Here’s a video lesson showing the bass guitar beginner how to play bass to The Ties That Bind by Garry Tallent as featured on The River by Bruce Springsteen:
Part 1
Part 2
The Ties That Bind was originally released in the early 1980s on Bruce Springsteen’s album The River. If you’re into any kind of rock, pop, country etc then this is an album that’s chock full of lessons for bass players – this is the first of a mini-series of videos from The River.
I’ve taught the Intro, the Verse, The Chorus and The Bridge. To play through the entire song what you need to do is play this sequence:
Intro (play intro)
Verse 1 (play verse)
Chorus 1 (play chorus)
Verse 2 (play verse)
Chorus 2 (play chorus + 2 extra bars prior to bridge)
Bridge (play bridge)
Sax Solo (Play verse +2 extra bars prior to verse 3)
Verse 3 (play verse but transposed up by two frets)
Chorus 3 (play chorus but transposed up by two frets – repeat as needed)
I can’t recommend highly enough that you transcribe the sections not transcribed and see the subtle variation of note placement and rhythm that Garry uses throughout this tune (and just about every other tune on The River too).
