Advice for young ones

[TobyBrodel]

Hi Justin,
Thanks a lot for everything you do around here, this has been such an educational forum.

I'm seventeen and I've been playing bass for about 5 years now, I've always admired session players such as yourself, Herbie Flowers etc.

I'm wondering how you made the steps from playing in local bands to being this session god and what steps young players like myself should take if they aspire to become a session player.

Thanks a lot man.
Toby

[jmjbassplayer]

Originally Posted by TobyBrodel

Hi Justin,
Thanks a lot for everything you do around here, this has been such an educational forum.

I'm seventeen and I've been playing bass for about 5 years now, I've always admired session players such as yourself, Herbie Flowers etc.

I'm wondering how you made the steps from playing in local bands to being this session god and what steps young players like myself should take if they aspire to become a session player.

Thanks a lot man.
Toby

Hello Toby in Tasmania!

Well, I'm not sure, one day it just happened. I was on the scene as a guy available to play live in different local bands, then one day, a drummer friend (phenomenal LA drummer called Carol Es) called me and asked me to join her to record this hip hop record for this group called Circle of Power (not the metal band of the same name). Anyway, I did that one little thing, and it wasn't a big hit, but it sure got my name around. It snowballed from there.

You'll find yourself playing or recording with a friend, then all the sudden, you'll land in the studio. That work, if done well, will be a calling card for the next thing. It's a very natural process.

Best,
JMJ

[TobyBrodel]

Thanks a lot for your help. The other thing i'm wondering about is what importance you'd give to slapping, i'm fairly accomplished in fingerstyle technique but i can't slap to save myself. The sound doesn't appeal to me at all anyway. How often do artists ask you to slap, if at all, and how much will being a non-slapper limit the gigs a bassist gets?

Thanks again for everything.
Toby

[jmjbassplayer]

Originally Posted by TobyBrodel

Thanks a lot for your help. The other thing i'm wondering about is what importance you'd give to slapping, i'm fairly accomplished in fingerstyle technique but i can't slap to save myself. The sound doesn't appeal to me at all anyway. How often do artists ask you to slap, if at all, and how much will being a non-slapper limit the gigs a bassist gets?

Thanks again for everything.
Toby

OOOOOHHH BOY!! DON'T GET ME STARTED!!!!

It will not limit the gigs you get if you don't have those skills. Period. Well, unless you want gigs playing your seven-string piece of driftwood in front of your bedroom mirror.

Go ahead. Start the attacks.

That is a preposterous exaggeration, I know. Getting real now: there are gigs for it, just not the kind I do. Guys that do Top 40 gigs, wedding gigs, lots of varied stuff need to have some of those skills. In the R&B world? Fer shizzle. Gospel? Yes. Jazz/Fusion? Yup. Guys who do clinics, sure. Guys who play the NAMM show. That stuff has it's place, and I'm just trying to outline those places.

Slapping is asked for in my world once every 100 gigs. Most producers and engineers that I know talk about slapping as a complete joke. It's bass crime #1. When a bass player busts it out between takes in a session or during a rehearsal, everybody winces and second-guesses their hiring decision. And trust me: no one that makes cool rock, alternative whatever type records cares about your slapping technique. Only in jest do they care. Even in Macy Gray/Black Eyed Peas world that I'm always operating in, slapping is a major no no.

Beck asks me to slap (read: popping one note once in a while) on a song on Midnite Vultures called Milk & Honey, but that is it...and I assure you, it is done ironically.

I've said too much already. But I am trying to be somewhat balanced, as much as I dislike slapping, especially in its modern incarnation. **

Boo yah.

JMJ

** There are exceptions to my distaste: get your mind blown by Bootsy, Anthony Jackson, Chuck Rainey (Steely Dan's "Peg"), John Taylor, Flea, Larry Graham, and probably dozens of other great, tasteful TUNEFUL guys who slap that I can't think of off the top of my head. Most of them are old school, though.

[JimmyM]

Funny...I thought I saw a video of you on Youtube playing a 9 string Conklin where you were credited as Slappy McRoundwound

Slap used to be cool until it became a parlor trick. Once that happened, it became the bassist's equivalent of shredding. I think if a guy like you slapped, it would be pretty remarkable and totally based on making a musical statement that needed to be made. Too bad all the wankers had to ruin it.

[jmjbassplayer]

That post above me says it all.

Including the part about me with the 9-string Conklin.

[littlezak]

slapping is not a joke......
just watch this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWnLz...eature=related

about 2 minutes in see JMJ in all his slapping glory!!

[icarussmicarus]

awesome p-bass tone in that clip :P

also hilarious fun

[jmjbassplayer]

Originally Posted by icarussmicarus

awesome p-bass tone in that clip :P

also hilarious fun

Oh dear, I've been found out.

Dig my lightning fast, dexterous skills?

That bass is a Mike Dirnt P-Bass that Mike lent me! That gig was a super informal thing, and we always keep some random extra gear in a luggage bay of the bus in case we want to do a surprise show at a club or make a low-key appearance somewhere. Anyway, that was a bass I could travel with, and the amp is my tiny little Line 6 10" combo! The tone was surprising. Anyway, as you can see, we kept the whole thing selfishly informal. But after we did that event (sort of like an MTV Unplugged vibe for Canada), we then found out they aired that show (which was filmed in and shown only in Canada) to millions!

G'night all.

JMJ

[icarussmicarus]

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

Oh dear, I've been found out.

Dig my lightning fast, dexterous skills?

JMJ

I think what makes your slap shreddage so pwnage is the complete uncomfortable awkwardness and the sheer look of disgust at the act your are committing.

[JimmyM]

Yep, I was right. Justin slapped to make a musical statement. Of course that statement was, "***?"

[jmjbassplayer]

[pbass2]

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

In the R&B world? Fer shizzle.

I find it interesting that even in RnB, and not just the more alt stuff but even more mainstream, these days it seems like slapping is not used so much anymore(or maybe that's due to some degree to selective listening on my part. When it is it's more like an effect to suggest a "throwback", like a period thing. Seems (as in other genres) lately in RnB producers more and more want classic tones and playing, old-school even. If not that, then it's synth, or a very pure bass guitar tone that's almost synth like--really long decay, hardly any high end to speak of, very much like a sine wave synth bass vibe.

[jmjbassplayer]

True...but if you take a gig with an R&B artist on tour, you may very well have to bust out some slap.

In thse studio I play with Macy, Peas, some of Dre's people, various Will-I-Am productions, and I do all kinds of random sessions every month in the R&B and hip-hop worlds. (Some months, it's MORE of this kind of music than my actual specialty of "alternative rock" and it's various tributaries). In this world, they want classic tones. Sometimes dubby bass, sine-wave bass, synth bass, etc.

JMJ

[pbass2]

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

True...but if you take a gig with an R&B artist on tour, you may very well have to bust out some slap.

In thse studio I play with Macy, Peas, some of Dre's people, various Will-I-Am productions, and I do all kinds of random sessions every month in the R&B and hip-hop worlds. (Some months, it's MORE of this kind of music than my actual specialty of "alternative rock" and it's various tributaries). In this world, they want classic tones. Sometimes dubby bass, sine-wave bass, synth bass, etc.

JMJ

Very cool. Curious then, what would you prolly use for more of that "modern" RnB sound if called on for it(and not from a synth)--y'know the big, endless decay, very smooth bass sound, (since I gather you're not whipping out the 6 string boutique active "coffee table with strings"? I know lots of that sound is the compression and EQ and what-have-you, but what do you think you'd grab right off axe-wise?

[jmjbassplayer]

I don't really have anything good for that. I've got my Jazz Bass Deluxe 5, I've got a Wal, nothing else in "coffee table" realm. Don't know what I would use in that case! But it's never been requested to have that sound anyway.

[pbass2]

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

I don't really have anything good for that. I've got my Jazz Bass Deluxe 5, I've got a Wal, nothing else in "coffee table" realm. Don't know what I would use in that case! But it's never been requested to have that sound anyway.

Yeah, I just always assume those guys are using some kinda Ken Smith, Fodera, etc. but who knows? Maybe it's a MIM Jazz running through all kinds of tasty outboard!

[jmjbassplayer]

Originally Posted by pbass2

Yeah, I just always assume those guys are using some kinda Ken Smith, Fodera, etc. but who knows? Maybe it's a MIM Jazz running through all kinds of tasty outboard!

Trust me: I know these cats. They're all rocking finely polished driftwood with (more than four) metal strings attached.

JMJ

[icarussmicarus]

Originally Posted by jmjbassplayer

Trust me: I know these cats. They're all rocking finely polished driftwood with (more than four) metal strings attached.

JMJ

I dunno if its cost I'm from a new generation or something. But i really really really hate the look of boutique basses. Whats wrong with paint!

[mattq]

Originally Posted by icarussmicarus

I dunno if its cost I'm from a new generation or something. But i really really really hate the look of boutique basses. Whats wrong with paint!

you are not alone my friend