Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Any of you bass players/singers have tips for doing vox and Macca's bass part simultaneously for Taxman? It's giving me a rough time.

That's a toughie. I would try to get the bass part into my fingers first, practice, practice, practice until I didn't need to think about it, and then concentrate on the singing. Fortunately it's not a very demanding vocal part. Good luck; great song.

I really can't get to that point where I "don't think about" a bass part if it has any hook in it such as this. Easy to play but it consumes your brain--it's like your brain is singing the part when you play it. But then again I pull that off all the time with other songs so maybe I just need to suck it up and try harder.

It's the bridge that always gets me....("If you drive a car....") as the bassline becomes a lot more demanding. I try to get someone else to take on the vocals at that point...

It is not hard, just practice
learn both parts separately...then split your brain in two while you do them simultaneously

rickinroma wrote:It is not hard, just practice
learn both parts separately...then split your brain in two while you do them simultaneously

Here is another option.

Is that Harrison on the right? Can't ID the other head...

jingle_jangle wrote:Is that Harrison on the right? Can't ID the other head...

JC - just start slow and work your way up, you'll get it.

PW - see also the BBC version of Hitchhiker's Guide from the '80s.

Zaphod!!

kennyhowes wrote:

jingle_jangle wrote:Is that Harrison on the right? Can't ID the other head...

JC - just start slow and work your way up, you'll get it.

PW - see also the BBC version of Hitchhiker's Guide from the '80s.

Did my attempt at humor fall on literal ears?

I am trying to get that for rain...I can sing johns part, just not the backups

You have my sympathy. I can't even sing/play Day Tripper at the same time, so Taxman would be a hell of a thing to try.

antipodean wrote:It's the bridge that always gets me....("If you drive a car....") as the bassline becomes a lot more demanding. I try to get someone else to take on the vocals at that point...

I wouldn't even want to try playing both the bass and singing the bridge on that song although I suppose the secret is practice practice practice, which I was never good at. I always had a hard time singing and playing bass at the same time unless either of them became automatic so I could then concentrate on the other part, usually the vocals. I found many of McCartney's melodic bass lines hard to sing with especially if they had weird timing like the bridge does on Drive My Car. It stops at 3 and a 1/2 instead of going right through the line which is weird to do if you're singing. I would have no problem singing the verse and playing it's bass line.

Practice will help. But even Paul McCartney didn't play and sing the bass at the same time for those late '65, '66 tunes, much less later songs, with the exception of the live LET IT BE material.