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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out
- Thread starter Korladis
- Start date
Ask and you shall receive - I just got home from a show, here is a picture
Dudebro at my work wants some bass lessons. Any tips? What should I start him out on, assuming he's never played a note in his life.
So apparently I'm the weird one for thinking it's normal for people to be in more than one band.
Sanity check, guys. Am I the one who's talking nonsense here? It seems like basically every musician I know plays in more than one band or has done so.
Sanity check, guys. Am I the one who's talking nonsense here? It seems like basically every musician I know plays in more than one band or has done so.
As an avid hater of music instruction, I would say either ask him what he likes and just teach him to learn that song by song from which seems easier to you to more difficult. Or, if you're feeling lazy, make him learn what you like.
Hello,
I checked out the teaser clip you guys have on your site sounds really cool. When's it come out?
ready to go for the phoenix show, all the basses are set up and strung with the proper strings, love me some dunlop nickel rounds, now all i need to do is find some time to print some photos for the art show, i wanted to post a pick of a naked goth girl covering her breast with a ouija board and her downstairs with the plastic thing, but maybe i'll do a drawing of it and then post that since it'll be more arty that way, gotta go my basset hound is howling and my burrito just finished baking in my toaster oven
Oh cool, glad you like it! The teaser is just a quick recording from our jam space. We're looking to record this spring - will definitely post here once it's ready to go.
Got to play at volume again tonight for the first time in months. All my rigs sounded glorious. Love my various kinds of dirt. Got me thinking on filters again, though.
Anyone have the current Proton? I like my MXR BEF, but it never seems to sound quite right. Trying to get less shrill highs and more low end thwomp. Thinking maybe lowering sensitivity. I know that works on my old DOD FX25Bs, which are some of my favorite filter tones.
TLDR; I want funky filter tones that thwomp and without shrill highs. I would like suggestions for pedals, or suggestions for settings on my MXR BEF.
Thanks all!
Anyone have the current Proton? I like my MXR BEF, but it never seems to sound quite right. Trying to get less shrill highs and more low end thwomp. Thinking maybe lowering sensitivity. I know that works on my old DOD FX25Bs, which are some of my favorite filter tones.
TLDR; I want funky filter tones that thwomp and without shrill highs. I would like suggestions for pedals, or suggestions for settings on my MXR BEF.
Thanks all!
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Hater of music instruction? I can see not seeing it as necessary, but active hatred?
Honestly most of the good things about my playing and writing are things I learned from lessons (electric and upright).
Yeah, same. I'm in two different metal bands and a folk/rock band. Lots of people I know play with multiple groups.
It's complicated. I think learning, whatever the subject, is the stuff of life but the more i see i think authority tends to be the opposite of that. Maybe it's also that i had awful music instructors from ages 7 to 14. (And none afterwards.) I believe there is everything to be gained by commitment and working hard. But im not sure any of that comes from outside the person. Sure, pieces of knowledge. But not the desire, not the deep need. I guess i just have a problem with authority. If i look around and see the world effed up im not just gonna blame the people in charge, im gonna ask the world if we even need people in charge.
I had good teachers.
I'd be much less good at bass than I am (so really awful, since I'm not very good) without having been taught.
Basically all the parts of my playing that are actually good are things I learned from taking lessons. I likely would not have been good enough to be asked to join any of the bands I'm currently in without the years of electric bass and bass viol instruction I had. It isn't as if I haven't developed any of my style on my own, but the earliest basis of it I basically borrowed wholesale from my electric bass teacher who I took lessons from when I was a teenager (though he was a Fender guy and I'm not... albeit to his credit, he never once criticized my choice of instrument). My left hand technique is entirely lifted from the bass viol technique my teacher on that instrument taught me.
I see the boasts on here of people never having had any instructions and being proud of it as a form of anti-intellectualism. Which is something that causes me despair. To me it's like someone boasting that they can't read and think books are for losers.
Like i said, it's complicated. I hope i dont come off as anti intellectual or boastful. Ive spent about a year unlearning the admittedly very little i knew about bass. It feels freeing to work from a spot of pure inspiration, creativity, and diligence. I have different musical goals than most. Over the years, ive picked up stuff from other people. Sometimes i prolly could benefitted from better guidance or any guidance at all. Im glad you had good teachers and you feel it betters your playing. My concern in music is being most like myself. But i am the band and the music is entirely me. I see how music instruction stiffled my writing voice but i dont blame those individuals. I was deeply lacking confidence. Now i dont fret, i just do.
Looking back to what I wish had learned first, I'd start with how fret well (tone-wise,) how to alternate pick with the striking hand, and the notes in standard tuning in first position.
It's boring as hell, but from there any chord chart is an easy way to play along with their favorite songs (i know, not play the correct line, but at least be able to hear what they're doing WILL fit.) That way they can practice and see progression easily. It also sets them up to easily learn the notes up neck.
Once they understand playing roots from a chord chart show simple major and minor arpeggio shapes, maybe? I think that's a good way to learn turn arounds from one root to another.
That should give the building blocks to actually start jamming with others, which I feel is where most folks learn the most!
All that said, I learned rudimentary left and right hand techniques, then taught myself songs by ear. At the time I was receiving classical instruction in cello, so I picked up some theory, but honestly didn't even think of applying it to guitar or bass for a long time.
I suppose it can, if a teacher tells you that there's a "right" and a "wrong" way to do things (besides the most basics of technique to avoid injury).
My teacher did insist I learn some Jamerson lines, but I think he was right to do so. Expanded my taste at a time I was listening only to metal. Also after I learned them, we'd go through them and talk about the chords in various parts of the song and how the bass line worked with them. He realized early on that I didn't just want to learn songs, but that I wanted to write songs of my own and so we did a lot of work studying how different players in different styles played in terms of how their bass lines would go. I already knew a bit of theory like scales from being in band (playing trombone) during middle school and stuff, so we went into things like counterpoint/contrary motion, harmonizing, all kinds of different stuff. I initially learned "Anesthesia" (Cliff Burton's bass solo from Kill 'em All) because I was hella into Metallica at the time, but we went through and looked at the melodic structure of it like a classical piece almost. Lots of that stuff is really engrained and instinctive in me now. I'm still not a technically very impressive player, but people ask me to be in bands because I guess, in terms of bass, the thing I'm good at is writing bass lines.
He never was like "this is the right way to write bass lines," but more "this is how this particular accomplished player's style works. Maybe you'll find something in their approach that you can apply to what you do, even if the music you play is very different."
My bass viol teacher in college really helped with my left hand technique, as I mentioned. I play a lot less sloppily than I used to as a result of having to get less sloppy to play upright. After playing it, electric is easy. And being able to play it is something I can bring to the table for bands I'm in.
Yeah, a lot of the stuff we take for granted and do unconsciously after playing for so many years isn't necessarily obviously to a new player.
