Putting it all together

[steve2]

This may be a strange question. I have played for many years but I would like to be able to get to the next level. I mostly play contemporary christian music. I have played in the past many different styles from bluegrass to classic Rock. Seems like there are times I should be adding some fill ins or something perhaps during a bridge section on a chorus or perhaps something during a chorus repeat but seems I am lacking something to be more complete Perhaps I should try to incoperate parts of scales or triads. Thanks for any ideas to get better. One thing I know I need is more practice and make what time I do practice to make it count. Thanks for any advice.

[DocBop]

Practice is the best instructor.

I'd say find a teacher and work on basic scales, arpeggios, and basic theory. That is your source of notes. Then listen to player that are great at that type of playing. Check out Lee Sklar on James Taylor Your Smiling Face. Jimmy "Flim" Johnson is very solid player and does great fills in Pop tunes. Look for his old bands CD's. Flim and the BB's. Jimmy's tone and playing just fit like a glove.

Then if you have recordings of some of the songs you play sing your basslines, then start singing a fill. Come up with a fill you like then figure it out on your bass. A big part of doing fills is getting the timing right to start and finish on the one. A lot of fills in Pop tunes are major pentatonic so that is an easy scale to start with.

[steve2]

I will start on the Major Pentatonics tommorow. Thanks for the advice

[manbass]

Steve2...good topic...I was you 18 months ago. I am (only) a Church CCM Bassist, and was in a similar rut then.

The nice thing about my band is the Guitarist/leader gives me chord charts/lead sheets with no bassline, just the chord name on the treble clef. After a couple of months at whacking the root, I started a dialogue with Jeff Schmidt similar to this one. On his advice, I got the Jamey Aebersold Major/Minor Jazz playalong Books/Cd's ...specifically to learn to embellish the melody, create walks, runs and fills, add improvisation and stay in groove. I immersed myself in only learning chord notes and their structure, then started writing my own basslines using the chords shown.

Although I am deeper into learning theory, beyond just chordtones...I do believe you dont have to become a sightreading, transcribing, composing level musician to apply chordtone theory on playing bass in a CCM or Rock live setting and convey some cool groovy melodic bass.

I have yet to be able to "write them on the fly", but in some songs I get in a zone enough and it comes to me. Since then ( a year ago ) I have gone into weekly lessons/music school where milestones of progress give me motivation...no more ruts for now.

[BassChuck]

Originally Posted by steve2

Seems like there are times I should be adding some fill ins or something perhaps during a bridge section on a chorus or perhaps something during a chorus repeat but seems I am lacking something to be more complete

If you suspect that there is 'something missing' its probably because you've heard music where the bass player did more than you are doing. Go back to that music, copy the basslines and then see if you can use those ideas in the music that you are playing.

[jaebee]

so this is in a jazz / chord chart situation

arpegios are your best friend, because you will be able to see the triad from the chord name (Cm) and any aditional notes from the extensions (Cm6b9), then, if you can build a 2 or so octave scale from that (knowing it over the entire fretboard would be the goal) it becomes increasingly easy to add fills / approaches to the next chord, and you would be surprised how easy it can be to play along with the melody by using solely chord tones and extensions

after that, it would be advancing on to scales and how to incorporate them with the arpeggios, and fill in the gaps in between

also, you might be surprised how far changing the rhythm up, especially on roots, can go (keeping in time and groove, but adding extra 16th notes, stacatto, legato, w/e) just play what feels right, and if you are root bashing you dont have to worry about your left hand

[KayCee]

In addition to the advice given, trying singing some bass line ideas, then figure out what you just sang.