Dictating

[abarson]

Last week's gig went really well. We seemed the most relaxed and clued into each other, starting and ending most songs as expected and doing a good job of keeping tempo. On one song I did feel that the rest of the band was starting to stray and speed up. As I'm really the anchor for this specific song, I dug into the strings and concentrated hard on locking it down. Really threw my sonic weight into it. The end result was that the rest of the band complied and we didn't run off.
I'm kind of reveling in this newfound power to control the situation, but I'm also kind of discouraged I had to invoke it. Anyone experience anything similar?

 

[redwingxix]

 

[mike o]

Bravo!!!!

 

[RustyAxe]

Anyone experience anything similar?

Often. The guys in my band pretty much understand that when the singer takes a "side trip" they should listen to the bass, and we'll be back on track, on the one, on the right chord, in a measure or two. IOW, "stay calm".

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Now that you know you have it, remember: Use it for Good, never for Evil.

 

[pablomago]

I'm not sure if I could control the band, but I could control the dancers. I could change how I played something just a little and the dancers would respond and move to the way I played.

 

[NZBassman]

I have the opposite sometimes in my band- guitarist or drummer will start a song too slow and I'm trying to play it faster in the hope that they will 'catch up'.... it happened with last weeks practice and I actually stopped and sayd 'guys it's dragging a bit - needs to go a little faster'... thankfully they were all on board and we restarted it as little faster....

 

[saabfender]

It's why I play this thing. Honestly, one of my favorite musical thrills. A month back, I watched Noel Redding get Jimi Hendrix back on track when he messed up an intro. Makes you proud to be a bass player.

 

[hrodbert696]

 

[MynameisMe]

I play worship music, mostly Christian contemporary and I’ve whipped the drummer and our worship band leader back into the right rhythm many times when they got off track. They didn’t even know I did it. Lol.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Good that they listened. Many musicians won't.

 

[THUNDERGODX]

I was working with a drummer who definitely traveled to the beat of a different drum-HIS!
Constantly sped up when the music got more involved. Or yielded to excitement of the moment after an especially good guitar solo.
Or change to chorus. Or back to verse.
I actually think Ive been propelled about 5 minutes into the future overall from having played with him.

 

[jeffbrown]

It's why I play this thing. Honestly, one of my favorite musical thrills. A month back, I watched Noel Redding get Jimi Hendrix back on track when he messed up an intro. Makes you proud to be a bass player.

Wow! Time travel DOES exist! So cool! I want to go to Woodstock I. I missed it the first time. PM me, OK?

Oh, wait, what? Never mind....

 

[MrBKerth]

Last week's gig went really well. We seemed the most relaxed and clued into each other, starting and ending most songs as expected and doing a good job of keeping tempo. On one song I did feel that the rest of the band was starting to stray and speed up. As I'm really the anchor for this specific song, I dug into the strings and concentrated hard on locking it down. Really threw my sonic weight into it. The end result was that the rest of the band complied and we didn't run off.
I'm kind of reveling in this newfound power to control the situation, but I'm also kind of discouraged I had to invoke it. Anyone experience anything similar?

Time to enact a treaty with the drummer to ensure rhythmic control over the band! Just kidding, but this is part of the crux of why bass is functionally and philosophically different than guitar. You're the glue holding those melody players in line with the kick drum and sounds like you performed your job with feeling.