Is being a good bass player a dying art?

[WokenDeer]

As far as spotlight goes. The guitarist can have it. I do like the kind of playing that when someone does actually listen to what your doing they go "wow". Like what has been said. It's about balance. Being good and original but still holding it down for the band. And if you can play cool rhythms and fills and still be a foundation. That's the ticket. John Paul jones anyone?

[jphovercraft]

Originally Posted by AltGrendel

Wait till you have an enlarged prostate.

I just spewed coffee all over my keyboard ...

[plankspanker13]

If you have that balance, you're good, by definition.
If you get a lot of hired gun calls outside of your main project, you probably are good, as well.

[jphovercraft]

Originally Posted by Ewo

I'm thinking it's about having ears--hearing everything that's going on in the mix and playing lines that glue it all together into a groove.

I figure some bassists do that intuitively, others do it through study and woodshedding, but being able to hear all the parts the other musicians are playing is what makes the difference.

Guess that's always been rare, when you come down to it.

^ This ... I'm very lucky to be playing with guys with ears for days atm ...

[jphovercraft]

Originally Posted by plankspanker13

If you have that balance, you're good, by definition.
If you get a lot of hired gun calls outside of your main project, you probably are good, as well.

This is encouraging ... the phone has been ringing lately.

[Hawkbone]

Two Fingers' post was funny, but your comment pushed it over the top! Hilarity~!

OT, lots of great musicians in general around here, and plenty of great bassists.

Originally Posted by BawanaRik

Ah yes, Life Of Brian.

Quote:
Originally Posted by two fingers
Part of the problem as well is that so many musicians are one genre players these days as well. And there are so many genres (and sub genres) that fewer players are spread among many more genres. Want proof? Take a look at CL ads these days. You'll see quotes like this.......

"I only play doom/sludge/blood core. Don't even ask me to try any of that stupid death/scream/angry core junk."

Forgive me. I'm not up on all my "cores". But the point is that many players only play the kinds of songs that fit into their tiny little concept of what music is. When you spread a few bass players locally among 15 genres, with a dozen sub genres each, it gets pretty thin pretty quick.

So, the most talented players may be sitting in their bedrooms making the kinds of Youtube videos mentioned earlier, just waiting for the perfect southern Arkansas mud/math/evil core band to form. Until that fateful day, they will bury themselves in misery and post threads here such as "Where did all the good gigs go and junk?"

[Max Bogosity]

Originally Posted by Jarrett

I don't see many bass players around today that could for example *really* pull off Jamerson's bass line to Marvin Gaye's Heard It Through The Grapevine. Just the feel, nuance, pocket, melodic sense that is in a classic line like that.

There weren't many bass players like that back then either.

[mellowinman]

It's not just bass players. It's drummers, guitarists, keyboard players, VOCALISTS...

It's called there are too many bands, with too many players, and a whole lot of them are NOT musicians at all. At some point, everybody decided they should be in a band, and at the local level, I hear such mind numbing, ear destroying, soul snuffing DREK that I rarely last more than a set at anybody's gig as I go out and try and "support local music."

I can only speak for this town, but I constantly hear drummers with no timing ability; singers who are either bland, slightly off key, or worse; and bass players who wouldn't know your "fundamentals" in the OP if said fundamentals joined the army, and invaded the city with tanks and nuclear weapons.

That's just my opinion, of course.

[HeadyVan Halen]

It means were getting old.
It's a cycle were in now. It'll pass and players will be required to 'earn' their stripes like before.

Enjoy it though, it should mean the rest of us got more work.

[Baird6869]

The new stuff out there seems to be a lot of driving 8th notes on the root with a pick. Nothing totally wrong with that, but it bores the hell out of me. Big difference between overplaying and playing a fairly busy but tasteful groove in the pocket IMO.

Cool story... My singer's daughter is in a band and I saw them for the first time last week. Kinda screamo and the band members are all 16. Really tight band. The bass player was really good. Didn't overplay, but obviously took her practice seriously. Cool to see a 16 year old girl with serious bass chops.

P.s. she didn't send one IM/text the entire time she was playing.

[bassophil]

IMO this is not only a problem to be seen among bass players but all musicians. I see a lot of musicians who don't know how to play their instruments, regardless of instrument or genre. I saw lot's of bands play live that I couldn't stand listening 'til the end of their set because of a sub mediocre musical performance. And these bands are kinda successful to a certain degree.

I blame one thing for this: modern recording technology.

You can make recordings in your bedroom that sound professional with ease and lots time to do so. If you need a thousand takes to get a part done you can still get it done. And even if that won't work you can still edit it until it fits.
I think most of these bands, if they would have to deliver a recording where the whole band would need to play "live" and be recorded on tape would fail miserably. And I have to consider me and my band part of that camp....

[DwaynieAD]

I feel that I'm mediocre at best and yet a great number of metal bassists in the area tell me how great I am and that I'm better than them.

I'd like to think they are just paying me a compliment because if they are telling the truth it is truly a sad state of affairs for metal bass in the area.

or maybe I'm better than I think I am.

[MrLenny1]

Yes, less work every year.
The really talented bass players I know teach and hardly perform.

[hernameisrio]

What?! God no! I just saw three great bassists this past weekend...if you really feel that way, maybe you should try listening to something different or getting out more!

[Rickett Customs]

Is being a good bass player a dying art?

Only If you let it................Some people do.....

[powderfinger]

Hell, actually being a a band with real instruments is a lost art these days.

[Kenzy]

I would agree that the technical abilities required of instrumentalists in popular music has generally declined over the decades. Sure, there are exceptions on both sides of this, but I feel that a lot of the music that explodes and is just everywhere can be just complete garbage instrumentally. I listen mostly to music of the 60s and 70s, and it would seem to me that today's popular music doesn't hold a candle to it technically. Maybe there's modern popular music that still has it and I've just not been made aware?

[BWB]

being a good BAND is a dying art

[powderfinger]

Originally Posted by BWB

being a good BAND is a dying art

Being a band period is becoming a dying art...

Turn on the radio and it's a bunch of cookie cutter, auto tune singers backed up by electronic music.

[ForSix]

Originally Posted by Jarrett

Not sure where to put this one, thought I would try here.

More and more I see bands, local and national that have really so so bass players. Some local are quite bad actually. Pop music all the way from the 60's through the 90's required quite a bit of skill and most local bass players had pretty impressive technique and really solid fundamentals. You could tell they had spent time studying the masters over time.

Nowadays, I don't see that as much anymore outside of the first call studio guys. Anyone else noticing this? If so, what does this trend mean for the instrument?

Update:
To clarify, my original post meant something like I don't see many bass players around today that could for example *really* pull off Jamerson's bass line to Marvin Gaye's Heard It Through The Grapevine. Just the feel, nuance, pocket, melodic sense that is in a classic line like that. It's not super technically hard, just takes focus, time and practice to own those fundamentals. Those core fundamentals seem to be missing more and more in modern playing. That's what I'm saying.

Hell, being a musician is a dying art.

Hardly anyone today can come close to how good the average musician was in the 50s.