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What is overplaying ?

#81
Overplaying is playing more for yourself than for the guys around you, including the audience or intended audience..
Being self indulgent and not giving enough love to the GROOVE or the VIBE of the song should remain the relm of the guitarist : )

"Don't forget it's in our job description to push the air around and get the chicks wet.." hahaha
 
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#83
My feelings on the matter are this: If you're always going at 100% maximum intensity, there is no effective way to show contrast. If you've got a fill that you want people to notice, then it often helps to center it on a relatively minimal landscape. That way, when it comes, people will know you're serious. If you've got something special up your sleeve, save it for just the right moment and make it memorable.

The song that taught me that lesson was "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer. Matt Sharp was not a particularly talented bassist, but he did what the album required of him. Pretty much the closest thing to a fill on that whole record is during the bridge of "Say It Ain't So." If you've got the recording, it falls around 2:59 or 3:00, under the lyrics "of steven's". I always thought that relatively simple fill carried a really big punch, and I was puzzled in my early days as to why he didn't repeat it in some form at other points in the bridge. Then I realized that if he did, it wouldn't have carried any punch at all. The reason it was effective was because he made us wait for it, and he put it in EXACTLY the right place.
 
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#84
better questions is "whats NOT overplaying"
the answer to this is....listen to any track by the stones with Bill Wyman on Bass, or any Memphis track with Duck Dunn on bass...sparse, minimal, in the pocket. Leaves lots of space for drums, keyboard, voice, guitar, horns, imagination, etc.

lots of great bassists can overplay...check out Oteil Burbridge...he is as fast and fluent as any bassist I've seen, but his preference is sitting in the pocket holding down the groove.

it takes discipline to play less, also good musical taste to know when to play and when to lay out
 
#85
cactus waltz said:
I love Mike Mill's bassline on R.E.M.'s "9-9:



Both regularly pump out sixteenth notes and yet are still serving the song. If it sounds good, it is good, regardless of how many notes are being played. In Jamerson's case, his lines were like a second vocal harmony that carried the MoTown songs while sitting perfectly in the mix. For Rocco, it's about laying down a pumping foundation locking in with Garibaldi's fluid drumming.

To me overplaying isn't about the number of notes. It's when it's clear that the bassist (or guitarist or drummer etc) clearly is placing their part above the good of the song. Again, like pornography I know it when I see it. But playing a lot of notes is not necessarily overplaying in my eyes.
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#86
XtreO said:
That's what I've learned after the few recording I've done too. On a recording, bass in my genre (metal) often sounds better if it is done simple rather than fancy show-off-like. The simpler the better is not true, but no need mashing in too many notes as it ends up untight (I play fingers) and too indistinguishable.

The best example I can think of general overplayign is Invalid Link Removed
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I agree totally!!!! :hiding:
 
#92
The term overplaying seems to be used mostly by musicians who don't have a lot of skills themselves. It's also possible to over-simplify things. I'm not attacking anyone here, only some people I've played with.

It's very simple, just play what fits, don't get in anyone's way. Play the song, don't solo over it (unless it's your solo spot). You can still play very complicated music and don't overplay.

The real answer to the original question is; it depends.


I think bass is the easiest instrument to overplay, because it's such an important part to keep a solid groove. You can get away with lots of noodling on the guitar, but if the bass goes too far, the song falls apart.
 
#97
An old post I know, but it came up in a google search of "keyboard players who overplay" I did, lol...

I gotta agree with the guy who said if you have to ask your probably doing it.

Im currently in a project with a KB player who I at first thought was pretty good (and he is), but Im slowly realizing that he overplays on everything he does. His songs are basically one long KB solo from start to finish and it is REALLY distracting from everything else that is going on.
 
#98
It's not simply a matter of how simple or technical your playing is, as long as what you're doing actually compliments what your fellow musicians are playing. The old adage "there's a time and a place for everything" rings especially true in music. Regardless of what style of music you play, be it blues, jazz, country, metal, funk, neoclassical or what have you, there are appropriate times to lock in with the groove and appropriate times to "show off" a little. The trick is knowing which is which.

I'm perfectly capable of noodling off a bajillion notes a minute but a lot of times, a simple three note groove can convey much more than all the technical hobnobbery in the world.
 

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