Paranoid Android

We’ll be breaking down what could be the greatest bass line of Radiohead’s discography. Paranoid Android contains an incredibly melodic bass line in the odd time signature of 7/8. We’ll look at the phrasing of the line and how you can take the rhythms Colin Greenwood uses and put them to good use in your own bass riffs.

To get Colin Greenwoods tone I’m using a Fender Precision with the tone rolled off, keep a pure bass tone with a slightly higher action and you can add a little more bass and low mids. Keep the treble dialled right down as you need a warm, fat tone.

Main Riff

Below is the main riff which appears a number of times throughout the song, we play this four times around. Listen to the original carefully to get into the groove of this riff and play it with attitude!

On the fourth time we have a higher pitched fill which leads us nicely into that tricky 7/8 odd time section.

The Odd Time Section

This part is quite quick under the fingers and is in the odd times signature of 7/8. Don’t worry too much about counting all the time, you will get this if you just try to feel it. Listen to the track plenty so that it’s into your head, then get the notes under your fingers and vibe it.

There’s a little variation on this section you might want to try out as shown below.

Backing Track

Use the backing track below to play along.