How to Play the Bass Line to Another One Bites The Dust by Queen
Hi, it’s Paul Wolf from how-to-play-bass.com. This is the 9th lesson of my virtual DVD on how to play the bass for beginners. Before we get started, I want to recommend that you head over to my website, you find it at how-to-play-bass.com, don’t forget the hyphens, and sign up for the free escene. Totally free, features articles, most importantly real life bass lines for you to learn and play, and some other cool stuff. Okay, in today’s lesson we’ll gonna learn another tune. I’ve pick Another One Bites The Dust, this is Queen as the fourth tune for us to learn. Now John Deecan of Queen is in my opinion a really underrated bassist. And my crack claimed frame is that I went to the same school as him, not at the same time though. There’s also a PDF on my website, how-to-play-bass.com, that gives you additional details, including notation and tab on how to play this great tune. Okay, the first part of the tune we’re gonna look at is the basic riff. I play it with a metronome and then we’ll talk through it. Two, three, four… okay, it’s pretty straight forward. The notes we’re looking at, starting off with the open E string, and then the other two notes on the pattern are G, which is at 3rd fret of the E string, and A, which is the 5th fret of the E string, and done slowly, this is the rhythm. Now, you might notice, when I’m playing the open E strings, I’m bringing my left hand in to dampen the string, so that it doesn’t ring out. If I don’t do that, it sounds like this… so what I’m doing is I’m… slowly bringing my left hand ‘til it touches the string, and stop the E string vibrating so it doesn’t sound and chokes the note. That gives you a much shorter, more staccato note, which gives this kind of, sort of punk rock feel that this tune got. You have to be careful not to press your left hand down too hard, otherwise you’ll make it click, a really audible click that if you don’t want is something to avoid. And then the only other thing with that riff is sometimes there’s a very quick two note pick up, which is just the A and the G, before it comes in with the first note. So it be… with the pick up again. Okay, that riff forms the bulk of the song. The first different part of the song is where the song goes up to C, I play it first, then we’ll talk through it. Two, three, four… okay, now notes we’re playing on that section, starts on C, goes up to C sha…C, sorry, 3rd fret of the A string, goes up to C sharp, 4th fret of the A string, and to D, 5th fret of the A string, then to high G, which is 5th fret of the D string, and down to low G which is the 3rd fret of the E string. Now, the first pattern sounds like this. The second one has a slight variation, it doesn’t go up to the high G and stays on the D for slightly longer, so this is the second bar. It plays the original pattern again, then it goes down to A. And then actually looking at there is the open A – B flat, which is the 1st fret of the A string – B, which is the 2nd fret of the A string – and back down to G, which works as the pick up note, a terrific end, which is the 3rd fret of the E string. Now you’ll notice, when I play the A… that my hand comes in to dampen the A again, so it’s a short, sharp note. You could play up here, with the A at the 5th fret of the E string, coz then you can choke it with your finger. But, as I’m down here, I prefer to play it with the open A, coz I know I can check it with my left hand. But there’s plenty of choices. Okay, the last section of the tune is the chorus, I play it through with the metronome, then we’ll talk about it. Two, three, four… okay, the first 6 bars of that section is pretty straight forward. They’re just the, the riff played three times. Then we got this modulation, starts on F sharp, 2nd fret of the E string, and it goes to B, which is the 2nd fret of the A string, then to B flat, 1st fret of the A string, and then the open A string. And the rhythm of that is… then back to the F sharp, on 2nd fret of the E string, and then finishes on the last beat of that bar, with the pick up note to the riff, which is G, 3rd fret. Now, notice again, when I went down to the A string, that the left hand comes across and deadens the string, and stops it from vibrating. I could play that pattern like this, where you go up to the 7th, 6th, and 5th fret of the E string, and so you go… but as I’m down here anyway, and I’m confident with my left hand muting, I’m, that’s where I play it. Now you can practice this left hand muting, simply all you do, pick an open string, in this case we pick E… and just do that. Just bring your hands on to the string, your fingers rather on to the string, and mute it, and just practice it really slowly until you get used to the pressure that is needed to mute it without making a sound by hitting it too hard. So you shouldn’t hear any sound as the notes choked. So that’s Another One Bites The Dust. Look out for lesson ten, where I’ve gonna look at the bass line to Come As You Are by Nirvana. Email me with any question, I’ll see you next time.