Your opinion on bass soloes?

[pulseczar]

I love making bass soloes, as long and as electic as my music can be.

Like, AznBassist said, the band has to keep the energy while the bassist solos, because once the groove stops, you're in deep shi!t unless your rhythm section is great enough to cover for you.

Or invest in a really good phrase sampler, lay down a phat groove, and then solo over it.

What if you ask your guitarist to let you experiment. Tell him to pretend to be the rhythm guy, and let you take over lead. See how that works.

 

[Winemule]

I solo when I get cued to solo. Otherwise, I don't. My job is mainly to keep the pulse, not to be a virtuoso.

And yes, it's true: you mostly don't get much support when you solo. All the more reason to keep it short, sweet, and make sure what you play keeps the music moving forward.

 

[AaronS]

My wife plays stride and boogie piano. She can keep a solid groove going with her left hand while I solo. I can't say the same for some guitarists. In country and rock I think a few little flourishes here and there can dress up a song, but anything more is overboard. Of course I think the same holds for my other instruments (guitar and steel guitar). There is a saying in country bands that steel guitars have 3 parts: the intro, the ride and the outro. Other than that they should be seen and not heard. Every instrument should get a ride, but leaving the audience wanting more is preferable to them heading for the bathroom. Even in the late 60s I was never high enough to put up with the interminable free form fugues of the Grateful Dead. I guess I see the problem as two-fold. First, can the rest of the band hold the song together and second, can you play tastefully enough to leave the audience saying, "Wow, that was great. I'd love to hear some more."

 

[sambass]

in this fusion genre that you are playing in I think a bass solo sounds like a fine idea, especially in a trio. Anyone can solo, and they can solo well too. Tell your guitar player, "hey man, why should we be like everyone else, why not change it up and deliver some new types of music to these peoples ears?"

 

[AZNBassist]

well, in my band, we do try to be different and have everyone take an equal amount of soloes and have everyone in the spotlight (sort of the like the democratic approach Bill Evans started w/ Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian). But as Aaron said, I think that the majority of great bass soloes almost always have the pianist/keyboardist backing them up, I havent found an album yet (except for my band's albums) where the guitarist played a nice solid, and steady rhythm during the bass solo.

 

[c-ba55]

Like many have said, bass solos are interesting if
1) the bass soloist is doing something interesting
2) the band knows how to support a bass solo

You can work on #1 yourself, and you will probably have to work on #2 as well, figuring out what you want the band to do for you, and helping them learn to do it. The comping instruments have to be out of your way while still providing structure. And this structure must now include the structure that you were providing when holding down the bass role.

And I guess yeah 3) don't go on too long.