dyess002 Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 I can play the simple bass lines but so much is missing. I play Southern Gospel and at church there's always the Red Hymnal and I just can't get past the simple bass lines. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 Love this question, I can manage a basic root/3rd/5th on sight .... even the occasional walks, but it feels weak and I would love to play better! I look forward to the suggestions of those with more experience! S'manth x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 (edited) To improve your playing you need to listen to other bassists from genres you don't normally listen to and learn to play their bass lines. You need to be a sponge and soak up as much influence as possible. You don't need to become an expert in how to play other genres but just pick up how bassists from those genres approach writing bass lines. For example, if you play rock and listen to stuff like Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Nirvana etc. then go listen to some reggae and start learning some Bob Marley tracks, or go and learn some early The Police tracks. I guarantee you'll learn something new that will start to come out in your playing. Just be open to all genres of music and listen to the bassists that are well known and regarded and listen to what they do. You don't have to like the music but as a musician, you need to be open to everything and as a musician, you never stop learning. The other thing to do is look at your bass lines and start the root an octave up to just add a bit of variety. For example, if you are doing a walking bass line starting on the A on the E string, then the C# and E on the A string and then the F# and A on the D string. Try starting by playing the A not on the E string but on the D string. So look at the notes you are playing on your bass lines and see if you can play any of the notes elsewhere. This will create a bit more variety and movement in your lines. Even better if you can slide up to a note or play one as a harmonic instead. Edited October 23, 2022 by Linus27 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 (edited) I mean, is this guy not insanely fantastic! If could play even 1% as well I'd be delighted! S'manth x Edited October 23, 2022 by Smanth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 4 minutes ago, Smanth said: I mean, is this guy not insanely fantastic! If could play even 1% s well I'd be delighted! S'manth'x I can almost forgive him for playing polite parpy J tones throughout the electric era. Almost. But not quite. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 5 minutes ago, Linus27 said: To improve your playing you need to listen to other bassists from genres you don't normally listen to and learn to play their bass lines. You need to be a sponge and soak up as much influence as possible. You don't need to become an expert in how to play other genres but just pick up how bassists from those genres approach writing bass lines. For example, if you play rock and listen to stuff like Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Nirvana etc. then go listen to some reggae and start learning some Bob Marley tracks, or go and learn some early The Police tracks. I guarantee you'll learn something new that will start to come out in your playing. Just be open to all genres of music and listen to the bassists that are well known and regarded and listen to what they do. You don't have to like the music but as a musician, you need to be open to everything. The other thing to do is look at your bass lines and start the root an octave up to just add a bit of variety. For example, if you are doing a walking bass line starting on the A on the E string, then the C# and E on the A string and then the F# and A on the D string. Try starting by playing the A not on the E string but on the D string. So look at the notes you are playing on your bass lines and sed if you can play any of the notes elsewhere. This will create a bit more variety and movement in your lines. Even better if you can slide up to a note or play one as a harmonic instead. thank you for such insight! I wonder if you might have a suggestion for my particular challenge!? Old ears and so often find it hard to actually pick out a bass line! Tone deaf ... I would love to just sit in a jam session and bash, but I never can identify the notes/chords (Always seem to have to rely on lead sheets) Other in my band just seem to be able to pluck stuff out of the air, but I fail to recognise it and thus my "input" is rubbish. How to "ear train"!?!? S'manth xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 5 minutes ago, wateroftyne said: I can almost forgive him for playing polite parpy J tones throughout the electric era. Almost. But not quite. Bloody BC reaction limits! So this post (which doubtless uses more resources!) S'manth x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 2 hours ago, Smanth said: Old ears and so often find it hard to actually pick out a bass line! Me too. Could be out instrument of choice - often the bass isn't the most distinctive of sounds in a mix. Also, having been working through some old rock 'n' roll recently, the recordings aren't the best because of the tech available at the time, and in a few recordings, the bass is all over the place (in a bad way). 12 hours ago, dyess002 said: Any ideas? What @Linus27 said. Also, just experimenting with your set list in the comfort and privacy of your own home. Try runs to link the simple bass lines. If it works, practice it. If it doesn't, try something else. Try playing thirds or fifths instead of the root notes so you're harmonising with the bass notes of the chord. If your walking lines ascend, make them descend instead (and vice versa). And remember that sometimes the simple bassline is the best bassline for the song. 😃 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 24 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said: And remember that sometimes the simple bassline is the best bassline for the song. 😃 An approach that has worked for me since I first started! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 3 hours ago, Smanth said: Old ears and so often find it hard to actually pick out a bass line! Tone deaf ... I would love to just sit in a jam session and bash, but I never can identify the notes/chords (Always seem to have to rely on lead sheets) Well, this helps a lot to start with: https://github.com/deezer/spleeter 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 29 minutes ago, Paul S said: An approach that has worked for me since I first started! And me. Thank goodness! 🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 13 minutes ago, Woodinblack said: Well, this helps a lot to start with: https://github.com/deezer/spleeter cool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody1957 Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 10 hours ago, Smanth said: I mean, is this guy not insanely fantastic! If could play even 1% as well I'd be delighted! S'manth x That face he pulls proper scares me.......... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 10 hours ago, Smanth said: I mean, is this guy not insanely fantastic! If could play even 1% as well I'd be delighted! His acoustic bass section was certainly good. Although the 80s was starting to a look a lot like home! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geek99 Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 (edited) 10 hours ago, Smanth said: thank you for such insight! I wonder if you might have a suggestion for my particular challenge!? Old ears and so often find it hard to actually pick out a bass line! Tone deaf ... I would love to just sit in a jam session and bash, but I never can identify the notes/chords (Always seem to have to rely on lead sheets) Other in my band just seem to be able to pluck stuff out of the air, but I fail to recognise it and thus my "input" is rubbish. How to "ear train"!?!? S'manth xx It’s like you’re me. Look up Jamey aebersold and interval training and I cheat and look at the guitarists hands. when they’re not down their trousers … being merchant bankers Edited October 23, 2022 by Geek99 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted October 23, 2022 Share Posted October 23, 2022 An ECG that is not not quite right ... I'm on it!!! But sadly I am poor at recognising chord shapes in my bandmates ! S'manth xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Best thing I ever did was learn to read. I got through the first 20 years of playing without, then started to play with my kids who were getting lessons on clarinet and sax. Learning to read loads of different stuff when those 2 instruments transpose differently was a real development point for me. So many more pieces of music are now accessible. If there's no bass part then the trombone or the bass clef part of a piano score is all there. It also allows me to properly play stuff from different arrangers. The Hal leonard library stuff has multiple versions of the same tune but arranged differently. Different styles come through even more that way. If you read at all (only Grade 2-3 level) then there is loads of HL stuff on youtube where the entire score is on screen and flips as needed. If you watch it on a big enough screen you can read it straight from the telly. Here's an easy big band arrangement of "Think" - the bass part is nearer the bottom With Youtube's speed controls it can be played back really slowly while maintaining pitch. It's great for learning. There's loads of similar stuff on youtube, as well as loads of No-Bass backing tracks in a variety of keys / styles / tempos / time sigs. Like this 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baloney Balderdash Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 Learn chords and scales, and practice improvising/writing bass lines on the spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 Welcome aboard. There are a lot of church and worship bassists on BC. In fact there is a long running Playing In Church thread which is worth picking up. ( Though sometimes it is a bit of a "safe space" to vent frustration 😬). You could repost.or link to this question there and get some additional views. If the hymnal includes the chords above the stave then you can work from those, or if the songs are out of copyright then there may be chord charts available in the correct key on CCLI or the US equivalent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lozkerr Posted October 25, 2022 Share Posted October 25, 2022 On 23/10/2022 at 12:46, Smanth said: Other in my band just seem to be able to pluck stuff out of the air, but I fail to recognise it and thus my "input" is rubbish. How to "ear train"!?!? When I'm doing transcriptions, I find it often helps to play up one or even two octaves, especially if the bass is buried in the mix. That can often let you hear discordant notes more easily than if you're down near the nut. A looper is a godsend - you can record short phrases and try out notes that sound right until you hit gold. I use a Boss eBand JS10 both for that and normal practice - the ability to loop short phrases and slow things down without altering the pitch is a godsend. Makes it much easier to find the key and work out fills. It's not a cheap piece of gear though, but software packages like Transcribe, Reaper and Audacity can do the same thing. The same might work for jams. If you're up near the dusty end, you'll hear discordant notes easier than you would if you were down near the nut. And at the end of the day, you're only one semitone away from a note that's in the right key! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralf1e Posted October 27, 2022 Share Posted October 27, 2022 On 23/10/2022 at 12:46, Smanth said: thank you for such insight! I wonder if you might have a suggestion for my particular challenge!? Old ears and so often find it hard to actually pick out a bass line! Tone deaf ... I would love to just sit in a jam session and bash, but I never can identify the notes/chords (Always seem to have to rely on lead sheets) Other in my band just seem to be able to pluck stuff out of the air, but I fail to recognise it and thus my "input" is rubbish. How to "ear train"!?!? S'manth xx Have you looked at ear training apps on the phone. A few out there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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