Who regularly does bass solos in songs?

[roccobass]

Multiple times for me. I play jazz. Both ensembles I’m in give me pretty much carte blanc in that area. It’s great for my chops and I go for it. But lately I’ve been doing less. It’s almost too much of a good thing. Lol!

 

[H Nighttrain]

The majority of my gigs this spring have been in a guitar-bass-drums trio, so I'm called on to do at least one solo per set. Soloing has never been my thing, but I'm getting more comfortable. It helps to remember to just play within myself, don't try to do too much or try to keep up with all the seriously badass bass players around here.

I'm a bit surprised that this poll has over 60% saying "normally no".

When I play with "my" band (I'm on bass and lead vocals) I never call for a bass solo.

 

[scrubhelmet]

Just curious about how many here have one or more bass solos to play with your band.

I don't mean doing a totally solo piece, but rather a few bars of soloing within a song.

Do you do bass solos in many songs normally, just a few occasions (like 1-2 songs per gig), or none at all?

If you do solos, do you do so because the original song has one, or do you add a solo to songs which don't have one?

If the solo is your own making, do you rather improvise it or fully craft it note-by-note in advance?

For my funk band, 1-2 songs per gig. The original songs has space for bass solo.

It's complicated to say if it's improvised or not. It's more like there are parts where I already know what I'm going to play, and it helps cue my bandmates if I'm on the start, middle, or end of the solo. Then the rest are thought on the spot, especially since our drummer changes his beat from time to time so I have to actively listen to what he's doing. But I do practice improvising over the chord changes.

 

[Nedmundo]

Normally not, but, unbeknownst to me, the BL of my Grateful Dead cover band told everyone else to cut out to start the final section of "Scarlet Begonias," converting it into a bass solo. That was interesting when it happened for the first time--which thankfully wasn't during a show! So I guess I have that one, and I have a short one at the beginning of "Eyes of the World."

No bass solos in my other band.

 

[kesslari]

When I'm playing with the fusion band, several per gig, usually at least one per set. It's challenging to stay fresh and keep them different.
In other contexts, way less...

 

[jay440]

I play eastern European folk music. Many songs we land on a drone and the clarinetist or accordion will take an extended solo. (Fun: sometimes the clarinet will indicate that he's shifting harmony. Try hearing what he's doing and follow along.) If it's a slow song, where the groove doesn't matter too much, I'll take a solo. But I think my melodies are simplistic, bits of scale glued together. I should really work on becoming less obvious.

Not to de-rail the thread, but Vic: Is this along the lines of what Ivo Papasov played? I really dig that stuff, so feel free to DM or link to any recordings or videos of your gigs that may exist, if any.

 

[VicDiesel]

Not to de-rail the thread, but Vic: Is this along the lines of what Ivo Papasov played? I really dig that stuff, so feel free to DM or link to any recordings or videos of your gigs that may exist, if any.

We don't record, but here are a couple of short phone videos from gigs: 1001 Nights Orchestra on Vimeo
In the first video I'm actually solo'ing in 9/8, counted 2+2+3+2

PS Ivo Papasov is Bulgarian and the only Bulgarian tune I know we do is counted 15 = 4+4+3+4. But we don't play as crazy fast as he does.