i need help with a band.

Pete528 · #1 02-09-2008, 09:29 PM

i just joined a rock band...

its cool and all, but i'm having a lot of trouble.

you see, the guitarists in the band are skilled and can make some pretty cool songs, but they don't know crap about music. if i ask them what chord they're playing they have no idea, they don't know what key they're in... really they know nothing but can string together interesting things.

anyway i'm not a bad bassist at all, but when i play with them i'm just awful, because i have no idea how to string together nice basslines since i'm really not sure what they're playing. most of the time i just stumble around until i notice something, like what the rhythem guitarist is doing on the low E string, and then i just keep hitting out 8th notes.

basically, i'm playing like crap and i know that i could be doing better than this. so how do i jam, really? if they can't name what chords they're doing or whatever, and just playing stuff that sounds good, how can i string together a nice bassline or whatever if i don't really know what the guitarists are playing? is there a way to figure out what's going on?

thanks!

Dogbertday · #2 02-09-2008, 09:56 PM

i've been in that situation more times than I can count

learn guitar... haha sounds odd but it's not like you have to actually be able to play it, just learn how to do the simple shapes of the chords you'll get pretty good at reading what the rhythm guitarist is doing in real time...

the other way i'd handle it is to just go ornette coleman style... don't give i to chord changes and just let your emotions rule your playing... who was it that said "there are no wrong notes, only wrong rhythms?"

honestly i use both... and being forced into another persons harmonic spectrum has made me really able to not worry about harmony as much when i don't want to and i just lay down as killer of a groove as I can muster... ler the guys who don't know what they're doing actually listen to you.. haha

RiddimKing · #3 02-09-2008, 10:11 PM

Record the jams (A Zoom H2 is great, if you can afford the 200 bucks): go home, figure out parts; figure out the keys and changes. If you can record or convert to MP3, send the songs or parts to the other players and everyone should be on the same page when you next meet.

Joeymarshmallow · #4 02-09-2008, 10:23 PM

This happens a lot to me, the best way I've coped with it is to remember (or record if you have access to the equipment) the riffs/chords/whatever that the guitarist plays and then go home and figure out what works well. I think the more you do this, the easier it becomes to lay down the bassline on the spot in the future, because you can kind of pick up patterns of the people you play with.

Pete528 · #5 02-16-2008, 03:04 PM

hey thanks for the info, i played with them again and i figured out some stuff, using the basic formula of chords.

i made some basslines but now i'm realizing how crappy the band i'm in is... they're the kind of guys where if something has distortion they automatically think it's the hottest stuff around.

hell one of the things they were playing was just the E string (well, it was dropped to D) open and they're all like "THAT'S AWESOME, LET ME TRY TO PLAY STUFF TOO".

Now my next mission is trying to get them to learn some theory or whatever so they don't just bang out distorted crap and try to look cool...

Earthday · #6 02-16-2008, 03:30 PM

It's a tough situation, especially since a lot of these people are the same ones that only really listen to themselves, and can't adapt to what YOU play.

The best you can do is work on your ear. Playing along with CDs, the radio, or even video game music is great for that. Don't just learn the bassline either. Learn the guitar and vocal melodies, and even try to figure out what chords the guitarist is using. Going the extra mile and writing out the music is worth it too. It's a tough exercise at first, but you get better at it fast, and those are the situations where it really pays off.

Also try to teach them basic communication techniques too. It really frustrates me that people can be so good and not just bother to learn the note names and the different between major and minor. You don't need to spend your life studying those things, and it's impossible to communicate without it unless all the musicians have experience with guitar, or are great visual learners.

Aged_Clayman · #7 02-16-2008, 03:49 PM

Quote:

i made some basslines but now i'm realizing how crappy the band i'm in is

Did they sound crappy before this realization came in?
The reason I ask is because I did some U2 covers a few months ago. When I found out that their hit single "Walk on" is just A-D-G-Em for all the song long, I sort of despited them - cause if I play just roots I can do it with just open strings(and at one rehearsal, I did). It`s suffice to say, even the guitar player found it "a bit narrow-minded", and it`s a rare thing to happen. But in the end - it sounded great, and I don`t even know why, really

I mean this two quotes of you look really funny next to each other:

Quote:

the guitarists in the band are skilled and can make some pretty cool songs

and

Quote:

but now i'm realizing how crappy the band i'm in is