Plug In

[Pr_bassman6]

So I've always wanted to know or have an idea of what other people play when they first plug in their basses. I never really knew what to play so I just hit some random notes but I'd like to have something in mind to play when I plug in like a nice groove or something. I don't know if y'all know what Im talking about, but I'm talking about a warm up pretty much. What do you play, how do you come up with what to play at initial plug in and where can I find some ideas? The guitarist i play with always has some cool runs and his warm ups sound really nice. Ive been playing for a long time and Im just tired of plugging in tuning and then waiting on the set.

Thanks

 

[RustyAxe]

Im just tired of plugging in tuning and then waiting on the set

On stage? Nothing. Wanking around will get you fired from many bands.

 

[Pr_bassman6]

during rehearsals, or even when you are just practicing.

 

[RoadRanger]

TV theme songs

 

[RustyAxe]

during rehearsals, or even when you are just practicing.

OK. I usually play something that lets me check my tuning (I've already tuned with a tuner, of course) ... some roots, thirds, octaves; chromatic walks, moved up and down the neck. Nothing special. I have no idea what I'll play until it comes off my fingers usually. Some song will pop into my head while I'm playing and maybe I'll play that. It's never the same. Often I'll latch on to what the guitarist is doing (or he'll catch on to what I'm doing), and we'll jam quietly until everyone is ready to go.

 

[xUptheIronsx]

At practice:
- whatever I have been working on, either original or cover. Recently it has been the 2 FAith No More songs we are working on

on stage:
- I do have a superstition on stage. For the past 30+ years, I always have to play a little chunk of a Rush song and then an Iron Maiden song. This is usually during set up before the house is open and is very spontaneous. It is my way of invoking the spirits that I want to be around me on stage.
- for sound check, I usually play scales in the differernt ranes to let the sound guy hear the spectrum; I will do a very small amount of slaping just to test the upper ranges, even though I use NO slapping in our songs, I do tend to get excited and want t omake sure we have enough headroom for when I dig in; I always finish with the main riff of Vital Signs by Rush
- right before we play, it is usually just hitting a string to make sure all of the signal flow is still there....unless the sound guy asks for more.

 

[ONYX]

I usually run some type of arpeggio that spans 5 frets across all 4 strings--just to make sure that all the fingers are still operating with established parameters.