LeftyBassist.com

thats our job but how can it be defined? as frank zappa said a bass players job is to take up space but how much is the question we all have to ask ourselves at some point from the bare bones approach of cliff williams to the busy sometimes over the top playing of jaco pastorius each bass player does it differently as some one that has played everything from blues to metal to funk to fusion the question i often ask myself is how much is to much and how little is to little. each player interprets holding down the groove diffrently and none of us will take the approach to doing so, which brings me to my point, what is the playing philosophy of my fellow low end soliders. please post your approach and your thoughts in doing so.

funktastically yours,

Gur

as one who spent the 80's in a 3-piece Rush/Triumph styled prog band, 90's in a Winger meets Living Color meets Queensreich meets Satriani 5-piece, and now spends most of my bass related time building with the occasional day out playing in support of a friend ... it appears that my approach (like my hair length) has been significantly different with every decade

these days I can find equal value with an uber busy bass line and a tight execution of driving 8th notes. I've learned to love whole notes and the beauty of playing on the root. I no longer have a burning desire for 6-string fretted/fretless bass, and spend most of my most cherished playing time on a 4

my desire in the past has been for uniqueness and originality ... my desire today is to be a solid on-call bassist that can show up an hour before the session to briefly rehearse and talk thru the changes before laying it down solid for the session and driving the band where the song is calling it to go

my desire in the 80's/90's was to be recognized as a gifted bassist ... my desire today is to play so well that I'm totally unnoticed by the majority of those in attendance

my desire before was for the perfect bass with the perfect rig for the perfect tone ... my desire today is to make whatever I happen to be playing at the moment sound good

is it maturity, or just getting older? I don't know. I do know that the more basses I complete the more I appreciate coaxing a great bass to the point where it's set-up well and that can play itself by simply thinking the line in my head ...

all the best,

R

Well said Rod, I agree completely.

Above all, the goal is to serve the music no matter what instrument you play.

I think "serving the music" is a little misleading honestly. If you are creating your art then the music should be serving YOU. I play in a four piece rock group and a three piece heavy instrumental/post-rock group and in each I try to portray MY voice and interpretation of the music rather than attempting to fill the "appropriate" role. IMO, what is "appropriate" when creating original music is whatever the creator FEELS is appropriate. Sometimes that's a simple quarter-note line following roots and sometimes it's a lead melody or big chords with fullblown distortion and a wah. What I try NOT to do is allow what is assumed to be the "right" thing to play to pull me away from what I feel the need to play.

personally i see myself as a boxer bobbing and weaving around the melody with the drummer in the corner letting me know what punches to throw (i.e straight 8ths staccato 16ths ect.) keeping that in mind its all about what the song requires i'm not going to be throwing in 16th note triplets into some baby making music because above all else a bass is the bridge between the rhythm section and the melodic instruments so ultimately we set the tone and mood of the song weither its galloping triplets or a swinging quarter note walk and like rodent said we sound blend so smoothly into the song we wont be noticed.....though i must be honest one of my best memorys was playing at an open jam with 2 friends (a drummer and guitar player respectively) at a hipster bar, i was in an over the top mood so i began to dominate the music playing very busy with a alot of fills for a good 5 mintues before backing off to let my guitar player get some....after we played 3 hipsters came up to my guitarist and complemented him on that "crazy fast shit you were playing for the first 5 mintues of that jam" he smiled thanked them and when they walked away we all had a good laugh over it but thats a rare occurance for the bass players job is a selfless one... our job is to make the rest of the band sound good

I never bought into the idea that the bass should be felt but not seen, only appreciated by other members of the band, taking up space etc etc More than any other instrument in pop music, the bass is what YOU bring to it.

The great thing about bass - and why I switched to bass after a decade on guitar - is that it's a real undiscovered country. There are statistically so much fewer bassists and it's still a relatively new instrument that it's much easier to be original and creative without feeling like you're copying someone. And if you work to support the song in your own style, which I feel is a mix of your influences and what comes naturally, there is a real chance you will be creating something totally new.