When a guitarist says something like that, the standard answer is, "sure, I can turn it up some more".
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"Bass is not played that way" ?!
- Thread starter RATM-RHCP
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During a gig it's your job to make the band and song sound good. I'm not one to emphasize a "right/wrong" way to play bass (since I play by ear and can't read a note), but I do think a show is a situation where you play for the team. If it was just a rehearsal I'd tell the guitarist to bite me.
I won't say that cannot work at all ever, but generally speaking I'm hard pressed to think of very many situations where that sort of part would work. Perhaps as part of a bass solo or transition from one part to another. But if you play that way in my band, I'm probably showing you the door very quickly.
I’m assuming this lick was in complete good taste in the contex of the song you were playing. If, unless you are working off of a fixed arrangement where specific notes have to be played, or you are playing the guitarist song, blow it off. Frankly, when done tastefully, I’ve never had anybody complain that I played a note on the 12th fret.
Open mike night got on stage a blues group was the house band on these nights. Got on stage ask me what I wanted to play said anything blues. He picks a song I didnt know. In about a minute the lead guy calls up 3 other lead players to keep up with me. The audience was as turned on as I had ever seen them. Song ended everybody clapping walked away heard a couple people saying why do all bass players think their lead players. The best musitions in the house were giving me a thumbs up.
Although I frequented that bar often it was the first and last time I played there.
Although I frequented that bar often it was the first and last time I played there.
Whether playing really high is appropriate for the song really depends on what you're trying to do, musically.
I don't often venture up there, but at the same time, I'm not going to say Entwistle was wrong to do so in "The Real Me."
I don't often venture up there, but at the same time, I'm not going to say Entwistle was wrong to do so in "The Real Me."
Fire the drummerHaha, I had almost the exact same thing happen with a different Petty song (American Girl). I have been playing it for YEARS with the last two notes of the intro (the d to e right before "well she was an American girl...) one octave lower than the record just because it sounds cool live and fills up the stage. I do this with other tunes here and there too, especially if I have a fiver around.
A few weeks ago our lead singer hits me with " why are you doing it differently, I can't find where to start singing!". I have literally been playing it this way for five years or so, but suddenly home boy can't feel eight and it's my fault
This is a bass, I'm a bassist, and I played it that way. Guess you are wrong, Mr. Guitar Man.
Sheesh, I hope a lot of these 'I would respond by' responses aren't serious and my fellow bassists aren't such a sensitive bunch.
I mostly agree with this. I've been very fortunate to have played with a number of extremely talented and experienced musicians in the past 30 years. Many was the time when one of them criticized what I was doing and then showed me an alternative way to play. Most of the time this was extremely helpful and I learned something valuable. I now consider myself an experienced and talented bass player but I would still be a one trick pony if I had gotten all butt hurt whenever someone has tried to critique my playing.
I still regularly jam and gig with a drummer who has a degree from a prestigious music school and (more importantly) is also a professional musician who plays about 25-30 hours a week and has been doing that for decades. I always listen to him when he gives me "suggestions" on my bass playing.
That doesn't mean that I let every noob guitar wanker who thinks he's awesome because he's figured out how to two hand tap tell me how to play bass. But I will listen to those who are likely to know something useful.
For instance, I attended a "meet and greet" with the acoustic guitar virtuoso and composer Tommy Emmanuel and I brought my fretless bass along for him to sign. Since there were only 3 of us attending, he spent some time with each of us. He played my bass for a few minutes and then graciously asked me to play something for him. I played some short snippets of 3 different songs and he said he liked what I did in some parts in particular and complimented me on my skill in playing. Then he took my bass back and showed me a radically different arrangement of the same songs. He just blew me away. It was like a mini private lesson with one of the most talented musicians on Earth.
Yes.
But then there's simple repetition and then there's complex repetition.
Most Jazz is complex repetition.
