how 2 git gud at bass?

[dubkitty]

what worked for me was a semester in the Jazz Improvisation course ensemble at City College of San Francisco. i signed up as a guitarist, but took on bass because there was no bassist in the class. that was where i learned to play like a bassist rather than a guitarist slumming it. you just can't get away with playing guitar-dude lines on Freddie Hubbard songs. find yourself a situation that demands tasteful, non-guitar-dude bass lines--jazz, country and western, 50s rock, old-school R&B, Rolling Stones music--and the setting will dictate that you learn how to fit. your wrong stuff will become blindingly obvious when it's totally out of context.

as far as technique goes, i really have none. i learned to play finger-style and pick-style when still in my guitar-player-slumming mode using more or less the techniques i used for operating guitars (but you can't get away with thumb-and-three-fingers folk-blues playing), and frankly unless you're trying to become a tech god that's all you really need other that learning how different left-hand tactics affect the note, which you can scope for yourself. and as noted by other folks, work on where you put the note in relation to the drums and the overall rhythms/beat. note choice and placement make bass the most powerful position in a band, because you can totally change a song setting by what notes and note placement you use. playing relatively normal root/third/fifth is different that the punk/post-punk approach where you often play the fifth against the chords. listen to Paul Hanley in The Fall and Brix and the Extricated, who is an absolute master at this. and for fuck's sake lock in with the drummer, who is your co-worker in establishing the structure the rest of the band plays over. i have always liked resting one foot on the drum riser or the actual bass drum shell/rim to keep me tight with the kick drum, both on guitar and bass.

[D.o.S.]

Read thread. Still bad at bass. 0/10 would not recommend.

[qersty]

So do fretless players always play with chorus caue they suck? (i feel like i do)

[Blackened Soul]

So do fretless players always play with chorus caue they suck? (i feel like i do)

I always thought is had to do with the 80s and how all clean things then had chorus on them and a lot of bassists have this sick fascination with wanting their electric bass to sound like a detuned acoustic guitar To me it makes it harder to play in tune as it wobbles your pitch so really to play which chorus in tune on a fretless you have to be more on the ball..

[qersty]

i haven't really thought of it making it harder. Though i dont think i play anything in tune ever but you are right in that it's probably just an 80s-ism. I like chorus on bass but mostly to make things sound greasier and fuzz sound worse. the 80s fretless chorus thing only sounded really good to me when mick karn did it but he did it by double tracking

[MechaGodzilla]

been asked to cover bass in my old band so will have 2 git gud

[dubkitty]

the 80s fretless chorus thing only sounded really good to me when mick karn did it but he did it by double tracking

it's probably obvious to say, but most of the 80s chorus-on-bass thing was people copying Jaco Pastorius. nary a one of them was within artillery range.

[cosmicevan]

So do fretless players always play with chorus caue they suck? (i feel like i do)

From what I have seen...yes...that's pretty spot on.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I'm not saying I'm good (I am not very good) but I almost never play with chorus

[goroth]

And this is why you won't ever be Peter Steele

[qersty]

And this is why you won't ever be Peter Steele

muff>chorus is da wae

[coldbrightsunlight]

And this is why you won't ever be Peter Steele

I'm entirely OK with this. There can be only one Peter Steele RIP

[MechaGodzilla]

put in a good couple of hours practice yesterday. bass is more tiring than guitar, definitely. i don't have the handspan for some of the groovy licks i want to be able to pull off but i'm trying to focus on having good rhythm.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Yeah more physically demanding for sure. Rhythm is everything so

[qersty]

You dont have to play much to be groovy, it's all about the space. I always struggle to play less. Focusing on rhythm is a good idea. And modes! I am always annoyed by how little people (esp. guitarists) care about modes. Once you get comfortable not moving your hand it takes you lightyears ahead