Playing behind the bear

[Spin Doctor]

Really? Are ya sure?

Hmmm, I don't wanna assume too much, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say "yeah, pretty sure"...

Anyway, the way I hear the groove in funk and stuff like it is that your kinda "sink into" the beat instead of sitting on it.

 

[pholli00]

There seems to be two conversations going on...

 

[johnson79]

Be vewy vewy quiet. Works for wabbits and bears.

 

[Spin Doctor]

There seems to be two conversations going on...

That's pretty much the norm around here. You get used to it after awhile...

 

[five7]

Come to colorado, you will be playing behind the beat in no time.

 

[RichardW]

@Spin Doctor You beat me to the D'Angelo reference. I was going to suggest the Black Messiah album. I believe that features Pino Palladino on bass. Great stuff.

 

[Spin Doctor]

@Spin Doctor You beat me to the D'Angelo reference. I was going to suggest the Black Messiah album. I believe that features Pino Palladino on bass. Great stuff.

Oh Yeah Black Messiah is great too! I think Voo-Doo (and Brown Sugar) is prolly more accessible if you are not too familiar with the style. It's a different vibe and playing style than the typical 70's funk. And while I do dig the 70's stuff, after 40+ years, I think it's ok to move on to something else.

 

[Forrest Thump]

Be careful not to think of playing behind the beat as "dragging" the beat. There is a huge difference.

Oh? Please elaborate

 

[Forrest Thump]

Umm ... You think it might be too late to go back and change the title of this thread?

Yeah. I caught it just after I posted it and decided to let the sparks fly

 

[Fender_Bender]

Just "lube" your fingers up with honey and you'll be guaranteed to be behind the bear beat .

 

[cchorney]

Invalid Link Removed

 

[pbass2]

Here's one for you. It's so freakin tight. I don't agree that you can't be taught to play in any particular way. I've read that D'Angelo actually had to teach Pino Pallidino to play this far behind the beat... You can be taught anything, since nobody is born knowing this stuff. But if you can do this, then you should be able to play any style behind the beat. They are not all slugged like this groove is...

This album is about the best example I can think of where it's really obvious how behind the beat the bass is at times. Or sometimes ahead, or just sort of "around" the beat. Not that no one had ever played this way in the history the bass guitar before(plenty of great classic examples above), but when this came out--pow! I don't know any bassists who weren't trying to cop these vibes. We've had it beat into our heads to be so locked in and click-like all the time, it can get hard to let go of that. I think in large part this approach on this album was influenced by early hip hop where samples weren't perfectly in time but you have killer and unique groove(of course Questlove is a master at those kinds of grooves). Funkier and greasier than if it's all machine-like (like much of todays hip hop, but that's another thread...)

 

[tekhedd]

It's also important to have a drummer who won't drag when you get behind the beat, that's a total nightmare. As long as you aren't too far behind on the 1 most of them get the hint.

Although I know at least one drummer who will drag *unless* you play behind the beat, at which point he starts to pick up. I really don't get that.

 

[Johnny Crab]

Behind the beat is what I do when the drummer speeds up after seeing a very attractive female "bouncing" around on the dance floor. It is like Scott said "flammin" which is milliseconds behind his kick drum here. He usually gets the message since my bass is cranked in his monitor.

 

[2tonic]

Damn!
I thought this thread was about ShowBiz Pizza getting the Rock-a-fire Explosion back together, and one of our fellow TBers caught the gig.
Really disappointed.

 

[Michael Schreiber]

@Forrest Thump :
I don't know what kind of music you like to practice. But rather to a metronome, it helped me to practice to back tracks, such as that one, linked below. Nice to get used to "lock in" with the drums; as exercise it may help to just mimick what the drums play, but as tight as can (meaning at the same time). The next step, might be to build a rhythm that comes to your mind after having grasped what the drummer plays.

I saw Scott's Bass lessons linked in earlier posts, which I also can recommend.

Even more helpful than back tracks, I found jamming with Jazz players; focused on the drums, I first started to build a rhythm on what the drummer played; but since everything is improvised, I found myself forced to listen to the drums even more carefully in order to hear the hints the drummer gave before changing the beat - it's more like a conversation between drummer and bassist through their playing, which might be not everyone's cup of tea, but helped me a lot to being able to focus on the drums. Also helped me noticing when and where to leave the drums more space, and where the drummer leaves me some space to play more notes. Same thing as guitar player in a solo; rather let one ring while drums and bass build up energy, then noodling more notes to carry further the impulse that drums and bass brought into play. May sound like off-topic, but this kind of "feeling the groove" with your body and locking in with the other instruments automatically helps, IMHO, playing tighter together, or at least notice when it wasn't tight and thus felt wrong.

Best of luck and much fun - you'll definitely have plenty of it with good drummers, even in totally different musical genres you may not have liked before! \m/

Here's one back track example:

 

[Chrisk-K]

Play behind the bear.....LOL!!!!!!! The typo is hilarious!!

 

[Carl Hillman]

Just play dead. The bear will leave you alone. I saw it in a movie.

+1

Your comment if very revenant to the conversation.

 

[tpaul]

You can play behind the bear. Just don't play anywhere near the bear's cubs.

 

[bikeplate]

Just don't run up a tree. Death sentence