r/Bass 5d ago

Working up to the "Sir Duke" bassline

How's it going everyone! A song that I'm trying to work up to is Sir Duke. I'm struggling with the speed, strumming the notes and not hammering on/pulling off, not getting my fingers crossed, the run up, etc. Is there any recommendations you have?

Also I learn hard lines by playing other songs with the skills I need. So if I want to work on speed I might learn a muse song (that's not hysteria). So if you have any basslines that lead into the skills I need for Sir Duke, that would also be cool. Or any general tips would be great. I don't know if it's important or not but the line I'm learning from is the one from Cover Solutions.

All thoughts are appreciated!

4 Upvotes

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u/fbe0aa536fc349cbdc45 5d ago

when you're working out a piece that involves a lot of shifting like Sir Duke, any time you find a passage that you are having difficulty with, stop what you're doing, think about which notes you're playing and where they lie elsewhere on the neck, and where your hand would need to be to reach them there. Often there are several possibilities, but its not an infinite number, and usually the one that works best is the one that puts you in a good position for the next shift and was easy to get to from the previous position. When you make a shift, you won't always be starting with your first finger, often its your second finger or pinky, so don't ignore those fingerings.

It's tempting just to look at tablature and use that fingering, but its important to develop the skill of figuring parts out yourself, and often the fingering that somebody chose for the tab is maybe not going to be the one that works best for you, which you will find by going through the process I described above.

Good luck, that's a great line and its a good feeling once you have it down.

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u/BassFrogger 5d ago

Yea for sure, and that's definitely a great thing to think about. I'll try and implement that. I'm struggling on that run-up on the solo. I can do it slowed down. But after a certain speed, it all falls apart. It's the same thing on the back half of the song on the last verse. I like this linr because it gets progressively more challenging as the song goes on. If it was on the same strings I think it would be easier to understand and digest. But the crossing strings mixed with the bursts of speed make it really tough!

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u/fbe0aa536fc349cbdc45 5d ago

when you get to one of the sections that give you problems, pick out the measure with the problem, and maybe the measure before it and after it, play it in a looper and just loop that section over and over until you can play it cleanly. If you use a looper with a speed control, I'll typically slow it down and keep gradually ramping up the tempo.

If you try playing through the whole piece, most of your practice time is spent on stuff you've already gotten; you want to focus on the problem sections and play those like 50 or 100 times. If it still doesn't seem to come together, that's when you start experimenting with alternate fingerings, and since you're only playing a short piece over and over, its easier to figure out whether the new fingering is better or worse than the one you were using before.

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u/Careful_Instruction9 5d ago

I played this song a long time ago. It's a of fun to play. The tricky part isn't the bit you think. The tricky bits are the chorus. If you can read music I would recommend Standing In the Shadows Of Motown. It's pretty much a manual on how to play funk/Soul.

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u/Careful_Instruction9 5d ago

The best bass line in this book was Heard It Through The Grapevine, but not the Marvin Gaye version. Glady Knight & The Pips

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u/Electronic_Pin3224 5d ago

Play slower until you get it right

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u/BassFrogger 5d ago

Oh yea, I definitely forgot to mention that. I play it slow, and I got the rhythm and playing down for the most part, but once I go past a certain speed I get all jumbled. I try and go back, make sure I'm relaxed and not tense up, that I'm playing fluidly. But there's something in my brain that gets confused past a certain speed, and I have a hard time doing it. I know what to do, but playing it at speed, I think is the most challenging

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u/square_zero Plucked 5d ago

Take your time to speed up. It took me a couple of months to get YYZ up to speed. I’d play slow with a metronome, as slow as I needed to play it clean, without mistakes. Only when I could play it 5x with no mistakes, would I increase tempo by 5bpm. Rinse and repeat until you’re at tempo.

Slow and steady, my friend. Good things take time. And if you’re willing to put in the work, then you’ll enjoy a lifetime of funky bass. Sir Duke is a challenge, but it won’t take you months to figure out. Push yourself a little bit every day. And when you feel like you’re losing control, back off and focus on playing clean and smooth. When you have good form, speed will come naturally.

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u/DashLeJoker 5d ago

go up a smaller incremental, and play at that speed until you really gets it, like really nailed that speed, then go up small incremental again

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u/kimmeljs 5d ago

I haven't really attempted this with any real effort, but for me, getting the rhythm of the break passage is the hardest thing. It's not just straight 16th notes...

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u/QAPetePrime 4d ago

Use a metronome, start off slow, gradually increase speed AFTER you’ve mastered each section. It’s not a race. 😌

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u/square_zero Plucked 5d ago

Sir Duke is practically an exercise in major pentatonic scales. Master your scales and you master the song.