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Can you help me find my groove

#21
Spend some time with a "good" drummer just jamming the rythm section.
Drum machines have perfect time---but they don't have groove.
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I spent some time with itunes drum loops (it was free), wrote a handful of lines to them, put them up craig's list and started jamming with a drummer like John just suggested.

We jammed every week (sometimes twice) for two months, I recorded it all, I listened back to it all, in those 2 months, I went from looping funk lines to soloing over his drumming, and really solidified my feel. Since I've been playing with the guy and we are now real tight we put up some of our recordings on CL and took our pick of guitarists...
 
#25
I wouldn't take it too hard, auditioning for a tribute band is tough. You not only have to learn the tunes exactly as on the recording, but you need to make it feel good. I know we are supposed to make all the music we play feel good, but you deserve some leeway. Do you listen to Bon Jovi regularly? If not that could be a big part of the problem, if you want a particular feel you need to listen to that feel. While James Brown, disco and other music in those genres are fun to listen to and learn they don't have the same groove as Bon Jovi.

This is a long way of saying you need to listen to as much music as possible.
 
#26
BillMason said:
How do you currently practice or learn songs?
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I don't really have a specific method, I usually practice different technics and scales with a metronome, usually unplugged while watching TV. Song are learned either by ear or with...........err.........hummmmmm.......tabs :hiding: I Usually use tabs to save time, and will learn all the extra fills and such by ear. and then it's just repetition.
 
#27
Michael Case said:
I wouldn't take it too hard, auditioning for a tribute band is tough. You not only have to learn the tunes exactly as on the recording, but you need to make it feel good. I know we are supposed to make all the music we play feel good, but you deserve some leeway. Do you listen to Bon Jovi regularly? If not that could be a big part of the problem, if you want a particular feel you need to listen to that feel. While James Brown, disco and other music in those genres are fun to listen to and learn they don't have the same groove as Bon Jovi.

This is a long way of saying you need to listen to as much music as possible.
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I do listen to pretty much ALL types of music except Rap and Death/Speed/scream metal. But you are right, they did say they were being very demanding. So I do take their comments with a grain of salt.....However, I still would love to bring my game up to that level so that in the futur I can get a quality gig like that.
 
#28
Oh! Henry said:
I don't really have a specific method, I usually practice different technics and scales with a metronome, usually unplugged while watching TV. Song are learned either by ear or with...........err.........hummmmmm.......tabs :hiding: I Usually use tabs to save time, and will learn all the extra fills and such by ear. and then it's just repetition.
Click to expand...

Is your metronome set on one click = one beat? Try setting it so that one click = every second beat, so in a 4/4 time signature, it clicks on beats 2&4. That will give you the feel of the snare drum, the good ol' back beat.

Also rather than practice scales, practice improvising walking bass lines - much more useful, and you get to *understand* scales rather then just memorize them. Just pick a key and play a 12-bar blues progression over and over again. For occassional choruses, try different rhythms, like "dotted quarter note-eighth note-half note," the ol' da-de-dah, da-de-dah bass line. For note choice, use Dominant 7 (mixolydian) arpeggio, just the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the scale, and use the other scale notes as weak beat passing tones between the chord tones (weak beats are 2&4). When you get a handle on that, try it with other modes, like Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, Lydian, etc. but just focus on one mode at a time.

Maybe pick up a cheap drum machine too and try this same practice routines that way rather than with a metronome.

Best experience though is finding a drummer and a guitar player who are interested in just jamming - make up a riff, play it over and over again really loud while the guitar player solos, rhythmically improvise your riff with the drummer, add passing tones to flavour. When I was young, we used to do that for like 20-40 minutes, just seeing where things would take us. A lot of it sounded like crap, but once in a while you get a gem of a riff, and it's all good for learning what you're trying to learn.
 
#29
Metronome, drum machine...all good. Learning to play a little ahead of the beat to add a sense of urgency or 'push' when required and how to play a little behind the beat to give everything a laid back feel is good too.

I don't think anybody has mentioned finger damping and dead notes yet. IMHO a few well syncopated damped notes can add a bucket load of groove...even to Bon Jovi
 
#31
Yeah, recently I've started to notice the behind/ahead of the beat thing. I'm gonna pick up a cheap drum machine this week, and get started on some of these excersises.

For some reason, there are very few bands looking for bass player around here, and I have some extra time on my hands, so this is the perfect time to put all these suggestions into practice.
 
#32
JohnnyPustular said:
A Bon Jovi cover band? I would think that any groove would be way over the top! Let's face it, Bon Jovi isn't the swingingest band in the land. Makes me think they are full of crap.

If you want to groove, you have to get it in your bones by listening. Soak yourself in Motown, Philly funk, all the great Ohio bands, Sly Stone, Prince. Get some old swing records from the 30s & 40s like Gene Krupa, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, the Dorseys, etc. Listen to old (Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, etc) and new (Stray Cats, Horton Heat) rockabilly. Listen, listen, and listen some more to swinging cats. There's a reason that groove used to come from certain geographic locales-- that's where people were drenched in the funk.

I'd stay away from James Brown to begin with-- though extremely funky, his funk is upside down and will mostly confuse you. Find the groove the makes your rocks dance: 70s funk, motown, Irish, rockabilly, swing, Acadian, bluegrass, R&B, northern soul, hip hop, western swing, etc. There's all kind of groove-- find the one that inhabits your soul and listen, listen, listen.
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I dont know if If staying away from JB is a good thing, but otherwise you hit the nail on the head imho.
 
#34
Listen to some early Incubus, Dirk Lance was a machine.

The warmth (track 4 on make yourself) is f*ckin awesome and has a really solid groove, just an awesome bass line. Anything on S.C.I.E.N.C.E is also incredible.

Ben Kenny there new bassist is also phenomenal; although I found his best work to be on their newest album Light Grenades.

Being in a Bon Jovi "tribute" band would be lame as hell, consider this a stroke of luck.
 

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