Inadiquite Gym Techniques?

[Shaun]

I've added bass to my musical arsenal alongside guitar about two months ago. I've been modestly trying to use proper form on this all. I play my bass in a large basketball Gym for a church youth group with a rather unprofessional PA setup, acoustic drums, and electric/acoustic guitar as far as instruments are concerned.

My sense of timing is good enough, and sometimes our drummer falls out of of time (usually just being 'off'...) so I primarily follow the guitarist for my beat and I am curious about two things.

Firstly, What does it mean to tune the kick drum with the bass? I've heard this expression used but not explained. (Forgive me if it's posted elsewhere).

I'm also curious now on general building acoustics and modified performing technique. I was told that I should hit the notes just ahead of time. The example that was given me was that my fingers after a pluck towards the pick-guard, my finger would hit the guard as the beat should be sounded so that the lower frequencies would radiate more readily.

What are eveyones thoughts on this situation to get the most out of the bass?

-Shaun

 

[lemur821]

I don't believe that playing ahead of the beat will help the bass notes radiate, that sounds a little fishy to me, but it can help dirve a song when the bass plays a little ahead.

 

[Shaun]

I asked this same person for more information on it, questioning if it confuse the other musicans by playing "off-beat". He explained it to me as plucking the string and counting the beat when my finger hits the lower (tone-wise) string or fingerboard instead of when I actually sound the note.

I agree with the idea of playing ahead to drive the song, I've used it a few times in certain runs.

At anyrate, I'll try and practice this technique to see if it makes a good difference.

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[Jazzin']

i think it means that what you play shoud be perfectly times with the drummers bass drum. so you can't tell them apart.

 

[Blackbird]

The only thing that should change by location is your collective volume as a band. As a bassist, you play to the beat, regardless of room size.

There's nothing you can do individually as a bassist to fix the bad acoustics of a room, unless 1) you're too low and need to turn up or 2) You're too loud and need to turn down.

All other things being equal, a bad room will do worse damage to the sound of an inexperienced band's sound than an experienced one, not necessarily because they're better players, but because inexperienced players tend to equal "loud" to "good".

The best solution is to become the best sounding band you can and to be the best sounding bassist you can. Getting the best sound out of your gear can be as important as how well you know and play your instrument. You're playing together and that sound image should never change, even if you have to compensate for bad acoustics.

 

[lemur821]

There's nothing you can do individually as a bassist to fix the bad acoustics of a room, unless 1) you're too low and need to turn up or 2) You're too loud and need to turn down.

An EQ can fix wacky acoustics if the room has a resonant frequency that's muddying the sound.