Some friends have a trio, they do mostly jazz gigs in restaurants, hotels etc: Arranger, Bass Guitar and Acoustic/electric and two of them sing. Sometimes the bassist has other work so the arranger can be used to play the bass.

Good advice Diki. I'm sure how to go about doing a separate drum mix to the monitors but I'll look into it.

ToneWheel Dude, that's one thing I love about an arranger based group- there's some much flexibility and so many possibilties.

I had a duo years back with just this setup as outlined by montuno..

Bass player and me. No arrangers back then of course, and the drums were supplied by a Boss DR110. I played a Yamaha PF-10. Even then my back was telling me to give up the Rhodes

The only tip I will make is that what we did, was to jam together over all the songs (no drums) until we were comfy with that, then add the drums a song at a time adjusting them as we went. Easy, as both of us now knew where the other was going on songs..

I have to say that duo was one of the most enjoyable gigging music experiences in my career...totally free to go wherever we wanted with a song, or just do it bog-standard!!

Dennis, that is EXACTLY the approach to take. That way, the keyboard and bass player get "in synch" to the extent that they learn each others preferences/style. For instance, where each would prefer to use a passing chord/note, or where a slight alteration in timing would make for a more dramatic "build" to a chorus, etc.

It's like having a drummer that is strictly a time-keeper. You work around that and build a custom style together.

I worked a bass guitar duo with a drum machine, and an organ/guitar duo with drum machine for years.

Your approach is what worked, in both cases.


Russ

Good on you for stretching yourself. It is good for a soloist to play with others, as it does bring in a new dimension to your playing. You both learn from each other and it can get you out of the rut of just doing thing your way. Which by the way, is perfectly fine and great, but it will change your perception a little.
I know, as I am a bass player in a small band ( instead of keys) and it is awesome the groove you can get with the right people.

Just thought I’d give an update on my bass/keys dou. We did the gig last night at a restaurant/bar. I was a bit apprehensive about job because I’ve gotten so used to play in auto-accompaniment mode and wasn’t sure how this would work with an arranger keyboard. I ended up using these 3 options when I played with the bassist:

1. Drum accompaniment – no other auto accompaniment. This gave me the freedom to play any type of chord voicing’s I liked without having to worry about “confusing” the chord recognition. Great for jazzy stuff and bossa nova comping.

2. Auto accompaniment with bass track muted. This worked out much better than I thought. Great for C&B, funky stuff, and rock n’ roll... Having the auto accompaniment (especially guitar strumming parts) really filled out the sound. The live bass helped so much for tunes that have specific bass line – like Kool and Gang’s “Celebration” or Rick James “Super Freak”

3. Full Accompaniment – including auto bass. We used this for tunes that the bassist didn’t know. Usually I could mute the bass after a chorus or two. Luckily the guy is blessed with fantastic ears.

Unfortunately we never had a chance to rehearse before the gig so I had to just go with my instincts as to which method I’d use. A lot of times I’d employ all three methods during the course of a tune with good results. All in all a great experience that I never really even considered before. I’ve played with horn players, guitarist and percussionists but never thought a bass would be effective. Boy was I wrong! A live bass really helps! Like this bassist is very good, great ears and solid timing. An interesting side note that I didn’t know tell I got to the gig is that he is blind. I”m sure that attributes to his highly developed aural skills.

Paiul who sang these songs you mentioned?

We both sang, although the bassist did most of the sining- he sings much better than me... he sang the two songs I mentioned. I was impressed because those bass lines are fairly syncopated and having to to sing lead vocals over those bass seems hard to me.

Great Paul next time record or video for us......
keep it up baby!!

true talent will ALWAYS rise to the top ... I TOLD you not to worry ...