Artist - Steely Dan
Electric Bass - Chuck Rainey
Difficulty - Advanced
This weeks transcription is taken from one of the classic albums of the 70s, Steely Dan’s Aja which features (among a genuinely incredible line up of musicians) the great Chuck Rainey on bass. This particular tune is the one I always end up listening to from Aja, and it was a real pleasure to sit down and transcribe it fully.
Practicing a slap line on a P bass with dead roundwounds was a real challenge (i’m used to slapping on bright rounds with tight string spacing) and something to pay attention to when working on this tune is switching between plucking technique and slap. Something to note is the variations within the main groove, and when ghost notes are introduced, I’m almost always raking back across the strings (you can check the TAB to see which string i’m playing the ghost notes on).
It’s an intricate line, but a rewarding one and a great way to get inside the playing of one of the all-time session greats!
Enjoy!
You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.
