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Your thoughts on repetitive basslines?

#21
Agreed, Huey Lewis and The News are typical for songs that soud dead simple but are quite hard to play well. In an earlier band we tried a few but gave up because these songs just sound really amateurish if you can't play them with absolutely perfect time.
 
#24
Really repetitive basslines are a no brainer physically and a brain buster mentally. I must have ADHD or something because once the line is laid down, going back over it and over it and over it and over it and over it again and again and again again and again and again and again... my mind is soon thinking of everything BUT the fingerboard and then I screw it up. Fortunately for me there aren't a ton of opportunities for repetitive basslines in prog rock, but even something like the ending of Porcupine Tree's "Even Less" with it's low D hit six times over and over again can set my mind to wandering... until BLAM-O.

Easy on the hands, tough on the brain.
 
#25
For me it depends on what you mean by repetition. Playing the exact same thing over and over is really boring. However, if you mean repetition like James Brown's Sex Machine (and many other James Brown tunes) where Bootsy (I think) plays basically the same thing over and over with some very subtle changes, I don't mind that. There is no reason a bass line can't groove AND be interesting, except that the bass player is too lazy to bother.
 
#28
In my current band (6-piece "atmospheric rock" or something) I play a lot of very simple and repetitive stuff.

It is challenging to keep it grooving... and not miss the change 3 minutes into a song. It's also sometimes hard not to fill all that space coming from a prog rock/metal background. But that's what the songs that were written when I joined called for.
Interrestingly enough, though I'm much more involved in songwriting for the upcoming album I've kept some of this repetitiveness which I guess is part of our sound. It makes any spice I add stand out a lot more too.
 
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#29
I don't mind the "repetitive" bassline songs. They're a snap to learn, and the simplicity lets you really focus on making a great groove. Plus, something so simple and repetitive makes little frills seem great. Throw in a quick slide, or some "gliss", or a quick fill and it seems huge even if it's nothing compared to the song you just played.
 
#32
Hay-low, about 546909939393939339 of the greatest songs in existence have "repetitive" bass-lines! Must be a reason for that.

Because oddly enough, those tend to be the songs that really move 'n groove.

Top-of-the-head example: Creedence' version of "Heard It Through the Grapevine." Eleven+ minutes of sheer, mind-numbing repetition
that'll make your houseflies dance! If you haven't worked up a sweat just listening to this, get thee to thy Proctologist, 'cause your butt be frozen!
 
#35
If you are playing for dancers, then a repetitive bass line is actually a good thing. If you get bored then go on auto pilot and watch the dancers. You can gauge your tempo by their reaction to your band. You can also concentrate and listen to your bandmates as well. Make sure everything is tight. I always watched the crowd when playing monotonous bass lines. I never minded it at all. It was necessary to keep the beat, which was my job in the first place. :):cool::bassist:
 
#38
I make playlists for myself of all the covers I know. I have one master playlist, and then a bunch of others broken out into genres. When I work on the reggae list, I get a lot of songs like this. If you're really focused, and really paying attention to feel and nuance, these songs are not at all boring to play. They're a wonderful opportunity to sharpen some of the skills we sometimes neglect in our mad rush to show off our chops.

Once you can play "Funky Kingston", keeping the bass line in the pocket and grooving for the entire duration of the tune, then you can call yourself a bassist.

 
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