Speaking of Stretching from 4th to 7th Fret...

I don't remember when I wrote out the part for Motorway to Roswell (it was probably well over a year ago) but I started practicing it right around the time that I joined the ska band. What's funny about that is that most of the ska music I've been playing I've been playing between the 4th and 7th frets in a kind of "box". This was new to me because I never understood enough music theory in the past to know how such a box relates to major and minor scales. But once I figured that out...well I'm kind of constantly playing in that box now.  So Motorway to Roswell, at least the way I wrote the song out...is played in that same box.

When I figure out the bass part to Pixies songs I start by getting a recording of the song...then I search the internet for any and all tab I kind find...I look for videos of people covering just the bass line...and then I look for live versions of the band playing the songs to cross check and verify. I usually only get to reviewing the band playing the song if I'm stumped. The upshot of this is...I end up playing the parts totally differently than KiD plays them. I play the same notes...but in a different place on the guitar. This happens way more often than you'd think possible.  She's kind of a slidey bass player and I think her bass playing is informed by her guitar playing, which seems to involve lots of barre and power chords.  I was never much of a guitar player and I'm not great with barre chords or power chords. I play open chords mostly on guitar. And my bass playing is informed mostly by my cello playing. And on cello if I could avoid a shift I did.

So it kind of cracked me up when I watched this video of Motorway yesterday.



I had seen it before but never watched her closely. She's way up there by the 12th fret...no where near the 4th to 7th box that I'm playing the song in.

I know it's a stupid thing to find interesting. I guess it is just facinating to me how we all fall into our habits or learn things in certain ways that seem intuititve...but everyone's intuition is totally different.

Oh...and they are singing totally different harmony shit than we're gonna do for this song. I really don't get what the hell they are doing in this video at all. There's probably 4 or 5 or more overdubs of vocals at the end of this song on the album...and yet CT and KiD are doubling some vocals here. Seems a waste of two voices. Very strange.

I wish there were more live videos of this and all the other late game tunes to see how the performances evolved. I suspect these songs were written in the studio and not well rehearsed before they trotted them out on tour (unlike things from the Purple Tape, that they worked on as live tunes before recording them)...so they probably changed.  Whereas, when they perform Doolittle today, they work really hard to make it sound like the recording. The songs evolved to the point of being recorded...and then stopped. The late game songs would have done the opposite...been birthed at the recording session and then evolved away from the recording. Maybe.