Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[ugly_bassplayer]

 

[lordradish]

One thing I thought of is that different sites allow for different approaches - I often use Soundcloud to put out a sketch or idea, and then Bandcamp when I have a more defined set of material, like an EP, or maybe "finished produce" is another way to think of it. Putting out the sketch a) lets you gauge the reaction, and b) when it's actually "out there" on the interwebs you may conceive of it differently.

That's exactly how I plan on approaching it... Bandcamp's for the finished/polished.

 

[patshep]

That's exactly how I plan on approaching it... Bandcamp's for the finished/polished.

me 3... although, i need to finish more products

 

[steubig]

I actually have three folders of things that, were I to do an album or EP, would go together. I have thought about the EP thing, too. I've also thought of two long forms as an album, too.

there is no rule that says you can’t do both. imho, if you’re going to think like a composer, do it.

i think each project deserves to have its own integrity—some are short pieces, some are long. (think, maybe, stravinsky or schoenberg, who did both small sets of miniatures as well as long-form orchestra pieces.)

you’re the creator! you get to decide!

I just gotta s**t or get off the pot, as they say.

there is that.

i find the finishing/releasing of something to be quite liberating: “i’m done with that task. now i can take what i learned from it to start on the next bit of material.”

the other thing is this: we put a lot of importance on what we’re doing, which creates anxiety when we put it out. truthfully, there are 7 billion people on the planet. if you’re lucky, a millionth of those people will hear and care about this. putting stuff out is probably going to be more about *your sense of accomplishment* than getting judged/appreciated by the great majority of them. most people will not care, but a certain amount could be *very happy* to hear what you’re doing. they are your audience.

that could be a downer or liberating. dunno.

in any event, i’ve enjoyed a lot of what you’ve posted.

hell, you and @uglybassplayer could do your duo release.

ymmv, etc.

 

[emjazz]

there is no rule that says you can’t do both. imho, if you’re going to think like a composer, do it.

i think each project deserves to have its own integrity—some are short pieces, some are long. (think, maybe, stravinsky or schoenberg, who did both small sets of miniatures as well as long-form orchestra pieces.)

you’re the creator! you get to decide!



there is that.

i find the finishing/releasing of something to be quite liberating: “i’m done with that task. now i can take what i learned from it to start on the next bit of material.”

the other thing is this: we put a lot of importance on what we’re doing, which creates anxiety when we put it out. truthfully, there are 7 billion people on the planet. if you’re lucky, a millionth of those people will hear and care about this. putting stuff out is probably going to be more about *your sense of accomplishment* than getting judged/appreciated by the great majority of them. most people will not care, but a certain amount could be *very happy* to hear what you’re doing. they are your audience.

that could be a downer or liberating. dunno.

in any event, i’ve enjoyed a lot of what you’ve posted.

hell, you and @uglybassplayer could do your duo release.

ymmv, etc.

All of this.

 

[Bob_Ross]

my small crew of basses:

Where did you get the thumb rest for your Rob Allen?

 

[Bob_Ross]

Okay, quarantine has, if nothing else, taught me two things:
- leave your fretless bass locked away in a closet for 14 months and your intonation turns to pure crap
- iPhone Voice Memo recordings are handy if you're, I dunno, stuck on a desert island? But for anything even vaguely interesting, they come up short...and so I really should be using this down time [sic] to get my home recording studio put back together.

But for now:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[steubig]

Okay, quarantine has, if nothing else, taught me two things:
- leave your fretless bass locked away in a closet for 14 months and your intonation turns to pure crap

lol.

that long? i think mine would go in a much shorter time.

nice sounds!

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Okay, quarantine has, if nothing else, taught me two things:
- leave your fretless bass locked away in a closet for 14 months and your intonation turns to pure crap
- iPhone Voice Memo recordings are handy if you're, I dunno, stuck on a desert island? But for anything even vaguely interesting, they come up short...and so I really should be using this down time [sic] to get my home recording studio put back together.

But for now:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

If you have all the gear required for the home studio. Go for it. These clips indeed fall short of the 6 months of preparation for 1 preset.

Fretless = pain and eternal struggle.

 

[monsterthompson]

I like playing fretless, despite being terrible at it. Yet I somehow don’t generally care for pitch glide or portamento on synths.

 

[cosmicevan]

Where did you get the thumb rest for your Rob Allen?

It was an option on the bass. Came that way when I got it.



Definitely a lot of analysis paralysis about our work. Yoda put it best "do or do not there is no try" - I get all the analysis...but if you just do and move on you will get more done and be better for it.

 

[lordradish]

Okay, quarantine has, if nothing else, taught me two things:
- leave your fretless bass locked away in a closet for 14 months and your intonation turns to pure crap
- iPhone Voice Memo recordings are handy if you're, I dunno, stuck on a desert island? But for anything even vaguely interesting, they come up short...and so I really should be using this down time [sic] to get my home recording studio put back together.

But for now:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

As a hardcore fretless lover, I am always rather surprised and pleased at how quickly my intonation mojo returns. As hard as I am on myself for my playing, my intonation's actually quite good, which surprises the hell out of me. I didn't really believe it for certain until a few musicians I really respect commented on it.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

As a hardcore fretless lover, I am always rather surprised and pleased at how quickly my intonation mojo returns. As hard as I am on myself for my playing, my intonation's actually quite good, which surprises the hell out of me. I didn't really believe it for certain until a few musicians I really respect commented on it.

I wasn't that bad on fretless, but I was doing wayyyyyyy to much sight reading at one point. The bass was just collecting dust. I sold it because I could only afford one bass in university.

Plus this horror happended......the jazz ensemble teacher gave me the look of death when we sight read new big band charts the day I brought a fretless in. I knew all the rehearsed songs....he wanted to through us a knuckleball.
(I wanted to melt through the floor. )

 

[steubig]

Definitely a lot of analysis paralysis about our work. Yoda put it best "do or do not there is no try" - I get all the analysis...but if you just do and move on you will get more done and be better for it.

totally.

do the work, the rest follows.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Plus this horror happended......the jazz ensemble teacher gave me the look of death when we sight read new big band charts the day I brought a fretless in.

Oh, man... The very first time I ever played a fretless bass was circa 1980 when I was 19 or 20, a sophomore at Berklee, I had my weekly lesson on Thursday mornings with Whit Brown -- an incredibly talented though staunchly conservative/traditional upright player who seemed to only begrudgingly tolerate electric players (I think Whit's a member here on TB these days; hey Whit!) -- and Wednesday night some asshat breaks into my apartment and steals my bass!

So I am scrambling trying to find an instrument for my Thursday lesson, and the only bassist who I can get ahold of in the ~6 hours before school starts is a friend who owned a Kramer. A fretless Kramer.

But beggars can't be choosers, so I ride my bike over to my friend's dorm at MIT and grab his fretless Kramer in the rectangular plywood hardshell case and cycle back the ~4 miles to Somerville trying to balance this boat anchor on my thigh, and then I get up the next day and go to my lesson with Whit and I'm just amazed that I'm even there...and he was freakin' relentless: "You're out of tune. Nope, try it again. Nope, still off. Take it from the top. Your intonation sucks. This is pathetic. That's flat. Now it's sharp. Do it again." Lather rinse repeat, for an entire hour.

It kinda amazes me that I ever wanted to play fretless again after that!

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Oh, man... The very first time I ever played a fretless bass was circa 1980 when I was 19 or 20, a sophomore at Berklee, I had my weekly lesson on Thursday mornings with Whit Brown -- an incredibly talented though staunchly conservative/traditional upright player who seemed to only begrudgingly tolerate electric players (I think Whit's a member here on TB these days; hey Whit!) -- and Wednesday night some asshat breaks into my apartment and steals my bass!

So I am scrambling trying to find an instrument for my Thursday lesson, and the only bassist who I can get ahold of in the ~6 hours before school starts is a friend who owned a Kramer. A fretless Kramer.

But beggars can't be choosers, so I ride my bike over to my friend's dorm at MIT and grab his fretless Kramer in the rectangular plywood hardshell case and cycle back the ~4 miles to Somerville trying to balance this boat anchor on my thigh, and then I get up the next day and go to my lesson with Whit and I'm just amazed that I'm even there...and he was freakin' relentless: "You're out of tune. Nope, try it again. Nope, still off. Take it from the top. Your intonation sucks. This is pathetic. That's flat. Now it's sharp. Do it again." Lather rinse repat, for an entire hour.

It kinda amazes me that I ever wanted to play fretless again after that!

Oh $hit......I’m sinking in my chair as I read that.

My first upright teacher must have taken a page from Whit’s book, cuz he was exactly like that....but add a lot of swearing. He even the “wall of picks” where every student through the years who showed up with a pick got it thumb tacked to the wall for eternity.

 

[monsterthompson]

Oh $hit......I’m sinking in my chair as I read that.

My first upright teacher must have taken a page from Whit’s book, cuz he was exactly like that....but add a lot of swearing. He even the “wall of picks” where every student through the years who showed up with a pick got it thumb tacked to the wall for eternity.

I would’ve brought a super thick pick just to watch him struggle.

 

[Spectrum]

I would’ve brought a super thick pick just to watch him struggle.

When I was in high school I had copper pick made from a penny left on the railroad tracks and flattened by a train, then trimmed up into a pick shape with tools. Would've been funny to see him try it on that.

ETA: wish I still had that pick...well, there is a rail line not far from here...

 

[cosmicevan]

totally.

do the work, the rest follows.

Hard work eats talent for breakfast.

I struggle putting a period on things but find when I do I grow....when I don't things just kind of dangle until they go away.

 

[cosmicevan]

My kids got me silver picks for fathers day or a birthday or something and they are pretty awesome on bass. I know they are supposed to be more or a nick nack but damn...little bit (oe sh.tload) of dirt and that silver pick delivers the clang!