Local bass "hero"

[123321]

Here's a rare John Scofield LP with Steve Swallow on bass and Adam Nussbaum on drums, Bar Talk...

Check out Steve's solo at about 3:20...

 

[BAG]

True, but is anybody advocating doing that?

I can't recall anyone on this particular thread doing so (not going to go back and read every post again), but there are plenty of people out there (particularly some guitarists and some ERB players I've heard) who enjoy showing off their amazing chops every bar of every song. That get tiring very quickly.

As I quoted Timmy Watts in my previous post

If you have chops, only flash them very occasionally to remind folks you have them. Otherwise it's not special. Or fun.

 

[leesbrushes]

I knew a drummer like that as well as a guitarist....both were indifferent bands but we all travelled the same circles and knew each other.at the time I was a singer and as fate would show..I stepped out eventually and started a family..left the scene.
The drummer was absolutely amazing and everyone knew him in the music scene as unworkable....
He constantly broke gear and could not afford to replace it..played way too loud...but perfect and super skilled ..down right amazing in every other way.
That was 20 years ago and have never heard anything about him since I left the scene...
The guitarist...
Played yngwie malmsteen at 17.
Studied and lived every sweeping arpeggio that was ever created.
Still plays in local bars in bands and is happy but I always thought he would be huge.
Was imho the best guitar player I have ever heard or seen ..famous or not.
Playing in local bars with the same old people.
Moral of the story.
Flashy and impressive doesnt always complete the recipe for success.

 

[andruca]

Lee Sklar approach here. A song is superior to any instrument/s it's played on. I'm as anti-pyrotechnics as they come, it's tasteless, boring and when too modern-jazzy my brain even has a hard time processing it as beauty. Do what the song demands. Still, in almost any kind of genre, a song might demand a bass solo, of course, and being capable at that is desirable too.

 

[interp]

I play in a 4 piece cover band and we share our drummer with another local band. His other band was playing a gig at a pub so I went to check them out. It's a three piece classic rock trio made up of some well known and much loved musicians. The show was pretty much what I expected from some of the area's most talented musicians. The bass player is a twenty-something hipster type dude who has got some serious chops. He tends to take a line that requires 10 notes and plays 35 notes instead. While I can appreciate his flashy style, I think it kinda steps on the groove. Whether it's because of laziness or lack of talent on my part, I tend to stay more in the background with my playing. I add fills here and there but mostly I fly under the radar. In the couple hours I was there, I think he played 3 bass solos. People stand and applaud his talents, and rightly so. He is pretty amazing. I just feel like he should use a little more restraint. OR maybe I could take a lesson from him and possibly become less of an unknown. While I used to be a relatively popular musician in the area who had lots of musical opportunities, being away for almost a decade has left me somewhat in obscurity. Maybe I should up my game a bit, though it goes against my instincts as a musician to play on level 10 at all times. My guitar player, who was also at the show joked "If you played like that I'd leave the band". I responded " He doesn't just play the notes, he plays ALL the notes". Maybe I'm just getting passed my prime and jealous of the young bucks getting all the attention. Lol

This post is all about comparing yourself with someone else. With all due respect, stop that!

 

[CGremlin]

Still, in almost any kind of genre, a song might demand a bass solo, of course, and being capable at that is desirable too.

True. but a solo doesn't have to be a flash-fest to be effective. Geddy's short solo on "Vital Signs" was very melodic and effective, but also very simple.

 

[Alex J]

Playing tastefully and playing 'busy' are not mutually exclusive.

When I think of classic rock, I'd name bands like Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Boston, The Who, Allman Brothers etc. Every single one of those bands have bassists that are busy as anything, but it always sounds great.

 

[andruca]

True. but a solo doesn't have to be a flash-fest to be effective. Geddy's short solo on "Vital Signs" was very melodic and effective, but also very simple.

You touched my heart strings with Ged <3 Yet being able to proficiently solo at any speed is a good thing to cultivate, only when the music asks for it, of course.

 

[Jrussblues]

After reading all this it makes me happy I rarely play to an audience of bass players

There's always one...you can tell because it's the one person in the whole bar watching the bass player...lol

 

[40Hz]

I play in a 4 piece cover band and we share our drummer with another local band. His other band was playing a gig at a pub so I went to check them out. It's a three piece classic rock trio made up of some well known and much loved musicians. The show was pretty much what I expected from some of the area's most talented musicians. The bass player is a twenty-something hipster type dude who has got some serious chops. He tends to take a line that requires 10 notes and plays 35 notes instead. While I can appreciate his flashy style, I think it kinda steps on the groove. Whether it's because of laziness or lack of talent on my part, I tend to stay more in the background with my playing. I add fills here and there but mostly I fly under the radar. In the couple hours I was there, I think he played 3 bass solos. People stand and applaud his talents, and rightly so. He is pretty amazing. I just feel like he should use a little more restraint. OR maybe I could take a lesson from him and possibly become less of an unknown. While I used to be a relatively popular musician in the area who had lots of musical opportunities, being away for almost a decade has left me somewhat in obscurity. Maybe I should up my game a bit, though it goes against my instincts as a musician to play on level 10 at all times. My guitar player, who was also at the show joked "If you played like that I'd leave the band". I responded " He doesn't just play the notes, he plays ALL the notes". Maybe I'm just getting passed my prime and jealous of the young bucks getting all the attention. Lol

,,,

This post is all about comparing yourself with someone else. With all due respect, stop that!

Disagree. Players that think of themselves in a complete vacuum tend to become absolute prima donnas. There's nothing wrong with measuring your own capabilities against the style or talent or technical competence of someone else. Without measurements and comparisons, there's no way to gauge levels of accomplishment or track progress.

There's a lot of talk about just being yourself and following your own star. Which is all well and good. But I think the world has suffered enough from this glorification of ego we've been indulging in since the '80s, that a little humility and awareness of people and things outside one's own self can only be beneficial.

It's good to have a high opinion of yourself provided there's some reality to support it. Unfortunately, most humans (being humans) tend to have an inflated sense of their abilities and accomplishments, even at the best of times.

There's no need to put yourself down. But it is important to realize that there are such things as hierarchies in this world. We rank things on scales. It's what humans do. And in music, there are better and lesser musicians and composers. It's not a democracy. The music and performance worlds are meritocracies. So it can be very beneficial to your own development as a musician, to compare yourself to other players from time to time.

And if that's not your "thing," don't worry. that'll get taken care of by everybody else since they're gonna compare you to other people anyway. It's what we humans do.

 

[123321]

Here's how to do a bass solo. Check out how none other than Flea owns a lineup of "bass greats" with all their fancy slapping and popping and whatever at the 3:00 mark when his turn comes up. Especially nice is the elegant dismount at 3:27 he uses to wrap up his solo and put a bow on it. (Funny how half the guys up there are looking surprised this tattooed punker can actually play.)

Flea's a Bad Dude!
A lot of people want to dislike him but, we have Flea to thank for this... He just did this session and didn't give it anymore thought and was done on his fretless MusicMan...

 

[rtslinger]

3 piece sometimes means you need to fill gaps, but there is a fine line between fill the missing parts and over playing, which from your posting sounds to me like he is a frustrated guitarist wantabe. I am sure anyway on this board worth his salt we tell you we could all stick 35 notes where there should be 10, but overplaying leaves no room for the music to breath. I read one time Carlos Santana said the best note in a song is sometimes one that is never played.

 

[40Hz]

Flea's a Bad Dude!
A lot of people want to dislike him but, we have Flea to thank for this... He just did this session and didn't give it anymore thought and was done on his fretless MusicMan...

For the record, I personally dislike Flea's antics and a lot of the over the top playing he does with RHCP, a band I'm not not too fond of either. And I really don't at all care for slap.

That said, the gent is intelligent, well spoken when the situation calls for it, and a very good bass player. One I've grown to have an almost grudging respect for now that he's started (by his own admission) to grow up a bit.

The main reason I liked that video I posted was because it was a fine performance on his part that caught about half those lesser gods by surprise - many of whom (IMO) have bern largely resting on their laurels for many years - and the bulk of whose own performances were pretty sad on that one I think.

Maybe it's a small reminder of how the lowly can, with diligence, rise - and "the greats" can slip if they're not careful about staying focused and on top of their game.

But that's me.

 

[123321]

For the record, I personally dislike Flea's antics and a lot of the over the top playing he does with RHCP, a band I'm not not too fond of either. And I really don't at all care for slap.

That said, the gent is intelligent, well spoken when the situation calls for it, and a very good bass player. One I've grown to have an almost grudging respect for now that he's started (by his own admission) to grow up a bit.

The main reason I liked that video I posted was because it was a fine performance on his part that caught about half those lesser gods by surprise - many of whom (IMO) have bern largely resting on their laurels for many years - and the bulk of whose own performances were pretty sad on that one I think.

Maybe it's a small reminder of how the lowly can, with diligence, rise - and "the greats" can slip if they're not careful about staying focused and on top of their game.

But that's me.

Cool!!

 

[ThePresident777]

My preference is for a bass chart that is the song but isn't stuck in the mud, something that's both song and solo throughout the whole song without being a proper solo, something Jamerson or Casady for example. And something that isn't just an octave double of the guitar.

 

[ThePresident777]

Ran out of space.........

 

[radioface]

Playing tastefully and playing 'busy' are not mutually exclusive.

When I think of classic rock, I'd name bands like Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Boston, The Who, Allman Brothers etc. Every single one of those bands have bassists that are busy as anything, but it always sounds great.

I agree.

 

[Rib 13]

I play in a 4 piece cover band and we share our drummer with another local band. His other band was playing a gig at a pub so I went to check them out. It's a three piece classic rock trio made up of some well known and much loved musicians. The show was pretty much what I expected from some of the area's most talented musicians. The bass player is a twenty-something hipster type dude who has got some serious chops. He tends to take a line that requires 10 notes and plays 35 notes instead. While I can appreciate his flashy style, I think it kinda steps on the groove. Whether it's because of laziness or lack of talent on my part, I tend to stay more in the background with my playing. I add fills here and there but mostly I fly under the radar. In the couple hours I was there, I think he played 3 bass solos. People stand and applaud his talents, and rightly so. He is pretty amazing. I just feel like he should use a little more restraint. OR maybe I could take a lesson from him and possibly become less of an unknown. While I used to be a relatively popular musician in the area who had lots of musical opportunities, being away for almost a decade has left me somewhat in obscurity. Maybe I should up my game a bit, though it goes against my instincts as a musician to play on level 10 at all times. My guitar player, who was also at the show joked "If you played like that I'd leave the band". I responded " He doesn't just play the notes, he plays ALL the notes". Maybe I'm just getting passed my prime and jealous of the young bucks getting all the attention. Lol

such is the plight of the bass player vs. public perception -- its an anti-parallel thankless job: When you are locking hard into the drummer, playing solid note values and supporting the vocals and other instruments, you are really kicking azz but the (non-playing/listening) audience just goes "Meh"...OTOH, I guy with a million chops and less than adequate groove gets the "Wow!" from same said audience.

There is a way to play "More is Less" on bass (Vinnie Colaiuta has practically made a career of this on drums), but on bass it takes having a real good drummer that ya lock in with very well and "tasty" for-the-song flash playing is done in "punctuations" - spots here and there within certain songs (works best in vocal-dead areas) - without ever sacrificing the groove and always supporting the other players first and foremost before breaking into something creative. YMMV, of course

 

[Cap'n Redbeard]

such is the plight of the bass player vs. public perception -- its an anti-parallel thankless job: When you are locking hard into the drummer, playing solid note values and supporting the vocals and other instruments, you are really kicking azz but the (non-playing/listening) audience just goes "Meh"...OTOH, I guy with a million chops and less than adequate groove gets the "Wow!" from same said audience.

There is a way to play "More is Less" on bass (Vinnie Colaiuta has practically made a career of this on drums), but on bass it takes having a real good drummer that ya lock in with very well and "tasty" for-the-song flash playing is done in "punctuations" - spots here and there within certain songs (works best in vocal-dead areas) - without ever sacrificing the groove and always supporting the other players first and foremost before breaking into something creative. YMMV, of course

That about sums it up for me.

 

[Rib 13]

Disagree. Players that think of themselves in a complete vacuum tend to become absolute prima donnas. There's nothing wrong with measuring your own capabilities against the style or talent or technical competence of someone else. Without measurements and comparisons, there's no way to gauge levels of accomplishment or track progress.

thats how i felt watching John Holmes movies....when he died, I felt like every man on Earth moved up one notch