have you ever taken your bass playing from a singer..

[bubinga5]

for a long time i have listened to people like Anita Baker and Donny,.. i always liked to practice a bass line to the way they sing..i want to say its the singing that i practiced .. of course this was in the context of a groove.. but the bigger picture was of these girls/guys..

especially Anita.... im so passionate about soul and funk, i always will be.. but i think this is the same of other genres, depending on how you approach it.. of course the groove is god..

ive always thought that in the contexts of harmonies in bass playing, this is the way i always wanted to play.... i love the singing and it gives me inspiration to play bass..

practicing Anita's vocal fills and the way she sings, i think gave me a style thats my own.. or hers..? i always like to practice bass lines from unusual sources..maybe from trumpets , or especially Sax.. imo its so good for your playng

has anyone practiced bass lines from vocals, or an unusual source.. a birds chirping?

[phil.i.stein]

no, but a great idea !

i usually get mine (sub or not)conciously from a horn part/ guitar part , whatever.

i see no reason why vocals should not provide inspiration.

[mike257]

I'll quite often follow vocal lines to emphasise bits of a melody here and there within a song - there's definitely some unique ideas for phrasing that can come from a creative singer that you wouldn't naturally head for on an instrument.

[whynot]

I never practise, but I only recently realised how much my playing was influenced by the vocals/melody when gigging.

[Bilbo]

Learning to phrase from non-bass instruments is a tried and tested method. I almost never learn bass solos as they contain a lot of bass cliches. Takes a saxophone, trumpet, keyboard etc anytime. Singers too, absolutely.

[chrismuzz]

I do this too! sometimes I get influenced by a bit of trumpet or sax playing but I can't say I listen to all that much music with those in. If I were good enough id probably think about doing piano parts too, but I might need to learn a bit more first!

[JTUK]

Not really. but I'll phrase in keeping with the whole sound, or hopefully I do.

I just listen and react to what ever part of the music gets me... but funniliy enough I don't latch onto lyrics.. never have a clue what the words are...but I probably bundle the vocal line as just another melody and that may or may not be the essense of the song from my POV.

[Shambo]

If I have to create a new bass line, I have been known to record myself humming, singing and yelping loose nonsensical phrases over a demo, to listen back to later. Then I can choose the bits of it that seems to work well, and expand it over the full song.

[cheddatom]

I do this fairly often. Lately i've been working on "lets get it on" - playing the bassline and the vocal line at the same time. It's really cool and one day i'll use it to seduce my girlfriend.

[El Bajo]

I do it when i stumped for ideas. Generally when the gweetar is mainly chordal and I don't want to just go dum dum dum dum on the root

[Jambo10]

Have to agree, several songs we do, I have the bassline following the flow of the vocals, makes for a nice groove and I think it does add to the song in general.

[xgsjx]

Quite a few of my basslines follow the timing of the vocals but I harmonise more than go in unison (although there's a few where it sounds great to play in unison).
Another thing I like to do occasionally is repeat the last few notes of a vocal part at the end of a bar/section, but I try not to over do this.

[noelk27]

Pieces written for violin, viola and cello, mostly. An afternoon spent listening to classic rock and playing classical pieces qualifies as a good day, in my book. Introduce yourself to Julian Lloyd Webber.

[Blademan_98]

[quote name='whynot' post='1366220' date='Sep 8 2011, 11:54 AM'][b]I never practise[/b], but I only recently realised how much my playing was influenced by the vocals/melody when gigging.[/quote]

I wish I was that good

[janmaat]

Indian Music Theory (and European anyway) sais: every instrument mimics / replaces vocals.
Always play as if you "have something to say".