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How To Not Be a Dumb Bassist

#21
There is a modicum of reasonable advise for someone who is picking up the instrument for the first time, but it does come off sounding like our job as bassists is to ride the root all night in between helping everyone else set-up/tear-down because we lack gear. What additional gear does the guitarist have that we don't? A pedal board, perhaps. Hell, half the time I have to supply the guitarist with a cable or batteries or whatever from my spare gear box. How about the singer? And everyone should help the drummer break down his kit, lord knows there's enough for everyone to help.
 
#23
Bass can be the glue between drums and guitar, but Bach proved that countermelodies can make music much more interesting. I remember reading an article with McCartney, and he was gushing about how fantastic it was that Brian Wilson was playing G under a C chord instead of just the typical root. I agree there are times when you need to hold down the root, but encouraging young players to not try anything more adventurous is more than a little condescending, I think.
 
#26
a lesson entitled "what is the groove?". A lot of bass players I run into don't have a grasp on rhythm patterns, and rhythm patterns, even if it just a series of quarter notes well placed, is still a groove. Metal, Motown, Jazz, it's still a groove and laying down an unshakable rock solid groove is the bass player's first job.
 
#30
callofcthulhu said:
Yeah, sorry, your article is garbage.

You've successfully discouraged me from reading the rest of the series of articles since I can only assume they similarly instruct every other musician to be a cookie cutter robot with no imagination who can easily be replaced by a loop in ProTools.

Thank you for perpetuating a limited worldview that ultimately drains the cultural expression of music of any lasting value it is capable of having.
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Agreed. The bass is an instrument, not a role that you are required to fill.
 
#31
Duckwater said:
Agreed. The bass is an instrument, not a role that you are required to fill.
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It is absolutely a role you are required to fill.

A metal pole can support a load. So can an arch. The arch might do it with beauty, elegance, and expression - but it is also still doing all of the foundational things the metal pole does.
 
#32
Mark Nye said:
Meh. Average article. Fraught with oversimplification. Good place to start for beginners, but ultimately downplays what the bass can and should be when played well (and played appropriately).
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How to be generic, cookie cutter, color within the lines and never, ever, for any reason, push the envelope. We're all lucky that Victor wasn't the OP's student ... Or Geddy Lee, or Chris Squire, or Ronnie Lane, etc, etc, etc.
 
#36
WJGreer said:
It is absolutely a role you are required to fill.

A metal pole can support a load. So can an arch. The arch might do it with beauty, elegance, and expression - but it is also still doing all of the foundational things the metal pole does.
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your exemple support more the view that more than one can do the "Support role" thingy
 
#37
lfmn16 said:
Sorry, but you don't get to decide for the world what the role of the bass player is, only yourself.
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Well, the person paying you gets to decide. Go tell him that you don't want to play the changes anymore and you don't care whether the band or the audience knows where one is. Let us know how it goes.

Of course - and I should have said this to begin with - if you guys are just playing around in your Mom's basement, you can do whatever you want.
 
#38
Well, I guess his article was meant for starting bassists. Roots are fine but you can do so many things as well without overwhelming the song. The important thing is that the groove is still there.

I agree on the article's comment regarding the bassist and the drummer tho.

All in all a good read, although it was leaning towards generalizations which many would take as too simplistic.

Keep up the writing man.
 
#39
WJGreer said:
Well, the person paying you gets to decide. Go tell him that you don't want to play the changes anymore and you don't care whether the band or the audience knows where one is. Let us know how it goes.

Of course - and I should have said this to begin with - if you guys are just playing around in your Mom's basement, you can do whatever you want.
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If whoever hires me has to tell me how to play something then I probably was a bad choice for them to hire. I for one am not interested in a dime playing crap like someone tells me to. I play it how it should be played. My mom pays for ****, I don't gig with her anymore.
 
#40
I don't think the author (who hasn't chimed in for a while now) means that a bass player should only ever play roots and should never play fills. He's trying to say that, as a bass player, you have responsibilities to the music. Those are filled primarily by establishing a musical foundation of time, rhythm, and changes.

As a person learns how to play in a group environment, it makes sense to first acknowledge those responsibilities and make sure they are addressed. As the player advances, he may discover ways to add artistic expression while still maintaining the important foundation he first learned.

Eventually, he may turn into Gary Willis or somebody like that, who obviously has mad skill. But Gary Willis still establishes a musical foundation of time, rhythm, and changes whenever he plays.

The writing in the article could be better; maybe it does suggest that there's no room for fun when you're a bass player. The basic message is still a good one for a young bassist. In my opinion.
 

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