3 Reasons This Bon Jovi Bass Line Kicks Ass (+Full Song Tab)
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2020
- 👉 My full beginner bass course: yeah.bassbuzz.com/bonjovi
It’s not just about the big 80’s perms - the bass line to Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer” is full of tasty riffs and runs.
Livin On A Prayer Bass Tab + Sheet Music: www.noteflight.com/scores/vie...
“Livin’ On A Prayer” came out on Bon Jovi’s 1986 “Slippery When Wet” album - I’m assuming the album title referred to his huge 80’s permed hair?
This bass line was officially credited on the album to Alec John Such... but there’s a contingent of people who believe it may have actually been Hugh MacDonald, who is the band’s current bass player and played on many of Bon Jovi’s records.
Either way, it’s a killer bass line, and breaking it down might help you level up your bass playing.
The first reason this bass line is awesome is that distinctive riff that the bass starts with early in the song. It uses “pedal point” with the other instruments to create tension and release that grabs the listener. I’ll explain what pedal point is, how it works in this song, and what it would sound like without the pedal point.
Then we’ll go through some of the best bass runs (aka bass fills) in the song, and break down what makes them great. We’ll pay extra attention to the big run in the chorus where the bassist plays “over the bar line,” which is a really useful tool for making your rhythmic choices more interesting when playing fills.
Last we’ll talk structure - how the bass line follows the climbing intensity to best support the song, and how you can apply that to your own bass lines. But you’ll have to do it tastefully, otherwise you’ll sound like me in the outro.
Want more bass line breakdowns? Subscribe here, then leave a comment and tell me which song you’d like to see next - yeah.bassbuzz.com/subscribe
#bonjovi #livinonaprayer
Want to see more bass line breakdowns? Thumbs up 👍 this comment, and let me know what song you want to see next in a comment below.
Timestamps for this lesson:
0:56 - Pedal Point Riff
2:30 - Melodic Runs
4:11 - Playing Over the Bar Line
6:33 - Solid Structure / Following Song Intensity
Heart of the sunrise by yes
The Real Me by The Who
Any Jack Bruce bass line. Say White Room, or Badge maybe. Oh, and James Jamerson. Bernadette.
Please do Rio by Duran Duran. Would love to see a lesson on how to play all those ghost notes.
Longview by Green Day plz
I love how Josh gets fired at the end for playing the way that 99% of bassists on UA-cam play. It's what makes Josh a real bass teacher.
Ha! Yeah, UA-cam has never fired anyone for overplaying.
yeah I remember Flea once said that the fundamental use of bass in a band is to make the higher frequency instruments stand out, unlike youtube videos where so many bassists overplay too much
@@spud0.o Flea should take his own advice!
@@BassBuzz hey man are those your personal basses that you use for your demonstrations? I see you're using a Fender Squire Jazz in this video but I've seen you use a Black Fender P bass when you were talking about Steve Harris. You a Fender fan?
@@Headbanger9000 Fender are pretty reliable for basses, and easily accessible because of how big Fender is as a company. It's no surprise that a bass teacher would own more than one Fender bass.
Five reasons why John Paul Jones is a rock n roll bass legend
I second that for sure.
All of Zeppelin were amazing musicians, but John Paul Jones is in another level.
@@Symphonicrockfran Controversial, but I think, he's the best musician in Zepellin
@@sandipbiswas766 was the one with tge most musical experience prior to the band and the busiest afterwards
JPJ is an amazing musician without a doubt, but Bonham and Page are certainly not slouches.
Josh: Actual Bass lessons
Other Bass UA-camrs: WE MUST DEFEND THE BASS AGAINST TWOSET VIOLIN AND DRAGONFORCE
This is the most technical living on a prayer tutorial ive seen. F*ing awesome!
Man Josh, you are putting so much effort in making this videos and visualizising it. Many thanks, you have for me the best accessable bass tutorials in YT.
Thanks Robert!
Josh is the best UA-camr because the energy in his thumbnails matches his energy in the videos
Josh, showing multiple variations of the idea you are presenting against the original bass part is super effective. Often when learning a song one (uh, me) often gets trapped in the desire to learn the song exactly, note for note, the same as the original. Sometimes that is necessary (eg, unison playing, or signature licks that everyone is familiar with). But hearing different variations drives home the point that the original isn't the Platonic version of the song, and any of those other variations would have worked equally well. Kudos.
This. I guess I did the same at first, but nowadays I let myself replace this or that note just to 'see' and explore variations.
When I'm learning songs for my cover band I like to listen to love recordings to get an idea of what the artist is doing now. Usually it gives you some killer ideas to get away from that original recording.
Man, I've been saying this for years. Such an underrated bass part and it's amazing.
Got my bass in January and have been subbed to you since February. You have helped me immensely and I wouldn't be nearly at the level of playing I am now without these videos and your help. Planning on starting the beginner to badass course as soon as I get my next paycheck. Keep up the great work and thanks.
Glad I could help!
It is definitely Hugh. I've known him a long time. It's on the wiki page for the song as well. Great bass player.
You mean bass player?
Yeah you're right
@The Prophet he done nothing in studio he even was not there for the recording process
Great bass line, really fun to play along with the song. You should do a video of John Taylor of Duran Duran. People don't believe me when I tell them I'm big fan of Duran Duran because I'm a metalhead but I think their songs are great and thanks in big part to the bass lines.
I second this! Would love to see you do a lesson on Rio by Duran Duran. Fab song played by a great bassist.
Seconded. I'm mostly a metal guy but Rio was the first "hard" song I learned to play. Sting would be another great one for a beginner/intermediate video. Most of his stuff is pretty easy to play, but it's not "straight 8ths on the root" boring, standard rock stuff. Very rhythmically and harmonically creative without being too technically difficult.
Absolutely this. My goal the first year I was learning bass was to play Rio. Needless to say, I didn't make it, but I learned A TON practicing that bass line
He does a break down of their music on his youtube channel. A view to a kill is one of the reasons I wanted to learn the bass that plus John Cooper from Skillet is my Guitar hero.
john taylor is very underated and one of the best bass players ever. Girls on film (the night version which is the only good version) is what got me into bass. When i first heard it on one of my dad's old cassette tapes thats what made me switch from guitar to bass. He's got to have some black in him because john taylor has a little funk in him
I just recently learned how to play this and have been telling everyone how mad the bass line is. Thanks for confirming my thoughts about it. Keep up the rad vids dude 🤘
Thanks man! Didn't think I'd listen to a lot of bon jovi today! Thanks for the cool tips and the awsome walk around!
Such an iconic bassline. As a kid, it got stuck in my brain more then any of the other instruments in that song.
Great video! Pls don't change your Awesome video formats. They are straight to the point and funny. Some of the bigger UA-cam bass channels are more like bloggers, with lots of useless filling.
You're an excellent teacher. Like so many, I chose to play guitar when I was young, but I've come to respect how important bass is to songs and how interesting it can be - partly because of teachers like you and Rick Beato.
I am interested in more of these sorts of breakdown. I remember trying to play this song back when it was new, and it was way over my head, so I just stripped it down to a super simple version. With your help, I'll try tackling it again the right way. Thanks Josh!
You're welcome!
Please do more videos about metal bass/bassists!
The entire album was incredible. Thanks Josh...love your lessons and antics. I practice until I can no longer move my fingers...hope to play as well as you do one day!
IM a drummer, been playing drums for 32 years now, but I always liked the bass guitar, so i bought one 3 years ago,,,, and thanks to your videos I ve learned and improved a lot on my bass playing, in fact I play bass for 1 hour every day , and well thank u for your tips on bass,, you make it look both simple and funny, to play....
Good video Josh. I like the way you broke it down to understandable points, and showed alternatives.
Thanks Judi!
The Cure - Lovecats, would be fascinating to see you cover this. Fun bass line and also how to get more of an upright bass sound on a regular electric bass.
Agreed, Simon Gallup has a fairly large library of memorable bass lines and 'Lovecats' is one of them.
Yes! So many good Cure bass lines! Fascination Street, In Between Days, Prayers for rain and so on...
@@bluestormdragon gallup DID NOT play in Lovecats...
@@lucianogoyenechea8704 I just checked and it was Phil Thornalley that played the double bass on the Lovecats. I never thought about it, but it makes sense now that you mention it. thanks for the heads up.
Josh your the best! Not to mention talented! Love your vids you make it fun for us 64 yr. Old children learning to pluck some notes! To late to ever be great but hey being able to play some tuneage is already worth it! Thanks for what you do.🤟🏻🎼
Doing the same thing at 65. Have plenty of time to play now!!
Thank you Josh, you give love a bass name!
:P
You deserve a lot more subs! Your vids have helped me a lot keep it up
Thanks Linus!
What an awesome analysis. I always loved this bass line. It's great to learn why it is so great but also to have the examples of how it would sound if it was done differently.
The pedal point intro was actually guitarist and co-writer Richie Sambora's idea. He was hungover on the day they wrote that song and he didn't want to rock up to the writing session (with cowriters Jon Bon Jovi and Desmond Child) with nothing, so he quickly sat at the piano and played Em with the C and D over the top of it, and thought it should be something to do with a prayer.
Hugh MacDonald was definitely the one who came up with the bass line (and the bass lines on all of the albums from Slippery When Wet onwards). Alec John Such only played live. Hugh said in an interview that the original bass line sounded a bit like the Four Tops, which is pretty much what happened when you did the intro without the pedal point so it's interesting to hear how it evolved.
I Love the "STFU Billy Sheenan!" noodling ending! LOL
Great channel 🤘your video layout is well done! Thx for the info🔥🎸
Hey Josh, still here watching from the wings. I've been " living on a prayer" for far too long. Love the videos, still trying to find my way around the bass. Thanks for your insights, and tips always useful. Stay safe, and take care.
Thanks James!
I laughed out loud. In a good way. I don't generally laugh out loud. And generally not when I'm learning stuff.
Your videos are truly informative. I never came upon something like this when i was playing bass and, altough i mainly play guitar these days, they always make want to pick up the bass again.
Thanks Felipe!
I love how fun Josh is in his lessons and teachings
Hello, as a beginner bassist, I would like to thank you for all your videos/tips and especially for sharing with us good tablatures! You're the best! 👍
Thank you!
Nicely done Josh, thank you!
This is excellent! You Sir, are "playing over the bar"!!!
Haha, thank you!
Awesome, thank you josh for this break down. You are the man!
Thanks Rick!
I loved your last riff at the end. I played it 3 or 4 times. I couldn't stop laughing.
Excellent video ... and love the transcription in musical notation!
I think this is the best video you've made so far.
Thanks Mike!
So thankful for your lessons, so much fun and inspiration
Thank you!
BassBuzz thank you for your hard work!
thnx for again these easy ways to learn and get known with the music and the bass
Great video! Really enjoy the breakdown and theory behind the bass line. Definitely anything by John Paul Jones, Duff, RATM etc
the "hald way there" part was amazing haha love it
Love your content and I don't even have a bass... Keep up the good work!!
This makes me love this song better
Not a bass player (yet) but my favourite part of this tune has been the chorus bass line since I first heard it 30 odd years ago.
good video Josh , Ive lost dexterity in my plucking fingers so now I use a pick and it aint half bad my friend
stay safe , stay healthy God Bless
Love it! Great bass line, indeed.
Thanks Josh. Excellent as usual. I really liked you aknowledged Rick Beato. He's an amazing musician and his videos are great.
BTW, how many hours a day you play?
Really great. Been wanting to learn this song.
Bass line to War Pigs by Black Sabbath is what got me into bass, (Geezer Butler in general is what got me into bass).
A break down to the bass line of that song would be amazing!
Geezer is awesome!
How this amazing channel dont have 1 million yet?
Your soo dope my man! I love your content 🔥🔥
Thanks Spencer!
you rock my guy love your vids, thinking of going from begginner to badass soon :D
Thanks Marc!
You should do more episodes about playing with a pick, there are so many nuances to playing with pick
Yeah such a great bass line!!
Josh keep up the great content. I am a total noob You are helping me learn soo much.
Thanks Dave!
This may be the most well crafted UA-cam video I’ve ever watched! Curious how much time it took him, lol!!
Reasons why Cliff Williams of AC/DC is such a great and underrated bass player is a suggestion. BTW, I love your videos, they're so dope
GREAT BASS PLAYER!
@@MarceloSilva-bs7nu one of the best IMO and my favourite
@@DannyBoi2112 Alec John Such is a underrated bass player too, like this a Bill Wyman from Rolling Stones.
@@DannyBoi2112 Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy, Pete Agnew from Nazareth, Francis Bucholz from Scorpions.
You get in an amazing session musician, of course it’s going to be a great bass line 👍 😊
Another informative video, awesome.
Thanks Rafael!
Great video, thanks for sharing. keep on publishing.
Thanks Murat!
I
Awesome video! Thanks for the Tab too!
You're welcome David!
I always thought this bass line was heavily underrated, as it's a fucking masterpiece. So glad to see some love for it, great work!
Thanks Juan!
You are awesome.. Rick Beato is Awesome... This song.. Awesome..
Thanks Jason! You are awesome!
It's 100% Alec John Such on the bass for this track. I think Hugh started coming in around the Keep the Faith or Crossroads albums.
Crazy how the person that played bass on this massive hit could be uncertain!
It was Alec!! Case closed!!
@@rick33ful but it actually wasn't though
@@bretflash True, Jon did not like the song at first and Richie re-worked the bassline and added the talk box guitar parts. What Alec recorded was did not make it to the album.
@@jimferry4751 it's Hugh playing on the album version.
@@bretflash Yes I agree. The album version was Hugh playing. I was just stating that Alec did lay down his bass line that was replaced with Hugh on the album.
That was excellent
Another great video, Josh! Thanks.
For whatever it’s worth, I’m pretty sure Hugh McDonald was indeed the bassist on this track. Alec John Such was either absent that day or two that Bon Jovi recorded it or was asked to step aside because it is not such an easy bass part to nail. AJS is shown playing it in the official music video and that's probably why many people assume it is him playing on the recording. These kinds of switcheroos happen every now and then.
WTF?
4:29 that's a sixth sense or what Josh? great video, I am also a big fan of how Rick Beato explains music :D
Great video, funny and easy to understand!
Thanks Francisco!
Definitely need a video in this style on Roundabout
Oh sure, a professional plays a straight scale, he’s cool and gets to call it a bass run. I play it and I’m compared to bass bot! Lol, I’m kidding obviously. Thanks for the info and introducing new terms for me to learn
Haha, fair point. BassBot gives those runs two robothumbs up. 🤖
You rock!!!! Thanks a lot! Awesome!!!
Thanks Hector!
That's the time when I forget "prayer" has just one syllable, and I just keep saying "pray-er" the whole time!🤣🤣
Stop being FUNNY, I hate to laugh and learn a lot about theory and have a good time watching/listening to you all at once. You nerd person. The ultimate over-the-top fill at the end killed me :D More, MOAR.
🤓
we are ... "half way theeeeere" omg so good. :D
This is the first song i can play on my bass without needing tabs or thinking which part i'm at. So Fun to play! My neighbours probably beg the differ
Voy a estudiar el ta compa. Se ve interesante. 🎸 Excelente canal 🤝🏼🙂
Lol. Omg, the ending! Like Kim Deal said: "We bassists want to 'contribute' to the song", don't we? XD
Can believe a dude with a goatee is one of my favorite UA-camrs
The goatee works in mysterious ways.
best content on youtube
Thanks Niv!
I was pleasantly surprised when I started specifically listening to bon jovi's basslines
Hugh played all the bass in studio since 1982 Alec played on only one album 7800
Yeah, sex is good and all, but did you ever watch a BassBuzz video?
And did you notice at 4:29 that the text is hidden by the bass as if it was really floating behind Josh instead of being slapped on the screen while editing the video?
Damn, this is top notch contents, guys.
You are amazing.
Haha, thanks Edoardo!
This was the first 'real' song bass line I ever learned.
I thought I was amazing.
It's real and is amazing, and so are you!
Love the thumbnail
Awessome vídeo Josh, next time can you do a Geddy Lee/Rush vídeo, like you did with: Steve Harris and flea?
Awesome video do more like this! Sweet child o mine bass breakdown?
I’m also getting my own bass guitar today
This has been an awesome video. Can you please do Carry On (My wayward son)? That song is amazing on bass!
Good idea, that song is amazing.
I wish you could do a video on the bass on old Journey songs like don't stop believing. I love that cool tone and would love to know how it's achieved. It almost sounds like a fretless but is tight also. Thanks
So, I was thumbing through the comments on this video and found your comment, and figured this may be helpful: I play in a Journey tribute band, and have always LOVED the bass tone on the Escape album, but never could quite achieve it the way I wanted to with my J-bass. After a bit of research, I found out Ross Vallory was playing an Ovation Magnum 1 around that time. I decided to buy one (It's a vintage instrument, and there aren't many out there in good shape. But, as Providence would have it, I was actually able to pick a decent one up in the state I live in!) and have found that it is ABSOLUTELY the secret to the bass tone (along with a heavy chorus effect) on Don't Stop Believin', as well as many others like Who's Cryin' Now on the Escape album. I hope this helps. Happy playing!
@@levigoodwin3522 Awesome! Thanks a bunch! Those songs wouldn't be half as good without those thick but liquidy basslines! I'll definitely look up the Magnum 1. Chorus is one of my favorite effects for bass, but I find that sometimes a phaser can be great too! Keep on rocking and... er... don't stop believing?... Haha Cheers man!
My theory knowledge is almost non existent, but I do notice things that I don't know the names for, like pedal point. I love the tension.
The bass part was definitely Hugh. He actually played a "very similar" (cough) bass fill in a Belinda Carlisle song he recorded. 😎
ua-cam.com/video/NOGEyBeoBGM/v-deo.html
Haha, wow, interesting Lee! Very very similar in that spot in the chorus.
@@BassBuzz, Yup. I'm thinking that's a line Hugh has used a time or six. It works
ok ngl his line at 8:37 is actually kinda cool
I knew what tune this was before clicking.
I have of course always loved this song, For All kinds of reasons and I'm not even a musician- This is brilliant because it gives me solid musical argument points when I'm told "Bon Jovi is crap pop rock"…And I got a say the, erm, "armography" For the intro at 6:59 is hilarious!
According to Wikipedia, Hugh was the bass player on LOAP, but he was uncredited.
Great video ...Livin on a Prayer is one of my favourite songs. I'd love it if you could do a video on how to play the bass Tab for Shining of your Soul by Scorpions please.