How do you ( if you you do it ) study a bassist?

[10emmanuel]

Hello my mates!
I wonder, how do you study your favorites bassist?
You just learn all theirs songs or, do something else in particular?

Thanks!

 

[BaileyMan]

Hello my mates!
I wonder, how do you study your favorites bassist?
You just learn all theirs songs or, do something else in particular?

Thanks!

I've transcribed (i.e. writen them in musical notation) entire bass lines note for note. Learning how to read music made a huge difference for me. I also figured out (by ear) what is "The Thing" in this bass line that makes it what it is.

I would also import tracks into Garageband and eq out the bass and record my play along, not trying to go for a note by note perfect rendition, but going for The Thing and my own variations. I would then listen back and ask myself, does this sound like something "bass player" would play?

I also did some of this with the help of a teacher. Sometimes we'd spend an entire 1 hour lesson with her helping me learn one or two measures.

 

[AGCurry]

I've long thought that if you seek to emulate someone, the best way is to study not so much that person, but the work of those whom that person sought to emulate. That might be harder in the case of bassists, as you might not know their influences, but it's worth thinking about. When I was a teenager, I liked the playing I heard on records by the popular bands of the time. As I got older, I listened more to the music that those bands were influenced by; so, for example: Rolling Stones -> Chuck Berry -> Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker.

 

[Malcolm35]

Hello my mates!
I wonder, how do you study your favorites bassist?
You just learn all theirs songs or, do something else in particular?
Thanks!

FWIW I did not try to follow any one style or artist.

• Country piece I'd grab a I-IV-V and hang on.
• Blues piece I'd grab a 12 bar progression and hang on.
• Praise music I'd pound out roots to the beat. Prayer song just the chord's root and let it sustain till the next change. That draws attention to the lyrics of the prayer, or slow ballad type songs.
• Rock and jazz I'd bring in more chord tones, R-b3-5-b7 or R-3-5-6, etc

So I did not zero in on a specific artist, but, did zero in on chord progressions used in specific songs.

 

[BassChuck]

Knowing styles may be more important that knowing individual interpretations. Plus, once you know the style and all that is necessary to play in that style, the intentions of the individual may be more evident.

 

[BaileyMan]

Knowing styles may be more important that knowing individual interpretations. Plus, once you know the style and all that is necessary to play in that style, the intentions of the individual may be more evident.

Absolutely. And one way to know a style is to learn the chord progressions and bass lines.

Also consider books of transcribed bass lines. Look for music books of your favorite artists for bass.

 

[LBS-bass]

Generally I will deconstruct their work by sitting down with some of the songs they've played and learning each section note for note. I will add here that I'm generally not a purist for N4N on stage but this is something I do for players whose work I revere because I feel like knowing what they did and figuring out how they did it makes me a better player. Chuck Rainey and John Paul Jones are both significant players for me, so I study their work in this way. I deconstructed the entire Aja album one year as an exercise and learned to play every song on there as close as possible to the original version.

One thing I learn when I do this is what my technical limitations are and, in pondering those, whether it's important enough for me to spend tons of time figuring out how to overcome those and, if so, what the learning process is for doing that. Rainey plays a lot of ghost notes, and I found out pretty quickly that I'd waste tons of time if I tried to incorporate all of that in as I went along. So learning his lines helped me refine my way of learning, in general. I learned the meat and potatoes of that stuff first, then I would go back and pick up some the smaller nuances, but maybe not all of them. This way of learning has served me very well in getting things stage-ready.

John Paul Jones presents a different set of limitations because he never plays the same thing twice and, on a technical level, he can be wicked fast. I can't play as fast as he can; just can't do it with the ever-present swelling in my joints, so I have had to learn that there are some places where I have to invent good compromises and other places where I just have to concede that it's above my pay grade. It's taught me to be inventive about overcoming some of my limits.

But, overall, what happens is that I add phrases and various things to my player's toolbox that I might not have thought of on my own.

 

[Deenah]

I use video a lot. What I’m looking for is how the artist flows. Not trying to exactly mimic them, but learn the flow of the song and how they play it beyond the notes. Once I have the flow in my head I can easily place the notes.
when I have to learn multiple songs for a show I’ll sit and watch the artist perform it, then listen to it till it’s ingrained into my head. Now when I rehearse the songs I know how it flows and I can hit the exact notes with little effort.

 

[Rib 13]

it usually starts with getting hooked by a bass tone i like more than any other parameter, including chops. From there, i will immerse myself into the body of work of the individual that is available for deconstruction purposes

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Hello my mates!
I wonder, how do you study your favorites bassist?
You just learn all theirs songs or, do something else in particular?

Thanks!

Unless I’m doing a note for note cover, I listen more to genre/arrangement and how the the parts fit together than the bassist specifically. Odds are I’m never going to be in his (or her) situation playing with the same musicians playing the same parts with the same dynamics. Learning a piece note for note, then playing with different musicians, different instrumentation, even different meter can sound out of context.

This not to say I don’t pick up useful tools for the tool box from a specific bassist, but those tools are used for when I’m playing a similar piece/situation, not necessarily playing that specific song.

 

[JRA]

I wonder, how do you study your favorites bassist? You just learn all theirs songs or, do something else in particular?

i have too many "favorite bassists" and i'm not into emulation much so i'm usually just looking to expand my chops/knowledge in general. but to do that i'm employing old stand-bys:
- listen and learn,
- watch and learn.
- practice, practice, practice!

pretty basic stuff!

 

[BrotherMister]

As has been said already. It’s incredible what you will hear in a player you like by listening to and studying their influences. You begin to really hear that stuff in the player you first sought to study.


In terms of the studying, listening constantly is always good. It’s amazing what you can absorb just by actively and then passively listening. Transcribe the bass lines, the harmony, the drum part and the melody. The line in isolation is only a small piece of the puzzle but when you look at what’s going on around it then you can see the choices and thought process of these players a lot more clearly.

It’s important to try not to emulate and become a clone, but if that’s your goal then cool! Take the information. Explore it and develop it. Don’t regurgitate it!

 

[Fynn]

Hello my mates!
I wonder, how do you study your favorites bassist?
You just learn all theirs songs or, do something else in particular?

Thanks!

Look at videos of them and cross reference them to one another. I did that with Les Claypool a bunch and there are many changes that you can see in the way he plays different basses over the years and even how he changes his technique slightly in certain songs. Looking at live videos is usually the best way to faithfully learn a song of someone, because you'll get the most accurate picture of what to do. Incredibly time consuming if you want to go all out, but there's some serious things to be learnt from some players.
I found that studying their influences only works to a certain extent and only really with the aspect of how they phrase certain things. To stick with the Les Claypool example, you can see how he derived some things from Geddy Lee and such, but because there were no videos for him to watch back then, his technique developed completly differently. Thing is technique and what music you will be able to play or be inspired to play are directly linked to one another.

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

First, you have to slice them real thin to get them on the microscope slide ...

Seriously, listening is great, but if I can get some video where I can see what they're doing as well, that helps a treat.

Of course, listening is mostly what we have. I like "sleep learning" as well as actively trying to tear the bass lines apart.

 

[JonathanPDX]

It depends on the era when the musician was working. If you're studying someone from the last 20 or so years there is more information available than ever. You can find video of concerts, interviews, isolated bass tracks, heck you can even go attend clinics or get lessons from some of the greats right now!

When I do a deep dive the first thing I do is consume a lot of material. I'll listen to a bunch of records, try to find live performances, and look for some themes they like to use. Just like with speech, everyone has their own voice and their own unique phrasing. Once I've identified some of their favorite progressions or licks I'll learn those first, and that often opens the door faster for learning more of their material.

For example, if you study Flea you find a lot of the same Dorian lines sprinkled throughout the bulk of his catalogue, and those are the first things that come out when he takes a solo. Or if you study George Benson you'll hear a specific type of phrasing he uses in just about every solo. Victor Wooten has a pretty deep bag of tricks so I started with learning a few of his favorite licks, then went deep into the technical side in order to really get "under the hood" in being able to mechanically understand and then reproduce what he does.

 

[J Wilson]

(Here's this week's installment of Things They Don't Teach You in Your Music Degree Program, or online bass lessons.)

If it's a live show, of course, be all ears while it's going down.

Really want to learn?

Find out where he's eating afterwards, show up, offer to buy breakfast and sit down if he goes for it. People talk easily when they're eating, and you'll hear lots of stuff you'll never read in published interviews !

When I first moved to Nashville, my wife's first childhood sweetheart as a girl was now a first-call steel player, and we'd have him and her brother over (they all knew each other, and her brother played steel as well), they'd talk shop, and it was the best intro to Meyooozik City I'd ever get. She'd fry chicken and make home made biscuits, and believe me, we'd talk around the table for hours. Most musicians LOVE to eat.

 

[tarp21]

To many bassists to study in this world my friend. I Can’t read music, barely tab, no Nashville stuff. Have a pretty decent ear though. Playing bass over 30 years. Before internet, YouTube, etc. you’d play the track over and over in bass enhanced speakers and made up the rest. Get the basics down. Nowadays it’s YouTube, Karaoke Version for playback etc. Shrunk my learning curve tremendously BUT the added years of experience comes in handy. I never play anything note for note, wouldn’t be ME if I did. Cheers.

 

[r_bnks]

Hello my mates!
I wonder, how do you study your favorites bassist?
You just learn all theirs songs or, do something else in particular?

Thanks!

I'd learn all their songs as accurately as possible and all their technique and nuances, playing method, dynamics etc etc etc.
I'd also check their live recordings to see how differently they play their recorded songs. (For example different fills, runs etc. and what's the difference between their live and studio performance)

 

[BrotherMister]

Most musicians LOVE to eat.

This is solid advice. I prefer to eat in silence personally though.

 

[LBS-bass]

A word about videos. I find them useful, but I like to look at them after I've worked on a song for a while. It can be helpful (to me, anyway) to try to sort out on my own the best approach to fingering and where to play certain notes. Then if I look at the original artist or another player, I may learn that there are different ways to do this that are better, or I may not. If I'm really stuck on something it's nice to have those to go to for clarification.