Something All Bassists Should Do

All bassists should learn at least one Paul McCartney bass line. Okay, I guess it is possible that you may not like The Beatles that much but please, do yourself a favor and give this a chance! I think a lot of people don't realize how good a bass player Paul McCartney is. His bass lines are always super melodic, rhythmically interesting and they groove like crazy. They are also really fun to play. The first time I transcribed the bass for a Beatles song, I was stunned. Until that point, I, myself, had never realized how good he is.

There are many great Beatles songs to transcribe but to illustrate my point, here is a transcription for Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Now, pretty simple song you might think, right? Well, check out what he does with it. I love his use of arpeggios and little scalar passing tones and passages. He also does something really interesting in the first part of the verse; he plays an E note under the A major chord. Also, his variations in the last chorus are amazing, especially right at the fade out when he gets all bluesy. Here are the tabs (click on the PDF to download a copy):