I got a bass

Schwarzenyaeger

Schwarzenyaeger

Formerly "Dog-In-Door"
I've been pushing a lot of my songs onto a friend to record bass on.
To help take off the load, I bought myself a bass!
The biggest trick will be to learn to play it not like a guitar.

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It's a Fender Mexican Jazz bass and definitely beat out its Ibanez and Precision bass counterparts in the same price range.
 
I started playing bass a couple of years back. Biggest transition for me was to understand where it sits in the song. Not just, not playing it like a guitar, but also to to put it as the same duty as a guitar. Just finally starting to sort that out (I'm getting better).

I think you will like it. I even start my songs off these days with Bass and drums, bring the guitar in later and it gives me a whole new way of using the guitar.
 
Schwarzenyaeger said:
The biggest trick will be to learn to play it not like a guitar.
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I don't know what kind of music you play or songs you write but it won't always be a disadvantage to play it like a guitar. It fascinates me that in the bass guitar's first 20 years of existence {it was only crafted in 1952}, the majority of bass players were not bass guitarists. The bass was regarded as an afterthought or a new and necessary evil that had no kicks, kudos or cool to it whatsoever. It wasn't until the late 60s and early 70s that you started getting players that actually began as bass guitarists. Previous to that, most were guitarists, pianists/organists, double bassists/strings players and horn players who gravitated to the bass out of necessity {portability and "it's either the bass or you're not in the band !"} rather than choice. Consequently, the bass guitar developed along very interesting lines that it may not otherwise have done and became an instrument of great versatility that can be played in a variety of ways.

DM60 said:
it gives me a whole new way of using the guitar.
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Mine was the opposite journey, bass player first, then gravitated to the guitar. I found that the way I played bass and the kind of notes and runs I used translated to the guitar in a rough house kind of way because I'd use chords that real guitarists I knew would never think of using. Like say I'd use an F# on the bass where the keyboard or guitar was playing D. When I played guitar, I found that using a Bm or F#m in place of the D brought out weird textures in the song ~ but to me it sounded great. Bass player's sensibilities and low thinking !
 
grimtraveller said:
I don't know what kind of music you play or songs you write but it won't always be a disadvantage to play it like a guitar.
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I have real difficulties with people who play it like a guitar. Sometimes it is ok (specially in some genres), but most often it just sounds overplayed . . . way too many notes.
 
gecko zzed said:
I have real difficulties with people who play it like a guitar. Sometimes it is ok (specially in some genres), but most often it just sounds overplayed . . . way too many notes.
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I agree with that in some instances but there are genres where the bass players overplay and put in way too many notes and they're not and never were guitarists. There are lots of jazz, funk, prog and jazz fusion bassists that have overplayed all over the world ! A number of bass players that came there from rhythm guitar and had less of a penchant for running all over the fretboard than frustrated lead guitarists.
 
What I'm saying is that a bass guitar has enough musical stylings, techniques and nuances that to treat as a guitar with a built in octaver set to 100% wet would be unfair.
 
Love the bass pedals. A Sydney band names the Expression had a bass player who used bass pedals as well as bass. He'd hit BIG notes on the pedals when he wanted to susper sustain or really play a sub bass below his bass. Worked out well often but not always.
Playing bass like a guitar is, usually, blahhhhh.
It's also hard to avoid if coming from guitar.
It's easy to tell if you're doing it though.
Listen back & if the bass doesn't serve the song you're doing it wrong.
 
I didn't enjoy playing bass at all at first, but now I love it. I generally come up with my ideas on my guitar as that is what I play just for fun. But when I start writing and recording I end up putting the bass and drums down first with just a few scratch guitar parts to keep the original idea alive.

When I come to track the guitar parts properly two things happen:

1) I play a shit load less than I was expecting.
2) The songs are much different than my original idea.
 
rayc said:
Playing bass like a guitar is, usually, blahhhhh.
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I think one needs to define exactly what is meant by "playing bass like a guitar." Gekko's definition meant "overplaying" whereas mine doesn't mean that exclusively but does incorporate that sometimes. But as I pointed out earlier, in my opinion, there were/are a lot of jazz double bassists that overplay. Ginger Baker felt that Jack Bruce always overplayed !
rayc said:
It's also hard to avoid if coming from guitar.
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I agree but my take on that is that sometimes, that can actually be a positive thing ~ sometimes. But the OP's statement that "a bass guitar has enough musical stylings, techniques and nuances" is the bottom line for me.
Which is why I like
rayc said:
Listen back & if the bass doesn't serve the song you're doing it wrong.
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^^^^^When all is said and done, this for me is the litmus test.

When I think back to the way I used to play bass in the first ten to fifteen or so years that I played, I don't think serving the song was something I truly considered, partly because a]playing live, the people that I played with in that period weren't really used to playing that much with bass guitar or more to the point didn't really think about bass guitar {it was just something that you 'had'} so being a forceful character at times, I was left to my own devices and b]partly because most of the time, when I jammed I jammed with just a drummer and wrote most of my songs on bass so the bass parts were the song.
Recording changed all that. That I heard the bass part as the song was irrelevant; human beings just don't hear songs that way. So having lovely inventive melodic bass parts that clash with pretty much everything else is worse than having no bass at all or a basic banal part. Somewhere in the last 10 years I've learned the balance of how to sculpt the bass for the song and what kind of bass is necessary. Interestingly, I've noticed as a consequence, that many bass players, in my opinion, overplay. And a whole load underplay and don't drive or underpin.

Schwarzenyaeger , enjoy your bass ! By the way, are you in Oxford itself ? My sister lives up in Yarnton.
 
To avoid Guitarist on Bass Syndrome: a) play with your fingers exclusively, no pick, and b) concentrate on the kick and snare, strive to bring chord tones to the rhythm.
 
I think the biggest part (for me anyway) is to play in the pocket with the drummer. Kinda takes some of the guitar player mentality out of it.
I try to think like a drummer when I'm on the bass. I need to lock up the bottom end with him (me :) ) and establish the foundation for everyone else to sit on.

I also don't think it's a bad thing to have a busy bass as long as you're not so busy that you lose that pocket and foundation.
It can be a fine line but some times...... less is more..... and that can bring a fatness and solidity to the tune.
 
ermghoti said:
To avoid Guitarist on Bass Syndrome: a) play with your fingers exclusively, no pick, and b) concentrate on the kick and snare, strive to bring chord tones to the rhythm.
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Despite what I said earlier about my dislike for bass being played like a guitar, I don't think the absence of a pick is a cure. I do like the focus on kick, and bringing chord tones to the rhythm (which I take to mean playing other than root notes).
 
George Thorogood's bassist was instructed to stick to the root & play simply. It works for those songs.
Bruce Thomas from the Attractions played all over the bass and in many instances his lines became THE riff but he rarely overplayed. He had the luxury of a superb drummer & keyboard player to help him though. Because i started on bass I began playing in a very r(oot)imentary way. I then went to octaves (still rooted isn't it) then between the ocatves. I've become slightly more adventurous BUT have a strong affinity with the root/resolution and a tendency to walk or jump around the standard rock n roll walking bass positions.
 
Since the 80's, maybe 90's and the digital world allowing more bass, the world has changed in regards to the bass. In the days of vinyl record, my understanding is, bass was reduced so as not to weaken the record and so the needle wouldn't jump. When digital came around, the bass was allowed to increase. Now, more bass allowance means, more opportunity for the bass.

For those of us who are just discovering the wonderful world of bass, we are learning not only old school use, but its new place in modern music.

I would be honest, in the changing world of music, if I were to put together a "band" I would find a keyboard player (with some sampler/DAW), and a bass player, done. Those two often overlooked instruments now are becoming king.

Maybe overplaying is less of an issue if it is the main instrument.
 
I've always thought "more notes" vs "less notes" is silly. Notes should sound like they belong there. If you play 23 notes on a turnaround and they all sound good, and taking any of the notes out would change the idea, than *those* 23 notes is right for *that* turnaround. Same if it was 3 or 1 note.

Also, I used to play bass with my fingers and started using a pick and prefer it. Sharper attack and cleaner interaction with the kick.
 
fat_fleet said:
Also, I used to play bass with my fingers and started using a pick and prefer it. Sharper attack and cleaner interaction with the kick.
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I am trying to use both. Fingering has its place, but like you stated, pick has its place as well. For me when I want the bass to hit on 8th, 16th maybe 32 (I can't imagine I really play that fast), it seems you can roll it faster and closer with a pick than the fingers with faster attack time. I am sure some of this is from me being a beginner, but the pick gives faster and quicker attack.

Always room for both if one can do it.
 
fat_fleet said:
I've always thought "more notes" vs "less notes" is silly. Notes should sound like they belong there.
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Quite so. If the notes belong there, well then they belong there, and that's all there is to it. But often notes are played just because they can be played, and not because they form a specific musical part of the piece. That's like a drummer doing a fill every four bars . . . it's usually unnecessary. In the interests of avoiding this, I advocate a minimalist approach to start with.
 
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