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Having a bass player is now optional
- Thread starter Clef_de_fa
- Start date
Yup. All roles are essentially optional depending on what the band/act/artist is trying to acheive.
Again, it all depends. Ive been known to put together bands without guitarists.
One of my favorite bands was composed of myself on bass, vocals, and synth and my good friends playing drums, samples, & bass.
Well said.
I think that considering the ratio of bands with bass players to bands with no bass player I don't think you need be too worried just yet.
And so what if you found a band with no bass player? There are bands with no guitars, maybe with multistring basses playing chords and all, does that mean guitar players should give up music too? Methinks you draw too far-reaching conclusions from your rather small statistical sample.
And so what if you found a band with no bass player? There are bands with no guitars, maybe with multistring basses playing chords and all, does that mean guitar players should give up music too? Methinks you draw too far-reaching conclusions from your rather small statistical sample.
The last two times I saw Steppenwolf they did not have a bass player. I thought it was really missing from their sound. I haven't seen them again since and I am highly unlikely to either.
There's a number of fairly famous and rocking duos that just use a guitar and drums too. You know many, one of my favorites is The Pack A.D.
There's all kinds of different bands, all kinds of different instrumentation.
There's all kinds of different bands, all kinds of different instrumentation.
I don't believe that's accurate. I'm pretty sure Manzarek played keyboard bass on the Strange Days record, at least, and they didn't have a bass player when I watched them break up on stage in New Orleans.
There are a lot of musicians that want to embrace the techno approach to music, which is fine. I think21st century technology is extremely cool. But, just because you can digitally reproduce a bass tone doesn't mean you get a creative bass line. Give me a band of musicians that create music by playing together over a couple of guys that lay down tracks any day.
Sevres you right for taking all those gigs from hard working horn players!!
I hate to do it, prefer to play real keyboard stuff (piano, rhodes, B3, pad) and every time I can, I hire horn players.
But worst than playing horn on keyboard : playing accordeon or harmonica on keyboard. That really suck!
I have a hard enough time listening to recordings by bands in which the bass isn't prominent in the mix. No bass player at all is unacceptable, although as already noted, there have been a few exceptions to the rule such as The Doors, obviously.
Bass players are optional in lots of styles of music. Bass instruments (synths, tubas, etc.) are optional too. So what?
I saw Steve Miller on Austin City Limits on PBS TV about a year ago. The keyboardist covered bass on all the songs except for one song where the 2nd guitardist played a MM SR5 bass.
IMO, the songs without an electric bass SUCKED!
There has to be either an electric bass or a stand-up bass in order for a band to sound "official".
IMO, the songs without an electric bass SUCKED!
There has to be either an electric bass or a stand-up bass in order for a band to sound "official".
Someplace in my stash of vinyl I have a Chet Atkins record from the 60's where he played what he called the 'OctoBass' guitar - a regular electric with bass-tuned E and A.
Michael Hedges did a bunch of recordings with a Harp Guitar, which had an outboard set of (IIRC) 4 bass strings. "Because It's There" comes to mind.
Now there were both primarily solo artists, but you're right - these are not new concepts...
Any music can be played without live instruments. Drum loops, octave pedals, samplers, etc etc. Most bands that do it, however, always end up adding additional instruments (especially rock bands). Once you have the means to hire out great players I think most people still agree its better than working with fake versions of the real thing. For example:
Jack White: Hasn't done any music outside the white stripe with less than a full band.
Black Keys: Newer music revolves around bass lines and they your with two extra musicians.
Japandroids: Newer stuff if quite clearly multitracked in the studio.
I'm too tired to think of more. I will say, however, that I used to play guitar in a two piece rock band and it was more of a logistics/artistic/selfish choice than a musical one. No bass player meant I could improvise chord changes without worrying about any other pitched instruments, we only had two schedules to worry about for jamming and booking gigs, fewer opinions when making decisions, more stripped down aesthetic, more room for guitar tones, gig money was split 50/50.
When a bass came and jammed on bass with us though, most of the songs sounded richer, fuller, and more complex (in a good way).
Jack White: Hasn't done any music outside the white stripe with less than a full band.
Black Keys: Newer music revolves around bass lines and they your with two extra musicians.
Japandroids: Newer stuff if quite clearly multitracked in the studio.
I'm too tired to think of more. I will say, however, that I used to play guitar in a two piece rock band and it was more of a logistics/artistic/selfish choice than a musical one. No bass player meant I could improvise chord changes without worrying about any other pitched instruments, we only had two schedules to worry about for jamming and booking gigs, fewer opinions when making decisions, more stripped down aesthetic, more room for guitar tones, gig money was split 50/50.
When a bass came and jammed on bass with us though, most of the songs sounded richer, fuller, and more complex (in a good way).
