Performing solo bass

[Oscar South]

I've been a fan of solo bass for years, used to listen to a bunch of solo bass artists CDs, always practiced solo techniques on top of any 'regular' bass playing. For a few years I went off it but over the last year I started playing solo bass arangements of popular songs at gigs and open mic nights, nothing incredible.. just tapping and occasionally artificial harmonics type stuff.

On message boards solo bass seems to take a lot of stick, you always get a big crowd of Fender players (ok, this is a generalisation, take it with a pinch of salt) who are adamant that it 'isn't actually bass playing', that 'nobody other than bassists wants to hear it', that 'its pointless and boring' etc. etc.. Well I've never come across this; without fail EVERY time I've played it I've had members of the public come up to me, tell me its incredible, tell me I should be famous, tell me they've never seen anything like it. Last week I went to an open mic night which has always been a 'Britpop covers, heavy drinking drinking and fights at closing time' type night, I went on earlyish to a moderate non-crowd that was scattered around the pub not really paying attention to the music, by the time I finished I had 90% of the people in the pub around the stage area watching me, it took me 20 minutes to leave the pub later on because people kept stopping me to tell me they thought it was great and to chat. I've gotten multiple paid gigs and been asked to record bass (solo techniques and 'regular' bass playing) for some really good and interresting music on the back of playing solo bass at open mic nights. The picture in my avatar is actually a sketch someone at a recent open mic made of me while I was playing.

I think this post sounds more arrogant than I intended, I'm by no means the be-all-end-all of solo bass, what I do is very basic and most people could do it with a week or so of working on it, one day when I've got more free time and less 'regular bass playing' commitments I'm going to try and take it further.

The point of this post is to say that I hope in the future solo bass can continue to develop as a viable musical form, I think its stagnated a lot in recent years, there were a few reletively high profile and incredibly talented solo bassists a few years ago most of whom seem to have stopped pushing the genre forwards with so much momentum or given up on being a 'solo artist' in favour of more conventional bass playing (got to make a living huh?), I think this has taken some of the steam out of it temporarily until some fresh faces appear on the scene or old ones kick back into action. Even more than this though, I hope that it develops as an artform in local music performing scenes, which I find infinately more enjoyable to just hearing about artists who I'll likely never meet or see play.

Finally, the actual original point of this post until I got sidetracked was to ask if there are any other performing (or aspiring) solo bassists posting here, and to ask about their own experiances. Also, I'd be happy to pool arrangements, compositions and transcriptions if anyone else would like to; one of the biggest limiting factors in the genre is that there is basically no established repetoire so its very hard for beginners to get into it. If we could set up some kind of resource with a bunch of solo bass pieces it might encourage some more players to explore it.

Thanks for reading this essay if you made it this far,
Oscar.

Edited December 28, 2008 by Oscar South

[Jase]

[quote name='Oscar South' post='365008' date='Dec 28 2008, 06:03 PM']I've been a fan of solo bass for years, used to listen to a bunch of solo bass artists CDs, always practiced solo techniques on top of any 'regular' bass playing. For a few years I went off it but over the last year I started playing solo bass arangements of popular songs at gigs and open mic nights, nothing incredible.. just tapping and occasionally artificial harmonics type stuff.

On message boards solo bass seems to take a lot of stick, you always get a big crowd of Fender players (ok, this is a generalisation, take it with a pinch of salt) who are adamant that it 'isn't actually bass playing', that 'nobody other than bassists wants to hear it', that 'its pointless and boring' etc. etc.. Well I've never come across this; without fail EVERY time I've played it I've had members of the public come up to me, tell me its incredible, tell me I should be famous, tell me they've never seen anything like it. Last week I went to an open mic night which has always been a 'Britpop covers, heavy drinking drinking and fights at closing time' type night, I went on earlyish to a moderate non-crowd that was scattered around the pub not really paying attention to the music, by the time I finished I had 90% of the people in the pub around the stage area watching me, it took me 20 minutes to leave the pub later on because people kept stopping me to tell me they thought it was great and to chat. I've gotten multiple paid gigs and been asked to record bass (solo techniques and 'regular' bass playing) for some really good and interresting music on the back of playing solo bass at open mic nights. The picture in my avatar is actually a sketch someone at a recent open mic made of me while I was playing.

I think this post sounds more arrogant than I intended, I'm by no means the be-all-end-all of solo bass, what I do is very basic and most people could do it with a week or so of working on it, one day when I've got more free time and less 'regular bass playing' commitments I'm going to try and take it further.

The point of this post is to say that I hope in the future solo bass can continue to develop as a viable musical form, I think its stagnated a lot in recent years, there were a few reletively high profile and incredibly talented solo bassists a few years ago most of whom seem to have stopped pushing the genre forwards with so much momentum or given up on being a 'solo artist' in favour of more conventional bass playing (got to make a living huh?), I think this has taken some of the steam out of it temporarily until some fresh faces appear on the scene or old ones kick back into action. Even more than this though, I hope that it develops as an artform in local music performing scenes, which I find infinately more enjoyable to just hearing about artists who I'll likely never meet or see play.

Finally, the actual original point of this post until I got sidetracked was to ask if there are any other performing (or aspiring) solo bassists posting here, and to ask about their own experiances. Also, I'd be happy to pool arrangements, compositions and transcriptions if anyone else would like to; one of the biggest limiting factors in the genre is that there is basically no established repetoire so its very hard for beginners to get into it. If we could set up some kind of resource with a bunch of solo bass pieces it might encourage some more players to explore it.

Thanks for reading this essay if you made it this far,
Oscar.[/quote]

I'm a Fender player and love solo bass, listening, watching and learning from players. I'm not a solo artist and almost never have the chance to play any solo bass....oddly enough just been reading another thread "How Good are You" Urb mentions how elusive the bass solo is.

Anyway, I love 'em! We need more solo bass!!!!

[ARGH]

Until,Bassplayers accept the extra strings..to further the range of Bass guitar,theres only so much capable with 20 frets and 4 strings,tuned to 4ths, sans a band around you,there are acceptions to the rule..Colin Hodgkinson being the best of the best,and its not all tapola either....

There IS so much capable upon our instrument,so few are trying to push its boundaries...we are still in a wierd place where to have more strings STILL causes some to get all hot under the collar....

Thing is,as you have pointed out,bar kudos and ego flattery...it dosent pay very well.

[Oscar South]

I agree about the strings thing, I personally prefer playing 4 strings but I play 5 (tenor) for solo bass as while its not essential (and more rhythmic based players such as Michael Manring really thrive with 4), it really lifts the upper limit of whats harmonically, melodically and timbrally possible.

Interestingly, you can almost guarentee (heard it in 95% of my performances) that someone in the audience will observe "6 string bass!" when I walk on stage... even though I play a 5 string .

[Alun]

I do occasional solo bass gigs and really enjoy it Generally they've been at guitar clubs where people are quite open to instrumental music ( I've also been lucky enough to support Steve Lawson and Seth Horan where the audience are already bass friendly).

Ultimately music is music and if people listened more with their ears and less with their eyes, the instrument would probably be more widely received. Unfortunately, the recognised role of our instrument can be a hinderance as well as a great bonus. The bass player is always seen as the supportive one - "play your roots and don't get in the way" - so it can be a bit of an "unlearning" process to play the full arrangement, and also a bit of an unlearning process for the audience to accept it. The plus side is that bass players are often the ones who listen to the whole arrangement, not just there own part as the bass' role is vital in tying together the rhythm and harmony. As a result, bass players are on a good position to understand what parts of an arrangement are needed to make a piece work (and also why bassists often make great producers).

The resource for solo bassists sounds like a good idea


Cheers
Alun



Cheers
Alun

[Alun]

[quote name='Oscar South' post='365107' date='Dec 28 2008, 07:59 PM']Interestingly, you can almost guarentee (heard it in 95% of my performances) that someone in the audience will observe "6 string bass!" when I walk on stage... even though I play a 5 string .[/quote]

Weirdly, I get people asking about my 5 or 7 string and I play 6!

[endorka]

On occassion I've done the solo bass thing at gigs, but only an odd song here or there, not a full set. I used to fingertap some computer game music, way before that guy started doing the Super Mario thing! One of the themes was from "Robocod". It was usually well recieved, although I'm not sure if it would have worked for 2 x 45 minute sets :-)

More recently I've played the head of "Big Noise From Winnetka", done some improv on it, then played a medley of famous tunes/movie themes/basslines, then back to the Big Noise. This is best done as a bass + drums duet, and was inspired by seeing Vic Pitt do similar at a Chris Barber gig. It works surprisingly well, people have even been dancing along to it.

Jennifer

[OldGit]

Oscar,
What tunes are on your jam session play list now?
OG

[Jase]

[quote name='ARGH' post='365067' date='Dec 28 2008, 07:27 PM']Until,Bassplayers accept the extra strings..to further the range of Bass guitar,theres only so much capable with 20 frets and 4 strings,tuned to 4ths, sans a band around you,there are acceptions to the rule..Colin Hodgkinson being the best of the best,and its not all tapola either....

There IS so much capable upon our instrument,so few are trying to push its boundaries...we are still in a wierd place where to have more strings STILL causes some to get all hot under the collar....

Thing is,as you have pointed out,bar kudos and ego flattery...it dosent pay very well.[/quote]

Although I will always be a 4 string (Hipshot now and then ) player, can't help admiring the ERB players, some great players around, like ARGH says...causes some to get hot under the collar. Good! It's still a young instrument....miles to go yet!

[fragility]

I always think this sort of thing is sort of a non-debate...to me, there's room for everything and I might not always chose to listen to every type of playing, but ultimately I'd rather there was more diversity out there, and I can appreciate most types of playing. I'm glad that all these musicians do their own thing and play what they want rather than playing what anyone else tells them they should.

[thisnameistaken]

Unfortunately it seems there's a lot of extremely bad-sounding bass w***ery which overshadows the occasional OK bit of bass w***ery. I can't listen to people like Vic Wooten - just too many notes. Although I'm sure it sells a lot of instructional DVDs...

I don't think the number of strings on any given bass is relevant - there is ample opportunity to make any bass sound bad. I'm sure many bass "soloists" do favour bonus-stringed basses, but the resulting w***ery is still the fault of the bass player, not the bass.

[Oscar South]

[quote name='OldGit' post='365392' date='Dec 29 2008, 11:56 AM']Oscar,
What tunes are on your jam session play list now?
OG[/quote]

Currently:
An arrangement of 'Yesterday' (very basic, I wrote it 2.5 years ago now and havn't revised it since)
An arrangement of 'Mad World', I didn't write this one
'Vanishing' by Jean Baudin
'Frosy Acres' by Jean Baudin

I'm currently finishing off arrangements for 'Ziggy Stardust' and 'In My Life'.

I'm generally just sticking to arrangments of well known songs at the moment, goes down better at open mic nights etc., which are where I mainly play this stuff atm.

[Golchen]

I really like to hear solo bass playing. One of the things that surprised me when I first joined here was that the prevailing attitude seemed to be that the bass player has a job to do, and therefore 99% of his output should fit within that box. I totally understand where that is coming from, as, after all, the bass DOES have a job to do! But I thought that more people would embrace ANY form of expression on what is basically just another instrument. I love to hear great bass playing within the context of a song, but I also love to hear the likes of Michael Manring or Stanley Clarke just exploring.

One of my favourite 'Bass moments' is Stu Hamm playing 'Country music', and I've yet to meet a non-bass player who doesn't just think that it's a fantastic piece of music!

[TKenrick]

[quote]Ultimately music is music and if people listened more with their ears and less with their eyes, the instrument would probably be more widely received.[/quote]

For me this sums it all up perfectly.

I don't think the quantity of strings is an issue - the vast majority of guitarists have 6 strings, and therefore all have the same opportunity to create art or self-indulgent w*nkery as they see fit. For me the issue is distinguishing the concept of 'solo bass' from that of the 'bass solo'. I tend to regard 'solo bass' as a format through which bass players can create their own music without the need for other band members, which shifts their role into that of [i]musician[/i] rather than 'just' bass player. I don't believe that solo bass playing has to necessarily be equated with a vast quantity of notes-per-second, although this is entirely dependent on the player.

When I hear Michael Manring, I hear music, not chops:


Conversely, when I hear Wooten or Adam Nitti, I hear technique, not music. My personal preference, regardless of the instrument, is to be intrigued by melody and harmony, not be intimidated by technique.

[Alun]

Well known songs are always a good place to start My solo covers at the moment are Purple Haze, Day Tripper, She's Coming Home, Smells Like Teen Spirit,a few jazz standards and YMCA in the style of Bach, which seemed like a good idea at the time

Cheers
Alun

[velvetkevorkian]

[quote name='Alun' post='365446' date='Dec 29 2008, 01:19 PM']... YMCA in the style of Bach, which seemed like a good idea at the time [/quote]
Now that I would like to hear!

I have a couple of piano pieces I arranged from an ABRSM Grade 1 piano book, but I've never performed them publicly. I would like to but I need a few more ideas and a lot more practice.

[Stuart Clayton]

I've been watching this thread with interest as solo bass playing is something that appeals to me enormously, and I do a great deal of it. I think it would be a great idea to encourage more solo playing on this forum. Interestingly, I just read a great article about an upright bassist named Bertram Turetzky who single-handedly doubled the solo upright bass repertoire by asking well-known composers to write more music for solo upright bass. If you want to read this article you'll find it in the Sept/Oct 95 edition of Bass Player magazine.

As many of you know, I've been writing a book for several years on the subject of solo bass. The book is entitled 'Solo Arrangements for Electric Bass' and will be released next year through Bassline Publishing - www.basslinepublishing.com. During the course of writing the book I have encountered many great solo bass recordings as part of my research, and have included a few good examples that might be of interest to aspiring solo bassists:

Brian Bromberg - Let 'Em In (McCartney cover version, upright bass)
Randy Coven - Yesterday (Beatles cover version)
Aram Bedrosian - Code Red
Colin Hodgkinson - Lieutenant Loose
Michael Manring - I Left America (this is BEAUTIFUL)
STuart Hamm - Nostalgia
Billy Sheehan - NV43345
Victor Wooten - The Lesson (has percussion backing, but awesome anyway)
Michael Manring - Helios

Additionally, on the Bassline Publishing website I have posted several solo arrangement transcriptions that I have arranged. To view them you need to create an account then go to the Solos book page under the Coming Soon link. These include my 'Jazz Medley' (also available on YouTube) and 'Nothing Else Matters' by Metallica, which you can hear on my MySpace page - www.myspace.com/stuartclayton.

Next year I will be adding many transcriptions of solo pieces by other artists to the bonus section on the site as well as posting more videos of solo pieces.

I hope all of this is of interest to the solo bassists on this forum!

Best,
Stuart

[ARGH]

Hmmm... arranging is one thing,but from the bottom up (bad pun...sorry....) the 4 string bass is limited...and few people actually write for it,straight off the bat. A stigma is often..solo..think fast and high..tap tap tap..slap etc..techniques that have the greatest range in little effort or movement..taste seems to be a byway of thought.

Im still trying to get my chord playing together on the ERB,to at least give some depth ,rather than root 5th octave type playing..Right hand technique is often lacking (once again Im trying all 5 didgets on my hand ala Spanish acoustic players)...I watch keys and acoustic players alot more now


Ive taken to buying some of the Philip Glass 'Metamorphosis' parts to try and transcribe,but it isnt getting to the root of the problem,very few GREAT compositions for Electric Bass solo performance,in standard tuning,or ...to be Eno..beyond a tampered with,altered tuning.

[ednaplate]

Some years ago Bassist magazine ran a column by Terry ? He did some really good solo transcriptions of popular tunes from jazz classics to The Beatles. I never felt good enough at the time to attempt any of them but as I've got better I've gone back to some of these old articles and have really benefitted from them. I've never considered doing an open mic rendition for the simple reason I would be crap. I can play away in the privacy of my own home and get some half decent sounds but stick me in front of someone and it would appear I've never even seen a bass let alone played one. Everything I've ever learned just goes AWOL. I doubt I'm the only one like this though. Maybe it means that I don't know the music well enough to begin with. If someone sticks an acoustic guitar in my hand I end up playing some classical piece I learned nearly 30 years ago as I can play it without thinking whereas I couldn't tell you what I'd been working on a week ago.

[M4L666]

[quote name='ARGH' post='365067' date='Dec 28 2008, 07:27 PM']Until,Bassplayers accept the extra strings..to further the range of Bass guitar,theres only so much capable with 20 frets and 4 strings,tuned to 4ths, sans a band around you,there are acceptions to the rule..Colin Hodgkinson being the best of the best,and its not all tapola either....

There IS so much capable upon our instrument,so few are trying to push its boundaries...we are still in a wierd place where to have more strings STILL causes some to get all hot under the collar....

Thing is,as you have pointed out,bar kudos and ego flattery...it dosent pay very well.[/quote]
24 frets required on any bass I play.

[M4L666]

[quote name='ARGH' post='365619' date='Dec 29 2008, 05:38 PM']Im still trying to get my chord playing together on the ERB,to at least give some depth ,rather than root 5th octave type playing..Right hand technique is often lacking (once again Im trying all 5 didgets on my hand ala Spanish acoustic players)...I watch keys and acoustic players alot more now.[/quote]

Jesus, I though I was alone using my little finger!

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='TKenrick' post='365445' date='Dec 29 2008, 01:19 PM']When I hear Michael Manring, I hear music, not chops:
[/quote]

Still sounds pretty muzacky though, doesn't it? Sort of thing you might hear in the background of a documentary about beavers or something. I'm impressed with the guy's playing, but I wouldn't choose to listen to it. There's just nothing vital about it.

I don't think there are many really compelling composers of instrumental music around at the moment, and more to the point none of them are bass players.

[Jase]

[quote name='M4L666' post='365628' date='Dec 29 2008, 05:44 PM']Jesus, I though I was alone using my little finger![/quote]

You use your little finger on your plucking hand????

[ARGH]

[quote name='M4L666' post='365628' date='Dec 29 2008, 05:44 PM']Jesus, I though I was alone using my little finger![/quote]
IF you are doing that now..try throwing the thumb in,if you are 13...and you are having success in using your 'pinkie' to pluck...you are ahead of most of the bassplaying community.

[mcgraham]

I don't know about solo bass, but I certainly enjoy trying to create interesting music using unaccompanied bass. I spent a year exclusively using the TIMR 4 finger technique that Matt Garrison uses, and this helped developing chordal playing immensely. At the same time I was also practicing the digital independence that Charlie Hunter employs in his music. So I often played the vocal melody line or interesting tensions in chords on top of the bass line to songs that I was playing throughout the year. I would read the piano and guitar music from the songs we were playing in that time and develop completely chordal bass parts for the song. This really helped me to develop my understanding of chords, tension release etc, as well as developing my ability to play the bass in the same fashion as someone would rhythm guitar.

I don't enjoy the 'total' solo bass aspect that much though. I [i]do[/i] enjoy groups of bassists (e.g. DiPiazza, Carbonne, Manring's collaboration), ones where the bass is really at the forefront (e.g. Matt Garrison), those where it takes a lead role at times (e.g. Steve Jenkins, Janek Gwizdala) etc.

I think there is future to the bass as a more expressive instrument in the forefront of a band, but it requires a bit more skill than just mere technique, and real compositional ability to bring it out as something more listenable than just muzaq you'd hear in a nature program about beavers. This is something that few bassists have, and something that other instruments are perhaps more suited towards, e.g. guitar or piano.

Mark