Here's an example of what I mean -

Here's a run from the Rush album Hemispheres. fig. a is what I hear on the MP3 version but if I play the vinyl record I can easily hear that fig. b is what Geddy Lee is playing.

 

Modern Recording Techniques

I'm hoping that this is a dying practice in mastering but I still come across it quite often. There is a school of thought that says that 'everything needs to be louder than everything else' when mixing. It is, I suppose, to make things stand out when being played on TV, radio, juke boxes (are juke boxes still a thing or do they call them something different now? Answers on a coastguard please and send to the BBC!), etc. It's a detriment to the dynamic feel of a song and makes everything the same volume all the way through the song. Have a look at britpop darlings Blur's Song 2 waveform...
You have the quiet bits at the start and then the chorus kicks in and BOOOOM!!! There's no room for anything to breathe. In the old analogue days it would be called 'bending the needles' because the volume meters would be pushed hard to the right

Bending the needle.
Here's an extreme example from Slayer with their Consfearacy song...

The top pic is the whole song and the bottom pic is the first minute. As you can imagine, it's almost like listening to white noise at times so picking out basslines from the mush can be quite a challenge.

 

A final note on the transcriptions...

I hope that these basslines will be useful to some of you. They are mainly rock songs as that is the sort of bands I have been playing in for most of my life. I have put a lot of hours of work into these transcriptions and have tried to make them as accurate as I can. Remember to always listen to the original in order to get the feel for how the music should be played. Please support the artists by buying their music, merch, going to gigs etc.

If there's something that you've seen on the website and you're not sure what it is, then drop me an email at bob@bobsbasslines.com and I'll do my best to help.

Everything on this website is free for personal use, education and study so please don't alter them or try to sell them. If these basslines have been of use to you and you would like to help to keep this website up and running then please consider making a donation via the little button on the bottom of the page. Thanks.

And remember, listen, listen listen and enjoy playing the music!

Cheers,
Bob
 

All the transcriptions on this website are free of charge to download for personal use. However, if you wish to help to keep the website up and running then you can make a donation here -

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