Quote:
Originally Posted by Icarus26  how long did it take for you to find your own sound?
i'm into my second year of playing bass now and i seem to be able to get what i'm thinking in my head through to the bass. However, i'm still having difficulty finding song worthy riffs. To be honest, i think i became a better bass player when i came back from not playing for quite a while.
i'm guessing more listening had to do with it, but i'd like to hear people's suggestions for finding your own sound as well as their experiences finding it. |
I think as well as finger technique and note choice, being able to set up your bass yourself helps. I learned to do this recently - stuff like how far the pickups are from the strings changes the sound a lot. Might be obvious but might not I don't know.
The other thing I found was that for me, the cabinet is way more important than the amp. Lots of cabinets, especially in combos, compress the sound (at least that's what it sounds like to me). When I got a 1x18 traynor cab my sound changed completely, for the better too - it cuts right below the whole band.
When you're writing riffs I'd say that the important thing is perseverence and to keep changing things round till you get something you feel 100% happy with - if it's a repetitive riff or groove. I find that there's often a collection of notes I'll be drawn to, but the order, or sequence,and timing, or feel will take a little while to solidify. Once it's found it's obvious, because you can feel it. But I think one reason that whilst you're going through hardcore practice and theory it's more difficult to connect to riff making is because there's this tendency to try and apply theory and not just rely on ears. Learn the theory but leave it alone during purely creative episodes - whilst your being creative, it needs to come from the subconscious, or your intuition.
