We all are very fortunate to have the wisdom of Russ and Diki here........Years of experience and willing to share freely just for the asking !! It feels nice to be surrounded by talented Musicians....

Everybody stay safe and wear the freakin' mask.

Listen to some of your favorite music, and see if you can figure out what the bass player is playing.


If you read music, there's tons of books on bassline construction and transcriptions of bass lines in all sorts of styles.

Maybe you'd like these:

For C&W bass:

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Art-Country-...rt+of+coun%2Cap

For blues bass:

https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Complete-Blue...1914&sr=8-6

For walking bass:

https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Keyboard-...mp;sr=8-1-fkmr3


Study bass lines from your favorite recording, the books, YouTube tutorials, and analyze the progression using the "number" system. Transpose to all keys and apply to a bunch of tunes. Sure, it's a lot of work, but that's the great thing about music- there's always something fun and interesting to learn!

Excellent recommendations. Thanks guys.

What are your thoughts on the following musicians in the video clip below?

* Drummer:-
* Bass (which we are discussing here):-
* Guitar Player (this guy in particular WOW)!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gobxzSTz...ztCCiYOUu0Si2cc

I was most impressed with the singer!

The bassline is as important as the melody...

If you think about it, what do you tend to hear the easiest in a busy mix? You hear the melody on top, and the bassline at the bottom. Everything in the middle has stuff competing with it, but those two elements at the top and bottom have no competition!

We usually tend to concentrate on the melody at the top, but it’s amazing how strongly the bassline can influence the song. Substitute a different one, suddenly the song no longer sounds the same! Maybe for the better, maybe not...

Every great band had a great bassist. Try to listen to your music (record yourself constantly!) and ask yourself if the arranger’s bassline works for the song or works against it. If it’s fighting the song, perhaps that’s the time to play a bassline yourself, or maybe try a different style with a different bassline. Or if it’s a signature bassline, perhaps an SMF with the correct line is more effective (and don’t forget to put Markers into the SMF so you can still restructure the song at will!).

Back in Bach’s day, there was a way of writing music called ‘Figured Bass’ that was very like a modern fakebook! Except that nowadays we write the melody and add chord symbols. In Bach’s day, they would write the bassline and the chords and the melody. That’s how important the bass part was back then! Perhaps they were onto something! 🎹😎

If the "pocket" doesn't exist, you've got real problems.I want the two kick-ass players in my group to be the bass payer and the drummer.

This guy played the bass part well, but didn't blow me away.
It's not that kind of part.

Liked it!


R.

Diki, I never thought of that before, that the arranger bass line never goes anywhere but you are right. I don't do fingered bass but as an organ player I kick a pretty damn good bass line that does go somewhere. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.