re: Bass Guitar tips

I’ve played bass for nearly 20 years now. I mostly play baritone guitar now, but playing bass first gave me a really strong sense of how songs move, as well as a sense of when to play and when not to play. Lots of bass players play as though they want to convince you that they are real musicians, or that bass playing requires skill. This leads to a lot of busy-sounding songs which aren’t all that great.

There are some really great bass specific channels like Adam Neely and Scott’s Bass Lessons, which are among the biggest music learning channels on YT. Leland Sklar has a wonderful channel where he plays along with some of the tracks he wrote for a whole host of musicians.

That said, you should definitely listen to some of the “masters” if possible. James Jamerson’s work in Motown is extremely important for the development of electric bass, as his one-finger style focused on groove, and in songs like “Inner City Blues,” you can see the benefit of a relatively simple line played with groove in mind. Of that era, there were so many fantastic bassists too, that you couldn’t go wrong looking into some of Carol Kaye’s work, as I believe she did the bass work on Pet Sounds, and later had some lovely lines when working with Phil Spector. No one talks about Leroy Hodges anymore, but he was the bassist who played with Al Green and wrote the wonderful line in “Let’s Stay Together.” There are so many amazing bass players to list too.

The quickest way to learn would be to learn the bass tracks of songs you like, and then go from there. You’ll find most bands use the bass only to double the root or accentuate the kick, which are both roles for the bass player, but lots of modern players find ways to do really cool, fun things with the bass.

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Had the pleasure of meeting him after a concert in Covington, KY. Super cool dude.

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Saw him with Bella Fleck many years ago.

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Lots of bass players play as though they want to convince you that they are real musicians, or that bass playing requires skill

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Everything this cat said. Big reason I can’t get into jam bands. They just don’t groove or make you wanna move.
If you play bass, lock in and groove. Want to show out? There’s usually a guitar solo and you can throw down then. Prog is fine if it works and their is a line through the song. Rush and Yes were exceptional at this.

Here’s how it is:

Singers make you sway
Drummers make you tap your foot
Guitars make you nod your head
The bass makes you shake your arse!

Somewhat true. I guess it depends on the genre and even the song.

I mean listen to a lot of great jazz bass lines. Theyre walking all over, but also in the pocket. Kind of the best example of both worlds.

If youre jamming with James Brown, yeah, lock in and just keep it going.

Blues, just depending, can really go either way. No, no one wants to hear us solo in the back the entire time but there is room for movement to help with the dynamics in a given song without sitting back and just being a robot.

The bass is the glue of the band and really directs everything more than anything. You dont necessarily need to be monolithic to go about that, but yes you dont want to overplay your hand either.