Have you ever sat and listened to the bass riff in MGMT’s Electric Feel? I don’t think I ever realised, really, how integral to the song that little refrain is; the entire track is based around it! Ignore those hateful lyrics (hey, they’re a joke band, it’s fine), drink in those festival vibes, and let that bass sink into you… you feel it? Electric Feel is all about bass, I think. Why have I never learned to play that riff before? Well, I guess I’d never had someone show me how.
Not until I was browsing the catalogues available at launch on Rocksmith+ and saw it there, nestled amongst things like Snarky Puppy’s excellent jam-rock meanderer, ‘Shofukan’, and The Eurhythmics’ seminal ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’. I was alive in the 00s, I’ve definitely been in some shit Midlands club singing along to Electric Feel – why not plug in my bass, and give it a go.
Turns out, that riff is one of the most fun-to-play things I’ve committed to since picking up my bass guitar at the start of the year. I’ve only been playing the bass for nine months now, and whilst there are some transferable skills from my 17 years of guitar playing, there’s also a lot of new stuff to digest. Rocksmith+ not only gives me a fun new song to play – all mapped out, delicious, and easy-to-read with a genuinely intuitive UI – but it also identifies areas I might be struggling with and ushes me towards improving.
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