Busy bass playing

[Spidey2112]

hi Spidey

Ohio bassplayers sight reading progressive metall?

My bucks are on the cat!

Possibly, but the Ohio Players brought the funk, baby! Regarding the cat... only if it still has it claws.

Hope you are well, mi amigo!

 

[Tim Skaggs]

Warren Haynes was interviewed in the early 2000s about The Deep End Volume 1. I couldn’t find the exact interview text, but as I recall, he was asked about how it was decided which bassist played on which song. Haynes said some bassists chose from a list of songs and some just took the next available song.

Haynes said Oteil Burbridge came in after all songs were taken except one; “Worried Down With The Blues”. Haynes said he apologized to Oteil and offered to bring in a different, more complex, song that would allow Oteil to really utilize his chops.

Oteil said “Worried” would be just fine & he was ready to record. Haynes said Oteil played it simply & perfectly without adding too much or playing too little, and it turned out to be one of the best songs of the project. Haynes said he didn’t know why he thought Oteil needed a complex song to show his stuff. He was a master of simple bass lines also.

 

[brisonic]

one of the best things ever for my bass playing was getting into home recording with GarageBand and starting to think more like a producer. Being able to hear/see the whole picture and think: What does this song need? vs. What's fun to play on bass? Bass isn't the only arrow in my quiver to add excitement or complexity when I'm singing or contributing other instruments as well.

This or recording your practices so you can listen will improve what you do. I got a Zoom H1 to help with that.

 

[Les Fret]

Simplicity is a bass player's best friend.

Don’t tell this to Les Claypool, Jaco, Michael Manring, Clay Gober, John Myung, Gary Willis, Percy Jones and many other of my favorite players.

There is a time and place for everything. So it’s not that black and white as you and many other people are saying. Totally depends on the musical environment and the situation. That’s why I dislike statements like ‘these are the money notes’ or ‘everything happens at the first seven frets’ or ‘a bass player should play simple lines’. Luckily there is much more to bass playing than that.

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

Don’t tell this to Les Claypool, Jaco, Michael Manring, Clay Gober, John Myung, Gary Willis, Percy Jones and many other of my favorite players.

There is a time and place for everything. So it’s not that black and white as you and many other people are saying. Totally depends on the musical environment and the situation. That’s why I dislike statements like ‘these are the money notes’ or ‘everything happens at the first seven frets’ or ‘a bass player should play simple lines’. Luckily there is much more to bass playing than that.

You completely missed the point

 

[Les Fret]

You completely missed the point

why? It was about playing simpler bass lines. All the players I mentioned play busy bass lines.

 

[thmsjordan]

"Playing Bass is an art, like bowling."
- David Hungate

 

[thmsjordan]

Usually takes a bassist a few years to learn HOW to play bass, a few more years to learn WHEN to play what you learned, and a few more years to learn WHAT & WHEN not to play.

My brother plays traditional Irish music and the Uillean pipe player mentioned to me once that it takes about 7 years to learn how to play the pipes, another 7 to learn how to use the chanter (background drone), and then another 14 years to learn that you NEVER use the chanter. Bass is kinda like that, only completely different.

 

[thmsjordan]

So why some new acts like Dirty Loops, Domi and JD Beck (Domi's left hand is a bass player in itself right ?), Thundercat, Vulfpeck, Cory Wong, Knower/Louis cole with bassist Sam Wilkes, Nate Wood, Jacob Collier's bass guy Robin Mullarkey (or Jacob Collier even alone ?) are getting so much praise nowadays with rearranged covers or busy basslines in original songs ? simply because the OP cannot get what "evolution" means.

Anything has to evolve, or die. Period. You don't like it ? leave it.

hmmmm, try telling that to a Coelacanth.

 

[HolmeBass]

###### WARNING! OLD MAN RANT AHEAD! #######


Meh.

Play what you want and what you can.

If you can't play it and want to, practice it.


Who, seriously is deciding what sounds good by the quantity of notes per measure?


What about Sir Paul's super busy bass line in a really lovely legato piece called "Something"? Most bass players (by that I'm excluding greats like Jamerson, etc.) would be worried to death about overplaying in a ballad - it's like putting ketchup on a hot dog. Sure you can do it, if you like suckage.

Play quarter notes at most!!! KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! DON'T OVERPLAY!

Not so. Paul's complicated line works beautifully.

Now, of course all bets are off when we are comparing Paul to pretty much anyone about anything musically, but the principle stands.


Play what sounds good, experiment, play too many notes, play not enough notes, play with a butter knife against the strings, be creative - and keep the calculators out of music.



######## NOW GET OFF MY LAWN, YOU PUNKS! #########

It’s important to remember that George was not stoked about Paul’s bass line. He grudgingly allowed McCartney to keep it.

If Macca has listened to the TB CW in that other thread, he would have immediately scrapped it and put in a line of only half and whole notes. Some (most?) are happy George relented, but I also know people who feel Macca definitely over-played on “Something”.

 

[Groove Doctor]

There’s a level above simplicity. Few people attain that.

 

[Cristo]

I'd say it's not uncommon to want to be a busy overplaying technical showoff when young, and then this tends to give way as one ages.

So you've changed your outlook over 30 years? Who hasn't?

 

[scott sinner]

There’s no best and music is a team sport. Any musician who isn’t serving the song is hurting the song. Sometimes one needs to step out and play at a high level. That’s fine as long as the whole team is on board, example, a lead or solo (Listen to Art Blakey and Reggie Workman). Sometimes a very adept player can overplay and seem isolated from the rest of the group (Pat Metheny seems to record tracks before hearing the other tracks).
In all cases it’s best to serve a song. Play a solo when it is appropriate. Or support another solo. Or drive the bus so a singer or other player can shine.

So well said. And the balanced responses like this in this thread are really making me appreciate again how much I feel like my current band gets this. We have some extreme examples of this thinking for a three piece….a song where there basically is just subtle guitar single whole notes mostly in all the verses due to a busy bass and drum bit….another where I decided the guitar part was filling up all the needed space on the first chorus and I don't play anything.

 

[DWBass]

I appreciate the creativity a lot of non pro bass players have for busy bass playing but it ain't for me. Simple, solid and what the song needs is my approach since the mid 70's when I started playing.

 

[mambo4]

"Less is more only when you know what 'more' is, and you can make a conscious decision to step back from that"
-Jacob Collier.
who would know what 'more' is for sure, lol

 

[SteveCS]

IMO simple is the most effective way of playing a bass.

Listen to the likes of Chuck Rainey, Reggie McBride, Wilton Felder, Nathan East, Lee Sklar, Sean Hurley, Duck Dunn etc and the simplicity of their bass lines rules the songs.

Simplicity is a bass player's best friend.

Don’t tell this to Les Claypool, Jaco, Michael Manring, Clay Gober, John Myung, Gary Willis, Percy Jones and many other of my favorite players.

Simplicity or complexity mean nothing if it can't be executed with tight and clean technique. All other things being equal, a perfectly executed simple part will always trump the busy part delivered with scrappy, inadequate or under-developed technique. And there are plenty of players that 'want to be busy' but don't always have the technique to realise the aspiration. Good technique combined with high levels of musicianship (taste?) has a way of making a complex or busy part sound simple and appropriate; lousy technique (bad timing, flubbed notes, poor dynamics and inconsistent timbre) and undeveloped musicianship can make even the simplest of lines sound frenetic, forced, misplaced or simply bad. IME; YMMV.

 

[Pacman]

If you play a “lead bass” in a group, please change to lead guitar. Leave bass to the roots!

 

[MVE]

Why do we bass players constantly opine on this subject?
I’ve never heard singers complain about people who “oversing”. Sure they poke fun at Maria Carey for it but it’s not like anyone really says she’s a bad singer for doing it, even if you don’t care for her music. And I really doubt there are singer focused sites with 6 page threads on when and how to belt out some melismatic vocal runs, with half the people proudly responding, “…I would never!!!”
Anyway my point is, most of us here like all different kinds of music, styles, songs. So let’s just agree that each and every one of us approaches a chord progression in our own unique way and leave it at that.
Nobody here is better for playing more or less than anyone else.
Like what you like and play how you feel.

 

[J Wilson]

For me, a great object lesson in how much is enough is Jimmy Johnson with James Taylor. The Double J has a strong sweet spot for prog, and to hear him blazing away on some of the late Allen Holdsworth projects vs. what he play with James is a master class in knowing where you are and what the songs need.

I always say what separates the men from the boys is knowing what to leave out. Busy is all too easy: What fits and sits in the chart is the hardest intuition to operate.

 

[climber]

per the OP: can you play both ways (busy and simple) and deliver, coherently? if you can, you're the player everyone wants...you have enough experience, chops, and sensitivity... and you're in control. i think everyone wants to be considered, "tasteful."

when I want and/or need to... pretty simple/solid here:

nice tune, @climber!

thanks JRA...