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Giants of Bass – Paul McCartney

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'For the Benefit of Mr. McCartney' was written to represent Paul McCartney’s bass work during the latter part of his time with The Beatles. The line features many elements often found in McCartney’s basslines, such as a strong use of chord tones, the use of inversions, and the straight repetition of established parts. The line is also very melodic in places, reflecting McCartney’s tendency to have his basslines act as a sub-hook. This track also features some of the more unusual compositional elements that The Beatles began to experiment with on later albums, such as sudden time signature and tempo changes.

If you enjoy working through this piece, you might also find the following courses useful (Access to ALL of our courses is included in the subscription cost):

Don’t forget to hit the Download Resources button above to get the PDF transcription and the audio files for this piece (available to subscribers only).

This course is 23 MINUTES long and contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:

1. 'For the Benefit of Mr. McCartney'

This video is a full demonstration of 'For the Benefit of Mr. McCartney', performed on a Fender Precision bass strung with flatwound strings.

2. Course Overview

This video gives a brief overview of this difficult piece and the technical challenges that it presents. I’ll also be offering advice on finding a suitable tone.

3. A Section

The intro is supported by a bassline that is built on chord tones and which also includes simple melodic fragments. This lesson covers bars 1-5 in the transcription.

4. B Section

This section has another chord tone-based line, this time one that uses chromatic/walking figures to connect the chords. This lesson covers bars 6-14.

5. C Section

This section includes all of the ingredients that were established in the previous section. This lesson covers bars 15-22 in the transcription.

6. F Section

This section features a sudden jump in tempo and a shift to a new time signature. This lesson covers bars 36-58 in the accompanying transcription.

7. I Section

This short lesson covers the final section of the piece, which reiterates the line that was introduced back at the beginning. This lesson covers bars 72-77.

8. Tone

This lesson covers Paul McCartney's tone and offers advice on how you can achieve something similar.