Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[ugly_bassplayer]

it all goes into the blender. you’ll probably hear something in what you’re practicing and that’ll be the springboard to new creative endeavors.

going back to my post. when i say i’m practicing piano, i’m practicing scales cause i need the *basics*. but it’s helping me to hear things differently/better.

Huge props to you guys in the woodshed.
I play very often but seldom have a serious woodshed session like I did in my formative years. Having three young kids leaves pretty much dead tired at 20h.

My last woodshed sessions where to build up my pick technique. Im almost at the "not suck that bad level".

I should break out the omnibook and let that thing kick my @$$. Funny how the brain works. I use to know about 30 bird tunes by heart melody chords and all....now....pouffff.
....blank......I should get those melodies down again. (Puts on helmet of shame)

/

To add shame:
I've been putting off learning to play "bass keys" with only my left hand for years. Extra shame point, wife is a monster classically trained pianist. She doesn't play much anymore but started playing at 5 and was playing organ (yes 3 lines to read at once) in no time. She has 100x times my talent. I just put in hours on end to make up for all that.
She could show me the technique easy....procrastination euhhh.

and now you know my gimmick.

the other cool thing is two-three fuzzes (i use three) with different eq curves and exp pedals to morph between them.

strange overtones, almost infinite controllable feedback, quick shifts between shards of glass and pipe organ, fake saxophone overblowing.

 

[steubig]

three kids is gonna cut into your time. (just a little).

it is all about the hours and the time management.

i think i know maybe 5 parker tunes. feeling inadequate now.

 

[steubig]

i have an addendum to my earlier post.

i've found that when i've been in a really creative vein for a bit (like writing feverishly for two months), i can exhaust that avenue. i'll feel spent and can get depressed . . . that's kind of when i start to look for something else to work on musically (reading, technique, pedal exploration, etc.). eventually it all tends to come around.

 

[cosmicevan]

I think @steubig 's post about his routine got me thinking, as it made me realize how little time I put into practicing. I usually just go up there with the intention of creating, and, last night, I was still feeling uninspired, so I decided to WORK. Pulled out the Music Man and that Janek Gwidzala Chordal Harmony book that's been taunting me for the last year, and went to town. It felt good. It didn't feel the same as jammin' out, but it felt good, regardless. I think I'm just going to take that approach... if uninspired to create, just learn something. My chops have gone to crap in the last month. Hell, if I just practice every night and don't create a damn thing, i'm having a hard time seeing how that's bad.

Im a huge Janek fan and follower and even just the first few exercises in All the Good Stuff opened my vocabulary up a bit more and gave me more new finger pattern choices that I regularly turn to. Same is true for learning something like teen town that is just amazing idea after amazing idea...learn a part then groove on the pattern experimenting can be really rewarding in giving you freshness to.your playing.

I've been messing around with it, it's been a bit frustrating, because the only jams I seem to find are of dad band level guys playing tired old covers. Lots of beginners on there. Not dissing beginners, but the dearth of jams with intermediate/expert level players is a bit frustrating.

I did set up two sessions on there for RSVP's... an ambient soundscape session, and a 70's funk/jazz session. I've had 3 people respond to the ambient one, so far, so I'll likely do that next week and see how it goes.

Agreed on the random sessions on jamkazam. I usually only sign on w friends in a closed (ask to join) session.

Id be down to make noises w ya. Whats your username? I usually go on round 10p or 11p w a few friends.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Please step back and put that chapman stick in the closet please.

A day late for Throwback Thursday, but fwiw this was me in 1987:

...but don't get me started on why I no longer own that instrument. All of my serious Stick critiques eventually wind up sounding like half-crazed tirades!

 

[Spectrum]

If I'm gonna woodshed I should probably get back to learning another Bach tune on bass. I have the Bach Inventions for Electric Bass book and the stuff I've learned from it makes great warm-up exercises that are actually cool to play and listen to.

My only gripe is that I wish the parts had no tabs since I'd like to learn to read while I learn the line and having the tabs right there is a huge distraction. I've used strips of low-stick painter's tape to cover the tabs before sometimes.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

A day late for Throwback Thursday, but fwiw this was me in 1987:

View attachment 3781570






...but don't get me started on why I no longer own that instrument. All of my serious Stick critiques eventually wind up sounding like half-crazed tirades!

Awesome 80s tacular!!!!

 

[Bob_Ross]

if uninspired to create, just learn something.

I need to put that on a Post-It Note right over my desk.

i think i know maybe 5 parker tunes. feeling inadequate now.

I've recently reached the point where I'm starting to forget all the Parker tunes I used to shed when I was in college 40 years ago. Incredibly frustrating, but also elucidating: it serves as a fascinating reminder of how well I really "knew" those tunes, and how musical memory and muscle memory are often far less intertwined than we may think.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

three kids is gonna cut into your time. (just a little).

it is all about the hours and the time management.

i think i know maybe 5 parker tunes. feeling inadequate now.

My last teacher was straight ahead upright only player from McGill university. He was an excellent teacher, but was more "nothing exists past 1958" kinda player.

I got smashed pretty hard with the bebop hammer. I still get nauseous at even thinking of playing rhythm changes modulating in all 12 keys every chorus.

 

[lordradish]

A day late for Throwback Thursday, but fwiw this was me in 1987:

View attachment 3781570


...but don't get me started on why I no longer own that instrument. All of my serious Stick critiques eventually wind up sounding like half-crazed tirades!

I played with an amazing stick player about 25 years ago. His style sounded like Stevie Wonder's clav playing mixed with a bit of Tony Levin and John Abercrombie. Put your head around that combo, if you can.

 

[Flabzilla]

Sold one a few years back; never really got into it. Fascinating instruments though.

 

[monsterthompson]

Basic tone - 5 string Spector into an Edison pre and ElectroFoods Germ Warfare and DSM OCSD

Zoia patch - Clean signal blended with a patch of Granular + a 60's Flanger + Ghost Reverb. Expression pedal controlling the clean/granular blend. Sine & Random LFOs controlling granular parameters.

Post Zoia - Empress Echo System on a Filter delay engine into the Empress Reverb on a Delay/Reverb setting (dang, I just noticed this and though I had set it on a different engine when I started...).

All into Ableton with a little noise reduction processing.

 

[Spectrum]

Basic tone - 5 string Spector into an Edison pre and ElectroFoods Germ Warfare and DSM OCSD

Zoia patch - Clean signal blended with a patch of Granular + a 60's Flanger + Ghost Reverb. Expression pedal controlling the clean/granular blend. Sine & Random LFOs controlling granular parameters.

Post Zoia - Empress Echo System on a Filter delay engine into the Empress Reverb on a Delay/Reverb setting (dang, I just noticed this and though I had set it on a different engine when I started...).

All into Ableton with a little noise reduction processing.

Dude.

Love it, THAT is some good dark ambient bass. Reminds me a little of the sounds in Star Trek: The Motion Picture when the ship is flying close past the gigantic V'ger structure.

 

[monsterthompson]

Dude.

Love it, THAT is some good dark ambient bass. Reminds me a little of the sounds in Star Trek: The Motion Picture when the ship is flying close past the gigantic V'ger structure.

Thanks!
The Zoia is starting to feel easier to get around. I started tonight just trying to work on laying out a patch and controls and in the process I found myself noodling away. I guess you don't get better confirmation than inspiration.

 

[Flabzilla]

Basic tone - 5 string Spector into an Edison pre and ElectroFoods Germ Warfare and DSM OCSD

Zoia patch - Clean signal blended with a patch of Granular + a 60's Flanger + Ghost Reverb. Expression pedal controlling the clean/granular blend. Sine & Random LFOs controlling granular parameters.

Post Zoia - Empress Echo System on a Filter delay engine into the Empress Reverb on a Delay/Reverb setting (dang, I just noticed this and though I had set it on a different engine when I started...).

All into Ableton with a little noise reduction processing.

Yep, like that one.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Thanks!
The Zoia is starting to feel easier to get around. I started tonight just trying to work on laying out a patch and controls and in the process I found myself noodling away. I guess you don't get better confirmation than inspiration.

Now make more.

Edit: please

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

I'm a huge "french impressionist" fan of classical music. (Debussy, Ravel, Berlioz, etc...)

Also funny that all these composers HATED the label of "impressionist". But I digress.

I just discovered this composer, and I absolutely love his stuff. He blends impressionism with traditional Japanese folk influences also. His name is Toru Takemitsu.
I love that he has his own voice, you hear more "modern voicings" and chord choices in his works for piano and small ensembles.

Enjoy.

 

[Feral Feline]

Thanks people, you all continue to inspire me.

That Zoia sounds Monsterous, like Thompson-machine gun spewing bullets in slo-mo.


I had a good laugh in another thread, Bob_Ross was debating whether he needs/wants another crazy pedal and I thought before I'd even finished reading the sentence "...of course you do!"

... and I wonder if I really want another dense-pack pedal with limited feedback, tiny markings, and multiple vaguely-documented functions per control.

Answer: Yes I do.
...

'Twas his self-answer a moment later that made me laugh out loud.


I can barely play bass let alone something like a Chapman, but the inspiration you lot provide is why I stick around here. Add to that the entertainment value and ...


The only thing missing is the culinary aspect.



PS: Wife is enjoying the Takemitsu, which surprised me, but she was equally surprised that I put it on (and as it happens, also enjoying it).

PPS:
Sister-in-law's friend in the Netherlands has passed, the closest thus far the scourge has come personally, and hopefully no closer.

Stay healthy everyone.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Thanks people, you all continue to inspire me.


PS: Wife is enjoying the Takemitsu, which surprised me, but she was equally surprised that I put it on (and as it happens, also enjoying it).

PPS:
Sister-in-law's friend in the Netherlands has passed, the closest thus far the scourge has come personally, and hopefully no closer.

Stay healthy everyone.

So much good music, so little time. Happy you took the time to listen.
Sometimes I get anxiety at the shear amount of music I want to absorb....but its impossible to listen to all of it.

RIP for your friends. Stay safe buddy.

 

[Bob_Ross]

I just discovered this composer, and I absolutely love his stuff. He blends impressionism with traditional Japanese folk influences also. His name is Toru Takemitsu.

I got turned onto Takemitsu when I was a grad student at NEC in the 1990s and I had the opportunity to take a Master Class with him. Fascinatingly brilliant and insightful composer who had a mercifully fresh and non-didactic approach to fleshing out his aesthetic. While he was clearly in complete command of his materials, he rarely talked about the mechanics of music in technical terms; rather, he used lots of imagery and borrowed ideas from Eastern painting, calligraphy, and gardening to describe his motivations.

My favorite quote (I'm paraphrasing, it's been ~25 years) of his was when describing his approach to writing variations on a theme: "I imagine I am walking through a beautiful forest or garden, and I see something which catches my eye. A unique rock perhaps. I try to describe the rock in every way I know possible.

But then I walk a little farther, to come upon the same rock from a different angle. Now my perspective has changed; the rock, though the same, appears different. I try to decribe that difference."


But yeah: Gorgeous music, no matter how he comes up with it.