James Jamerson bass transcription for I'll Turn To Stone by The Four Tops

Here's a 1 page sample of my transcription of James Jamerson bass line for The Four Tops' Song, I'll Turn To Stone. Although at first listen, this song seems to be an easy pop tune to play along, it does have it's challenges. Namely, Jamerson's extensive use of flawlessly executed triplets runs at 127 bpm, during each Pre-Choruses of the song. You can notice that James also uses his runs on different beats within the bars of each sections. To me, this shows his incredible sens of time and tremendous improvisational skills. There is also the recurrent use of raking within the verses and pre-choruses that is worth noting. Jamerson's use of triplet can be a bass lesson in itself. Enjoy & have fun practicing!
Complete 4 page transcription available on this page.

James Jamerson - I'll Turn To Stone - Bass Transcription



The Four Tops - I'll Turn To Stone

"Bass Line Store" error message when purchasing, now Fixed!

Thanks to Akis Tourlougos who pointed out that he couldn't complete the purchase process when clicking the "Add To Cart" button on the Bass Line Store. With a little help, I was able to resolve the issue quickly. So problem solved! If you have attempted to purchase a transcription on my store, in the last few weeks and got an error message, it is a thing of the past, now it works! Enjoy!

Jaco Pastorius Bass Solo Transcription for Havona

I am aware that there are other transcriptions of this classic Jaco solo on the net, but here is my take on it...

Havona is a song from the 1977 Weather Report album called Heavy Weather.
Jaco was at his peak then, and his solo on the song Havona is a display of his mastery of the fretless bass. Back in the early 90's, I was very much into Jaco, and I spent many hours learning his bass lines and solos. This one, I transcribed back then, and re-transcribed digitally this week.

Jaco Pastorius - Havona - Bass Solo Transcription



The Paul Chambers (complete 7 page) bass line & solo transcription is coming soon...
Check back soon!

Bass Transcription of Slow Blues in G by Rufus Reid

This is has got to be the first bass line I ever attempted to transcribe. It was given as an assignment by a bass teacher. Needless to say, the result wasn't all that good the first time around, as I was still learning to read and write music at the time. I have revisited this Aebersold play-along track several times since. This version is probably my 4th bass transcription for this song. Since it is a jazz track, I figured there is no need for bass tabs. I believe that players that might have an interested in this track, probably all read standard notation.

This track is a 7 chorus blues from Aebersold's Vol 2 - Nothin' But Blues. The book credits Rufus Reid as the bass player on this recording. The book does not included a transcription other than a theme, chord changes and scales to use for soloing. This blues is not hard to play and there are several cool lines on this track. I'm sure you will enjoy! Have fun learning it.

"I Gotcha" by Joe Tex

Here is my transcription, with tabs, of a fun and groovy bass line. Unfortunately I do not know who the original bass player is on this track. It has a rather repetitive pattern with little variations, but it is fun to play.
The song was recorded in 1972, and it is also featured in the official soundtrack to the Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs. enjoy!

Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" Sax Solo Transcribed for Bass

Fun and simple solo that can be played on bass, as written, or an octave higher. It works well with or without FX, especially in a drum, bass & guitar combo. Have fun with it. Here is a video of the play-along at regular speed, and at half speed, solo.

Blues in The Closet - Oscar Pettiford Cello Solo (Transcribed for Bass)

As a reference, you can hear Oscar himself play the solo in this YouTube video starting at about 0:31.
I notated the transcription an octave lower for ease of reading.
You can play it an octave up to be in the same register as Oscar's solo.
However, I transcribed the solo in G, as the version on my CD seemed in G.
But this video recording seems to be in Ab, or somewhere in between G and Ab.
Nevertheless, Oscar's solo is stellar!
Flawlessly executed at about 196 bpm

Blues in The Closet - Oscar Pettiford Cello Solo


Blues in The Closet - Oscar Pettiford Cello Solo (Transcribed for Bass)
Blues in The Closet- Oscar Pettiford Cello Solo (Transcribed for Bass)