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Do any of you use Ghost Notes much?

#43
I use them moderately but constantly. They are in all my lines.

I see them like adverbs in a sentence. You can do without them but they help your style and accuracy. If you use too many you sound pedantic.

On a plucked string instrument like ours, there is a wide area between a plain note and a ghost note, with different qualities of pitch and muting. It's a great tool.
 
#44
Yes. As another poster said, with something like Bach I do not. However, with anything else I play there's a good chance I'll throw one in. I do it when the guitars do it (which happens a lot in some of the groovier rock and metal I listen to). Sometimes I do it if I have more of a lead passage, or if I'm playing something with an almost funky 16th note pattern like Tool or Rage Against the Machine.
 
#46
I do. Before I even knew what a ghost note was I was using them. I think it started as a way to help me keep time in tough pieces, and then I realized they had a cool sound that added a new element to my playing. Like others said, it becomes a percussion instrument as well; this is good because I don't get to play with a drummer as much as I like and just bass on its own can be very boring. Adding the ghost notes can make it sound more interesting.

I pretty much do it automatically now, I don't really need to think where they go I just put them in according to feel. Sometimes I don't even notice I'm doing it
 
#53
It seems strange to me that the OP would even consider asking the question unless new to the whole concept as the technique is so fundamental to the instrument. DB players had been doing it long before Leo cut up some planks. Maybe if coming solely from a metal background. But yes, people do use ghost notes, even when they think they don't.
 
#54
It depends on the style. In funk, all the time. It breathes life into my lines, it is what makes it funkay. Sometimes it can be hard to leave them out when the situation doesn't call for them, almost like they're a rhythmical crutch for me. It's very much like what jimk said on page 1; keeping your plucking/picking/slapping hand going can be like a metronome. Keeps you anchored to the groove.
 
#55
cycler said:
It seems strange to me that the OP would even consider asking the question unless new to the whole concept as the technique is so fundamental to the instrument. DB players had been doing it long before Leo cut up some planks. Maybe if coming solely from a metal background. But yes, people do use ghost notes, even when they think they don't.
Click to expand...

Being the OP, ghost notes and such are not new to me at all. I have been using them during my 43 years of playing bass. I was just posing a question as a curiosity as to what other players do since some use them a little, some a lot, and some not at all.
 
#59
No. But, sometimes if I have a rest and there's no drummer, I will tap the drumline on my pickguard. The pickups catch it. When I first started doing it, it threw my guitarist off, even though he knew what he was hearing.

Now that I think about it, I suppose I sort of do it when I slap.

As I continue to think about it, I also mute with my left hand while hitting the strings to get an almost percussive sound with a touch of fret clank.
 

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