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Imagine This

Victor Wooten

Text File

|--------------------------------------|
| "Imagine This" by Victor Wooten      |
| Track #1 from the album "Yin-Yang"   |
|                                      |
| Tabbed by Andrew Ker                 |
| adk@comlab.ox.ac.uk                  |
|                                      | 
| You may distribute this tab as       |
| long as you leave this header intact |
|--------------------------------------|

 Notes:
--------

Okay, here's my first bass tab. I hope you like it. As you might expect, I haven't 
written out all of Victor's variations, but I've tried to give some pointers as to 
how they go. If you find mistakes or want to write out one of the difficult 
variations, please contact me by email! [adk@comlab.ox.ac.uk]

There's also the slight problem that the album track has 2 bass tracks! I've tabbed
out the interesting line.

This piece is written for fretless bass, I guess a 5-string. I've tabbed it for 
4-string in *Drop D Tuning* (i.e. DADG from bottom up) since that covers (very nearly) 
all the notes and fits okay under the fingers.

Finally, I have to say that ascii tab suffers from not being able to give the note
timings properly. I've just written 1,2,3,4 above the bars and you'll have to listen
to the song yourself to get them exact. The piece sounds much better played in perfect
time than slightly wrong! Of course, you'll also have to work out which order the 
various sections of the song are played in too.


 The Music: 
------------

Key: x      = ghost note
     \ or / = slide
     (7)    = quiet note, or optional note added in variations
         = harmonic

Introduction. Starts with open bottom D string, and play some harmonics if 
you like, then:

(Slowly, with vibrato)
G-----------------------------------------------
D--------------------/9----7-5------------------
A-5----7--9---7-5-7--------------9-7-5----------
D-----------------------------------------(7)---



Main riff. Comes lots of times. Initially keep the notes short.

 1  2   3   4     1  2   3   4      1  2   3   4     1  2   3   4       
G----------------|-----------------|----------------|---------------|
D----------------|-----------------|----------------|---------------|
A-------2--------|----------------5|-------2--------|---------------|
D---4-4-----2---7|---0-0-5---7-----|---4-4-----2---7|---0-0-5-5--2-0|

As the song progresses the notes tend to get longer and more legato.
Also the riff gains some variations e.g.

Timing similar to above
G----------------------|---------------(7)|----------------|--------------------|
D----------------------|------------------|----------------|--------------------|
A---------2-2----------|---------------5-5|------2-2-------|---------------(5)--|
D--(0)4-4-----2---7(7)7|--x4-4-5-5-7------|--4-4------2---7|--4-4-5-5x4-2-0--(0)|

The last bar especially can be all sorts of random notes as long as they end on 
a bottom D. It's surprising what you can get away with.



Other riff. This happens 3 times. The ending of the main riff is slightly modified,
e.g.

   1 2  3   4    1 2   3  4
G-|-------------|------------|
D-|-------------|------------|
A-|-----2-------|------------|
D-|--4-4----2--7|--4---5--7--|

And then (long notes):
  
  1 2 3 4   1 2 3  4    1 2 3 4    1 2 3  4   1  2  3  4  1  2 3  4 
G----------|-----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------|
D----------|-----------|----------|----------|-----------|------------|
A-2---4---5|----7--5---|---------2|----------|-----------|-----3--4--5|
D----------|----------5|----7-----|----2--4--|-5----6--2-|-7----------|

The third time it is more interesting, e.g.

  1 2 3 4    1 2   3  4     1 2     3 4    1 2 3  4   1  2  3  4  1  2 3  4 
G-----------|--------------|--------------|----------|-----------|------------|
D-----------|-----45-4-----|--------------|----------|-----------|------------|
A-2---4-/7-5|---57----7-5--|-------------2|----------|-----------|-----3--4--5|
D-----------|-------------5|---5-x5-7-2---|----2--4--|-5----6--2-|-7----------|



Middle, calmer, section (happens after the other riff plays for the third time):
(Note: This is the bassline. The other bass track plays a virtuosic melody 
improvisation. I can't write that sort of stuff down!). You can work out the timings
yourself.

G----------------------------------------------------3---------------------
D--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A-------------2----------------3--3-1--------------1----2---3---6-7-8------
D-0---5---4--------5---2---0-------3---2---4---3---------------------------



Followed by a main riff in F rather than D:

Timings as before
G-----------------|---------------|---------------|----------------|
D-----------------|--------------3|---------------|----------------|
A------5-------3x3|------1---3----|------5-------3|----------------|
D-x7-7----x5------|--3-3----------|--7-7-----5----|--7-7-88887-5--3|

and again, going back to D (more funky than this in fact):

G-----------------|---------------|---------------|----------------|
D-----------------|--------------3|---------------|----------------|
A------5-------3x3|------1---3----|------5-------3|----------------|
D-x7-7----x5------|--3-3----------|--7-7-----5----|--7-7-5-5-4-2--0|




Finish with a few jazzed-up repetitions of the main riff in the original key,
replacing the last bar of the last repetition by:

 1   2    3    4   1  2  ....  last few harmonics     
G-------------------------------------------------
D-9-7--------------------------------
A----10975-4-7------------------------------------
D--------------7--5--4--0-------------------------

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Imagine This

Victor Wooten