Paul Wolfe: Hi, this is Paul Wolfe from How-To-Play-Bass.com here. Got a lesson for all you bass beginners out there. This lesson is going to cover the tune "tears of a clam" Smokey Robinson, great mid 60's maritime tune. The original was played by Bob Babbitt, not Jameson and it's great for beginners because, it's a fairly simple part three sections to the base line and once you got those down, that covers the whole tune. So, it was back in the day when maritime their parts were more simpler than a bit two three years later down the line in their history.
So, I am going to walk through the tune. If you are a beginner, just want to say that the quickest way for you to make progress and get better is to take lessons with the teacher. I heartily recommended it. If you cant find a face to face teacher, I do have a unique series online bass lessons. There will be some info in for in the box down here or on YouTube page. So, click on the link and go and check it out and if that's a fit, send me an email while the contact form in the website and may be we can hook up. Anyway let's get on with the lesson.
Okay, when you start off looking at the verse, the metronome going, metronome set to about a 100. Actual tempo of the tune is about 130. One, two, three, four. That pad goes round and round. So until we get to the pre chorus. Let's look at the notes. Starts off from D flat, full fret of the A string. Okay, the next three note are E flat, F, G flat which are the first, third, fourth fret of the D string. Now, we drop them to A flat, full fret of the E string, D flat first fret of the A string, C flat second fret of the A string. Now, you might note that note as B, but its also a C flat and when the key of D flat, so it does function as a C flat. So don't get too hang up about that, if you are a beginner, but it is actually C flat.
Then the next three notes of the pattern are, which is D flat full fret of the A string, E flat first fret of the D string, back to G flat which is the fourth fret of the D string and then the last three notes of the pattern E flat and D flat. Plays D flat twice and then you are back in to the pattern, etcetera, etcetera and then that goes to the pre chorus.
Okay, the pre chorus and the chorus, I am going to do together. So the mention I am going and play through it, one, two, three, four. And that's where the riff comes in. The main riff of the song in the base drops out for four bars. So, lets look at those, its pretty straight forward. The pre chorus itself is a two bar pattern that repeats four times and it's, so there is no, so D flat then full fret of A string, G flat full fret of the D string, C flat second fret of the A string, back to G flat full fret of the D string, down to G flat on the E string which is at the second fret, then up to D flat which is the full fret of the A string.
So I played it through really slowly and say the names of the notes. D flat, G flat, C flat, G flat, D flat and obviously when I said G flat there, it covered both positions. And that's the kind of rhythm that you are needed to play. Then it goes off into this little eighth note bridge. You got A flat, A natural, B flat and then what you got there is the very last state to know of the bar of B flat. Drops down to the F which is nice chromatic lead in to the G flat and it plays for two beats on the G flat on the E string, which is the second fret and then it plays G flat, the fourth fret of the D string for two beats and then you drop out for four bars well that riffs playing and then you come back in with that etcetera and that is a basically the constituent parts of the song.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services