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Guitarists trying to write your basslines..

C

ceruer

Aug 27, 2011
22
0
Central Florida
#1
Let's say your guitarist writes a song and shows it to the band at practice. No big deal, sounds like fun. But then he turns to you and shows you the bassline he has written for you to play.

It's hard to argue when it's "their" song. But as a bassist, I'd sure like to write my own basslines, even if I didn't come up with the original song idea.

What are you guys' opinions on when guitarists try to write a bassline for you?
 
#3
I wouldn't mind it. As you said, it is their song. For the record, our guitarist wrote a song and I asked him what he wanted for a bassline and his reply was something like "that's a good question!" (He's a cool guy, so I'm not judging, BTW.) As a result, I made up my own spectacular 1-5 bassline. :o
 
#4
I will try almost anything(musically :ninja:)- but at the point it becomes *forced* I tend to lose interest. I quit a pretty fun band over just this issue- gtr guy saw no prob spending 45 minutes hammering me into playing his line NOTE-FOR-EFFING-NOTE, when IMO NO-ONE but another bassplayer w/INCREDIBLY good hearing/listening skills would perceive a diff. My version was very close, but not good enough. They play w/o a bassplayer now.
 
#5
The issue of whether or not the songwriter has full arrangement rights for other instruments is something that needs to be made clear when you join/start the band or when original songs start getting introduced.

If they're paying me, then it's their call. If I'm not getting paid by the songwriter or producer, then I have ultimate decision making authority over the bass part. I'll listen and be receptive to their ideas but if they want a hired gun, then they'll have to hire one.

There's a phrase for songwriters who get full creative control over the arrangement: "solo artists".
 
#6
Pete Townshend used to record detailed demos for the Who. They would include the bass parts,vocal melodies,lyrics and drum patterns as well as his guitar parts.
He would say: "Here's our next song lads". The Ox, Moon and Daltrey would learn the song, but put their own personal stamp on their parts. Worked fine for them.
Take your guitarist's bassline idea and make it your own.
 
#8
ceruer said:
Let's say your guitarist writes a song and shows it to the band at practice. No big deal, sounds like fun. But then he turns to you and shows you the bassline he has written for you to play.

It's hard to argue when it's "their" song. But as a bassist, I'd sure like to write my own basslines, even if I didn't come up with the original song idea.

What are you guys' opinions on when guitarists try to write a bassline for you?
Click to expand...

I'd say, thanks, I'll write a lead break for you. Or if he gets all prissy, I'd say, OK, my rate when I work as a studio musician is $100 an hour.
 
#9
ceruer said:
Let's say your guitarist writes a song and shows it to the band at practice. No big deal, sounds like fun. But then he turns to you and shows you the bassline he has written for you to play.

It's hard to argue when it's "their" song. But as a bassist, I'd sure like to write my own basslines, even if I didn't come up with the original song idea.

What are you guys' opinions on when guitarists try to write a bassline for you?
Click to expand...

Hell no. Its not hard to argue at all. Im the bass player in this band, and if you wish to keep me in the band Im writing my own parts, simple. I'll listen to suggestions if the guitarist has an idea of how he wants the bass to sound, but if I dont like it, or I dont feel it fits, I aint playing it.

When I came into this band there were a good number of songs already written, with basslines done by the previous bassist and the guitarist (who was her boyfriend). I kept the parts I liked, and rewrote everything else to my taste. Since they already had most of an album recorded, I was dead set on going back in and rerecording my parts. They were cool about it.

Im a songwriter myself, but I encourage our bandleader/guitarist/singer to continue being the sole songwriter for this band. He asked me to play for a reason, because he knew my proficiency and liked my style, and thats what I bring to the band. Im not against helping him write or structure stuff when he gets stuck, but I want our music to reflect his songwriting. And my bass playing.
 
#13
It's a pain, but it sort of come with the territory. If it's too lame I will just say, "it's too lame for me to play- gotta have something else." If we can't agree, then the song doesn't get played. That's rare though, usually something mellow that I can tolerate will pass. Working with a guitarist who writes riff-based material and wants you to double their riff on every song is a real pain, and I have left situations like that in the past. On the other hand, I have had gifted guitarists/songwriters write really cool basslines that were very different than what I would have come up with, and learning them was good for my playing.
 
#14
Meh. I'm a big fan of collaboration. It's usually my drummer that hears stuff in his head and tries to relate it to me.

One thing I really like about my band is that nobody gets butt hurt over criticism. I wanna try to put a cold stop after the bridge? Sure let's try it. If it's a cool tune, it's a cool tune.
 
#15
I can see where he's coming from, but I think he should also be flexible enough to let you tweek it to fit your personal style. I don't mind taking suggestions from guitarists, as long as it's not some guitar riff they are trying to make a bass line (that's one of my pet peeves...). I say give it a shot, but take it with a grain of salt and personalize it.
 
#17
Thanks for the input everybody. It's interesting to see everyone's responses.. I will usually create my own basslines for songs written by the guitarist. Sometimes I just go with the flow though, especially if he's really excited about the song he's written.
 
#18
For the most part my band comes up with stuff together, but sometimes the song is mostly from one person. But I don't have a problem with it. I'm one of those people that if you came up with something beyond what you wanna play on guitar/drums/whatever, then fine. I'll play whatever you want. I may suggest alternatives or something, if they like it then huzzah! If not then oh well they wrote it so who am I to force them to accept something they don't like? Just gives me another bassline to use for another song. I just expect the same type of thing to be done if I wrote all the parts of a song
 
#19
As a bassist, I've written the guitar parts for the guitarist(s) to play.

As a guitar player, I've written parts for the bassist to play.

As a sitar player, I've written parts for the bassist to play.

As a keyboardist, etc.


As a bassist or guitarist, I have played parts written by others (within reason given the equipment and my hand dexterity) because I respect when someone has a vision for a song....even if it's relatively a boring bass line or guitar riff.

It works both ways. I reject any band member who cannot engage in songwriting cooperation within reason.

ceruer said:
What are you guys' opinions on when guitarists try to write a bassline for you?
Click to expand...
Perhaps you should record the song twice (or more)....once with the guitarist's bass line and at least once with your own bass line. Then, you can ask the guitarist which version he prefers.
 

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