Calling the pros- I need help

[shizack]

When I feel like I'm losing creativity to theory, I put the bass down. I'll listen to a bassless track of what I'm working on, or, if at a practice, I'll have the other guys play it without me a couple of times. I listen for a bassline to play in my head while listening and then try to find the notes and patterns on the bass later. Playing unison lines with a guitar solo or vocal is always a good touch.
That's the drawback to, as some say, "not thinking when you play". Sitting-at-home-with-a-metronome muscle memory will take over. That's great for a jam or sitting in on unfamiliar songs, but if you're trying to write a specific bassline for a specific song, it can sound robotic.

[Gintaras]

My present and previous instructors are advocates of singing. If you can sing it you can play it !!!! I even joined a local Barbershop chorus and spend wednesday nites singing with 24 other guys and it's all 4 part harmony. Really has helped my ear and what comes out of my fingers.

[stratology]

Originally Posted by cosmicevan

all scofield stuff is worthy of checking out.

Reminds me of an interview with Scofield that I read years ago. He talked about practicing: when he learns a new scale, for example, he slowly figures out the notes, and then starts improvising with the new material right away. He said he 'practices playing inspired'.

[Sean Baumann]

Your fingers doing their thing is just you drawing from your "bag o' licks." It just sounds like your bag is not very deep yet. I'm in a similar situation, and have been for awhile. The solution is to learn new tunes. Latch on to some bass players that you like, and learn all their stuff. Add their licks to your bag, and you'll have stuff to draw from.

You can always take it up a notch when you understand how a few bass players work. Take a song by any artist and change the bass line to be in the style of another bass player. Or, when you are comfortable with your own signature style, change it to what you would play.

[LSDan]

Originally Posted by Phil Smith

How much gigging do you do? Who do you play with? What's their level of skill?

If you're not in involved in the process of making music with others over a range of different styles your playing will remain limited.

I agree - I would recommend joining a band if you're not in one already, or heading to your nearest jam session and playing with some new people. I find a lot depends on the level of ability of your drummer; they are particularly good to bounce ideas off for rhythmic and groove aspects, and for note-related stuff (melody, harmony etc) kboard and guitar players are good. If you're in an originals band it helps too as you have a lot less constraints on what you can play. Also maybe try some different sounds - play with effects that are not normally assosciated with the bass and see what you can come up with...
One last thing - try just writing a simplish groove and record it; then try and build up other parts by playing at different parts of the neck, then some rhythmic effects (damn the word "rhythmic" is hard to type!)
good luck
danx

[Aarix]

Man if there's one thing I really understand it's getting stuck in a rut. There are some good things to try though.

From Murf:

Try listening to other instruments apart from the bass, eg whats the brass section playing in this song?, why did the guitarist choose those notes to play?..Whats the drum pattern?..whats the singer singing and why did he pick that melody....then transcribe these lines to your bass

+100, really good advice

Do you have a backup "beater" bass? If not, get another instrument cheap enough that you wouldn't care if it were scratched or broken, and let's try some things...

• Altered Tunings - intentionally tune some of your strings up or down a step or too. You won't be able to play with finger memory anymore. Find a groove, record it, and then learn to play it in regular tuning.
• Weird strings/ few strings -If you use 45-105 roundwounds all the time, try something really light like Victor W. uses (40-95). Try flatwounds, or nylon tapewounds. Try pulling off all but 2 strings like The Presidents of the US
• Treatments -Stick some rubber foam under the bridge, wrap little paper clip rings around your strings or go all out and pull off the saddles and replace them with a piece of wood carved like a sitar bridge.

Note that I don't/wouldn't do any of this live, but it makes for an interesting afternoon and will definitely get you thinking of other musical ideas.