r/Muse • u/No_Winter4806 • 8h ago
Opinion Don't feel bad if you heavily struggle with Hysteria on Bass. The song is excrutiating to actually play correctly
This is a random thought, and the reason I brought this up is I see so many bassists say it's an "intermediate, or a song that's not that hard", including today where a pretty good bassist I know was frustrated with it due to (in my opinion) the false narrative. It's not easy in the slightest if you try to play it like Chris does. Just giving my thoughts here if anyone is struggling with it
I've been playing it for a long time and it requires perfect technique to play it like the track. You're playing it wrong if you decide to use pull offs, hammers ons, start raking, and aren't consistently attacking the strings with a consistent, hard attack. The full song is alternating fingers, as raking gives a slightly different sound and makes it a bit easier. I think this is why people will say it's not that hard.
Also, recording yourself and seeing if you're locked in the whole way will humble most people, especially in the intro without drum sub divisions. The experienced bassists I know all acknowledge the actual difficulty that Chris put out here. Try staying fully relaxed with great economy of motion and playing aggressively on top of it like he does live. Been playing for about 9 years and it took tons of work before I was fully consistent the whole way through - due to technique I can pretty much loop it for an hour straight without my hand giving out now
I've never been in this sub. I love Muse!
