Working Bass LinesMr Brightside

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WORKING BASSLINE 49 - MR BRIGHTSIDE by THE KILLERS

This working bass line is for a more contemporary, indie rock kind of a tune.

It’s Mr Brightside by The Killers.

Now before we get started a little note on tuning. The original is in Db - but that was achieved by the guitars (and bass) tuning down a semi-tone. There are sections when these instruments use open strings as part of chord voicings -

so that’s the only logical way to have achieved that.

Because those open string voicings are crucial to the sound of the song - especially for the guitar - most working bands play this in D. And that’s the key that we’re going to teach in.

So be aware that if you’re playing along with the recording, you’ll need to detune your bass a half step - so to Gb, Db, Ab and Eb. There is a bass less backing track on the Issue 232 page - and that’s already tuned to D - so you can play along with that without the necessity to alter your tun-ings.

Ok let’s get started.

There’s a 4 bar guitar intro before the verse starts. The bass rests for the first 4 bars - that’s shown on the Verse 1 score:

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This leads to the Pre-Chorus. That looks like this:

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And as always the Pre-Chorus leads to the Chorus.

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After the first chorus there is an instrumental section that looks like this:

This gives way to Verse 2 - this is similar to Verse 1, but with some varia-tions:

There are only two more sections we need to learn to get through the tune. There’s a second interlude at around the three minute mark where we get to play some chords:

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And finally there’s the outro chorus. That looks like this:

The song format is this:

4 bar intro (no bass)Verse 1Pre ChorusChorus1st Instrumental SectionVerse 2

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Pre ChorusChorus 22nd Interlude/Instrumental SectionOutro Chorus

How To Program The Sections In Band In A Box

1. Set key to D.2. Set tempo to around 140 BPM3. Choose a style for practice. I made a Hybrid Style using the Driving-BritRock Drummer, and a strumming acoustic guitarist real track and an arpeggiated Brit guitar. But for the purpose of learning the drums and the guitar giving the chords would do.4. Mute the bass.

There are only three sections we need to look at programming. Here’s the Verse:

Don’t forget that for Verse 2 you could program some ‘shots’ to mark the section where you stop playing.

The pre-chorus section is another 16 bar pattern and the chords look like this when programmed:

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And finally we need the Chorus:

Now this Chorus Progression is what we use for the two interludes as well AND the outro/chorus section. There is a bass less backing track on the Working Basslines 49 page as well.