How does a Guitarist play Bass?

stickyfiddle

fretmeister said:

If you ask Marcus Miller, he would say that the very best thing a bassist can do is learn the piano.

Quickest way to learn what works in an arrangement, all on 1 instrument. Quickest way to learn when the left hand needs to be simple or complex etc etc.

He never gets any press for it, but he's a hell of a piano player as well. He gets gigs as the Musical Director for big acts just as much as he does for bass sessions.

Yeah this isn't a bad shout. I had piano, clarinet & sax lessons for years before I picked up a guitar. I never consciously mapped anything across beyond the basic understanding of how music works stuff, but I'm sure it helped me pick up good habits. Actually, playing the sax in school ensembles was probably a big help just because it gets you used to waiting for 19 bars then blasting 7 bars of big notes to underpin whatever the higher pitched instruments were doing. 

I'm trying to work out how to restructure my life so that the second half is built around MD roles and so on. I have no idea how to get there but I know I'm good at it.

Kurtis

For me it's the right hand that's the problem. I've never got the hang of that hanging hand over and picking upward with your fingers. Is there a word for that? So generally use a pick. 

Otherwise I'd say it's good to think of it as a percussion instrument. 
That was my gig in the primary school band 

The rest is fairly self explanatory. 

Dave_Mc

Winny_Pooh said:

I've doubled on bass since my early 20's and play upright too. 

Wow as well as sitting down?

(Sorry  )

EricTheWeary

Open_G said:

mart said:

Open_G said:

...

One of the bassiest bass lines I can think of is also one of the simplest. It’s the verse of black velvet. I have no idea but genuinely cannot see this as being come up with by a guitarist playing bass. I’m not sure a guitarist would ever say, “I’ll just groove on the low E.” yet this song is all about that bass groove. 

...

That's one song that really inspired me to get into bass playing. But it's not actually a bass, is it - it's a synth if I'm not mistaken. Still, it's a good lesson in what to play, and what not to play.

Based on nothing but my ears, I thought it had the mwah of a fretless. But genuinely no idea. 

Wikipedia says synth using a fretless sample. So in a way you are both right. That's a lovely moral to the story. 

Dave_Mc

Seriously, though, pretty much what everyone else is saying. I'm not really a bassist (I'm not really a guitarist either  ) but I read up a bit about it online when I first got a bass and sort of deliberately tried to avoid the things that actual bass players said marked you out as being obviously someone who'd come straight from guitar and thought that because of that bass was easy and you didn't have anything to learn! I deliberately mainly played with my fingers rather than a pick, tried to support the song and get the groove etc. I played drums before I played guitar so I don't find it too hard to follow the drums; I also played piano before I played drums so I guess that helps too according to Marcus Miller...

I would also say that even if you don't get that good at bass, it's worth it to be able to hear the bass in songs (I never used to hear bass at all!) and understand better what all of the instruments are doing.

Rocker

@Open_G, what is the name of the song you alluded to, the band and, if known, the album.  Thank you.

RocknRollDave

I, apparently, play bass ‘like a guitarist playing bass’, so …don’t do whatever it is that I do.

ICBM

Oddly enough I play almost exclusively with my fingers on a guitar, but currently - for the band I’m in - almost exclusively with a pick for bass. There’s one song in the set which has a fingerstyle bass part. You need the pick to get a fast enough note attack, no matter what a lot of bass snobs think.

I play a lot of other bass with my fingers though, especially fretless which doesn’t really sound right with a pick - I have tried, just to see. Neither is right or wrong any more than it is on a guitar.

Rocker said:

@Open_G, what is the name of the song you alluded to, the band and, if known, the album.  Thank you.

Black Velvet - Alannah Myles.

The album is self-titled, but I would strongly advise you don’t buy it… it’s appalling. The biggest contrast between one great song and an album full of total tosh that I can think of.

axisus

I posted a bass video on Basschat many years ago, and said that I was really a guitarist. I was told that I played like a bassist rather than a guitarist - I'll take that!

guitarjack66

GoFish said:

Timing, timing, timing.

It's a feel thing much more than strict timekeeping. Small changes can have big effects. This also applies to stray notes, muting etc.

Locking in with the drummer is crucial, and much tougher in these modern "in-ear, by-the-grid, logic drummer" times imo. With physical drums, you have the vibrations to guide you and are more aware of the power and volume of that E string and the responsibility that comes with that to hold the groove and support the layers on top.

There is an (apocraphal) African approach that sees music as a family*. The drum is the Patriarch, introducting the feel, the tempo, the rhythm. The bass is then the Matriarch, supporting the choices made by the drummer, complementing the beat and adding tension, syncopation, release and a melodic base to the mix. After that come all the other instruments. Think of them as the children, running around doing whatever they like - none of it really matters, as long as they listen to the parents at the right times.

 

*= please excuse the heteronormative, Male centred, description. This is also a reductive approach and just one approach, but gets the basic perspective across.

Don't apologise. I got to grips with the major scale by watching a religious youtube music channel which described the intervals in the scale in a very similar way. 

Funkfingers

The key point mentioned earlier in this Discussion was bass locking in with the drums. This is the foundation on which everything else in a song arrangements stands. 

My usual comment is that bass is the element in the music to which yo' ass jiggles. What Tina Weymouth in the remastered edition of Stop Making Sense. She dances her way through most of the set. The dancing informs when to play the notes.

During the Sting/Miller Beato interview, Stingo trots out his favourite line about a guitar chord only being what it appears to be provided that he plays its root note on the bass. As soon as he hits the fifth, seventh or ninth, the name of the chord changes. (See also James Paul McCartney.)

Snags

To refresh my memory of the Black Velvet bass line I hit up Google.

And the very first video they linked ot is a demonstration of way people who don't know notation shouldn't be allowed to publish notation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_AlBSh9AWA - whether you're a guitarist or a bassist, if you only know tab, only post tab.

fretmeister

Open_G said:

mart said:

Open_G said:

...

One of the bassiest bass lines I can think of is also one of the simplest. It’s the verse of black velvet. I have no idea but genuinely cannot see this as being come up with by a guitarist playing bass. I’m not sure a guitarist would ever say, “I’ll just groove on the low E.” yet this song is all about that bass groove. 

...

That's one song that really inspired me to get into bass playing. But it's not actually a bass, is it - it's a synth if I'm not mistaken. Still, it's a good lesson in what to play, and what not to play.

Based on nothing but my ears, I thought it had the mwah of a fretless. But genuinely no idea. 

It's definitely a synth.

Every covers band I've been in has played it. I played it on the bass though.

fretmeister

Snags said:

To refresh my memory of the Black Velvet bass line I hit up Google.

And the very first video they linked ot is a demonstration of way people who don't know notation shouldn't be allowed to publish notation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_AlBSh9AWA - whether you're a guitarist or a bassist, if you only know tab, only post tab.

Not to mention he's in the wrong key.

It's one of the rare songs that sounds absolutely awful in anything but the right key.

Stuckfast

fretmeister said:It's definitely a synth.

Every covers band I've been in has played it. I played it on the bass though.

What makes you think it's a synth? Sounds like a bass to me, possibly fretless as there's not much attack or high end on it.

Stuckfast

Oh wait, Wiki says it was recorded using a sample of a fretless bass played on a synth. So there you go.

Reggaebass

munckee said:

I have a bass and can learn bass parts to songs.  When I see a bass player I realise I cannot play bass its a totally different art.

Don't tell bass players though.

Your probably better than you think, most guitarists I know can hold down a good rhythm, and you know your way around the fretboard, it’s probably just getting used to the bigger strings and wider spacing , I do have an acoustic guitar but can’t play it very well at all, love the sound though 

pigface

Dave_Mc said:

I would also say that even if you don't get that good at bass, it's worth it to be able to hear the bass in songs (I never used to hear bass at all!) and understand better what all of the instruments are doing.

I've always been a guitarist and singer, but I've also always been able to hear the bass in a song and get how it drives the music. I remember telling one of my wives (I've had a few, consecutively) to listen to the bass to get the groove of a song, and she got it at once. I possess a bass but would not call myself a bass player. I can do root/5 at best.

stonevibe

I play bass like a guitarist, and I use a pick. So I'm like an anti-bassist or something like that. 

Funkfingers

stonevibe said:

I play bass like a guitarist and I use a pick. So, I'm like an anti-bassist or something like that. 

No. You are a future Rickenbacker 4003 user.