Looking for help for a bassline

Kickin'Fruit · #1 09-29-2006, 03:22 PM

So some of you know that I am in my first band, and am fairly new to bass. The band I'm in does some originals and their previous bass player has some seemingly boring basslines for the song. I was wondering if I could get some help writing my own without being too dramatic or screwing them up.

A little background:

The band plays what you could consider punk/metal (don't flame me I'm being general not specific) 2 Guitarists and keyboardist. The songs seem easy, which is good for me a beginner, but I want to do something better than average. The previous bass player just played the root with variations in beats. I guess if anyone is interested in helping specifically I could send them a pm with the band website with one of the songs on there, I guess I don't want word getting out that I'm asking for help here, in case they happen upon it, might be a little embarrassing

Is it normal to just play the 8th note root etc. over chords in metal? Should I even be looking to be more creative? Thanks for any help, sorry if I'm a bit vague.

tZer · #2 09-29-2006, 03:28 PM

PM me... I am curious... I may be able to offer you some help. Can you give me a feel for what sort of bass players you think you emulate the most? Not who you love the most, but if you were backed into a corner, gun to head and forced to claim one or two bass players as best describing your current sound, who would they be?

MeYHymN · #3 09-29-2006, 03:38 PM

Listen to Frank from Anthrax. Beat on the root, but after a few bars throw a quick walk up the neck and back to the root. There are alot of variables one of the most important is having a good drummer you can lock into. Just my $0.02, YMMV.

Kickin'Fruit · #4 09-29-2006, 04:16 PM

In the band setting I'm in now, I think I most emulate Flea and Jeff Ament, just because those are the styles I've been playing the most of at home. So to sum it up, I would say that I like the octave shifting of Flea and the Root - 5th walks that Jeff does a lot of. I like a blues, funk, reggae style I guess you could say. Pumping 8ths doesn't seem like my cup of tea.