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Working in a Band with 2 Bassists

B

Beginner Bass

Jul 8, 2009
1,612
11
Round Rock, TX
www.facebook.com
Disclosures
A&R, Soulless Corporation Records
#1
I was just looking at some of my pieces, and was looking at some our school Jazz Band music, and was thinking about our unorthodox setup. We have 3 saxes, 3 trumpets, and 5 low brass (Trombones and euphoniums). But here's the kicker.

It's the second year in a row we've been functioning with 2 bassists. Last year, myself and an old friend of mine played bass (1 upright + 1 electric), and we typically played the same part. This year, my friend plays guitar, and another girl from our school plays bass. I've taking a more permanent position on upright, and realized that this year I've been thinking very differently when it comes to my parts. I'l often play a much simpler form of it, usually in a different octave.

Now, I've found it to be a fun experience, but was wondering who else has been in a band with 2 bassists? Usually the only time I have trouble with it is playing a swing chart with a written walking line, in which case I'll probably just play the root. I know it's very unusual, but just wanted to see how unusual.
 
#2
Most of RSJ's music has two bass players. I can unequivocally recommend the albums Mandance and Barbecue Dog. Two of my faves of all time. Also feature a young Vernon Reid on guitar of later Living Colour fame.
 
#3
We had three bassists my junior year in high school; we split up the songs evenly. I can't imagine that myself or the other two at that age knew enough about tone and musicianship to stay out of each other's way instead of creating a giant rhythmic mush.
 
#4
klaus486 said:
Most of RSJ's music has two bass players. I can unequivocally recommend the albums Mandance and Barbecue Dog. Two of my faves of all time. Also feature a young Vernon Reid on guitar of later Living Colour fame.
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Ah, just incredibly inventive music all around. Good to hear this stuff actually getting a mention around here. Those are my two faves of all the RSJ I've heard, actually.
 
#6
i havent but i have friends with a band called Noetic Pull that has 2 bassists and no guitar. One bassist plays the groove, and the other runs alot of effects and is more of the lead guitarist, just alot lower. works really well.
 
#8
One Bad Monkey said:
We had three bassists my junior year in high school; we split up the songs evenly. I can't imagine that myself or the other two at that age knew enough about tone and musicianship to stay out of each other's way instead of creating a giant rhythmic mush.
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This is what we did as well for the most part, but sometimes we would have one person act as the fretting hand and another person act as the plucking hand. Most of the band thought it was pretty entertaining that we could do it flawlessly - even on really hard pieces.
 
#9
jmattbassplaya said:
This is what we did as well for the most part, but sometimes we would have one person act as the fretting hand and another person act as the plucking hand. Most of the band thought it was pretty entertaining that we could do it flawlessly - even on really hard pieces.
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Sounds like a fun time. The egos between the three of us would've never allowed that type of collaboration, however.
 
#11
I recently saw Peter Hook (formerly of Joy Division and New Order) play at the 9:30 Club in DC. He played bass and sang and there was one other bassist. He didn't play on all songs, but when he did, he generally played in the higher register while the other bassist stayed down low.
 
#12
i play in a neo-groove jazzish band with 2 basses. I feel its important that the establish (even if we dont have to talk about it) different roles- for example sometimes one of us is the super low range, simpler part with root/groove support and another is more of a "tenor" line, a moving lower melody voice.

if you listen to any hiphop with a say motown or other sample with bass guitar, youll hear that bassline and then theres the hiphop super low super extended 808 bass
 
#13
fdeck said:
It might take some effort at transposing, but playing the bari sax part would give the band a unique sound, and avoid interference between two bassists. Arco, of course.
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That's a good idea. I might have to try that. Usually what we do is she plays the written part an I might contrive a part that works well with it. For example, when doing "Green Onions", she'll play it in Fmi (As written) and I'll play it up a 5th, which actually works out pretty well.
 
#14
This past semester my university jazz band had 2 bassists, here's how it went: Half the time the other bass player wouldn't show up, so I would play everything (I heard he gigs like a real champ). When he did show up, we would do one of several things. First, he would play standard and I would play arco, and sort of "comp" along with the guitars. Leaving a lot of space, and sometimes an octave up. On occasion, I would bring my electric and do a similar thing, even play with a pick sometimes and do chordal stuff.

But I gotta say... most the time, we just switched off every tune.
 
#15
I haven't been in band with two bassists but I have a good friend who also plays bass and sometimes when we hang out we'll jam a bit together. We also toss around the idea of starting a band with two basses taking turns on grooving and leading. Not really a serious thought as of now.

We were noodleing around for about 20 min one day and I liked where things were heading so threw on the voice recorder on my phone...I uploaded the clip if you were interested in what dual basses could potentially sound like:



It is by no means anything near a decent recording and it was done on a whim, and mostly to serve my memory in case I wanted to add to it later. So please excuse the chit chat :)

Overall I'd say two basses is definitely doable. I don't really know any mainstream examples offhand. Like others have been saying, it will just take a bit of arrangement to make sure its understood which bassist is providing which portion of the tune.
 
#18
If you're looking at avant-garde or niche music, there's definitely a market though a small one. I can think of a few bands have had wider success with multiple bassists - Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Girls Against Boys in the indie world, Switchblade Kittens doing pop-punk with three bassists and Maria probably sounding the most mainstream of them all. I also remember the Creatures using two bassists on tour about a decade ago. No really huge successes that I can think of, though, except for some classic country recordings which had DB parts doubled with a Danelectro six-string bass.
 
#19
I was recently in/founding member of a post-punk band called Near Death Photography club in Hollywood. We got a good reaction from our dual bass setup. I played "Lead Bass" on my Rickenbacker, and the Vocalist/Bassist would hold the fundamentals on his Thunderbird. Since I am an automatic un-follower of guitar, I just applied the same idea to his basslines. I added effects and counter-notes etc. Add to that a very dominant marketing/logo and stage costumes, and it was a really fun time. I still do art for them, but I am now fully focused on my band, Evertheory---I am just an auxiliary member of the band now.
 

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