Lesson Cover Songs

In the middle of 2019 I started taking bass lessons once a week for an hour. In many, but not all weeks, I'd learn a song and then my teacher would critique my playing.

When Covid-19 hit and my lessons became remote, I went back and recorded most of those songs using a computer interface to get a clean take, then I started picking new songs to cover, and have continued to do so (minus a break here and there) even after quitting lessons.

Nearly all the songs use a karaoke backing track which has had the bass removed. Each recording is a single take with no edits. The exercise it to record my playing development, not my editing skills. Most of them have a bit of EQ and compression applied to make the bass more distinct. They tend to be mixed a bit bass heavy to make it easier to hear.

In the table below, there are one or two versions of each song. The different versions are as follows.

Full
My bass mixed in to the sans-bass karakoke-version.com backing track.
Bass
This is a mix containing just the bass and drum tracks from the full mix, and in a few cases that don't have a bass-only track available, just the solo bass. Mixing with the drum track makes it easier to hear how good (or not) my timing is.
Date Artist Song Full Bass Time Comments
2023-01-29 Black Crowes Hard to Handle full bass 3:05 Learned this for a band tryout
2023-01-28 Tom Petty Honey Bee full bass 4:52 Learned this for a band tryout
... I developed some hand problems so I stopped playing entirely for a year, hoping for improvement.
2021-12-11 Stealers Wheel Stuck In The Middle With You full bass 3:28 Using my Spector Bantam bass, with flatwound strings and a pick
2021-12-05 Beatles Don't Let Me Down full bass 3:37 Using my squire vm bass with damping foam for the thuddy sound, with a pick. I learned from this particular take. BTW, that take on youtube is 25 cents sharp.
2021-11-26 America Sister Golden Hair full bass 3:16 Playing my new Birdsong Cortobass. The geometry is a bit different, so it required many takes to avoid fret buzz and fart issues. It has round-wound strings, which are brighter but has more finger noise; I'm still getting used to it. On the bass track, I've skipped the first 45 seconds, as they only come in then.
2021-11-25 The Beatles Penny Lane full bass 3:02 Played with pick and a foam mute on my Squier Vintage Modified SS bass
2021-11-18 Stevie Ray Vaughan Couldn't Stand The Weather full bass 4:42 This is the first SRV song I ever heard, on the radio in the summer of 1984.
2021-11-06 Paul McCartney Maybe I'm Amazed full bass 3:52 I worked from Tom Bornemann's transcription
2021-11-05 Bob Marley Is This Love full bass 3:52 I worked mostly from Tom Kenrick's transcription
... I quit taking lessons in March, 2021, and then didn't play much for 8 months...
2021-03-01 Stevie Ray Vaughan Texas Flood full bass 5:25 Another really good backing track form karaoke-version.com
2021-02-12 Van Morrison Brown Eyed Girl full bass 3:10 Classic to the point of cheesy. My playing against just the drum sounds OK, but in the final mix it sounds deadly stiff.
2021-02-06 The Beatles Get Back full bass 3:12 Not perfect, but good enough for the 2nd take
2021-02-05 Booker T and the MG's Time Is Tight full bass 3:18 Probably the 2nd most famous Booker T song, after Green Onions. Duck Dunn bass line.
2021-02-02 The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band full bass 1:59 Paul McCartney bass line. The backing track vocals are great, but the synth drum is terrible.
2021-01-31 The Beatles Come Together full bass 4:21 Paul McCartney bass line (of course). I'm not sure how to duplicate the original tone.
2021-01-30 Martha and the Vandellas Nowhere To Run full bass 3:00 A relatively simple James Jamerson bass line, but with plenty of little variations
2021-01-24 Otis Redding (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay full bass 2:44 Another Duck Dunn bass line; the vocal sounds pretty autotuned to me
2021-01-23 Doobie Brothers Long Train Runnin' full bass 3:31 A great bass line by the great Tiran Porter. The backing track is kind of a muddy mess, though.
2021-01-17 Tom Petty American Girl full bass 3:36 Classic song
2021-01-14 Booker T. & the MG's Hip Hug-Her full bass 2:20 Duck Dunn bass line, with lots of fuzz
2021-01-12 Eddie Floyd Knock On Wood full bass 3:05 Another Duck Dunn bass line, using my "motown" bass. Like many of these backing tracks, the singer seems to be nordic.
2021-01-12 The Beatles Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds full bass 3:37 With a pick and some damping foam, but on my Supro with roundwound strings.
2021-01-05 Steely Dan Deacon Blues full bass 7:19 This backing track comes from a bass transcription book; great instrumentation, but no vocals
2021-01-01 Queen Crazy Little Thing Called Love full bass 2:41 The drum machine in the backing track is regrettable, and I push the beat in places, but overall a lot of fun to play.
2020-12-29 Otis Redding Respect full bass 2:12 This is Otis Redding's "Respect", which came a couple years before Aretha Franklin's more popular version.
2020-12-24 The Beatles Dig A Pony full bass 3:38 I used to play this sometimes with Gary et al, but I never recorded it. Using a pick. Take 2 of 2.
2020-12-22 Al Green Let's Stay Together full bass 3:20 A little bit loose take on it; I didn't sweat the exact rhythms in some places
2020-11-22 Stevie Wonder Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours) full bass 2:41 There is some question about it, but most people believe it is Bob Babbitt on bass
2020-11-11 Sam and Dave Soul Man full bass 2:42 Duck Dunn bassline. I'm crowding the beat again; funny I can't hear it when playing but I can on playback.
2020-11-08 Marvin Gaye Let's Get It On full bass 4:08 Jamerson bassline; lots of fun to play, even if imperfectly
2020-11-05 Elvis Presley Can't Help Falling In Love With You full bass 2:57 On my fretless
2020-11-03 Pink Floyd Hey You full bass 4:41 Another excuse to use my fretless. I did three takes and all were about the same.
2020-11-02 Sam and Dave Hold On I'm Comin' full bass 2:42 Duck Dunn bassline, played on my Motown bass. The backing track seems a bit plodding when compared to the original.
2020-11-01 Marvin Gaye I Heard It Through The Grapevine full bass 3:18 Another Jamerson bassline. Less technical, but the incessant syncopations and variations mean I sometimes am stabbing at the timing instead of being 100% sure of it.
2020-10-26 Steely Dan Pretzel Logic full bass 4:32 Better than I could do it 18 months ago. I'll try again in 18 months more.
2020-10-25 Bill Withers Ain't No Sunshine full bass 1:58 Bassline by Donald "Duck" Dunn. Played on my fretless.
2020-10-20 Albert King Born Under A Bad Sign full bass 2:51 Bassline by Donald "Duck" Dunn. Simple but effective unison with the guitar riff.
2020-10-18 Marvin Gaye Ain't No Mountain High Enough full bass 2:27 Yet another great Jamerson bassline, with my Motown bass and a bit of distortion on it.
2020-09-21 Marvin Gaye Ain't That Peculiar full bass 3:05 Another great Jamerson bassline. Using my "Motown bass", a Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar bass with tapewound strings and a sponge under the strings near the bridge to "thuddify" the tone.
2020-09-13 Marvin Gaye How Sweet It Is full bass 3:00 Everyone knows the James Taylor version, but it was Marvin Gaye's first. Jamerson bassline, and I have trouble not rushing the beat.
2020-08-19 Norah Jones Sunrise full bass 3:18 Used my fretless bass on this one
2020-06-10 youtuber Artmant Studios Rock backing track full 5:30 This is an attempt to create a bass part for this bass-free backing track. I played along to the video, to generate some ideas, then did one take.
2020-06-10 youtuber Tomas Sandanus Music Sad Dark Power Ballad backing track full 4:02 This is an attempt to create a bass part for this bass-free backing track. I generated some ideas, then made to takes of the pieces that seemed promising. This is the second take. More takes could improve it, but I didn't have it in me.
2020-06-10 youtuber Music Jam Tracks Neo Soul backing track full 10:44 This is an attempt to create a bass part for this bass-free backing track. However, I never found find anything I liked, and since it goes on for 10 minutes, I just got frustrated and never tried extract the good ideas and polish it. It is pretty embarassing to post, but it is what it is.
2020-06-02 youtuber Quist Quist Jam full 5:16 The exercise for the week was to take a bass-free backing track and come up with something structured, instead of just noodling. My timing is poor because I'm thinking hard about what to play next!
2020-04-08 Allman Brothers Stormy Monday full bass 8:38 quick take playing my new fretless bass
2020-03-11 Allman Brothers Melissa full bass 4:01
2020-03-04 Marvin Gaye Mercy Mercy Me full bass 3:18
2020-02-19 Marvin Gaye What's Going On full bass 3:57 lots of faking on my part
2020-02-12 Elvis Costello Alison full bass 3:32
2020-01-22 Elvis Costello Pump It Up full bass 3:25
2020-01-15 Robin Trower Too Rolling Stoned full bass 5:45
2020-01-08 Elvis Costello Peace Love and Understanding full bass 3:41
2020-01-01 The Waitresses Christmas Wrapping full bass 5:41 This is my wife's favorite christmas song
2019-12-18 Neil Young Cinnamon Girl full bass 2:52
2019-12-11 Crowded House It's Only Natural full bass 3:27 clean take has original on left; me on right (too stiffly)
2019-12-04 R.E.M. Radio Free Europe full bass 3:37
2019-11-27 Led Zeppelin Hey Hey What Can I Do full bass 4:03 toward the end I lost my place and just (sloppily) made up fills
2019-11-13 The Pretenders Back On The Chain Gang full bass 4:07
2019-11-06 Elvis Costello Watching The Detectives full bass 3:57
2019-10-30 Jimi Hendrix Fire full bass 2:47
2019-10-16 Pink Floyd Money full bass 6:26 the lesson had a few problems with transitions
2019-10-09 The Cars You Might Think full bass 3:10 Rick Ocasek, 1944-2019
2019-10-02 The Police Roxanne full bass 3:22 using a pick; palm muting the quiet parts
2019-09-25 Talking Heads And She Was full bass 3:39
2019-09-04 ZZ Top La Grange full bass 3:46 The bass track skips the first 30 seconds of the song
2019-08-21 Jimi Hendrix Manic Depression full bass 3:45
2019-07-31 The Police Driven To Tears full bass 3:29 no karaoke version available; me on left channel and original on right
2019-07-24 Cream Sunshine Of Your Love full bass 4:07
2019-07-17 Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze full bass 3:06