New band, need help on learning material

[daratter]

Long story short I recently made a huge switch from trying to get an original band off the ground from nothing to auditioning for already established bands. I just had a pretty successful audition this week and it looks like Im in. Now this band has about an album worth of songs already written and pretty much ready for the studios and we have a show in about a month from now that I need to learn the songs quickly for. This is an original metal/metal core band.

The line up is unusual in that there's a rhythm guitar and a lead bass 'guitar' but they don't have an actual 'bass' part in their songs. The bass 'guitar' is the leader and plays his bass only like a guitar in lead riffs - strange but somehow it really works. So they want me to learn the original songs bass lines (? they told me they have not had a bassist yet ?) which Im guessing will be mostly root notes to add the bottom end to their sound? Should I try to work closely with the rhythm guitarist though to learn the specific riffs though? What questions should I be asking here? I want to get this right.

[MalcolmAmos]

Your, I'll call them runs, should augment and not interfere with the lead instrument. What is the lead instrument in this band. The vocalist, that bass playing lead or what? Next question what instruments take off on runs of their own. Your runs and there runs should not interfere with each other. Do not mean this negatively, however, in some Metal bands everyone seems to just do THEIR thing and not worry with how that affects the rest of the band. If that is the case here you will need to adapt.

I doubt the acoustic guitar getting in you way with what he is doing - his job is to augment and not interfere and I would assume he has this down already. But, yes he may be the only one that can help you with the chord progressions for each song. I'd ask him for the sheet music - fake chord or whatever they may have.

So identify the lead instrument and identify those that take it upon themselves to do runs. Augment and try not to interfere. You will have to listen to recordings or just play with the band to pick out most of that - good luck. I'd revert to laying down a steady beat with the drums (if there are any) and let everything else happen as you get to know the band better.

I doubt this band has ever had a bass line. I see that as your new job. You need to be asking the director of the band some of these questions, i.e. who leads and who sets the beat now and what does he want from you.

Good luck.

[kenneth206]

I would try to figure out the rhythm guitar riffs and accent the "important" notes in that. Make sure your hits line up with the kick; for example if he's doing 16th notes maybe try and peddle 8th notes. If you have two guitarists doing some noodly harmonizing stuff just keep the low end solid with the drums. Remember "while you're up there solo'ing, who is playing the bass?" to quote the musical advice thread

I play bass in a metalcore type of band and I try to keep it simple, less is more. In past bands I did the thrashy deathmetal shredding stuff but now I much prefer to focus on my right hand and keep it super tight with the drums.

Also, I joined a band a few months ago with the same thing going on. Had a show in a month, recordings already in progress etc. I just made sure I asked a lot of questions of the guitarists. There is no wrong in asking a question about trying a couple different runs to find out what sounds the best.

[daratter]

Thanks, good replies. For the past year or so, I have been playing very melodic death metal verging on being pretty progressive with the bass lines (like Opeth, Dark Tranquillity) so switching to what sems like a much less melodic and more just simplistic strength has been a challenge for me.

I keep wanting to add more and it seems like Im wasting a space but I have found that it starts to get muddy if I do much of anything. The lead and rhythm play totally different runs for most of the song and it looks like they just really needed someone to hold down the bottom line with the drummer. It just different...never been in this kind of band before and want to provide them with what they're looking for.