Glenn Allen

Definitely, look at Jamereo Artis' bass line on Bruno Mars' Locked Out of Heaven. Lot's of hammer-ons and very tasteful groove that serves the song perfectly. Kind of reminds me of something Sting would have done during the Police era.

Since some of us have to lay down all the parts for our own songs, I thought I'd share my latest video lesson. hope this helps some of you guitarist-turned bassists. Quite a few of my students are over 50, and their hands have taken some abuse over the years or just aren’t as nimble as they were when they were younger. Some of them aspire to play some dexterity-driven pieces, like Chet Atkin’s “Mister Sandman” and “Maybelle” or even some simpler finger style pieces like The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” and “Blackbird.” These songs have a lot of quick chord changes, some of which require some stamina to play barre chords. Others want to switch from playing guitar to learning the bass, but they lack the hand strength. This exercise has helped my students with small, chubby, and weak hands build hand strength, speed, and stamina:

I'm a big fan of Slam Stewart. (solo starts at 1:47) He is an incredible jazz bass legend who sings his bass solos an octave higher, and he's also quite the entertainer.

All I can say with certainty is that SONAR meets my needs best. Period. Other programs fit other peoples' needs.. I have to say, I STILL fall back on the same Sonar 7 software I've had for years when I'm having issues with PT or I'm between purchased licenses. It's easy yet powerful.

As a student at Berklee and Berkleeonline, and my expereience working in recording studios, having my own home studio, and teaching/selling music production through a national retailer at one point, I've owned and used Sonar, Reason, various versions of Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic (even back when it was still available for use on PC), FL Studio, and even the freebies like Garage Band and Audacity. I will say that I use Pro Tools, and Garage Band more than anything. For quick slap together MIDI controller work, I fire up garage band. That said, I think Logic is great and if I didn't have so much money, gear, and education invested in PT, I'd still be using Logic. It took me a while to see beyond my PT bias, but after taking some training on Cubase, the world's industry standard (but not the industry standard in the US) it appears hands down the best out of the box bang for your buck. Too bad most studios don't use Cubase. That's why I still don't use the free copy I was given by a Steinberg/Yamaha rep.

More than someone to solicit your music, labels are looking to see how big your following is. More often than not, unless they sign you on for a writing/publishing contract where you contractually write songs for their catalog, or you are contracted for artist development, you need to establish yourself and create some of your own buzz. Your best bet is to start generating awareness on YouTube. Create a music video or performance that stands out among the millions. There's quite a bit of information about the pitfalls of pursuing a label as a means to a music career. We go into it in this thread: http://forums.songstuff.com/topic/39074-how-much-money-can-we-musicians-earn-online/

Playpianotoday.com has a great section on blues/boogie woogie that is easy to understand and helped me when I first started learning.

This sounds pretty good considering that you're using Audacity. What you're looking for is a little limiting/compression on the master track. At Berklee I took a course on production where we had several instruments at once and we cut different frequencies out of different instruments to stop them from conflicting and drowning each other out. once we did that, we could mix the volumes of each instrument much more easily. The bass sat much better in the mix without getting too loud. The only criticism I would make is that the hi-hat in your beats could use a little high-frequency dampening. Theirs a lot of upper highs, which is uncomfortable at high volumes. This is tough for most people to notice when mixing, especially if they've listened to too much loud music over their life - the ability to hear the top end of the highs goes first. My dad and I are both drummers, and one thing I've learned from him is to protect your hearing-he never wore ear plugs during gigs. Now when he listens to music, he has to boost the highs on his sound system to an uncomfortable level because he lost most of his hearing in the upper frequencies from years of drumming. Anyway, your music is well balanced and panned, but you should bring your vocals more to the front, you have a unique voice-I really like it. There's a few ways to do this, one way is to boost the 3-5khz frequencies around 3-6 decibels. See if this brings your voice up front in the mix just a little. the other is to cut those same frequencies from your synths by a few decibels.

As a midwesterner who has lived and worked as a musician in NYC, I can attest that you won't get the NYC music scene experience anywhere but NYC. There's nothing like it on so many levels. Buffalo is to NYC as MCDonald's is to Scottish cuisine. That said, it's not for everyone, it's hard and fast-paced. Musically, artfully, stylistically it's bleeding edge and thrives on youth. If you decide to Move there, check out Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's where all the music is happening.

I've always loved the forward and reverse slap solo on Paul Simon's Call Me Al and Flea's Bass solo in the breakdown of Aeroplane.

Good point Tom. Getting heard by a label doesn't equate to sales online either. Back to the original topic, like blogging, writing, painting, or any other content creation, there are taste makers and gatekeepers. Project2wo is onto something, maybe just not the right channel. You can boost your online sales with the right gatekeepers. Again this comes down to networking, and that is done differently online. It's a good idea to send your music to online reviewers and influential blogs that involve your musical style or tastes. Again, a (digital) press kit would be good to have, a website is also important, but don't expect that you can just send off your music and they will rave about you on their next post. Start out by contacting them and adding some value. Perhaps send them a link to a video they might like but haven't seen of an artist they have written about that they enjoy or an interesting cover they haven't heard. Compliment them on something specific that they wrote that influenced you to download the album or about a review that resonated with you on an emotional level, or find another sincere way to show that you know what they do, who they are, and what they are about. Don't ask them for anything the first time you contact them. They are busy, respect their time and keep it brief.

I should say that while we were still in college, Paul was courting the former NKOTB manager/lawyer by setting up a largely promoted gig with an audience made up mostly of friends and showcased his band at their first gig. They had rehearsed frequently for almost a year before finally playing a show, and they were very well polished. Paul eventually got signed by a small division of Sony. They ended up, like so many other young bands, in debt thanks to their advance, initially unable to recoup recording, promotion, and limo/food/hotel/touring expenses,incurred in the UK. The band broke up after the label "shelved" their debut album. When I joined his band, Paul and the Patients, we decided to avoid the labels and just perform like crazy all around Manhattan and build a name for the band. Before I left, we opened up for the RZA, which was weird and exciting. I should note that Paul is hands down the most talented singer and songwriter I know, I'd rate him on a level on par with my favorite famous musicians, which I know is a bold statement. That said, you've probably never heard of him or his bands the Merrickans, Paul and the Patients, Pitty Sing, or Adrienne Drake. I don't say this to deter you or take the wind out of your sails, but simply to make you think about reconsidering what success really means in music. When we're young, we think fame, getting signed, and having our songs on the radio is IT. There's so much more you can do with music, and just because we don't reach fame in our career, it doesn't mean we've failed or we aren't successful.

The simplest answer is that you are barking up the wrong tree. The old model of "getting discovered" or signed by a major label is pretty much dead, statistically improbable, and commonly considered a bad idea. For the sake of discussion, let's say it wasn't. To get your song heard, you can't simply mail a cd to a record label. You have to have a lawyer solicit it for you or know someone at the label who would do you a favor. You would also need a press kit, web presence, and a way to stand out against the flood of other cd's and press kits that the label receives. Furthermore, the label won't be interested in picking you up unless you have already established some notoriety in your market, generated a decent amount of sales from previous album releases, and have a significant mailing list and following. It is also pretty rare to get "discovered" at a gig. Labels don't send talent scouts out to venues to find the latest talent in the way the used to. The web has made this largely unnecessary. Competitions might be a good way to get some exposure, and they will certainly refine your performances over time if you take criticism to heart, but I have friends who have done them and it hasn't done anything for them. These same friends of mine are on indie labels, have their music on MTV shows and dramas like Grey's Anatomy, and a Target commercial, but this all came out of constant gigging, touring, writing, and -more importantly- networking. All of them made friends/got jobs with right people and worked harder than everyone around them. That is how my friend Jenny got to be tour manager of Bjork and Arcade Fire, My friend Noel's drummer is Arcade Fir's touring drummer, my friend Brian has record credits on albums from everyone from DMX to Annie Lennox and was nominated for a Grammy two years in a row, and my friend Paul has his music pre-loaded onto Zune MP3 players and his music videos were featured on MTV2. Paul is the one whose infectously catchy song "Blogspot" was featured in this ad, (which is a pity for me because I left the band - on good terms - to move to California shortly before the song was recorded). So if you're looking for success in the old sense of the word, play often, tour, build a following, make friends with other bands, engineers, etc. and consider moving to a larger market. My friends and I all met in Boston and moved to New York and LA

Thanks Bill, I did end up memorizing the 80 songs in time, but after 3 months of gigs I got dropped when the former bassist decided to come back to both bands (he left for a higher profile/paying band). I guess that's what got me thinking about all of this. After my last show with one of the bands, another musician come up to me and complimented me on my bass solo and some of my bass lines. When the band leader called and told me (lied) that he was shutting both bands down because he wasn't feeling it, I immediately felt my insecurities and doubts creep in. I had no warning, the band was getting tighter, the only feedback I had received from the band leader was to move around more on stage, so I started really using the stage and getting into it. We got along very well, and the other band members had complimented my playing on a few occasions. It came as a shock until a few days after the call I saw on FB that the bands were gigging with the original bassist. The original bassist was also a lead singer (I just sang harmonies) and had established a lot of the connections and booked many of the gigs. Despite knowing this, my mind tends to want to dwell on rejection.

Mike, that was excellent. It's the exact type of advice I give my students, such as utilize Guitar Pro (especially the looped speed trainer), practice in front of as many people (squirrels, birds , etc.) as you can, gain speed by practicing slow, practice with backing tracks, practice when you aren't practicing (I do this all the time), record yourself for yourself. There's not much to add.

So many of these articles talk about the mindset, role, and function of the guitar player, and this is great info. Better yet, If I was just starting to play, I know I would want to see a tutorial on how to create the best bass line for a song (or just how to create bass lines).

Oh, yeah, I also have a single string bass, Its as tall and similar in stature to a snow ski.

I swore I'd never go beyond four strings, I had tried a 5-string, but I didn't like the feeling of having this huge plank of wood in my hands. Then one day, propped against a tree in the middle of summer was a grayish-black Washburn five string. As I drove passed it yelled, "hey! I see you looking at me, I bet you can talk the seller down to 35 bucks." Sold.

Has anyone seen Imogen Heap's midi gloves. I want them yesterday! Also, not as cool as the linnstrument, but still fun is the Tenor-on, here's a flash version that I often find myself getting addicted to: http://tonematrix.audiotool.com/

I used to have a hard time picking out notes on bass, too. I'd try playing along with my favorite songs, but they went by too fast and I knew some of the notes weren't quite right. I have since studied ear training in college and have relative pitch, BUT, more than my ear, I quickly pick songs up in seconds because I understand what makes the bass lines tick. If I hear a fast arpeggio, and I know the song is in G and the bassist is playing an A, I can know with some certainty that the arpeggio I just heard was an A minor, not major. and if I thought I detected another note in the arpeggio, I could try the note "G" because it is the often used 7th note of an A minor scale. When Unwise Bill mentioned "be guided by harmony," this is likely what he was referring to. This comes by understanding what basic notes make up the major, minor, dominant, minor7 arpeggios (and scales) and also learning the major an minor pentatonic (and the blues scale, which is the major/minor pentatonic with the b5 thrown in). when you have these under your fingers and get used to the way they sound, the next step is to learn how the Nashville numbering system works. It's a basic framework that explains how chord progressions work together (understanding a bit of songwriting is helpful too). Let's say you're at the bridge of this song in the key of G. Chances are likely that the bridge uses an E minor. E minor is called the relative minor of G. Every major key has a relative minor, its the 6th musical step of a scale. if you are in a major key and you arrive at a chord change where the 6th step is the root, 99% of the time it will be a minor chord. We refer to this as the vi- chord (the six minor chord). Similarly, at the end of the song, the second to last chord will probably be either a C major or - more likely- a D major or D7. This is because in western music, This is oversimplifying, but essentially I can eliminate a bunch of the notes that probably won't be in the bassline and there are some common patterns that will be used more often than not. You should also know that ear trining is like muscle training, you can fatigue if you're at it for too long in one sitting (you may feel an itching sensation in your inner ear canal or just feel irritable but not be sure why). As Unwise Bill said, take a break. If any of this is confusing, I'd gladly explain it in better detail in a way that is basic and simple and easily applied to the bass.

I think we as musicians expect that we can just put our music out there and expect to get "noticed" or paid, but oftentimes, the people who actually make money have several systems in place and they understand marketing or hire someone who does. It helps to even understand concepts like positioning, how to write good copy, and understand a bit about how people shop for music online (such as more click-throughs equals less completed sales). Also, while its important to have our music available across many channels, we also tend to spread ourselves too thin, frantically trying a little of everything instead of excelling at a few. Topspin has one of the best models for online music marketing I've ever seen. We studied their business model at Berklee College of Music, and it works because it uses the psychology of selling and time tested principles of marketing, just put to use online. The most important lessons I learned from Topspin: your music sales do not make you money. Your songs are bait that you strategically give away to lure people to your site where you offer various price tiers of your albums that include various offers such as signed copies, t-shirts/collectibles, advance ticket sales, and even offers to write a song for top paying customers. Facebook pages, reverb nation, bandcamp, youtube, twitter, myspace, google+, soundcloud, podcasts, blogs, vimeo,, last fm, spotify, all have to work together to bring a customer to your website where you sell. Feunnel everything to ONE place, stop setting up all these unmanageable independent accounts that lack consistency. Your unique persona/personality/point of view expressed in your lyrics, sound, clothes, stage presence, and/or album and website design are your brand and they express your positioning-the space you take up in the mind of a customer/audience member, such as Bowie is an androgynous spaceman or a musical chameleon, Jimmy Buffet is a breezy beach bum, Morissey is a depressed celibate. People connect with and relate to these lifestyles like they do any other product that is symbolic of or aligns with the ideal or image a person has about themselves or how they want to see themselves. Use your positioning to reach your niche, don't try to appeal to everyone. (if pop musicians don't actually appeal to everyone, they have unique positioning within the larger market, just think of the difference between Ke$ha and Taylor Swift, two different target audiences-with a little overlap- with very different messages. That said, there is also publishing, and if you have the skill, home studio -and some connections don't hurt - there is also money to be made there- no touring, no marketing, no performing. just some food for though.

I gave up music for the entire year when my first son was born. I was playing drums in a jazz quartet, and it got to feel like clocking in each Saturday, same venue, same songs, same people, same pay. When I took a paternity leave, I realized I didn't miss gigging, so I quit the band and stopped playing all of my other instruments and only wrote one song that year. My self-identity had been so tied up in being a musician that I needed to know if I could handle life as non-musician. I have to say, it was a great year; I learned to cook, went on a 30 day juice fast, became a yellow belt in Kali/Escrima in under 6 months, and I took up archery lessons. by the time my son turned one, I got the itch to pick up my bass again and decided to take my playing to a new level and I immediately started looking for work that would stretch my comfort level a bit. My first audition was terrible. I was nervous, the band was lifeless and distant as the moon and, although they said I made the cut to the second round of auditions, I never got a call back. Right away that nagging voice in the back of my head started screaming, "give up, you're not good enough, you're parents were right, you should have gotten a job with your sister at her office, you're not in your twenties, you'll never make it as a musician." Even though I wanted to quit, I decided to reply to one more ad for a trio looking for a bassist. A week later I got a call, and unlike the previous band leader, our personalities clicked. Luckily, the band played some of the songs I had already learned for my previous audition so I felt confident. We got together and "jammed" (which is really just an audition but psychologically it takes the pressure off) and I got hired in two of the band leaders bands out of the one jam/audition. The catch was, I had to learn roughly 80 songs in a month (which I did with a similar systematic approach that got me to become a yellow belt in such a short period of time). This isn't the first time in my life where I had to keep going even though I wanted to quit? Does anybody else struggle with that? Do you ever tell yourself things like, " I have been playing for years, but I still can't do (skill/technique/song)?

Back in 2007, I was living in NYC where I played in a band that was like a dark-yet-poppy version of the Yardbirds mixed with the La's. We wanted to get a vintage sound and look for the band so we all bought old instruments. Being a broke ex-college student and musician paying $15k for an apartment on the edge of slums and hipsterville in Brooklyn, I almost sold my Gibson Les Paul Custom to buy a new bass. Almost. I'm so glad I didn't because if I had a dime for every old man in a guitar shop who told me the wish they never sold their vintage guitar, I'd be be infuriating bank tellers with my wheel barrow dime deposits. Luckily I came to my senses and found a 1976 Fender Music Master on e-bay that was going for ~$400. Fortunately, I got more than I paid for; the bass has Bill Lawrence pickups on it instead of the single coil factory pickup. It's a short scale, and you definitely can't slap on it, but the tone is still so warm and round that I usually don't use an amp live, I just go direct because I don't want to color the tone. It's perfect for getting a McCartney-like bass tone on some of my recording projects. Here's what they normally look like without the Bill Lawrence pickup:

Jim and Ravi, you both mention something that used to scare me even though I am a sound engineer. EQ'ing a bass on an amp seemed so mysterious. There's so many dials, what if I mess it up? Worse yet are the bass amps with the multi-band faders. What I've come learn is to first set the EQ knobs to zero, then roll off a little bit of the tone knob on your bass to dull the highs and get rid of some of the extra harmonic and string swipe noise. Then you play the high G or the D string with your right hand in eigth notes while slowly turning the dial on your tmid knob until it kind of "comes alive" and maybe dial it back a hair from there. similarly, sweep through the frequencies of the other knobs while listening to your eighth notes. You may find with the treble knob that you don't want much of it to come through, depending on style, so you can cut it back rather than add it. This depends on how "bright" or new your strings sound. As far as style and tone go, reggae tends to be less treble and more lows, and you can add to this by moving your right hand playing position to the neck area. For fast jazz solos or speedy funk you can move to the bridge position with your right hand to cut through a bit more since these notes sound brighter and the string doesn't vibrate as widely here, making it easier to play fast. I could go on, but I need to rehearse, I have a band audition tomorrow and I'm cramming new songs.

Despite having two kids and a baby, I do gig frequently, I do recording session work, and I play at my church on Sundays. (I practice at night while the kids are sleeping). I work a day job, but I'm a professional multi-instrumentalist, arranger and songwriter. I write all the instrument parts in my songs, not just bass lines. Out of all the instruments I play, drums and bass are my favorites. I LOVE the bass. I started playing drums almost from infancy (my dads a pro drummer) then picked up sax as a kid, started playing guitar at Berklee College of Music (a bold and dumb move), and then focused heavily on learning to play bass like Paul McCartney and James Jamerson (my two bass heroes) after college. It took me a few months to teach myself to play bass at a level where I got paid work. I bombed my first two auditions, it made me rethink my approach when one of the band members told me I played bass like a guitar player. After I got through my initial pity party and stopped crying about it I decided to do something about it and sought out the best bass teacher in town to help me get my playing to the next level and tighten things up a bit. It's a great feeling, years later, to have had people tell me that I don't play bass like a guitarist. I've been teaching bass for about 10 years. (I'm 33 years old) I've attached a song I wrote, performed, recorded and mixed called "Let's Get Away." Let's Get Away.mp3