Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
"Bass is not played that way" ?!
- Thread starter RATM-RHCP
- Start date
-
- Tags
- guitarists
I take great pride in writing 'non-traditional' basslines that no guitar player or even many bass players my age would ever think to do. As long as it sounds good, why even listen to the guitarist? It's not like they're part of the main driving force of the band 
I have strong feelings on this.
1. I learned a long time ago not to tell other people how to play their instrument. Give them the concept of what you would like them to do (ie. "can you give it more of a textured sound") rather than specific practices for how to actually make music on their instrument.
2. Don't be bound by tradition.
For me, it's what gets me making good music the fastest. Some of you know I play only short scale instruments. I have done so on electric bass for the last 30 years. Even though luthiers in the 90's told me nothing short of a full scale bass would work "because the low E of the short scale doesn't resonate enough". Fast forward 30 years and there is a plethora of short scale basses of decent quality on the market, and many cats are gigging with them. Many..!
I play with a low action on my upright bass, and I have this clicking sound on the G string. So, I have learned to change the angle of my plucking with the right hand so the string vibrates loudly, but not up and down so it hits the fingerboard -- it vibrates side to side, parallel to the fingerboard surface. Not exactly standard practice, but it works. I have other things I do on instruments, in bands, in song writing that I think people would sneer at but I don't give a hoot about it.
So much of what passes for "proper technique" is one person's opinion, built on the assumption that everyone has the same body size and goals. That's not true.
Yesterdays' bedrock principles often become only one of many styles for approaching the instrument.
Bottom line -- do what sounds good. Know what the "rules are", and if you choose to break them, have a very good reason that manifests itself in the music or an improvement of your situation as a musician!!!
Last edited:
Many guitar players say that cause your getting in there way! When you look at it in an objective way you should give the music what it needs. Listen to everyone and certainly not only the guitar player! Keep doing what your doing!
I've had the opposite problem. Our church band had tons of trouble finding and keeping guitarists so when I first started I was often asked to play as high as possible to kinda/sorta cover for the missing guitar! We've since found enough guitars but no one objects if I use those high frets occasionally.
This.
Sometimes we forget that a band is a *band* and the music the band makes is a *band* product... not the product of a "band featuring wonderbassist". Decisions to play outside the intended style or the way its been played should be discussed as a band beforehand and not unilaterally decided upon in the middle of a performance.
Don't confuse this with the whole "bass should be played a certain way" thing (which I absolutely detest), because it's not the same. This is "if you're going to be part of a band, play as a band and not as an island unto yourself". After all, we don't want everybody to think we're wannabee guitarists, do we?
TBH there are *alot* of replies in this thread that justify other positions thinking we bassists are a strange, difficult bunch to deal with.
Last edited:
Never bothered me. I play guitar, too, and could play out on it if I wanted (and got a little more in practice with it).
100% true.
This reminds of something I heard from a particularly stupid person a few years ago. Apparently bass shouldn't be played above the 12th fret because it should only play low notes.
Don't you think it should be played the way that the one who wrote the song meant it to be played?
Or does the listener/bassist/guitarist have the right to say that the writers judgement on his own song is flawed?
Who has the right to determine that?
For example:Some may say that the bassline to this piece is too busy.
But just who decides what is the right bass line?
The writer and the bass player that submitted the bass line.
Last edited:
I'm a "play it as originally performed" kinda guy, but don't think that's necessarily the "right" way or only way to do it for everyone. It's just right for me.
That being said, I don't think the issue here is that songs are or aren't being played the they were originally performed, although this idea has gotten mixed into the discussion and produced some very cringey replies.
The issue is, if you're going to be in a band you should be acting as part of that band as opposed to being a self-indulgent jerk. In other words, the band decides together how the songs are played. When a bassist decides on his own to play it his way, it's like a McDonald's franchisee deciding to serve Whoppers instead of Big Macs because that's what *he* wants to serve regardless of his commitment to McDonald's and his customers.
And if you can't handle being in a band that wants to do things a certain way, whatever way that is, then don't be in that band.
Last edited:
That's what I meant. If the writer determines a workable bass line for his song (or it is determined by the collaborative writer/members of that band) then that's what it should be.
Or if someone does a cover and comes up with a bassline that absolutely works.....then good.
But it has to work. Just because a guy writes a bass line doesn't mean it was good or right for the song.
Oh yeah. We would go to open jams in between gigs in Northwest Chicago and this one guitarist (we'll call him JAMES L. ) was upset that I played Jack Bruce's part in Crossroads, even though that's the song he had requested to play. I've got the tabs and I've known the song for a gazillion years, so there was no guess work. He tells me in between songs that the bass is a backround instrument and that we "can't ALL be over the top". To which I replied..."Then, why don't YOU hang back??" I know that overplaying your part can kill a song as sure as playing the wrong tempo, or note. You play that damned bass the way you feel.
+1. This exactly. It's all about context.
So, were you soloing when this happened? Is it a "Dixieland" style jam-band, where the idea is that everyone sort of solos (or noodles) at the same time?
When I played in an originals band, I decided my bass lines!
Some of the other band members might come with suggestions, and if what I came up with and played meet strong objections among them and they had a better idea I'd listen and change it, but basically, I play the bass, I decide what I think serves the song best, and the other band members by large trust my judgement.
It's called cooperating.
If you play in a band where the individual members don't trust each other and each other's skills as far as their instruments of choice goes, you are pretty bad off in my opinion and just waiting for a breakup to happen.
I am perfectly aware that that is not how it works in a lot of bands, but non the less that brings nothing constructive with it from a perspective of serving what is best for the music.
I mean dictating what every band member should do can work.
It worked quite well for Capatain Beefheart, no one can claim that the music suffered from it at least, but as far as I know the story of The Magic Band is also a pretty in depth lesson in dysfunctional band management.
Last edited:
