Hi everybody. It's been forever since I last wrote 'round here. Still TB continues to be my #1 source for anything bass related. In 2008 I started a HC project, altho' neither me nor my technique were ever punk in any way. Since then I gradually switched to picking and been only doing picking since 2011 probably. I mostly have 2 projects, MY band, in which I also sing and another fast HC band, in the vein of Me First & the Gimme Gimmes' work but covering spanish and latinamerican popular hits of the '60s and '70s. I happened to get into picking side by side with the best guitarist I've ever played with (and fortunately I've played with a lot of talented guitarists over my 27 years as a bassist). Despite being a somewhat established modern metal guitarist, this guy's been a HC punker all of his life and fortunately I developed the "right" fast HC groove by watching him play.
Of course there's no such thing as "right" or "wrong", moreso in punk rock. But I think there's a certain groove that sounds more fluid at >200BPM and some other grooves that sound (and play) completely "orthopaedic" to me. Starting with drummers, there's mostly two basic branches. There are some who will play all 4 HH beats in each bar and strongly accentuate 1 and 3 (kick drum). And then there's others who would play HH beats only over snare beats (2 and 4) and mostly only accentuate the kick drum on 1, notably less busy, just WAY MORE GROOVY to my ears. Just two very simplistic scores for comparison...
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So, previous to 2008 I would play some occasional fast HC parts with a ska-punk act I worked for, but, even when playing with a pick I followed what example A (and probably the drummer) was suggesting me, so I picked all 4 quarter notes in a bar going down-up-down-up. As an example you can hear bar A in the image above over an over on many NUFAN tunes. Probably killed a little by compression, but the groove's there, you know, "TU-pa-TU-tu-pa" over and over. And also the rest of the guys tend to groove like that, picking down on accented kicks on 1&3 and up on snares (2&4). As I started listening to more ellaborate/rich/spicy HC groovewise such as Satanic Surfers, Belvedere or A Wilhelm Scream I began to understand what was happening, and why I preferred their kind of groove a deal more. Roughly example B in the score above. It results in a more snare accented kind of feel which I find much more pleasant and fluid. Even more if the picking of guitars and bass follow it by picking up-down-up-down. My basic rhythm for playing fast punk parts is exatcly that of example B, striking up-down-up(8th.note)-down. I occasionally pick down on 1 beginning some sections or maybe 4 or 8 groups of bars depending on each particular case.
Now, for an in-depth example, here's a mix of me (& my SansAmp RBI) and the drummer (no compression, no editing, no EQing, no mixing, nothing other than minimal panning) in both my bands, with bass turned up so you can hear the groove in detail...
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... and here's the final tune that came out of it (a spanish classic by our cover band)...
Also, we apply this same treatment in MY band (not the actual drummer in the video)...
I get asked a lot about my bass groove when people (mostly bassists) care to listen to it so I thought I'd put it down on paper and share just in case it might be useful for any fellow punker TBers. Punk on! Cheers!
Of course there's no such thing as "right" or "wrong", moreso in punk rock. But I think there's a certain groove that sounds more fluid at >200BPM and some other grooves that sound (and play) completely "orthopaedic" to me. Starting with drummers, there's mostly two basic branches. There are some who will play all 4 HH beats in each bar and strongly accentuate 1 and 3 (kick drum). And then there's others who would play HH beats only over snare beats (2 and 4) and mostly only accentuate the kick drum on 1, notably less busy, just WAY MORE GROOVY to my ears. Just two very simplistic scores for comparison...
Link Removed
So, previous to 2008 I would play some occasional fast HC parts with a ska-punk act I worked for, but, even when playing with a pick I followed what example A (and probably the drummer) was suggesting me, so I picked all 4 quarter notes in a bar going down-up-down-up. As an example you can hear bar A in the image above over an over on many NUFAN tunes. Probably killed a little by compression, but the groove's there, you know, "TU-pa-TU-tu-pa" over and over. And also the rest of the guys tend to groove like that, picking down on accented kicks on 1&3 and up on snares (2&4). As I started listening to more ellaborate/rich/spicy HC groovewise such as Satanic Surfers, Belvedere or A Wilhelm Scream I began to understand what was happening, and why I preferred their kind of groove a deal more. Roughly example B in the score above. It results in a more snare accented kind of feel which I find much more pleasant and fluid. Even more if the picking of guitars and bass follow it by picking up-down-up-down. My basic rhythm for playing fast punk parts is exatcly that of example B, striking up-down-up(8th.note)-down. I occasionally pick down on 1 beginning some sections or maybe 4 or 8 groups of bars depending on each particular case.
Now, for an in-depth example, here's a mix of me (& my SansAmp RBI) and the drummer (no compression, no editing, no EQing, no mixing, nothing other than minimal panning) in both my bands, with bass turned up so you can hear the groove in detail...
Link Removed
... and here's the final tune that came out of it (a spanish classic by our cover band)...
Also, we apply this same treatment in MY band (not the actual drummer in the video)...
I get asked a lot about my bass groove when people (mostly bassists) care to listen to it so I thought I'd put it down on paper and share just in case it might be useful for any fellow punker TBers. Punk on! Cheers!
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