Overplaying vs Underplaying?

[HaVIC5]

At a certain point you have to ask yourself, why play a lot of notes. The stock answer I've always heard is "because it adds more interest," but that tends to mean "because I get bored and I need to play fills every 8 bars to amuse myself." When you start thinking compositionally and more on what the music deserves rather than what you the bass player want to do, you start hearing that more often than not, a pocket bassline just sounds better. It takes a keen and developed ear to know exactly when to play out and play busy, because when that happens, the impact is far greater than if you are just playing all over the place all the time.

That said, the clip you posted wasn't particularly grievous, and your playing was closer to "busy" rather than "overplaying." However, it's a little much when the drums, guitar and bass are filling together every 8 measures. That would get tiresome very quickly.

 

[mambo4]

'not overplaying' does not mean 'stick to the written bass line':
it means playing to support the song rather than playing to gratify your own ego.

 

[Birdland11]

Ego has nothing to do with it! It would be boring, and empty

 

[grinx]

generally, the only folks who enjoy hearing busy bass lines are musicians and.....other bassists.

i'm probably the simplest bass player ever invented. i have no problem with it. all you bassmonsters can have that slice of the pie and i will dream about having half the chops of your average 17yo bassist.

i go out of my way not to step on the songwriter's song structure or vocals. i like to barely accentuate or set the tone, throw a wee bit of humor in once in a while and keep it tight.

i get many kudos on how well i fit with any drummer and don't showboat. i lack the skills and theory to showboat so i play simple **** as accurately as possible.

whenever i do jams (which i hate because i end up being a looper for other's wankery) people say 'thanks for not being a solo bassist. you let a jam breathe.'

some people paint stick figures and some do still life. it is still art to someone.

i'd rather hear a good, simple song than hear a bunch of wanking

to each his own!

 

[thorplaysbass]

Meat and potatoes are my favorite meal for dinner.

Now sometimes those meat and potatoes could use a little salt, maybe some of that fancy ass crushed red pepper MMMM SPICY

But either way, my favorite dinner isn't your favorite dinner...Or maybe it is..but apparently it isn't.

What matters the most, at least to normal folks, is the dish at hand. Not the spices.

Sorry..I'm just really hungry right now..
Anyway, Overplaying in general isn't cool yo.

 

[musicman666]

SHHHH...Don't over play too much or the Bass Nazi's will get you!!!

 

[Dantreige]

Ego has nothing to do with it! (BS!)It would be boring (Too you!), and empty. (Too you!)

Fixed that for you.

I listen to it. I even did more homework and looked at some other things you posted on youtube. (I am assuming you are the blonde bass player?)

You have good stage pressence. You are obviously a skilled musician. You have good chops on the bass. You can play keys too? Awesome!

I'm sorry, IMHO, you over played that song a bit. All your fills sounded good, they just did not sound good for that song. As others have said, if you would have done half as much, it would have sounded better.

Did you guitarist tell you to back off or something? My opinion and everyone elses is irrelevent. His opinion (and the others in your band) are the ones that count.

 

[Steve]

Ego has nothing to do with it! It would be boring, and empty

To you (and honestly, to me as well) it would be boring and empty.

To some civillian in the audience that wants to hear the melody and sing along with "their song"....which, if you're in a cover band is 98% of your market...it is a negative. IMHO

It's good playing. It's a good line. It's also a good example of playing the instrument and not the song.

There are plenty of markets where chopsmenship is appreciated and there are markets that are about the toe tap and head bob.

And yeah, ego has everything to do with it.

 

[Tupac]

Yikes, that is indeed overplaying. It kind of sounded mundane, just overusing little scale runs that weren't even too creative. You could get away with that in other songs maybe, but this is one where you need to lay back.

 

[bigboy_78]

I can’t see your vid, but I know that 16,000,000 people were happy with the bass line before you made it “better”.

 

[Snarf]

You wanna be a pro? Play the line, or if it's just chords, underplay, stick with the drummer.

Wanna be a basement/bedroom shredder? Do *** you want. No one can tell you how to play until you're doing it for money, or unless you actively seek out real instruction.

 

[stratovani]

I think a lot of it is the mix. I'd be willing to bet that if we heard you playing this song live it would sound a lot different. Personally I didn't think you were neither overplaying nor underplaying. It sounded good to me! But what the hell do I know, I'm just a bass player!

 

[JimmyM]

I was expecting to hear a bunch of crap, but I thought you did a pretty fresh take on the bassline. Unlike all these self-hating bassists on here, I have no problem when someone plays a busy bassline that works for the song, and I think it worked. But if you played like that at an Oasis audition, Noel Gallagher would surely kick you in the sack and send you on your way because that's not what he wants. Also, if I ever heard you doing that to an AC/DC song, I probably wouldn't have as charitable an opinion. Just use some common sense and some taste when you consider overplaying, and really ask yourself if you're making an improvement or just whacking yourself off.

 

[Mystic Michael]

I hate when people talk about overplaying, and sticking to the written bassline.

At the end of the day, nobody can determine for you what constitutes underplaying, what constitutes overplaying - or what is just right. Developing this kind of taste and discernment for yourself - and developing it to a high degree - is a big, big part of what musicianship is all about.

As for just "stick(ing) to the written part", just "stick(ing) to the root", and other forms of Bass Fundamentalism, that's fine - if the only playing you'll ever do is recording jingles, doing demos, or maybe playing "by the book" covers of other peoples' material.

But do those Fundamentalists ever ask themselves, "Where did the written part come from?" Oft times, it was from a bassist - who just happens to be an artist as well as a good technician - and someone who was willing and able to think outside the box, play outside the box, and take a few well-considered creative chances.

Think about that...

MM

 

[4Mal]

Way too busy for my taste. I could drive that band just as hard with a quarter of the notes and let the drums, guitars and voices breath a little. Imo all those notes are gratuitous fluff saying look at me! I want to hear 'great sounding band' when I get off stage, not 'wow, great bass solo...'

I dig a virtuoso bassist. Jaco's performance Free Man in Paris comes to mind. Even Jaco knew to take his foot of the gas now and then though. He knew how to pick his spots. Or put another way...You do that twice in a row while I'm in a club and you see my backside as it just isn't musical.

As far as sticking to the written part. Sometimes it is exactly the right thing to do as it best supports the song. Sometimes, it's best to sketch the line, implying the bassline plus another part as you have 4 players attempting what 8 did in the studio... Or throw the original out and put your own spin on it. For me though the issue is, is it musical? Does it breath ?

I do a reggae version of the Dylan tune Lay Lady Lay. My line has like a quadrilion more notes than the original. The guitar/ singer gives the line room. Musically it makes sense. We also do tunes where my line is super restrained to let the vocals and guitar carry the weight. A bluegrass verion of Wid Horses comes to mind. Mixing it up. That is what makes it not boring for someone listening...

 

[vin*tone]

I hate when people talk about overplaying, and sticking to the written bassline.Here is oasis dont look back in anger. Is this overplaying? Why would I play the written bassline here? Does this ruin the song? I dont think it does. Why not go all the way with it? Opinions? This was recorded with a video camera on the bass side of the stage, so its not as loud as you think.Guitar is on other side, thats why it sounds like im hogging it all.

Doesn't sound overplayed to me at all. If you're hitting the pulse you can embellish how you like.

Nice playing BTW.

 

[seanm]

I liked it. It didn't seem overplayed to me since the lines where fairly simple. However, I don't think I have ever heard the original.

I will take your word that the bass was sitting better in the actual mix.

 

[driftingupward]

Doesn't sound too busy to me either. I think people are getting thrown off cause you're so loud in this particular mix. I think if it was a good mix out in the audience then what you did was right on. Maybe a little busy but, like I said, if the mix was right I don't know that anybody would have noticed....But I also don't know that song either....

Hell you're just playing a cover and everybody was probably too drunk to listen to what the bass was doing anyway. We musicians like to over-analyze things that the general public doesn't even know is happening....

 

[Ben Noblit]

IMO, blistering, awesome fills are best used once, not at the end of every 8 bars.

 

[willbassyeah]

i think it depend on the band that you play with, some band think you overplay if you play other than root note, some band think you sucks if you play too little, it happens in any genre imo