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Great Bassists with "BAD" Technique

#82
Fnord Explorer said:
As an entertainer I have to say there is little entertaining or inspiring about someone stiffly playing their instrument
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If I'm listening to a recording I'm hearing the MUSIC. If it's not sounding "stiff" I don't care how the player held his bass in the studio.

Truth is, a lot of music is lifestyle wallpaper that's more concerned with image. If you want to tap into that, fine, but don't confuse someone's posture for their sound.
 
#83
greenboy said:
If I'm listening to a recording I'm hearing the MUSIC. If it's not sounding "stiff" I don't care how the player held his bass in the studio.

Truth is, a lot of music is lifestyle wallpaper that's more concerned with image. If you want to tap into that, fine, but don't confuse someone's posture for their sound.
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I play live far, far more than I record. How many people are putting on a show in the studio? I'd venture to say next to none. When people are analyzing other people's techniques (which is really kind of silly anyway) it's usually in the live setting, not in their studio or practice room.

My point is that when I'm paying for a ticket to go to a show, I'm paying for something other than what I can sit at home and listen to on my own and I feel that in most popular music settings that is the band's job. Guys with perfect technique on their instruments may have the most efficient positions and fastest movements from Note A to Note B but BOY is it boring to watch.

Some exceptions exist, of course, but only when those musicians go the extra mile to bring something special to performance outside of them just playing their instruments.
 
#84
I appreciate bits of all types of music AND presentation and I could care less if one guy has his bass down near the ground and another has it up by his armpits. Likewise, I can dig Entwistle in one place never moving and I can enjoy someone who's headbanging or jumsping off speaker cabs.
 
#85
greenboy said:
I appreciate bits of all types of music AND presentation and I could care less if one guy has his bass down near the ground and another has it up by his armpits. Likewise, I can dig Entwistle in one place never moving and I can enjoy someone who's headbanging or jumsping off speaker cabs.
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I was too young to see Entwistle or JPJ play with their respective bands but I probably wouldn't have paid them much mind, despite the fact that their playing left a stamp on me anyway. Truth be told I pay a lot more attention to drummers than bass players at shows unless, of course, the bass player is really putting something into it.

But I digress, all the players who did catch my attention in the live setting almost all certainly had what would be considered "poor" technique. There's a certain sacrifice that has to be made in the world of performance art. Just like an action star who does his own stunts on the set is probably not going about doing what is exactly in his best continued health but that's the cost of doing business in order to bring the element of performance to another level.
 
#86
There's where we differ: for me music is an audible phenom, not a visual one. I'm more entertained by sonic sculptures in being placed the imagination and when I go to concerts and shows I can dig a lot of stage energy and movement and even rock star poses as long as my ear/brain connection has been engaged first.

And I spearate technique from showmanship to a certain extent.

But as I said, I dig all styles of music and the packages they seem to come in.
 
#89
Basically, developing an effecient "proper" technique (one finger per fret, thumb on back of neck, etc.) will have you playing lines the at the calibur of the 'masters' much faster than half-assing your way through it. JPJ's left hand used to be atrocious, but developing good technique will have you playing at the technical proficiency of JPJ much faster than it probably took him.
 
#92
4stringrob said:
there is no such thing as "good technique". the best players usually seem to have their own techniques, it's why they sound different than everyone else. "good technique" is more often than not a mediocre player who writes a book and a lot of suckers buying into it.
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That is absurd. If there were no such thing as "good technique," there would be no difference between these two:

 
#93
Terry Funk said:
I could be completely off base here, and I'm sure someone in here will vehemently disagree, but I've always believed that the way your hand naturally feels most comfortable on your instrument (and this varies greatly from person to person) is the way you should play your instrument, and that the only "bad" technique is technique in which you will injure yourself. Anything else besides that, If you can make it work to your satisfaction, is proper technique for that particular player.
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Thats how i think of it too and its why i dont want to take lesons cause the guy will just show me to play a way i dont want too.
 
#97
baalroo said:
anyone ever noticed the picture at the top of the page (the one with the white bass) has a dude playing with really "bad" technique? He's got the thumb of his left hand wrapping all the way around the fretboard.
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I do that too when I play simple riffs on the D and G string and my pinky isn't needed. I'm not sure if I qualify as a great bassist, though. ;)
 
#99
i remember an interview/instructional article with bunny brunel who said that sometimes you have to break with conventional fingering techniques as it is just easier to play it another way, so as long as it doesn't prevent you from getting where you need to be then do it, but try to finger things for the most part as correctly as you can. off topic a bit, i was watching a program about the guelph spring festival in which the great violinist yehudi menuhin was watching a young violin prodigy perform ( and this guy was good ) and at one point he shook his head and asked him why do you play it that way? the kid asked him if he should change the way he played and he told him no, i don't know how you do it, but it works for you so that's fine.
 

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