Top 10 Hardest Bass Riffs to Play
It's really painful to learn this song, and I disagree with some of the comments here: the bass lines aren't easy at all. To play them properly with mutes and rigor is really demanding.
Though, after playing the song a few hundred times, it actually seems to be easy. The very hard part is the solos and the end, which are incredibly difficult to play properly, even after lots of time through them.
The only thing that makes this song easier than some of this top 10 is that the rhythm isn't so complex and it doesn't demand a lot of endurance to get through the song.
The first half isn't too hard. It consists of basic arpeggios and sped-up scales. Unless you haven't played too many things, this shouldn't be a problem.
It's the second half that is truly hard. He speeds up the tempo to a solid 200 bpm, not to mention the aggression Burton played the notes with, which consist of a two-string chord-like fashion played in time with the additional random open chords emphasized by the wah.
He decided to also throw in a bunch of higher note hammer-offs and a few taps here and there. It's one of the harder songs on the bass guitar.
I honestly think that this should be higher up on the list. Yes, the intro sounds difficult (and it is, especially if you play in standard), but the solo section is the real doozie here.
Not because it's insanely fast or makes you stretch over about 5 frets, but because it takes a boatload of endurance to play through it, and it definitely takes 1000 times more than any songs in the top 10.
The songs from 1st to 9th are difficult, but this... If your fingers are not stretched and warmed, you risk tendinitis! YYZ and Anesthesia may be more difficult to remember, but this is much harder than Hysteria (fantastic bass track but not as hard as this!).
Everyone has their own particular techniques that are harder for them, which some other bass players find easy. However, this song is one of the songs that utilize the most techniques bass players bow down to: slap, flamenco, percussive neck slapping, tapping, chords, double stops, and combinations of many of these techniques throughout the song.
I don't believe there is any "hardest song," but in my opinion, this is the hardest of any of the songs listed, with the exception of maybe YYZ. But Aeroplane... Come on, guys, it's just a good bassline, but it is not that hard.
It's not difficult to play it. It's just impossible to do it the same way Chris plays it. A lot of stamina is needed, especially for your right hand, to make a perfectly timed bass line where every 16th note is clear and great.
This is one of the most beautiful riffs, if not the best, made by Chris Wolstenholme.
This song is quite hard, but not enough, I think, to be in this top 10. However, it's not as easy as some of the comments suggest.
The bass line can be difficult to learn for a beginner, and it's difficult to keep it constant in terms of speed and intensity throughout the entire song.
Ever tried to play this song? Don't. It will completely destroy and/or ruin your life. It's funny that half of these songs are by Les Claypool.
Wow! Really amazing how he plays this while singing and moving around. Definitely deserves to be at the top of this list.
Les Claypool makes it look easy, but it is not.
The time signature on this song is arguably what makes it so difficult. Even if you work around the complexity of the main riff and play a simplified version, it is still difficult to control the tone, especially when the riff moves to the 4th string.
Still, it's an incredibly fun song to play, and learning it successfully (for the most part) is truly satisfying. I found a great video on YouTube where a dude breaks the song down so you can learn to play it.
I'm a guitarist, and I can barely play this on my guitar. That means it's hard. It's also one of the most badass songs ever, in my opinion. Chancellor is the best bassist in metal.
A good opening song and a great opening solo to play if you have all the frets. The slap bass during the verse is just flawless!
I listen to this song every day, yet I still don't know how to play it.
Never had to listen to a chorus so many times to get the hang of the bass groove.
Greatest rock bass player of all time playing the greatest bassline and bass solo of all time. There would have been no Burton or Geddy without this!
This is the song that made me want to play bass. The bit where it all goes quiet for a couple of seconds and the bass slowly starts is incredible. There is really no other song quite like it. In my opinion, it is the best instrumental of all time.
It only took me a few hours to learn most of the song (minus the solo), but it's been a while, and I still can't make it sound nearly as clean and great as Cliff does. The solo is the part that gets me every time - those 16th notes.
Y'know, this should really be higher up on the list. I'd like to see somebody who can play Hysteria nail the fills in this song, let alone the bass solo.
The Newcomers
The bass solo should justify this song in #1.
Bass solo within a bass solo?
This is a really fast bass line that is difficult to play constantly accurate and to play 100% the way les claypool plays it.
Recently, I have been learning a lot of Nirvana songs for a tribute set, and this one is by far the trickiest. All those slick slides in the verses give this an amazing vibe.
The slides are hard to pull off, and it is almost impossible to reach the frets required to play. It sounds like an easy song to play when listening, but it will frustrate you when trying to perform. There's a great feeling when you can play this song - one of Novoselic's best works.
A lot of Chris's basslines are really cool. The one from Sappy is great too, and so is the one from Heart-Shaped Box. Definitely a great and underrated bass player.
I gave up playing bass because of this song.
The entire song is insanely fast and is played almost exclusively with your thumb. This is probably the hardest song to learn how to play, and there are so many unique parts to learn.
The beginning is already hard enough with hammer-on triplets, but when the song is also over 3 minutes long, it's just too hard.
How the hell is this NOT #1? YYZ is hard, but the technique to play this song compared to YYZ is miles away in difficulty!
Dear lord, the fact that there isn't a Dream Theater song on the list until 14 (Panic Attack) is insane. John Myung is INSANE. This song is INSANE! This song, on all instruments, is EXTREMELY difficult and requires a tremendous amount of focus, skill, and precision to play.
Learning this song on drums was one thing, but I imagine on every other instrument it's even more difficult to play, and this is no exception. There's a reason why it's considered one of the most difficult pieces of contemporary music to learn and play.
A really quick, off-kilter galloping rhythm that can easily throw off novice players, and it can even give more seasoned players some trouble in the mid-sections.
The bass line doesn't seem so hard, but the ghost notes are really frustrating and make it way more difficult!
I like the bass. I am currently learning it, especially after its attention for "To Be Continued..." I had to do it.
I played this senior year in HS for a senior spotlight show for the music department. It was so tough back then that I ended up just improvising at many parts.
It still sounded great, but only because I took the basics of the song (if there is anything "basic" about it) and used the same style with easier versions of some of the riffs. I can play it pretty well now after a few years of coming back to it now and again, but there are still parts that get me. Claypool is a god.
Very intense bass line. It takes a while to learn, but it is a very fun song to play. The bass runs after the choruses and after the solo are simply genius. Extremely good song.
This honestly needs to be the highest on the list. John Paul Jones is a bass god, but in this song, he channels the pure essence of groove and uses it to lay down a line with swagger unmatched by anything else I've heard, and I've heard a lot.
For a song based around a blues pattern, he keeps the bass line constantly fresh, constantly spicy, and constantly moving around but NEVER overplays! When the band plays, they all leave enough space for each other so that each member can play to the fullest without sacrificing the song for the notes.
As far as any other song even close to this style of playing goes, you don't need to look any further.
A good bass line but hard to get the hang of, especially the fills.
It just sounds really hard too.
That harmonic run-down lick he does is near impossible.
This is one of the most complex and musical songs of all time. I would put Rush, in terms of complexity and musicality, on the same level as Beethoven, Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Vivaldi.
It's not just this song - YYZ, 2112, Xanadu, and Cygnus X-1 Part 1 and 2, etc. Plus, the bass solo in the middle says it all about Geddy Lee, who is without a doubt the greatest bass player of all time.
The greatest bass solo of all time. The greatest bass player of all time. This song is better and harder than most of the songs above it. One thing you have to remember about the list is it's the hardest bass songs, not the coolest bass songs.
There are some really big stretches that require not muting ringing harmonics, and just getting all the harmonics to ring equally is quite difficult. It also changes time signatures, but that's not too bad.
I love this piece, and good luck to anyone trying to play it.
It is quite hard to play harmonics and regular fretted notes at the same time. Not having any drums to follow is also tricky. Definitely gives me an awesome feeling after a lot of practice.
This should be in the top 3. Extreme skill is needed to play this.
One of Flea's best bass lines. It's amazing how he plays from pop and slap to everything else in that song, and his little solo is brilliant.
I don't know if it's me who can't play this bass line, but I think it should be at least in the top 5 since it's harder than most of the songs on this top.
The main problem is that it seems to be random notes played quite fast. It doesn't seem to follow any scale. Jaco is a monster to play this on a fretless bass!
You want to know the secret to making an already difficult song even more difficult? Compose it on a fretless bass, making it even more challenging to play accurately on a standard bass.
"Teen Town" is not unplayable but should definitely be higher on this list. It's a rather intricate line spanning the whole fretboard, played at a rather fast pace. One of Jaco's most memorable lines.