muting technique

zaco · #1 01-29-2007, 06:35 PM

Janek,
I dug into all the stuff on your myspace pretty heavily a couple of months ago, and I especially enjoyed a video you had up there with Gary Husband, Randy Brecker, and Tim Miller. I'm wondering how you get that hip muting sound you do. I've tried placing the side of my right hand across the strings and playing with my thumb and index finger, but I got frustrated trying to transfer all of my stuff to this technique, and also found that it took too long to go between this and my normal technique when I wanted to change sounds. I also tried muting with my third and fourth fingers and plucking with middle and index, but this gave me problems when I tried to do leaps of more than one string; also, it overdampens the sound if you're playing anywhere but very close to the bridge. I play a fretless and find that when I try to mute with my left hand it a) messes with my intonation, or b) creates an annoying buzzing sound. What do you recommend?
-Zack

zaco · #2 01-29-2007, 08:59 PM

also, I read in an earlier post that you studied with Fernando Huergo while you were at Berklee. he was my private teacher this summer at the five week program; I really loved playing with him. the guitarist in my band had tim miller as one of his teachers. small world

janekbass · #3 01-31-2007, 07:33 PM

Zack,

thanks for your post.

on the muting thing......

I haven't really done that stuff much recently on a fretless so I'm not sure of all the ins and outs of that right now.

for me on the fretted bass it's just a matter of finding the sweet spot and being comfortable with it. It does take a lot of time to get fluent between the two positions of muted and un-muted, but with enough time spent on it it becomes second nature.

I got there by checking out records that had muted bass sounds on them and wanting to emulate that feeling on the bass. They might have been synth sounds or just basses with old strings on them, but I came about it from an inspirational side. Those sounds made me want to get that sound out of my bass, and so I did. I didn't come at it from the angle of "I heard or saw this bass player do this muted thing and now I need to learn how to do it too". I came at it from a real need. a need of inspiration and need to learn.

I've listened to Marcus miller slap the bass in a thousand different ways, but it doesn't inspire me to play the bass like that. It inspires me to think about groove, and time, and sound. But as far as playing in that style I'm really not interested, so I haven't just sat down for the sake of learning his stuff having not been inspired by it in that way.

I hope this helps.

Easy,

Janek

janekbass · #4 01-31-2007, 07:34 PM

P.S. if you check out some of the videos posted at www.bassplayer.tv some of my clinic up there was dedicated to playing between muted and un-muted.

Easy,

Janek

musicman5string · #5 01-31-2007, 10:18 PM

It's a funny thing about Marcus Miller; I've got a 75 Jazz that nails his sound, so when I slap it, the tone is exactly like his. However, I can't PLAY like him....I don't think anyone can. So it feels cheap when I do it....so I don't like to slap on that bass in public much.
I imagine it was like when Jaco first burst onto the scene and everyone started playing fretless and doing harmonics and such....that was before my time, but I've heard so many people speak with annoyance about that.

Just my 2 cents about inspiration vs. copying someone.

zaco · #6 02-01-2007, 07:47 PM

Thanks so much man. I'm scheduling a lesson with you at the collective soon, can't wait.
-Zack

zaco · #7 02-01-2007, 08:48 PM

In response to musicman's post, I think all serious musicians struggle with the fear of being too imitative of the pioneers of their instrument. As a fretless player I often find myself falling into an endless flurry of jacoisms at the expense of my own creativity. On the other hand, I think there's something to be said for mastering someone's style and then building on it to create your own. Cats used to always call Wayne Shorter "young trane," which drove him crazy, but if you listen to his music today, to me he doesn't sound like anyone but wayne shorter.
-Zack

Jules Forcella · #8 05-17-2007, 01:27 PM

Ciao Janek,

Thanks for the Bassplayer TV Link....... haven't heard of it yet - but this is Heaven for me

And it's such a Joy to watch your Clips there - very Inspiering !!!!

Thanks for shearing

Julian

DocBop · #9 05-17-2007, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janekbass

P.S. if you check out some of the videos posted at www.bassplayer.tv some of my clinic up there was dedicated to playing between muted and un-muted.

Easy,

Janek

Thanks for pointing that out, some great advice and music. Love that jam with the trombone player. I dig your chordal stuff and use of space in your solo.