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The five most important lessons I've ever learned about bass.

#41
Awesome post, Pancake.

I have learned several things myself -

1. Humility helps. There is ALWAYS someone more skilled than you. Acting like your *** doesn't stink is not always appreciated by others, especially the ones who hire musicians. This isn't really about playing the bass directly - but it does help with getting along with people who hire you to play the bass.

2. Slow it down - if you have trouble with something (a syncopated part, for example), slow it down until it is almost painfully slow. Learn it at the slow tempo, and gradually speed it up to the operating tempo. You won't forget the part if you learn it like this.

3. Knowing a piece of gear before gigging it. I like to have at least 3 rehearsals on a bass before gigging it. Even if two basses are "exactly" the same, the way notes sound on the neck determine how I will play a line. Being confident with my gear eliminates extra problems when trying to read a tough line.
 
#43
Great OP! I don't have much to add but here's one thing that I've found helps me.

As well as listening to all the musicians you're playing with, look at them as well, and by that I mean make eye contact. Don't just stare at your bass neck, actually engage with the people you are creating music with. If somebody plays something cool, give 'em a nod or a smile. Don't just use your ears, use your eyes as well.
 
#44
there is no best. there is no worst. bad playing to one may be experimental new frontiers to another. or a 12 year old picking up a bass for the first time. or someone with a recent hand injury who is trying to get back in the game. sooo many variables.

BE MEMORABLE. don't be a zombie. don't just stand there gently swaying back and forth. jump off the stage, put your leg up on your monitor, play with glow in the dark strings and paint yourself blue and dress like a viking, whatever you do BE YOURSELF. something deep and primal in people wants to be stimulated. find your way to stimulate it non-sexually, and reap the rewards whether they are monetary or not.

:bassist:
 
#47
I think that TONE is one of the most important lessons I've learned about bass. When I started playing (and for a long time) I was a "just boomy lows" kind of player: Neck pickup only plus rolled-off tone knob. Stuart Hamm taught me that treble is a valid component of bass tone, so I fully opened the tone knob. But still couldn't understand how Jaco Pastorius could get such clarity and articulation in his playing (putting his skills aside, of course). When I realized that scooping mids/countour switches are the worst enemy of bass tone definition and understood that what sounds pretty playing alone may not sound that great within a band, I felt that my musicianship made a huge leap forward (not that I'm a great musician, but definitely much less ignorant after learning that lesson).
 
#49
Wow, I hadn't checked in on this thread in a while!

Glad to see so many people enjoyed the read. There is a lot of excellent knowledge being shared by so many players in this thread, too.

Not to get too sentimental, but it's discussions like this one that keep me playing music. It's fascinating to me how music changed from a participatory activity to a passive activity, but bass players always stuck out to me as an open and welcoming community.
 
#52
Great post. I should have read this 40 years ago. You might add to this when in rehearsals, and gig (especially if you are subbing) Solve problems for those around you. Don't be the kind of musician people have to worry about.
 
#53
Great thread.
One "theme" I read in more than one post was LIVE mistakes and "letting the instrument play you". One quote that I recall sometimes was made by Journey's bassist(IIRC) who put it this way:

"If you're thinkin' you're stinkin' "

And something I ran across last week on TB concerning gear(name brands meaning little or nothing):

"When my amp and bass sound good to me, they don't get in my way, I am less aware of them and able to be in the music"
 
#54
5. There is no "good" or "bad."
This is definitely the preachiest of my points, but it's the one that I consider the most valuable. I'll also spend the least words on it.

It's very simple. Stop thinking about whether bassists are "good" or "bad." Nothing hurts your own musical advancement more. Every bassist simply has a style. Some may have a style you prefer, and some may not. Some may play simple lines, and some may not. But most importantly, always remember that there is no objective measurement for musical skill. We form our own value systems and base our judgments of other musicians off these values. To call someone "bad" is, quite simply, bigotry and insulting towards a musician who simply doesn't have the same values you do.

Stop calling other musicians bad. See if they have something to teach you, even if it's just what not to do. If they do something that sounds absolutely awful to your ears, remember that you've LEARNED to prefer a specific form of music. Don't say "that bassist is bad," say "I do not prefer his style of playing."

Music comes from inside. The more you realize that you can control what kind of music you like, the more open you will be. The more you will learn.

And... in contradiction to my own point... the better you will be!
Click to expand...

I've thought about this point a lot, actually, and I have to come on the opposite side of the fence here.

I think the implications of your thought are ultimately truthful, which is to say that comparing yourself as a musician to another musician should be ego-neutral, in other words, you should derive absolutely no satisfaction or anxiety from the way you play and you sound as compared with somebody else. This is clearly destructive, and if we believe that "there is no good and there is no bad," that eliminates ego and makes us better people.

However, it doesn't make us better musicians. By giving the blanket statement that people of different skill-levels and different skill-sets simply have "different styles," we really do a disservice to our fellow musicians and ourselves by not applying a critical understanding of their musicianship and their art, and how we can use their successes and failures to better our own music making in the future.

For example, I can safely say that yes, I feel that I am a more skilled and better musician than my students. When I listen to a beginning bass player taking lessons, I don't hear "a different style," I hear a person who is unskilled. I try and find out what skills they might already have, and then try to give them skills that they want or will eventually need further on down the line. I might even learn something in the process as well (actually, I very likely will learn a lot). If I, or anybody else were to believe that there wasn't such thing as a good or bad, then there would never be any need to learn anything! Who am I to tell you how to play, you already have your own style!

See the ridiculousness of it? True, there are such things as apples and oranges - Alex Webster isn't getting called for Chick Corea anytime soon, and Hadrien Feraud is not likely going to be tearing up the studio scene in LA, but it's not in anybody's interest to pretend that everything's subjective.

Furthermore, even though I very firmly believe that I'm a better musician than my students, my belief is ego-neutral, I get no satisfaction out of that fact. I also never feel depressed when I see somebody very clearly on another level than me (I almost always get insanely inspired and head to the woodshed...never really understood the "never wanting to play bass again" mentality). That's the real lesson to learn from music-making, I feel, is to never base your self-worth on others, only on yourself and your own craft.
 
#57
My top few:
1) "The expert bass player never plays an open string. Play all but the low E as fretted - it becomes a pattern you can move. If you play open strings, it's much harder to move." This has forced me to think, use pinky, get to know the fretboard and other major advantages.
2) "Alternate right hand index and middle finger. Practice straight quarter notes alternating fingers." This sort of simplified Steve Harris thing got me started early on simple drive and accuracy. Very important and I totally take it for granted now.
3) "If you can't feel it, don't play it." This is a Jamerson quote, or so I've heard. This has opened me up tremendously while keeping me from a variety of errors.
4) "Know your part and play it; play in the pocket with the drummer." Geeze. How important is THIS? :)
5) "Bass is the house that everyone else plays in." This Abraham Laboriel quote has helped me find the line, the groove, the drive, and generally know what to do/when. It has also helped me know that bass IS the band and the crowd responds more fundamentally (no pun intended) to bass beyond all other instruments - without knowing or realizing - and being content with the identity and role of bass, no matter how complex or simple the line.
:bassist:
 
#58
After 35 years of playing music, there is one fundamental principle I can think of, and I don't think has been mentioned yet here; and that is to CARE about the music you are playing, whatever it is, wherever you are playing it.

The only time I would call someone a poor musician is when it is obvious that they just don't care about what they are playing.
 

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