Influences, but with a new angle?

[stingrayPete1977]

Over the last few years I have realised that most of the players I have loved when growing up and learning to play have not really influenced my own playing, influenced me [i]to[/i] play maybe but not actually added to my own way of playing. These are my main favourites, I love John Deacon always have yet I play nothing like him (slight bit of Ray influence from there maybe), I love Flea but never really went down that route as such (Ray influence for sure though), Duff from Guns n Roses I love his style and his sound yet again never really played in that fashion either and only really had a fling with a P bass (martthebass now owns it) never mind an aerodyne or special.

On the flipside I enjoy the odd bit of Jamiroquai but not a massive fan or anything yet I can nail a Stuart Zender line quite quickly by ear no problem, Its not that I am a great player as I'm really not nor do I have any super slap skills either but his slap or funky style is more like my own and it just slots in. His sound is totally removed from my own too in fact Im not sure where that comes from

So question is who do you love and have always listened to but sound nothing like and visa versa who do you quickly relate too when working out any covers or riffs etc particularly a band or artist you never really admired as such?

Edited July 26, 2012 by stingrayPete1977

[JTUK]

Don't know... Never slavishily followed anyone anyway..always nicked bits here and there and had a keen ear, IMO, but I
pretty much put my own spin on everything I play so I have my own style.

If there is anything I like, I nick it but am nowhere near a clone and you wouldn't be able to pick up who I listened to most in my formative years.
I guess I listened to too many players to follow just one theme.. but I don't relate to anyones playing above anyones elses when working out tracks as I'll
cop the feel and what I think the track is getting at and then do what I do...

[stingrayPete1977]

Im not really on about the people who watch the same youtube clip a 1000 times to nail every little nuance just the general what you had on your walkman (gramaphone, Discman, iPod, minidisc, 8 track etc) most of the time, I have turned out nothing like any of them, Newstead, Novoselic, Duff etc were all my heros yet Im not sure I can hear any of them in there?

[Blademan_98]

Love to lisen to Jack Bruce but sadly don't sound like him at all

I'd say I sound more like Sid Vicious.................

[discreet]

Holger Czukay was a big influence on me during my impressionable years, but unsurprisingly I don't play like him. Much.

[stingrayPete1977]

But what about the ones perhaps you can connect with yet did not pay as much attention to?

[discreet]

I suppose the people who played on lots hits and those who played with well-known artists but who were not household names at the time. Babbitt, Jamerson, Voorman, Flowers, Kaye, Osborn and so on.

[Mr. Foxen]

Loads of my favourites play with a pick, DD Verni, Duff etc. I can't be dealing with a pick.

[Lord Sausage]

Duff was my inspiration to start and i love JPJ and Jaco. But i don't sound like any of them. I think i've nicked approaches and ideas of loads of musicians and scrambled into my own noise. Looking at my playing, i'm probably more, influenced by drummers and guitarists than bass players.

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1343335603' post='1749278']
Loads of my favourites play with a pick, DD Verni, Duff etc. I can't be dealing with a pick.
[/quote]
Id say most of my favourite players are pick users too, I do use one but I'm 80% finger style.

[JTUK]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1343332272' post='1749202']
Im not really on about the people who watch the same youtube clip a 1000 times to nail every little nuance just the general what you had on your walkman (gramaphone, Discman, iPod, minidisc, 8 track etc) most of the time, I have turned out nothing like any of them, Newstead, Novoselic, Duff etc were all my heros yet Im not sure I can hear any of them in there?
[/quote]

Ok..in my formative years, I had Popwell, Marcus Miller, LJ on my deck, to name just a few...plus all the NY and LA heavyweight session guys at that time...and also a nod here and there to the likes of Jaco, Berlin or I was certainly aware of their output altho I owned very few, if any, albums with those types on them
I didn't have a favourite altho gravitated towards Anthony J later on... His work on Clouds stands out.

If you heard fast fingerstyle.... most people would go straight to Jaco or Rocco...but then you'd be mising Randy Bramwell and Jerome Rimson.
At this point, you'd also learn that you could nick a general style and as long as you didn't go after the sound as well... you'd get away with it..

[shizznit]

Charlie Mingus is one of my all time favs, but I have never been in a jazz band and I don't play double bass either. I'm just a big fan of his playing. Felix Pappalardi is another of my favs, but I never had an ambition to play like him. I like his playing because he had one of the most awesome fat bass tones ever. I never ever play with a pick, but I really like Mike Inez's playing.

I always consider myself as a music fan as well as a musician. Not everything I listen to makes me the player I am today. Sometimes you just need to unplug, sit back and enjoy music for what it is.

[Twigman]

Simon Raymonde plays bass beautifully - if there was one person who made me listen to bass differently it was him

[BigRedX]

TBH I hardly ever listen to musicians. What I listen to is the song/arrangement/production/performance. The abilities of the individual musicians don't really interest me. A good band makes use of the individual member's musical strengths and works in a way so that there are no apparent musical weaknesses.

When I was younger and more impressionable, the majority of music I listened to and was influenced by was based on synthesisers and other electronics. What interested me was not the instrumental dexterity of the players but the sounds that they produced, so the programming of the synths was the skill that I most valued. Also the sounds crossed genre more readily than the note choices, so I could plunder noises from prog-rock to electro-funk for my synth rock band and make them work for me far more easily than licks, riffs or chord sequences that had originally accompanied them.

Only two bass players have really stood out for me. Peter Hook who's influence can be heard in pretty much every post-punk band from the late 70s and early 80s. While the band I was in at the time didn't have much in common musically with Joy Division, we were similar in that the guitar took a background role in the arrangements and it was left to the bass and percussion to provide the main instrumental focus.

The other bassist I admire was Mick Karn. Again someone who ignored the traditional role of the bass player and created his own style and sonic space with his band. However I've never really been able to emulate his style. It's as much about the note choices as it is about the pops and slides, and my sense of harmony simply doesn't allow me to come up with the kinds of ideas that he did.

[Commando Jack]

I know this is about bass but I can relate to this more with drums: When I was learning I spent most of my time practising along to Tico Torres (Bon Jovi), Roger Taylor (Queen) and Steve Adler/Matt Sorum (G 'n' R), but I play more like Chad Smith of the Chillis. I just find his style easy to slot into. I never really listened to RHCP growing up though so it just seems to be coincidence, or a mixture of similar influences maybe?

[christhammer666]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1343335603' post='1749278']
Loads of my favourites play with a pick, DD Verni, Duff etc. I can't be dealing with a pick.
[/quote]
im on the flipside of this my faves were steve harris,john myung,geddy lee,alex webster ....all finger players i cant play with my fingers to save my life

[Lozz196]

Years ago, before I really started listening to them, other than on the radio/Top of The Pops, my bass playing was likened to that of Bruce Foxton, of The Jam. Was quite chuffed with that.

[Musicman20]

Who do I like but sound nothing like? Hmm, tough one. I grew up playing Nirvana first and foremost when I was about 12/13. I don't sound anything like Krist Novoselic as we have totally different bass tastes/I do like his lines though...simple but effective, and not afraid to take the lead melody in some lines. Nirvana opened up the floodgates to punk for me, and made me realise that bass WAS the right instrument as it didn't have to sit in the background.

Who do I think I sound like? Again, tough one. I definitely know I have Matt Freeman's runs in my system.My old drummer Tweeted me the other day to say something like 'just listened to the old EP we did, the crazy bass solo run is mint'. I like to take some of the limelight off the guitarists sometimes, just like Matt Freeman (although my tone isn't the same really).

An old friend, who is also a bass player, said I played basslines like the bassist from the Get Up Kids, and he seems to add nice melodic runs and not stick to root notes.

I definitely have my own sound, as we no doubt all do. Now I've got older i'm trying harder to learn more styles. Now I play 90% with fingers, and play less aggressive and more funky stuff, I've no idea who I sound like or who I am no doubt copying. I'm not good enough to be Flea but I like his style.

[BigRedX]

In the 90s I was in a band combining rock and dance elements. I always remember a "discussion" I had with our singer who was leaning towards wanting to be more dance and less rock. She pointed at my shelves of CDs and 12" singles, saying that I had some great dance music in there so why wasn't it coming out in the music I was writing. I replied saying that it was, but I wasn't really interested in being just like one section of my influences, but what I wanted to do was to create something less obvious by combining the different things that I liked and discovering how I could make them work together.