Bass Player: Mike Oldfield

Having presented the bass part for Tubular Bells Part One, it was inevitable that we would have to complete the transcription for Part Two. A much trickier bass line, especially underneath Oldfield’s marvellous Piltdown Man sequence. Essentially pentatonic in nature, the lines are subtley changing throughout the sequence and will catch most readers out if they are seeking accuracy. It is important to aacknowledge that playing things and improvising on the fly is much easier that seeking to achieve accuracy from the written part. Unlike anyone reading this transcription, Oldfield couldn’t get it ‘wrong’ by changing the phrases. It is also important to note that there are several points where the tempo changes significantly from one bar to the next.