The bass player - a sort of tutorial

[kara]

As some of you know my preferred instrument is bass, not only bass guitar but also on keyboards.
I am thinking of writing here a couple of tips & tricks for making better baslines.
Why ?
Well, first of all I was inspired by the excellent 'How to mix' tutorial here 
And also I sometimes have a feeling that bass I underrated of not enough developed in some songs I hear.
I have the impression that some lonely composers (in there homestudio) put a bassline in there song because... there has to be some bass in it and not considering it as an integral part of the composition. I can be wrong of course.

Since I'm not that good at writing tutorials I'm gonna write it as a sort of story of 'the beginning bass player' 
Any way even if you don't learn something from it, I hope it will be fun to read 

So before episode 1 of the story, let me tell you a couple of basic principles of the bass player.
- Bass players in a band never get the chicks  A true statements with a couple of exceptions. Alltough this sounds funny it has an underlying truth... a good bass player will help the drummer to put the groove of a song in place and that's it. Meaning that the listener will have a good feeling about the groove of a song but don't play particular attention to that bass player. But without a good bassline that drumline won't sound complete. Important to remember for the future.
- If you don't know what to play, just play the root. Half a truth... it is true that you can't go wrong with the root of the chord, if you know which root to play and if you know the difference between a normal chord and an inversion or slashed chord (ex. C/G)
- If you're not sure what to play, don't play anything. Again half a truth but important in one way : don't play the wrong note ! Like I said, people don't pay attention to bass players but if you play a wrong note everybody will hear it, believe me.

ok, that's it for today 
I'll continue the story with an example of a standard 12 bar rock/blues progression with some audio examples

If you have your own tricks or if you have questions, this is the place to post them

k
 

[Marc JX8P]

Cool idea, looking forward to the examples!

[Wyatt]

Kara,

I just love this kind of instruction. Nowadays, (did I really just use that word?), we are trying to record music at home, and while we are able to produce better quality productions than ever before possible, it does require that we must wear many hats.

For myself, I am always glad for an opportunity to learn something in one of my side-line areas..to bring
up my level of skill in my less familiar areas.

Now this is wonderful. IMO this is going to help a lot of people make a lot better music.

I am looking forward to your next installment.

Thank you.

Wyatt

[Laguna Rising]

This tutorials are interesting and useful
I love playing bass - guitar 

Cheers

[kara]

The junior bass player - 1 : The first rehearsal

Well here I am, the junior bass player. I've learned the basic of bass, know some chords and know some notes. My professor actually told me that the best way to learn to play is to play with other musicians. So I've found a band that wants to rehearse with me and give me a couple of tricks.

We have in our band
James the drummer
Martial, a rhythmic guitar player
Patrice a chorus guitar player
and well me that has to learn to play  

After setting up the material, James says to us, 'ok lets start simple with a standard 12 bars blues/rock in A'. Me, immediately in panic and thinking hard what a 12 bar progression in A could be.
Luckily Martial gives me a small piece of paper with some chords written on it
It looks like this :
|A ---|D---|A---|A7--|
|D---|D---|A---|A---|
|E---|D---|A---|E---|

Well, I'm thinking this looking that complicated and not to many chords, so I should be able to handle this.
But I better take no risk and play this right, on the beat. I decide to play on every bar and play the root of the chord, can't go wrong with this.
Here we go, James gives the count in and we play. Me, play attention at been right on the beat with a constant rhythm (see Ex1_rootonly in attachment)

To my big surprise, i was real thinking I was going well, everybody stops playing. James looks at me, and says and where is that groove
ok, I have to think fast if I want to rescue the situation here. I remember from my lesson that on simple major chord I can play root & 5th without taking big risks and I know how to play those.
I tell them, ok i have an idea let's redo that.
And here we go. Now i feel I'm really playing, listen well to the drummer and play on the 1 and the 3 count of every bar (Ex1-rootandfifth).
But again everybody stops playing.... in panic I look at James and he tells me, well I hope you're not gonna play like that the whole song, because I'm gonna fall in sleep.

This ends the first rehearsal and I'll better think of some variation for the next one ...

k

PS : Since we only have a very small room to rehears, I've decided to call our new band 'The Band in a Box'. I hope that name doesn't exist yet

[folderol]

Ha yes! The 'simple' instrument

Good start. I look forward to seeing how you develop this.

Band in a Box - never heard of them

[Wyatt]

+1

..and using BIAB....good idea.

Keep up the good work.

Wyatt

[Wyatt]

..bump.

[kara]

Our bassplayer is rehearsing to make a bit of a better bassline
Just a litle patience

k

..bump.

[Wyatt]

Our bassplayer is rehearsing to make a bit of a better bassline
Just a litle patience

k

..bump.

Hehe..just wanted you to know that the audience is still here!   


Wyatt

[kara]

ok, I'll better give him a kick in the b.... then

k

Our bassplayer is rehearsing to make a bit of a better bassline
Just a litle patience

k

..bump.

Hehe..just wanted you to know that the audience is still here!   


Wyatt