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Best licks/tricks you've learned from a guitarist?
- Thread starter jrklmx(Andrew)
- Start date
MikeBass
Supporting Member
- Nov 4, 2003
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With the chicks:
"Yeah, we have a major label deal in Japan, we're HUGE in Japan. Just play here for fun"
"Yeah, we have a major label deal in Japan, we're HUGE in Japan. Just play here for fun"
Alvaro Martín Gómez A.
TalkBass' resident Bongo + cowbell player
Bendings. I learned the proper string bending technique from a Wolf Marshall lesson in a Guitar School or Guitar World magazine back in the early to mid nineties.
Not really a trick, but it was a "light bulb" moment. A guitarist was playing an F triad when the chord was Dmin7. When the OTHER guitarist pointed out that he was playing the "wrong chord", the good guitar player looked at me and said "You're playing the D and the A, right? We've got a Dmin7 on this side of stage!". Practical application of music theory in a one second lesson!
The other "tricks" I've learned from guitarits? Show up on time with working gear that's appropriate to the gig, have spares for things that break, have good attitude, big ears, and relax.
jte
The other "tricks" I've learned from guitarits? Show up on time with working gear that's appropriate to the gig, have spares for things that break, have good attitude, big ears, and relax.
jte
My father is a jazz guitarist. He told me:
"As long as you hit the root on the downbeat, it really doesn't matter what else you play"
an over simplification, of course, but I always remember that in situations where I am unsure or insecure about what I should play. If you are holding down the root and the rhythm, the rest of the band will most likely be happy.
"As long as you hit the root on the downbeat, it really doesn't matter what else you play"
an over simplification, of course, but I always remember that in situations where I am unsure or insecure about what I should play. If you are holding down the root and the rhythm, the rest of the band will most likely be happy.
Trick I learned from a guitarist - You can make any note on your instrument continue to sustain, and look cool at the same time, by making a fist and repeatedly punching the body near the bridge while you continue to fret the note. Great for the "big finishes". Yes, the genre is hard rock.
Absolutely nothing.
I say that with the utmost sincerity....maybe I've just had the displeasure to work with nothing but pompous, arrogant wankers who were total and utter morons. For every guitarist I've worked or played with.....they have been the ones to learn something from ME.
I say that with the utmost sincerity....maybe I've just had the displeasure to work with nothing but pompous, arrogant wankers who were total and utter morons. For every guitarist I've worked or played with.....they have been the ones to learn something from ME.
The best things I've ever copped from guitarists were blues licks. Guitar has by far the best running vocabulary out of any instrument for the blues, and its a great resource if you want to get it done right.
I started to post asking what you were talking about. While explaining why I didn't understand, I figured it out and didn't need to ask the question in the first place.
(Hint: spell the chords out. If you don't notice anything, then you did it wrong.)
As for what I've learned from guitarists...well, not much, frankly. You might not believe it from my admission above, but I typically know as much or more theory than other guitarists I've met and I don't have much use for their licks.
I was convinced to start bass (altho motives were to be able to play with a bass with his guitar) by a guitar guy, and he also convinced me to play with the pick every once in a while. No real tricks or licks.
I guess the biggest things that I've learned from guitar is arpeggios and tapping, all that shred stuff. When I began playing guitar, I was in to all that stuff, so when I started doing it on guitar, I figured there was no reason not to do it on bass.
Mind you, I have a hard time finding a place for those techniques in the music I play currently with my band, it's cool stuff to know. I used to use them a lot when I was younger, I figured I had to prove to everybody that I was this crazy bass player, but nowadays I feel like I don't really have to prove anything. If somebody doesn't think I'm good, that's cool with me
I find I pick up more off of drummers to be honest, especially in terms of learning how just changing up a few hits or moving things a little bit can impact the music.
Mind you, I have a hard time finding a place for those techniques in the music I play currently with my band, it's cool stuff to know. I used to use them a lot when I was younger, I figured I had to prove to everybody that I was this crazy bass player, but nowadays I feel like I don't really have to prove anything. If somebody doesn't think I'm good, that's cool with me
I find I pick up more off of drummers to be honest, especially in terms of learning how just changing up a few hits or moving things a little bit can impact the music.
um...
Bill Frisell used to do this thing where he'd play a note into his long ambient FX chain, and then use a volume pedal to swell in another note or chord underneath that first note that was still sustaining due to the digital delay. Winds up creating these dense, widely-spaced chords that seeth & evolve over time. I've copped something similar on a few occasions.
I guess I've copped Allan Holdsworth's use of multiple left hand hammer-ons/pull-offs to execute long fast legato passages.
I dunno, do those count as "tricks"?
Bill Frisell used to do this thing where he'd play a note into his long ambient FX chain, and then use a volume pedal to swell in another note or chord underneath that first note that was still sustaining due to the digital delay. Winds up creating these dense, widely-spaced chords that seeth & evolve over time. I've copped something similar on a few occasions.
I guess I've copped Allan Holdsworth's use of multiple left hand hammer-ons/pull-offs to execute long fast legato passages.
I dunno, do those count as "tricks"?
I read about Dean DeLeo of STP using very small, even pocket-sized guitar amps for recordings because he liked their tone when close-mic'ed. I realized the the size of the rig doesn't matter when the volumes are being controlled somewhere else - i.e. worry about tone first, volume later
Alvaro Martín Gómez A.
TalkBass' resident Bongo + cowbell player
Another one: I was so impressed the first time I saw Eddie Van Halen playing "Cathedral" that I tried to recreate it on bass as soon as I understood how to get that effect.
