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"Must Learn" For Any Aspiring Rock Bassist
- Thread starter XsoGol
- Start date
xsogol said:
Not to encroach on Woodchuck's turf...
When I got into actually BUYING R&B albums(1975), I had EW&F's That's The Way Of The World album.
The title track is great, as is "Shining Star" & "Yearnin' Learnin'". Then I got Spirit..."Getaway" & "Saturday Night".
"Can't Hide Love" & "Serpentine Fire"(FUN-KAY)were others that were fun to play...a little later, "Got To Get You Into My Life" blew me away. Now that's the way to re-do a Beatles' tune!
As far as Graham goes, I mentioned Sly's Stand! album...all the Family Stone albums with Graham are worth collecting. The 1st couple Graham Central Station albums are also worth having(sounded like an extension of Sly & TFS...in fact, the 1st EW&F album sounds a little like S&TFS, too).
I don't think any of this stuff is "Must learn" a lot of people make careers playing their own music. 
- Apr 21, 2000
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- Gallien Krueger for the last 12 years!
xsogol said:
"Glide" "Dust Yourself Off", "Thoughts of Old Flames" - Pleasure
"Stone Jam", "Screw Your Wig on Tight" - Slave
"Song in My Heart", "In The Stone", "Can't Hide Love", "Let Me Talk", "Mighty Mighty" - Earth, Wind, & Fire
"YYZ", Red Berchetta" - Rush
"Entro", "Pow", "Do You Wanna Dance?", "It's Alright", "Hair" - Graham Central Station
Those were the songs that made me go, "Damn! Where's my bass? I've gotta learn that!"
Syeknom said:Money?
I was kinda tired when I posted this and those other songs were off the top of my head. How could I be so stupid?
Hey Lorenzini....what are some of your favorite songs featuring Paul Jackson? What songs/albums made you want to play?
Of this list, four stand out above all, each in different ways, at different times: In chronological order, I would say...
* James Jamerson
* Paul McCartney
* Jack Bruce
* Chris Squire
Of the four, I most consciously tried to emulate Chris Squire - at least at one time. No more. He is truly unique.
Still, the two whom I admire most remain McCartney & Squire. And not just because of their performance skills - good as they are. It's because of their compositional skills: I absolutely love the sophisticated, occasionally intricate (especially Squire), way-out-of-the-box and yet inspired, magical bass lines they weave.
McCartney was influenced by Jamerson (as he's often said), and yet he brought something entirely new to the table - a strong melodicism combined with an incredible instinctual feel for the right bass part that can fully unlock the creative potential of a song. As for Squire, he clearly was influenced by J.S. Bach (typical European) in his introduction of counterpoint into rock/pop music, which he sort of fused with the energy & bravado of John Entwistle & Jack Bruce. Brilliant!
At this point, I'm pretty comfortable with my own style, as it's developed & matured. And there's probably at least a little bit of each of these guys in it. And yet, there's a big portion of it that's strictly me - and I feel pretty good about that...
MM
* James Jamerson
* Paul McCartney
* Jack Bruce
* Chris Squire
Of the four, I most consciously tried to emulate Chris Squire - at least at one time. No more. He is truly unique.
Still, the two whom I admire most remain McCartney & Squire. And not just because of their performance skills - good as they are. It's because of their compositional skills: I absolutely love the sophisticated, occasionally intricate (especially Squire), way-out-of-the-box and yet inspired, magical bass lines they weave.
McCartney was influenced by Jamerson (as he's often said), and yet he brought something entirely new to the table - a strong melodicism combined with an incredible instinctual feel for the right bass part that can fully unlock the creative potential of a song. As for Squire, he clearly was influenced by J.S. Bach (typical European) in his introduction of counterpoint into rock/pop music, which he sort of fused with the energy & bravado of John Entwistle & Jack Bruce. Brilliant!
At this point, I'm pretty comfortable with my own style, as it's developed & matured. And there's probably at least a little bit of each of these guys in it. And yet, there's a big portion of it that's strictly me - and I feel pretty good about that...
MM
JimK said:
Plenty, I'm sure. I didn't even start playing until I was 19, so high school stuff was out. Private lessons and playing w/ as many people as possible made up for anything I might have missed previously. Also, I''m not sure that playing covers in a bar is the mark of a great player, and "dues''....
....are for chumps.
I love to learn the songs that the "greats" played (or anything that sounds good to me really) because:
a. They came up with some brilliant stuff
b. They inspired me to pick up the instrument or to try something new and different
c. I can learn a lot about the instrument from transcribing and playing their songs (you learn a lot about note spacing, time signatures, note selection, etc.)
d. It helps train my ear and shows me patterns that exist between different styles of music.
There's nothing wrong with learning the material of others. It helps you when you are creating your own music. You don't have to copy someone's style or technique, you just meld the parts you like into your own unique style. I consider all of this to be research to make myself a better all around player, plus it is fun for me and that's what counts...so keep telling us what songs and albums inspired you. I've been learning something new every day on this forum. Thanks everyone!
a. They came up with some brilliant stuff
b. They inspired me to pick up the instrument or to try something new and different
c. I can learn a lot about the instrument from transcribing and playing their songs (you learn a lot about note spacing, time signatures, note selection, etc.)
d. It helps train my ear and shows me patterns that exist between different styles of music.
There's nothing wrong with learning the material of others. It helps you when you are creating your own music. You don't have to copy someone's style or technique, you just meld the parts you like into your own unique style. I consider all of this to be research to make myself a better all around player, plus it is fun for me and that's what counts...so keep telling us what songs and albums inspired you. I've been learning something new every day on this forum. Thanks everyone!
MacheteJames said:Plenty, I'm sure. I didn't even start playing until I was 19, so high school stuff was out. Private lessons and playing w/ as many people as possible made up for anything I might have missed previously. Also, I''m not sure that playing covers in a bar is the mark of a great player, and "dues''....
....are for chumps.
Not sure where you're going with this post, MJ.
"Playing covers in a bar" may not be the mark of a great player...I would guess every 'great player', at one time or another in their career, did so(like every Jazz player).
IMO, it's also irrelevant how late someone starts their musical quest.
I'm totally lost on how paying dues is for chumps.
Many pay dues in clubs, playing others' music, while working the whole while on perfecting their own thing(example: John Coltrane playing some pathetic R&B 'Walking The Bar' BS prior to being hired by Miles...where he then played Miles' covers while still working on his own thing).
JimK said:
Jim, I was being facetious, but all that I meant was that I took the route of learning theory, ear training, and technique, rather than learning covers. I still don't know many covers, but I'm able to learn them quickly, because of the work that I put in learning the fundamentals of music. It's like giving a man a fish vs teaching him how to fish himself, that's all. Covers certainly have their role, if you're looking for a steady, paying gig, but I question their role in the development of a musician's ability.
I am not normally a country fan, but man... some of the bass lines on those old Patsy Cline songs are something else. Check 'em out if you haven't already.
MacheteJames said:
I've studied classical music since I was a kid, jazz a little in high school. Theory is second nature to me - almost to a fault when I try and follow the "rules" rather than the right "sound". Learning theory, etc. was based on learning other people's songs, from Mozart to Thelonious Monk. I know the rules, but when I sat down to write a song for a music course, it came out sounding just like that - I'd followed the rules and no real inspiration.
I've been playing bass for just under 2 years (I'm 28). Sitting down with a CD or the radio tuned to a favorite station to learn a song by ear has, IMHO, improved my musicianship (on all of my instruments). It helps me focus on how the instruments play off each other and work together, it helps develop my ear, and when I approach a song there's a bit more inspiration in it now. Not to mention it can be fun to get together with friends and play covers.
My point is that it doesn't matter if you start with learning covers by ear or learning theory and technique, both aspects are important to developing as a musician. They're not mutually exclusive, even though it seems most of us (myself included) have experienced only one path of learning.
For me it was Chris Squire, Geddy Lee (who was influenced was Chris Squire), and JPJ. Of those three I chose Squire because the first time I heard Roundabout my ears were opened up to the bass being a lead instrument and having its own unique voice. To this day I find myself playing lines that are Squire-like. Geddy did the same thing for me to a lesser degree and JPJ was the first rock bassist that I felt was really funky, plus I totally dug his tone.
