What is this "play the bass you all speak of"?

The bass plays me.

THIS is my son's favorite song about playin' the bass.

I think any Little Feat album is a good starting point to learn how to play bass tastefully. 

I went to school for visual arts. I naively took a "theory for non majors" class at the Music School.

 
Cal Berkeley has a course ... "Physics for Poets" ... and it was excellent! I finally got an A on a physics course! And that teacher ... became famous! And my English was terrible ... but I was right at home with philosophy and poetry!

Good stuff!

:-)

I'm surprised that a thread on bass playing took this long to get to physics, poetry and philosophy.

Or did everyone just know it was implied from the start? 

drewfx1


I found I had to think different conceptually when I picked up guitar.

It's not a matter of "simple" verses "lead"; it's a matter of where things sit in the big picture. A bass guitar is not the same as a guitar an octave lower and vise versa; it's a different instrument.

I always think of it in terms of Jimmy Page wailing (and posing) in the spotlight while JPJ is smiling at and grooving with Bonzo (but not necessarily playing "simple" lines) in the background. One guy's out front and on top of everything and the other's in the background playing either underneath or in the middle of everything. 

And then you have Paul McCartney, playing lead bass all the way through... ;)


JPJ is an incredible musician. Granted he may have been the most quiet/spotlight-shy member in Zeppelin - but then again, when you're surrounded by Page, Plant and Bonzo, who wouldn't be... 


I'm glad I had the opportunity to see him w/ Them Crooked Vultures - I knew he was one of the greats, but there's nothing like seeing a master at work. The crowd gave him a (totally deserved) long standing ovation that night.  

That made up for the few dimwits screaming "Stairway to Heaven" in the audience. ;)

Rain

That made up for the few dimwits screaming "Stairway to Heaven" in the audience. ;)

Idiots.  Everyone knows you're supposed to scream "Play Freebird!"

drewfx1
It's not a matter of "simple" verses "lead"; it's a matter of where things sit in the big picture. A bass guitar is not the same as a guitar an octave lower and vise versa; it's a different instrument.

 
That's one of my issues that makes a lot of rock music fall down the scale so far for me ... the bass is nothing but a support to keep something else going, and in essence, that is a very basic, and high school'ish music design for folks that are learning music instead of playing it and within a professional context -- which pre-supposes the bigenning stuff!
 
You can look at a staff for ... Tosca, let's say ... with its 30 or so instruments and different things ... and that bass is not an octave lower, and neither is that violin an octave higher, or that simple ... 4 different violins are doing 4 different things, and I'm not sure that a rock'n'roller, can think outside the box and into a more diverse universe!
 
Thus, what is "progressive" music, is the one that goes away from the simplistic and "beginner" level in musice to an area that spreads the ability of the instrument and the player.
 
The only thing that a score/staff can't do or represent well, is the "attitude" and some of the vocals that the 20th century taught us ... how do you put in words on a score "sarcasm with challenge" (Jim with Light My Fire) as a nice example, or "poetic and dreamy expressive" (Jim in When the music is over turn out the lights) in a way that even opera never did or could ... and even the great MEN singers of the 20th century did not improve the norm or standard (in classical music), whereas the women saw a vastly improved standard by the women (Callas, Tebaldi, Nielsen) who challenged the status quo in opera singing, and made it even better. In the case of the women, it was more individuality than it was anything else ... and that goes well with what became the main thrust in rock music right after.
 
I doubt I will ever get good enough to play bass with a high school band ... I have no delusions over that whatsoever ... but the history of the rest, is not about me ... and it is highly visible ... if anyone wants to put their glasses to it. Thus, again, hearing that one instrument ahs to support the other, is simply stated, very basic and high schoolish music learning and not what the "GREAT" groups ever did ... which was to improve and change the "basic" design and concept of things! We just don't seem to "get" that part!

RainJPJ is an incredible musician. Granted he may have been the most quiet/spotlight-shy member in Zeppelin - but then again, when you're surrounded by Page, Plant and Bonzo, who wouldn't be...

 
I don't think he was that shy ... I think he had more on his plate, since he also had to play keyboards and then get the bass and then switch back and such, and the concentration was probably harder for him ... than the others ... Jimmy could play an extra this or that ... while Robert stretched ... "my love" to about 72 and a half seconds, which meant that JPJ had to stick on the keyboards longer, before making the quick change ... and so on ... in so many ways, he was the one that could not "improvise" a whole lot, compared to the others. Bonzo, I don't know what to say, as he was known to be seriously out of it several times, but the playing still came! Except once when he was replaced in LA by a roadie ... and it is on the bootleg "Bonzo's Birthday Party" (used to be 3 LP's), which all of a sudden lost a lot of energy ... in the last 5 or 6 pieces, that appeared they were just going through the motions!

Moshkiae

drewfx1
It's not a matter of "simple" verses "lead"; it's a matter of where things sit in the big picture. A bass guitar is not the same as a guitar an octave lower and vise versa; it's a different instrument.

 
That's one of my issues that makes a lot of rock music fall down the scale so far for me ... the bass is nothing but a support to keep something else going, and in essence, that is a very basic, and high school'ish music design for folks that are learning music instead of playing it and within a professional context -- which pre-supposes the bigenning stuff!
 
You can look at a staff for ... Tosca, let's say ... with its 30 or so instruments and different things ... and that bass is not an octave lower, and neither is that violin an octave higher, or that simple ... 4 different violins are doing 4 different things, and I'm not sure that a rock'n'roller, can think outside the box and into a more diverse universe!

The point Drew was making Pedro, is that if you tune a guitar part down an octave, you don't get a bass line. It's a different instrument to a guitar and creates it's own space in the music. I don't think anyone's suggesting it's a 'lesser' instrument, each part is vital to the whole.


Guitar, bass, drums and vocals, is a combo that has stood the test of time for rock music, it just works.


Comparing rock music to an opera like Tosca is like saying an owl is more feathery than an ocelot.