re: Question for the Bass Players

quote:

---

Two challenges and one piece of general advice: 1) learning songs is often challenging because the bass is buried in the mix and difficult to hear; get good headphones or speakers when learning or you’ll go nuts. 2) related to #1 being heard in a band setting live. Bass players disappear tonally for a variety of reasons…guitar players are too fricking loud (usually the case), kick drum is mic’d and cranked, bass players “scoop the mids” because it sounded good in their bedroom, drop tunings and floppy strings, under powered rig, not enough attack. If you’re playing with others, figure out how to live sonically where the kick drum and guitar aren’t already taking up space…think low mids to high mids. 3) general advice -skip Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and whatever your guitarists friends tell you to learn. Learn songs you love and know by heart because it’s so much easier to find the groove and figure out what the bassist was going for and why they made the choices they made. Don’t like Rush, Tool, or RHCP? Then fricking skip it! Play your Motley Crue songs and frick up a bunch, you’ll have a much more fun time learning.

---

Good stuff.

1) It is a challenge at first. Over time your ear will become trained to pick it out.

2). Live sound is a huge challenge. You spend so long learning how to play, you get out and start playing and some thinks he knows it all will tell you to smiley face your EQ. Then you’re playing and thinking, where did I go. Someone in the crowd says you need to turn the bass up. This leads to a wall of mud. Mids are your friend. But, not all amp/pedal makers know how to do them right. Buying an amp or preamp? Make sure the mids cut through and have more options than one knob. Don’t sleep on Darkglass. Everyone thinks they are for metal, and in your living room you’ll think the same. Live, it sounds really good in funk, soul, rock, pop, and country. Dirt is also your friend. You’ll think you don’t want a driven/distorted sound on a song. Hey Pete, I’m not playing Metal. Trust me, try it and see how it sounds in the entire band mix. No bass player plays clean, you just think they do.

3) Play what you like and what keeps you playing. But, I do wish when I started I would have spent more time on easier pop, rock and country rather than slaving for weeks on a Rush song that was clearly beyond my skill level. When I started playing in cover bands I was knocking out new songs one after the other. The sense of accomplishment is important.