Notice
Here are all my thoughts/tips on what goes on in this piece:
Bass setup:
Victor uses a 4-string bass tuned like the 4 highest strings of a 6-string bass (ADGC, or tenor tuning). I used an offset of -12 so the pitches on the staff are the actual concert pitches, rather than an octave higher than what sounds (as in standard bass/guitar notation). This helped reduce many high leger lines or 8va lines that would have been needed. The sound of each string is panned individually on the recording, using a stereo piezo pickup system. The approximate L:R mix of each string is A 50:50 (center), D 40:60, G 75:25, C 25:75.
Slapping:
The entire song is based on slap/pop and tapping techniques, with no normal fingerstyle sections except for the fast run in bar 156. Most of the indicated hammer-ons in the song are part of Open-Hammer-Pluck (OHP) groups (Victor's technique of slapping an open string, hammering a note, and then plucking/popping a higher string). Sometimes the tone of the slapped/open note will be more percussive than most notes, due to being muted with part of the right hand or slapped near the 24th fret so the string frets out; this is usually what happens where I have put an X with a hammer-on to a note afterward. Some of the OHP sections contain "Open-Hammer-Hammer" groups where the 3rd note of the group is a lower note hammered on from nowhere, instead of a higher one being plucked (this first occurs at the ends of bars 12 and 16). Another one of Victor's techniques is popping a note twice in a row with his index and middle fingers. This occurs several times on the C string in bars 109-172. Bars 143 and 155 begin with a simultaneous slap/pop; you can try rotating your hand at the wrist so the thumb comes down at the same time your finger pops the string. The thump slaps aren't very loud on these so focus on the pop and keeping the rhythm/tempo, and if you manage to get any thumb contact at all on the lower string everything should sound pretty close to the original.
Tapping:
When the 2-hand tapping begins at bar 34, I have indicated which notes the right hand taps (using the T symbol); the remaining notes are tapped with the left hand. Bars 34-39 contain some notes on the C string that require the left hand to briefly shift higher than the right hand in order to tap. For the pull-offs to fretted notes, the left hand is already fretting the note before the right hand note is released (rather than tapping the note once the right hand is off the string). The sustaining notes on the high C string in bars 48-59 will require some planning for what finger to tap with, since sometimes there are higher frets tapped on the G string while the C string note is held, but sometimes the G string notes are at the same fret or lower. At bar 64 I stopped using the T symbol, but all notes at the 9th fret and above are tapped with the right hand, and all notes below 9th fret are left hand taps (until bar 109 where the tapping ends and slapping resumes). There are several open notes (other than normal pull-offs from a hammered/tapped note) toward the end of the tapping section; these are sounded by slapping or plucking (pulling off from nowhere) with the left hand. The pulloffs from tapped notes to muted (X) notes occur due to the left hand dampening the string below the tapped notes.
Muted notes/harmonics:
In bars 109-139, there are some muted notes marked as natural harmonics. They don't ring out clearly but you can hear the high pitch of the harmonic, depending on where the string is muted. For example, in bars 109-116, the index finger mutes the strings near the 7th fret, with the "hammer-ons" from open strings causing the first slight harmonic instead of a fretted note. in bars 133-139 there are similar harmonics on a few of the muted C string notes but I haven't indicated these, and they're not as noticeable as the others.
Hammer-ons from nowhere:
In 117-172, some notes are hammer-ons from nowhere with the left hand, while the right hand is slapping/popping notes on the higher strings. When one of these hammered notes occurs at the same time as a higher fretted note, both are really hammered at the same time, but the higher one gets slapped (see bar 118, beats 4 and 5- the left hand would hammer the 8th fret A string and 7th fret G string notes at the same time, then release and hammer both again, but only the higher note gets slapped (with pops on the open C string afterward).
I hope what I've written here will answer any questions about the techniques used in this song.
The End,
Bakerman