ChamberOfHorrorsBassTranscription

DISCLAIMER: None of this is owned by me, rights and money and kudos to all original artistes.

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Apologies if audio isn't the best.

From Rick's best album of the classic years, and a testament to his creative energy and discipline at that time, Chamber of Horrors benefits, compositionally, from one rather haunting Em theme that is developed and varied by the simple method of playing it at different speeds.

I did think this was on a fretless, but the magnificent Miguel Falcão has assured me it's the Rick!

The trill at bar 3 (00:08) stays only between the C♯ and the D (and subsequently at bar 8 with the F♯ and G)

Bar 85 (02:14) and its repeat at bar 92 (02:28) is hard to play – Chris is in 3/4 while Rick and the drums are in 5/4 – but also quite hard to hear: the note values are full, and there's quite a lot of fuzz

The accents at 117 (03:08) are there because Chris is twanging those strings hard

Bars 170-174 (04:32) are marked “overdriving,” which is a result, I think, of a lot of sustain mixed with very high notes so that, with the fuzz, everything starts peaking way into the red. Obviously with the rather dramatic flavour of the section it was felt fine to leave it in rather than do another take and clean it up. Something of the fuzz/overdrive remains for a bit afterwards from bar 175, so I guess it's a single take.

Bar 205 onwards (05:27) – not entirely sure how this is being done, and the small lower notes might be a pedal. The A would be easy to do on an open string, but I don't see how the low G would be played under the higher notes unless those notes were being fretted with the right hand – not impossible, of course, Chris did it on Circus of Heaven – but it's still a puzzler.

That cautionary G natural in 217 (05:45) is there because Rick's playing a G♯ - and, honestly, you hear this “but I'm in D major now” classically-bound thinking so much in Yes that I'm going to write a ******* essay about it some day.

Bar 246 and 248 (06:28) – I decided to score those trills since the timing's so on point.