Teaching a student to hear bass in songs?

[lindseyp]

"Just out of interest, doesn't removing the bass completely from songs also take the bass drum with it as well?"

No. The hit of the drum is much higher, in the midrange region; the boom will still be there because it covers a wide frequency range. Not only that, you can play along with the bass line intact in one channel and your bass in the other for comparison, which is the way I prefer to use it.

[msangster]

I have a Tascam bass trainer,it is one of the first ones,does it have the ability to isolate bass lines not just slow the song down? Thanks Michael.

[lola99]

Last year, my kids were torturing me about playing the bass. They said that playing bass was pointless, and they couldn't hear it anyway. So I turned off the bass in my Honda for a good long while. It didn't take them long to get to the point where they were begging to have the bass back. Now they can pick out the basslines. It's ugly out there without the bass

Another thing about the bass: if the student has hearing problems, he might well have a very hard time picking out the deep tones of the bass. If he's still having serious problems, you could suggest a hearing test.

[lindseyp]

Originally Posted by msangster

I have a Tascam bass trainer,it is one of the first ones,does it have the ability to isolate bass lines not just slow the song down? Thanks Michael.

Not to my knowledge, but I bet you could trick it out of the system by plugging the 1/4-inch out to your amp, turning the upper midrange and treble all the way down while listening to the TASCAM through inexpensive headphones. It would be full range in the headphones (uses 1/8-inch jack) but your amp would beef up the bass lines in the background. You would still clearly hear your bass in the headphones. I'm just guessing since I haven't tried it that way.

[beerthebear]

Originally Posted by Mark Perry

move onto recordings with less prominent bass until you get to a Deftones album or something (where the bass can be very difficult to hear).

Wow I actually think that the bass lines on Deftones songs are really easy to hear. I guess it helps that I have 12 inch woofers in the trunk of my car to hear the real low end notes. Just think about "My own Summer".