*Pump It Up*

V

vbass62

New member
Greetings,

I need the sheet music for E/C's Pump It Up, including (especially) the bass. Any suggestions.

Thanks
 
I've always thought that the bass in that song would be reasonably easy to work out... it's a great piece of bass playing but it's also fairly clear in the mix.

You may find the only way to get that level of detail, which probably won't be in the official sheet music, if there is any, anyway, is to work it out yourself, I'm afraid.

Good luck!
 
vbass62 said:
Greetings,

I need the sheet music for E/C's Pump It Up, including (especially) the bass. Any suggestions.

Thanks
Click to expand...




Yeah, as has been said, no you don't.

It's a GREAT bass part (Bruce Thomas is one of the greatest bass players ever, to be sure), but it's also pretty easy to figure out. The verses are a fairly simple pattern, and the choruses are just an improv around an E major arpeggio.

The only other part is that little "dum dum dum-dum-dum" between parts, which has three notes (B, Bflat, and A). You can absolutely figure it out by ear, and you will have an easier time learning it that way. Plus, its better for you as a musician.


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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I appreciate the encouragement, however I'm tuning up my reading chops (which are
pretty rusty) and thought this was an interesting one to tackle.

Having said that, finding an E/C songbook is turning out to be a chore.
 
vbass62 said:
I appreciate the encouragement, however I'm tuning up my reading chops (which are
pretty rusty) and thought this was an interesting one to tackle.

Having said that, finding an E/C songbook is turning out to be a chore.
Click to expand...
Beware of those songbooks, anyway. They are notorious for being inaccurate.
 
Pump it up is so repetitive that it's not going to be much of a reading exercise. Use it as a ear training exercise, and get something else for the reading. I'd go with some of the old James Jameson bass lines - he always had a lot of that melodic content that Bruce Thomas had, but with a more laid back feel (or, more acuratly, Bruce Thomas tried to get some of the melodic complexity that Jameson had, but with more attitude). Or some of the other Elvis Costello things - there are plenty of places where Bruce Thomas did some amazing bass part. You'll probably have an easier time finding the Jameson stuff, though.

I've always loved Bruce Thomas' parts though. And to think, they almost didn't let him audition because when they asked him who his influences were, he said Steely Dan (and the Ramones, but it was the Dan that freaked out Elvis' managers!)


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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Yeah, he's a great bass player. Too bad he and the rest of the band apparently couldn't get along.
 
Try a youtube search. There's tons of clips of guys playing different parts. Check out the guy doing Entwhistle's bass on The Real Me from Quadrophenia.

:cool:

Doh! The first "Pump It Up" video I found was how to play it in Guitar Hero.

:rolleyes:
 
pohaku said:
Yeah, he's a great bass player. Too bad he and the rest of the band apparently couldn't get along.
Click to expand...


I think it was just him and Elvis, but I could be wrong. The four of them certainly had chemistry, though. GREAT band. And his bass playing is such an important part of all that early Elvis Costello stuff.


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"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Agreed. I'm glad I got a chance to see them when they were still playing well together (Imperial Bedroom tour). Saw them in Des Moines. A friend of mine gave Elvis a bowling ball as a souvenir from his Iowa gig.
 
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