What Kinda Bass Player Are You?

[Ravi Nair]

Do you regularly play gigs?

Do you session frequently?

Do you just add bass lines to your song?

Did you just pick it from somewhere and started playing?

Did you just buy your bass and starting to learn?

Do you play at all?

 

Let me know and we can have some topics flowing..

 

Cheers!

[Just1L]

I'd say I'm a not very good but getting better bass player. I've played multiple instruments (drums, guitar, piano, dulcimer) but the only thing I'd consider myself good at is the guitar. And even that's iffy at times. I'd never really considered playing bass until about a year and a half ago when I decided to go out and buy one to use for my recordings. All total, I've probably spent less than 15 hours total playing bass. I played it for about 30 minutes when I brought it home and then went straight to recording with it, figuring out the bass part as I go.

 

It was a great experience the first time I recorded and figured out a bass line and then played it along with the song. Just as fun as playing the guitar but different. Even though I've played the drums it wasn't until I played the bass that I realized that I truly appreciate and enjoy the rhythm in songs. I never knew how much I'd dig getting into that groove and carrying the song along. 

 

So while I'm not that good and still learning, I can accept that. My main problem with the bass comes when I'm trying to EQ and get it to sound good in the mix. I have one song where I'm relatively happy with the bass, and 3 or 4 that are just a horrible mess. Could be my equipment. I'm pretty frugal and didn't really have money to spend to begin with so I got a used one for 100 bucks. I'm at work now so I'm not sure but it's something that starts with an "A". Active? Auster? Something like that. I wish I had more time to play it but I currently get very little time to do any kind of music playing. I go weeks at a time without even picking up an instrument.

 

Anywho, I've joined this forum because while I probably won't be able to contribute much to it, there's probably no better place for me to get some good tips, advice and answers to any questions I may have. Thanks.

 

Randy

Edited June 4, 2014 by Just1L

[Jim622]

I originally got a bass to add bass lines to my songs. I then found that bass is extremely challenging. Guitarist (I) seem to over play. I do not play out, I am 50, I pretty much play to stay sane. Family and work leave no time for a band practice or for the last year or so even recording. I am currently using two books/cds to learn a little. One is Bass Arobics by Jon Liebman and The Versatile Bassist by Dave Averthrow. Both have improved my bass playing immensely.

 

I'm pretty much here for the same reasons as Randy. I plan to be a sponge and hopefully learn a little.

 

Jim

Edited June 4, 2014 by Jim622

[Ravi Nair]

Firstly thanks a lot for sharing .

Its good to know that all you guys've played other intruments. So picking up the bass and getting along wouldnt've been too hard. 

 

Yeah its certainly true that after you start playing the bass, you start digging it. Feeling the rhythm makes it easier to enjoy a song or a groove even more

 

 

My main problem with the bass comes when I'm trying to EQ and get it to sound good in the mix. I have one song where I'm relatively happy with the bass, and 3 or 4 that are just a horrible mess. 

 

I always feel EQuing the Bass to sound good in the mix is a pain, maybe because im not a good sound engineer. The tonal variety makes it even harder. But last night while recording a demo, i took my bandmate's GR55 and ran the signal through a Bass Amp. I was pretty impressed and loved the tone I got. It stood out really well and didnt need any EQuing at all. I think it has also got to do with the kind of bass you have, some of the expensive or custom made basses have a kind of tone that is so standard that EQuing sometimes screws up the tone. I dont have any tricks up my sleeve to help you EQ the bass, i like to go by ear, and I keep trying combinations to get something I like.

 

I've heard of Aria, Ashton and Ashbory. Is it any of these?

 

I am currently using two books/cds to learn a little. One is Bass Arobics by Jon Liebman and The Versatile Bassist by Dave Averthrow. Both have improved my bass playing immensely.

 

Jim, I havent read these books, i'll check em out.

 

 

Hope you guys get some time to play sometime soon  . All the best!!

[Glenn Allen]

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

[Glenn Allen]

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.

[john]

I am a guitarist who over years picked up some bass techniques, and developed them a bit by working out bass riffs to my songs.

I play finger style, rather than with a pick. There are loads of styles I would like to learn at some point. Ideally somewhere between fundamental technique and tricks would be good from a learning perspective.

I tend to think melodically and harmonically on a bass, but I need to further develop the rhythmic aspects of my toolkit.

[Ravi Nair]

I do gig frequently, I do recording session work, and I play at my church on Sundays. 

 

I work a day job, but I'm a professional multi-instrumentalist, arranger and songwriter. 

 

You got a day job and you get to do everything else as a bass player and a musician. After everything you practice at night too..?  I salute the amount of dedication you have. How do you do it?  

The song is nice man. I Liked the clarity of every individual instrument in the mix. Pretty Clean.

 

While EQuing the bass in a mix is still is time taking task for me, I feel that EQuing the Bass on an amp becomes easier if you regularly get the same amp at your gigs or if you carry your own amp. Mainly beacuse it takes a lot of experience to shape the tone the way you want it, keeping in mind the disastrous effects of bad acoustics and the way tone changes at the places you play at. If you've used a same amp over and over again, you get used to setting it up tonally. But to sum it up, the key is "THE EAR". Not that there are no tricks out there.

 

I hope your band audition went well. All the best man!

 

 

There are loads of styles I would like to learn at some point. Ideally somewhere between fundamental technique and tricks would be good from a learning perspective.

I tend to think melodically and harmonically on a bass, but I need to further develop the rhythmic aspects of my toolkit.

 

That's nice john. Styles would be really easy to learn if you can get the basics/fundamentals right. Since there is no specific beginner technique, you can let your fingers tell, what your technique is. And one way to get that is by playing the bass over and over again and trying to enjoy while you are at it.

 

Its good that you can think melodically and harmonically, rhythm comes naturally i guess. The key again is to keep playing the bass. All the techniques/theories/tricks/ideas/styles can be learnt watching a video on YouTube, but applying them in a live/jam scenario takes atleast some amount of practice.

 

Whatever rhythmic ideas I normally have or get are a result of experimentation over the influences I have plus the stuff i've learnt or heard from somewhere. Then again when you keep playing, some sort of magic happens, there are unexpected variations of rhythms that just show up. Hope that is helpful.

[wilmot]

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really much of a bass player.

 

I'm a hobbyist musician and I bought a couple of basses (one with frets, one without) about a year ago for adding bass lines to my own tracks. Sadly, I've had neither time nor patience enough to practice enough to start getting any good. What little I know, I've just taught myself since getting the instruments.

 

I've only used my own bass on one of my own tracks yet. I've posted that below. My playing is not very good - In part since I'd only had the bass a couple of months when I recorded that. I've since been able to hook up with a great bass player, so that I don't have to play myself. Hopefully I'll get to do some more projects with him. 

 

I love a good bass line in a song, but I can't see myself reaching a standard that I'm happy with, so working with others is probably my best option. That said, I recently got to play bass on a friend's track - A very simple, new wave style, line but it was great fun! 

 

I'd like too have the time to play more though. I'm a huge Mick Karn fan and it would be great to get to learn to at least a fraction of what he could do - Just for the joy of playing!

 

/Niclas

 

[The S]

Selftaught. 15 years ago, I started practicing bass when I was aiming for a solo career, at the time I wasn't used to be on stage without an instrument in my hands and I already had a full band but no bass player, so bass was the natural choice, the style was sort of inspired by Beck but more rock, but unfortunately in the end it was too hard for me to do the rap parts and play bass at the same time. Too many rhythms going on simultaneously. Hehe! I'm a drummer from the start and thought I could pull it off but I couldn't.

Been playing ever since but later years it's only for my own recordings.

Funny, but I too have McCartney and especially Jamerson as my top 2 favorite bass players. Without hesitation.

I play finger style bass and that only. Just don't like the sound of a pick. Not on bass.

Well, that's me as a bass player.

Cheers,

S

Edited September 16, 2014 by The S