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Bass soloing..do you or do you not?

#41
I do it. Not well, but I still get solos in my band. When I get a solo, I'll usually just wing it instead of composing it. It keeps me on my toes when performing. Although if we are recording, I'll lay down several solos, pick the best one and then play that one from that point forward.
 
#45
daveman50 said:
No biggie. Just keep laying down your groove and throw a few extra notes into it. Move up into another octave and back down again. Keep it funky. Mix up the rhythms a little. It can be repetitive. You don't have to play like a jazz genius.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the zombie thread, but I just wanted to publicly thank you, daveman50, for this pearl. This is the single best piece of advice re playing I have gotten since I first bought a bass and my homie told me, "play octaves". After I read your post I sat down and played the groove of a couple of my band's songs and then played brief variations on those grooves, et voila - solos. I would like to get *better* at it, but if I keep it up, I will.

Thanks again.

--Bomb :bassist:
 
#46
No way, no solos, not for me. I am one of the older guys on this forum and I remember all those ridiculous solos guys were taking back in the 60s & 70s.

I don't believe the electric bass was intended for solos

"Lay Back and Groove on a Rainy Day"
 
#49
Nope... not into solo'ing. I don't need it to make me feel worthy or successful as a player.

My philosophy is: "If someone in the audience knows enough about music that they'll actually notice anything worthwhile they'll notice that I'm more than capable just from my normal playing. If they aren't knowledgable enough to notice than it won't matter what I do."
 
#50
I am all over the neck, slapping, tapping, playing doublestops, chords, harmonics, etc. Like Rocco said, I feel like I am soloing all the time. I play at church, so I don't really have much room for solos. But sometimes, when we are learning a new song, I will mess around with a piano or guitar part while others are learning their parts, and my Pastor/Worship Leader will notice it, and ask me to do that part on the bass instead of the instrument that did it on the recording. That keeps things interesting.

We did this song tonight. I do the piano intro on the bass.
 
#51
I do. sometimes more than I like!

In my jazz trio we usually each take a round, but sometimes I wish the piano player would lay out so I'm not always soloing over changes.
We have spoken about this, but he fergits
 
#52
Sorry to wake up this zombie (thread) again but it seems like most of you here are talking about soloing in a song. What about complete bass soloing? For example, bassists like Aram Bedrosian or Zander (Zon? I think that is his last name). Like, writing original solo arrangements for bass?
 
#55
My band asks me to solo all the time and I always tell them the same thing, "I`ll solo when I feel the spark of inspiration needed to create one. Otherwise, I`m happy enough just laying down a fat groove and laying deep in the pocket."

That said, there are some songs that we play where I go total 'Entwistle' and the whole song is nothing but a constant bass solo.
 
#57
system_roxr said:
I tend to disagree,
I think if you have some tunes you can have a solo off of, a crown would go crazy for a Bass or Drum Solo.
Click to expand...

drum solo yes.

i have seriously been on the rampage for some bass solos latley and really havent found ANYTHING good (mostly youtube).

i have always wanted to REALLY learn how to solo but again, no band i ever played in was interested and if i ever even said "hey lets put a bass solo in here instead of a guitar one" i got **** on.

then it would usually turn into one riff i played by myself quick INTO a ripping guiutar solo. but seriously that BECUASE no one wants to really hear a bass solo.

like i said before i have been searching for some good stuff and sadly "A LOT!!!" of bass solos just sound SOOOOOOOO similar that you would never know or it is just a long riff (like the solo in Orion, I hate that solo, its just a bass line, thats all.....)

i do like the maxwell murder one but its SOOOOOOOOO short it doesnt really constitute as a solo to me.

maybe more bass players NEED to start incorporating effects into their work like guitars to to really show it off.

if someone wants to send me some cool solos i would appreciate it as i would still like to learn.
 
#58
We do a few songs where the guitar player drops out completely (we are 3 piece) and the drummer and I fill up the sound with either a groove line or a solo riff. The guitar player sings through some of these segments or not depending on the song. This provides a great dynamic effect too. Some of the songs we do this on are La Grange, Gloria, and Mustang Sally.
 

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