Do you think your influences come through in your playing?

[Bunk McNulty]

When working in a cover band, I'm playing whatever I'm supposed to be playing. For everything else, I think it was Frank Foster who said you should play the blues as much as possible on everything. (Foster played tenor with Count Basie, and lots of other people.) I hasten to add that I cannot play like Frank did, but his attitude was an influence. I guess.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

I think a LOT of my early influences came through in my playing for the first few years after I started playing, but I doubt any would be recognizable now.

Here are a few of my biggest influences at the time I picked up the bass;
Mel Schacher - Grand Funk
Dusty Hill - ZZ Top
James Dewar - Robin Trower
Dave Brown - Santana (early)
Dennis Dunaway - Alice Cooper

Now, if I listed my biggest influences in the last 15-20 years, it would be a totally different list. Many of my biggest recent influences were unknown to me, not playing yet, or not born yet, when I first started playing. I heard them after I had been playing for years, so I had achieved the ability to play more difficult licks or play in different styles (eg; slap), so those influences might have started showing through in my more recent playing. Here are a very few;
Victor Wooten
Nate Mendel - Foo Fighters
Mike Dirnt - Green Day
Nick Campbell - various
Joe Dart - Vulfpeck
Pino

And then there are the greats that existed before and / or at the time I started playing, but I didn't know who they were, or didn't listen to their music, or couldn't emulate their style, until years after I started playing. Here are a very few;
James Jamerson
Carol Kaye
Paul McCartney - Beatles
Phil Chen - Jeff Beck
Tom Fowler - Zappa
Tommy Shannon - SRV
Duck Dunn
Jaco

I hope I've been influenced by enough different bassists and have learned enough different licks / styles that no recognizable sound / tone comes through in my in my playing, which would make my playing my own unique style, that I seriously doubt exists….

 

[Engle]

Since they are subconscious influences on both how I play and what I play, certainly they are audible. Whether any of those influences could be identified by others is another question entirely.

For me it depends what I'm playing. If it's heavy rock, there's a definite Geezer Butler vibe that people have identified.
And just the other day as we were listening to some Led Zeppelin, my daughter said "this is obviously what you listened to in your formative years as a player"

 

[GretschWretch]

For me it depends what I'm playing. If it's heavy rock, there's a definite Geezer Butler vibe that people have identified.
And just the other day as we were listening to some Led Zeppelin, my daughter said "this is obviously what you listened to in your formative years as a player"

If this is exactly what your daughter said and she is under fourteen years old, she's a genius. A very maturely-put statement.

 

[BassicJazzy]

Both major influences that I mercilessly steal ideas from all the time (within my skill level)
Also big Tony Levin and Sting fan, but not sure how much "influence" could be detected.

If i like a bass line, I learn it, I dissect the theory and harmony, find how it applies to new keys or changes, and add it to my palette, so influence is inevitable.

Thank you for mentioning Tony Levin. He doesn't get enough love around here (probably going to get backlash for that comment, but it's true). IMO one of the very best players, ever. Stuff he did with KC is just perfection. Super solid technically without being a show-off.

 

[Gervais Cote]

Definitely for me.

When I listen to my recordings, I hear Paul Simonon from The Clash when I play fast and when I play a bit more slowly, I sound similar to Steve Lang from April Wine. Never as good as these two guys though !

And the comments I often get when I play blues is that I make the bass track sound much heavier than the original. I don't really care cause I'm a rocker !

 

[sean_on_bass]

absolutely. you are gonna hear little elements of other players in my sound. those that don't sound like what they've listened to in the past are probably lying.

 

[sean_on_bass]

I'm at that point.

For a long time, I considered JPJ, Jameson, Flea and Entwhistle my influences. I don't/can't really play or sound like them in most scenarios. I like to listen to them, yes, maybe have lifted a few licks and riffs from them but mostly does not come through my playing.

If I'm being honest, I'm more like Cliff Williams than anything else. And I'm OK with that!

i'd argue there are other ways that a player can influence you, outside of just direct musical vocabulary. but personally, i think we almost all have some JPJ or Jamerson in our playing because they helped define what the electric bass does in a band in modern times. circle of life type of stuff. I'm sure Cliff was influenced by some of those folks and passed that along to you.

 

[DrBnz]

OCD....... it's definitely OCD that makes me play

 

[Medicine Man]

Ill never be as good as my heroes, so I just play true to myself. It does make me happy when audience members say I sound like somebody good.

 

[Mystic Michael]

Thank you for mentioning Tony Levin. He doesn't get enough love around here (probably going to get backlash for that comment, but it's true). IMO one of the very best players, ever. Stuff he did with KC is just perfection. Super solid technically without being a show-off.

Ya got that right! And Tony is "super solid technically", for sure. But what sets Tony Levin apart, in my opinion, is simply his superb overall musicianship. A bassist who understands the role of his instrument as well as anybody ever has, and consistently thinks outside the box (to paraphrase Peter Gabriel) to come up with some of the most creative, innovative parts one could possibly imagine. One of the greats, IMO.

MM

 

[Engle]

If this is exactly what your daughter said and she is under fourteen years old, she's a genius. A very maturely-put statement.

She's 23, and just got her music/education degrees.

 

[5StringBlues]

Without a doubt.


As a blues player, not blues/rock, you'd better be playing the influences.

 

[Groove Doctor]

Walking bass lines in Jazz - guitarist in a guitar/ bass/ drums trio spotted my Ray Brown influence…
strong root notes, lotta chord tones, plus a sprinkle of magic.

 

[Lo-E]

Yes, definitely.

 

[Jazzdogg]

Just something I was thinking about. I can't think of many times I consciously tried to mimic someone's style other than learning their songs and it's kind of tough to say as it seems like something someone else would have to tell you.

But, for the sake of discussion! I think it could be fun.

Would you say your influences are audible in your music?

I can hear the bassists who influenced me mostly when I play the songs I learned by listening to them play repeatedly.

For example, I can hear myself emulating Lee Sklar when I play James Taylor songs; I can hear myself emulating Rocco Prestia when I play a song by Tower of Power; I can hear myself trying to live up to Pop, and Ray Brown, every time I play a walking jazz bass line.

That said, I still sound like me...

 

[LiptonJigglers]

I would have to say yes to this one. Being born in 1970, my biggest music influences were definitely disco, punk, prog rock and a liberal dash of 80s Australian underground alternative music...
Both tone and style shine through in my playing...
I could put it another way; theres not much past 1984, that has had any influence on my bass playing... unless we count it as being influenced NOT to play or sound like that...

 

[BassicJazzy]

I would have to say yes to this one. Being born in 1970, my biggest music influences were definitely disco, punk, prog rock and a liberal dash of 80s Australian underground alternative music...
Both tone and style shine through in my playing...
I could put it another way; theres not much past 1984, that has had any influence on my bass playing... unless we count it as being influenced NOT to play or sound like that...

I was born earlier, in '54, but none of the early rock or blues, or R&B had any influence. I didn't start absorbing anything until prog in the early 70's. Skipped disco and punk, went straight to new wave in the 80's, stopped absorbing anything around '90.

I now play stuff that I don't even really listen to, never much listened to, which is very strange indeed.

 

[mpdd]

i didn't really think about it much until I made a demo for the new spacey dance project last weekend

while i was listening to it you could definitely hear a stone roses/primal scream influence

i guess Mani did have more of an impact on my playing than i would have thought

 

[JKovax]

I intentionally work at trying to imitate the "feel" of whoever did the bass line for whatever cover song I'm playing, even if I'm improvising on the actual notes.

My early influences were Jack Bruce and Geezer Butler, and to a lesser extent, John Entwhistle, and then Chris Squire and Geddy Lee entered the picture and changed everything.

After my last band broke up violently (guitarist and drummer rolling on the floor, pounding each other) in the late '80s, I quit playing for over 35 years. After semi-retiring to a part-time job and finding myself with "too much time on my hands", I decided to pull one of the old basses out of the attic and relearn. Quickly realizing that I no longer had any idea how to play the damned thing, I decided to "reinvent" my playing style, actively seeking other influences such as Flea, Justin Chancellor, and other grunge and new-metal players. Three years later, I'm finally able to pull that stuff off reasonably well, and am starting to play out again with a mostly grunge-era cover band with a couple of younger jazz players learning rock.

I recall hearing one local guitarist throw in some convoluted licks during a solo on some otherwise boring cover tune, and felt certain that I recognized the influence. "Was that a bit of Frank Zappa in that last solo?" "No, Adrian Belew." Turns out, Adrian Belew got his first major professional gig with Frank Zappa, before joining King Crimson. I recognized the influence of the teacher of the player who influenced the local guitarist. We're always influenced by what we listen to, whether it comes out audibly in our playing or not.