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Bass Solo Rant
- Thread starter faulknersj
- Start date
Simple communication with your fellow band members, letting them know you'd like some chordal/rhythmic support during solos, will solve all of these problems. I've never had an issue getting some backup after I asked for it.
The guys I play with all know my preferences, and I know theirs .... just speak up, it's not that hard
The guys I play with all know my preferences, and I know theirs .... just speak up, it's not that hard
This guy goes on vacation to a tropical island. As soon as he gets off the plane, he hears drums. He thinks "Wow, this is cool." He goes to the beach, he hears the drums, he eats lunch, he hears drums, he goes to a luau, he hears drums. He tries to go to sleep, yet he hears drums.
This goes on for several nights, and gets to the point where the guy can't sleep at night because of the drums. Finally, he goes down to the front desk.
When he gets there, he asks the manager, "Hey! What's with these drums. Don't they ever stop? I can't get any sleep."
The manager says, "No! Drums must never stop. It's VERY BAD if drums stop."
"Why?"
"When drums stop...bass solo begins."
This goes on for several nights, and gets to the point where the guy can't sleep at night because of the drums. Finally, he goes down to the front desk.
When he gets there, he asks the manager, "Hey! What's with these drums. Don't they ever stop? I can't get any sleep."
The manager says, "No! Drums must never stop. It's VERY BAD if drums stop."
"Why?"
"When drums stop...bass solo begins."
Well most Bass solos (like the vast majority of Guitar solos) are just some guy aimlessly noodling around until he is done being silly. That can be rectified by trying to learn a more "catchy" lead style.This guy goes on vacation to a tropical island. As soon as he gets off the plane, he hears drums. He thinks "Wow, this is cool." He goes to the beach, he hears the drums, he eats lunch, he hears drums, he goes to a luau, he hears drums. He tries to go to sleep, yet he hears drums.
This goes on for several nights, and gets to the point where the guy can't sleep at night because of the drums. Finally, he goes down to the front desk.
When he gets there, he asks the manager, "Hey! What's with these drums. Don't they ever stop? I can't get any sleep."
The manager says, "No! Drums must never stop. It's VERY BAD if drums stop."
"Why?"
"When drums stop...bass solo begins."
It is all down to practicing the right things.
Mr. Lovejoy said:
You can practice all you want and be the most exquisite soloist with the most creative melodic chops and the most singing sweet tone and you'll probably still bore the pants off of the audience in 5 seconds unless they came to hear solo bass or are a group of bassists, and even then most won't be that interested.
My take is that the register of the instrument makes it less than ideal for most solo situations, and that, on the upside, a good bassist who plays in a melodic style can solo pretty much constantly and still hold a groove in certain musical situations, while still sounding like a bass instrument. See Jamerson and Entwistle for two different approaches that work fairly well...
Ultimate "lead bass run" IMO can be found in Foghat's "Slowride". The drums accentuate, the bassist never loses his sense of groove, and it's melodic as heck!
What a close-minded approach to music, a bloody creative medium. Then again that style of thinking is why rock deserved to die.
But who says I wasn't talking about learning from Entwhistle and Jamerson in my post?
I'm not much for solo 'by myself' solos, but I can definitely dig a short lead guitar style solo. I prefer to just be a little more creative with fills in general and skip the solo opportunities. A great example is Geedy Lee's bass line off their new CD on the track "Headlong Flight". No 'solo' spot, but the man is playing lead and bass at the same time for half the song. That kind of playing, in my mind, is the most fun.
it's not about the instrument register per se, but more how your overall "sound" is set when it is your solo time. The mid timbre of a bass guitar, specially in the higher part of the fretboard, can absolutely be as melodic as any other instrument. In other words: walking requires a light touch with a low and soft overall sound; when it is solo time you better cranck mids, volume and dig in. But most important you better... have something to say...!!!! (Listen to some Jeff Berlin, Gary Willis, Jimmy Johnson and dozens of other skilled hi calibers...)
I play exclusively jazz with our guitar trio, so as someone above said, they better be quiet and comp below the sound of my bass when it's bass solo time, otherwise I will just stop playing and remark in an evident way my friends "immaturity"; but this never happens anymore. I guess we're growing... 
Story time:
wife and husband go to a councelor, a shrink (you name it) because they want to divorce. Wife starts: "he's doing this and that and furthermore he also goes so and so...". The husband says: "well, when I come home, instead of greeting me she does that and complains and that other thing etc..."
all of a sudden the therapist takes out from the bag his bass, plugs it into a small amp and he starts playing a solo. Wife: "well maybe I was too hard on you, I might have done better, like that time when..." husband: "and I could definitely be more patient and less obnoxious... etc." after a few exchanges like those, they tell to the doctor they are going to give a chance to their marriage one more time and that they "...don't want to divorce anymore".
"Doctor, our compliments but how did you accomplished that?" and the doctor: "well, when the bass player starts his solo, people start talking, you know..."
I agree, I've never cared to solo unless it's already in a cover tune, Then naturally, people expect it. Other than that, It's like being subjected to watching someones home movies. B O O O R I N G!!!
Same goes for drum solos.
That said, I DO appreciate a bass or drum solo that "WOWS" me. Unfortunately, those are far and few between.
Everyone has an opinion, that one's mine.
I enjoy solos if they aren't outrageously long, but my idea of a solo is more in the vein of Jack Bruce or Andy Fraser or Berry Oakley, not just wanking away in the low register.
This is a pet peeve of mine, the band abandoning the bass player during the bass solo.
This actually has roots in the Jazz tradition, Double bass with Gut strings with little or no amplification was not loud. The band would drop out simply to allow the bass player to be heard.
In today's world, this makes no sense and I want harmonic support when I solo. I can get my bass above the band when its time for my solo.
I will say that everyone dropping out gives you huge opportunity to learn how to outline the chords you are soloing over by your note choices. This can only help your knowledge of harmony.
This actually has roots in the Jazz tradition, Double bass with Gut strings with little or no amplification was not loud. The band would drop out simply to allow the bass player to be heard.
In today's world, this makes no sense and I want harmonic support when I solo. I can get my bass above the band when its time for my solo.
I will say that everyone dropping out gives you huge opportunity to learn how to outline the chords you are soloing over by your note choices. This can only help your knowledge of harmony.
A lot of what makes me want to take a solo is the harmony, so if everything else drops out then I quickly lose the desire to "say something".
In addition to good'solo' work and just plain old great background rhythm, I've always particularly liked 'lead bass' playing a la Larry Graham, Jaco, MM, Abe Laboriel, Nathan East, Pino, TM Stevens, Randy Jackson, Geddy, Mark Adams etc.
These guys and many others have a way of tastefully putting the bass front and center in the mix, even to the point of 'defining' the song in a listener's memory, like Pino on 'Every time you go Away'. I love and take pride in that as a bassist.
These guys and many others have a way of tastefully putting the bass front and center in the mix, even to the point of 'defining' the song in a listener's memory, like Pino on 'Every time you go Away'. I love and take pride in that as a bassist.
My feeling as well.
IMO most people respond more to high and higher notes. Take for example the now cliche moment in the Star Spangled Banner where nearly every singer has to go higher on "of the free" and the cliche audience approval.
I don't know the science of it but I'd place my bet on higher=more audience approval.
Another example of lower=lower appreciation hit me a long time ago seeing the incredible bassman/soloist Jimmy Johnson at a small club. IIRC there were at least 2 solos before him that were great and it was handed to him and he did things no one else can do on bass and in my biased opinion played the best solo of all, after which appx 7 people clapped. I'm not sure people knew when it started or ended.
I also agree w/the point Victor makes about groove falling off. It hits me at home as I do tend to smear over barlines and recognize the perils of doing so.
Another peeve for me is that most leaders will put bass solos
at the end of the line, after perhaps a sax and/or key solo.
Those guys usually have more chops as that's part of their domain historically, and they have the benefit of a hopefully grooving band to smear over and extend harmonically, and after some guy does his awesome Brecker stuff here comes the bass solo over pitter-patter, which if it doesn't outline the chords with obvious triadic content, makes most people including the band think he's jumping bars or is lost.
It's like putting the cleanup hitter up first before anyone is on bass!
I do feel we get the benefit of being the solo-underdog though.
There are always people who God love em root for you, no matter how clunky you are.
All that said, I'm happy to turn down a solo if I don't want the tune/groove to die or don't feel it. When I'm doing a fast jazz tune that I'm hangin on tryin to be in front of the changes, no solo, thanks anyway. It's OK to say no!
The way most drummers solo, nobody else should try to play. The clock goes out the window and there's nothing to synch to.
Mr. Lovejoy said:What a close-minded approach to music, a bloody creative medium. Then again that style of thinking is why rock deserved to die.
But who says I wasn't talking about learning from Entwhistle and Jamerson in my post?
Well, my apologies for killing rock, then, whatever that has to do with what I think about solo bass.
The fact is most people respond to instruments in the vocal register differently than they do in lower or higher ones, and most types of music from around the world recognize this and use instruments in that register for most solo passages. Of course there are exceptions, but there are physiological reasons for this at the base the of cultural ones.
totally agree with all these points. in a jazz setting playing #11s and 13s and such on solos doesn't have the same effect if there is no harmonic grounding. Sometimes it's totally liberating and sometimes it's on the bassist to outline the harmony and solo. But sometimes it's nice to solo over that grounding, too.
I had a jazz teacher once who had a problem with the pianist just checking out for every bass solo, and he wasn't taking hints, so this guy waited for the next piano solo, and then he (the bassist) dropped out for the entire solo. The pianist was thrown off and on the break was livid, but the bassist explained that that was what he (the pianist) was doing every time the rhythm section soloed. Then he re-stated his preference for the pianist to comp during his solo (but perhaps an octave higher than he would for lead instruments, and a little softer); got what he wanted.
You do know the Bass isn't tuned *that* much lower than a normal guitar, right? Many of the notes are just the same as on a electric/acoustic/etc. Guitar.
That said, it's all about how you tune your sound from there on out.
