Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
The most important skill a bass player must posses.
- Thread starter samrock5000
- Start date
Yeah, there were a few people who already mentioned listening is an important skill. No biggie.
Sounds to me like blaming other folks for one's inability to get "there" by one's self. Yes, bad or compromised musicianship can compromise the final product, but I've played with more people "****ed-up" on relationships, jobs, money issues, &c, than imbibences. There's always something to blame if you go looking for it.
But aside from that, there's one thing about "enhancement" that hasn't been mentioned (that I've seen) in this thread: certain "enhancements" do provide a toolkit for embedding additional data into the music stream encoded in a manner that can only (or best) be decoded by someone who is subjectively in that same chemical state (or has enough experience to not need the chemical training wheels). That can, and often does, contain high-order emotional content. It can, in the hands of a real artist, include such an intense personal connection that barriers are effectively removed between people and they can share a common moment of consciousness and subjective viewpoint--you can make someone see "through your eyes", virtually literally. This encoding is objective--it can be recorded and replayed to the same effect. (One of the first groups to study this ability was the Rainbow Bridge Meditation and Occult Research Center; their visit by Jimi at their Maui HQ was documented in the film Rainbow Bridge.) Their point was you could actually pass messages that the intended audience could understand but would sound like noise to an outsider. In fact, in the uncut documentary, they slowly start to encode the guy's speech about it so that his revealing the "secret" was itself encoded (just pure spoken word, not "music").
Some of this additional data sounds pleasant (at least contextually accurate for the song--the emotion transmitted may not itself be pleasant) to the untrained ear, since it is an audible component of the music itself. Call it "bleed through".
Most it not all of the tools, once learned, can be exploited without actually having to have the chemicals present. As I said, it is an objective, recordable effect, and once you learn how to do it, that skill remains. It is not just an illusion.
Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Airplane/Starship, The Greatful Dead, The Rolling Stones, U2, The Beatles--even Aerosmith back in the day (Toys in the Attic doesn't mean dolls and bikes)...many of the great acts of the late 60s and 70s were experts at it. Frank Marino was a whiz at it. The only caveat was that not everyone who could do it--it's not particularly difficult--had something interesting to say (e.g., the Stones, IMO).
And just because some of you may not have "experienced" it--well, Are You...?--doesn't mean it isn't there. It just means that all this time we've been pitching over your head and you had absolutely no clue what we were really up to.
Oh...trying to figure out how I missed that, but then while at the dinner table I can't find my fork because it's in my hand!
My god, that is really interesting! You got a link to a website I can read more about this stuff? Or a book or something you could recommend?
EDIT: I found that movie rainbow bridge online, I think: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
its called being either a gifted musician, or just, as stated in post #2, "in the zone"
I'm going to give another vote for "patience," both for others and self.
However, just to state the obvious, the most important skill MIGHT be to be able to TUNE IT!
However, just to state the obvious, the most important skill MIGHT be to be able to TUNE IT!
Two words: Frank Zappa. Game, set, match.
Anyway, forget the metaphysics and the drugs and whatever other mumbo jumbo people are talking about. When it comes down to it, it's all about having a good ear for tonal and chordal qualities and especially a good grasp of rhythm and the ability to lock into a groove and carry it. If you don't have either, you are useless as a bass player and no amount of "infinite creativity" or inspiration, drug-induced or otherwise, will change that.
I say Zappa, Psychedelics, Zen, the Force, the Zone, Jesus, whatever gets you there. Try what you are curious about and do what works for you. I don't get all the "anti-drug" dudes. I'm for freedom. Use your ability to choose. If you try psychedelics and they don't work for you, then don't bother. Zappa was very open-minded and did try substances. He decided he didn't need them. He was a very hard-working and dedicated human to his art, craft, and love. If you had his desire, then you may reach his level. Few people are of Frank Zappa calibre in any part of their lives. Don't hate on psychedelics though. Floyd, Hendrix, Clapton, Zeppelin, Beatles, etc, were very creative with them.
I don't care if people do psychedelic drugs to get their creativity going. I've played with several musicians who smoked cannabis, two of which are in my current band, and there's never been an issue. I respect freedom of choice.
What I don't like is this assumption that those substances can unlock someone's creative potential and help them transcend the limits of sober inspiration. It's misinformed, it's presumptive, and it's rather insulting to someone who manages to compose music and play bass without psychedelic aid.
