achknalligewelt

Sloan are good, and an example to bands as to how not to fall out massively over money and fame - just split everything four ways and don't be precious about it.

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1396963593' post='2419151'] Both wrong, I'm afraid. Though there are some spurious 4/4s chucked in at key points. Try again! [/quote] Is it one of these 9/8 + 7/8 + 5/4 + 3/4 constructions? Because I counted those whole beats in the guitar part, and dammit there were 16 of them!

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1396866184' post='2418035'] We managed to bury one on our last album: https://cherrywhite.bandcamp.com/track/the-white-whale The chap with the sticks was actually quite good at "hiding" the odd-meter bars on this one. And it does shift back to occasional 4/4. I'd be interested to see who can spot the main time signature! [/quote] It's all 4/4. But with a very clever drummer, who makes an irregular snare pattern sound like it's not. I think.

I admire scales-y people. I go by ear, and so although I reckon I hit it right about 95% of the time, I admit, sometimes I lack that [i]perfect[/i] note that those with better theory can manage.

Smallest place was a pub in deep country outside Rugby. No actual stage, but we (six of us) fitted ourselves in two four foot square alcoves on either side of a set of stairs. The problem was that these stairs led to the snug, and so we had someone literally walk through the band, while we were playing, every 30 seconds. I was in the left alcove, by the way, with the mixing desk, the drummer and the rhythm guitarist's amplifier. Grottiest was South Wigston social club. Someone tried to sell me cocaine [i]during[/i] the bass solo in My Generation.

I might do a few covers of my own, see if it really is just the playing that gets clicks. Because if there's one thing I'm not, it's a pretty young lady.

Quad in Leicester is superb, if pricy. I think the big difference is that a lot of rooms are decorated in gloss paint, and are very echoey with tiny PAs. The cables are never the right length, the amps are often battered. If everyone's stood in the wrong place in an echo chamber with bad amps and a singer no-one can hear, the overall experience will be annoying, so why should you clean up? In places that are well set up to begin with though, and sound good because the rooms are thoughtfully put together and well maintained, you are more likely to enjoy the experience and treat the place with a bit of respect. Also, Quad set the room up for you, rather than just give you a cheap box full of leads and old mics, and are also very categorical that if you break anything, it's you that's getting the bill, and don't touch anything you don't need to. Keeping musicians away from the rig is probably half of the battle in stopping amps getting blown up. And the final touch - no teenagers. Lovely.

In my experience, it's just practice. I have been creating basslines for original material (and rearranged covers) for, Christ, must be 20 years, and once you have a few tricks up your sleeve, you just get a feel for where might be a good place to start. And that, by the way, is all it is. Root-noting along is a perfectly fine way to feel your way into a song, and for a guitarist to comment on it is pretty out of order. It's never finished, and you will refine the part, add bits, lose bits and then, I'd have thought, even then only have a framework set for the line. I pretty much never play the same thing twice, unless it's an important riff, and I only come up with them after weeks/months/years of trying and discarding things. As for what the bits are, I take a modular approach to composition. This chord might enjoy the t-shaped sliding riff from Drive My Car, or this one could benefit from a run up to the 5th, then down an octave, like something I once heard Mike Mills do. They all have names, and I have learned them over the years, but I still think of basslines as just being another form of Lego.

I use Dunlop Tortex 1mm, and mute through faster parts with my left hand. I am a refugee from the guitar, so this is a hangover. I play with quite a cutting tone, and so tend to hold my hand a bit further down towards the bridge when being loud, moving neckwards for the softer sounds. The biggest issue I have with using a pick is continually losing the buggers. If we could make old nuclear waste into plectrums then leave them in a gig bag, they'd all just evaporate and that'd be that problem solved almost overnight.

+1 for Robert Sledge. How many of these tones are from effects though, and how many from just hitting a bass very, very hard?

http://youtu.be/IvmeEyVd5w8 It's a bit late for the 'underrated bassists' thread from last week, but wow, I heard this at the weekend and was amazed. I have never seen Cetera mentioned on these pages, and feel I must remedy that with something from 1969. Astounding playing, especially over the coda. Enjoy!

I found listening as widely as possible was the key. For example, I have been playing since I was 15, and the stuff I took from my first influences (Paul McCartney, Mike Mills) to my first dalliances with being a bit flash (Alex James, Chris Squire) to players I discovered literally this week (Peter Cetera - why did no-one tell me about his playing on the first Chicago albums before now?) has all stayed with me. I use the tricks I have taken from these players in a way that I feel works. Now, I hate to reduce the craft we all share, but bass playing for me is actually pretty modular. Scales and riffs and sounds can be taken into a part, moved about and swapped for other things until you get an end result you like. What it takes is the experience of listening to and learning from others, and then twenty-odd years of practice and developing your own technique, getting it wrong countless times and sometimes a couple of lucky mistakes. You'll eventually know what works - there is a time for a torrent of notes, and a time for a sparse groove. Maybe there is an element of inspiration, but it's always 99% perspiration. Your mileage may vary, of course. I play rock/pop stuff, so please do tell me if I am talking out of my hat.

There were a lot of great bassists that appeared in the 90's that seem never to get a mention - Micky Quinn of Supergrass, Alex James of Blur, Colin Greenwood of Radiohead come to mind. Some great and inventive work ('Tracy Jacks' on Parklie has a bafflingly odd but totally perfect line - how did he come up with that?), and though the bands could be called niche (I know that for a lot of people, Blur are a bit Marmite) the bass playing was, I think, very good indeed. I learned a lot from my bedroom years, playing along to Parklife and In It for The Money.

I stand on the right of the drummer, always have, when I had a guitar or a bass in my hand. It'd feel wrong to stand on the left.

[quote name='Mudpup' timestamp='1391509747' post='2357834'] Have a look on YouTube for "Rio Isolated Bass" Its absolutely bonkers and you realise how much gets buried in the final mix [/quote] You can hear him get tired - at the start, it's all clipped ghost notes and precision. By 5 minutes later, he's fluffing bits, letting things ring, and the sharp 16th's have fallen into messy 8's. It's superb to listen to a player show both computer-like accuracy and human failings.