What Have You Picked Up From The Pros?

[Pete Academy]

I'm not talking about STDs.

I'm talking about parts of a certain player's style that you have incorporated into your own playing over the years. For me it's mainly Verdine White's use of linking changes via short chromatic runs, as on ' That's The Way Of The World'. Others are: Bernard Edwards' use of ghost notes; Cameo bassist's slap style (much more simplistic than say Mark King's ); Mark Adams of Slave and his use of short note slides.

Anyone else have their own examples?

[Gareth Hughes]

Gene Simmons's slides as a shameless way to get around the fact you're not sure what note you're going to. That slide covers up a multitude of sins!!!

[risingson]

How to play with a pick, I count Macca, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn and Anthony Jackson responsible for really opening my mind!

Pino opened my mind to playing out of A through to C or even D on the E string higher up the neck, to make for nice access to more melodic passages on the D and G string without drastically shifting position.

Jamerson taught me how to nice it is to play out of F using open strings as stepping stones to get to places, Chuck Rainey did this too and took it even further really, using open notes outside of the key and relying on the listener to have a forgiving ear.

[steve-bbb]

i used to be guilty of this in my mispent youth - first it used to be emulating the crunch of chris squire and geddy lee - then later when i got into jazz and fusion stuff it was the tone and licks of victor bailey in his weather report days

then i stopped playing bass for about 15 years and only took it up again last year and i dropped all those previous lazy habits

now i just play straight down the line - if there is any style developing these days i havent a clue who it sounds like

codger stylee perhaps

[Marvin]

Not the faintest idea as my playing sounds nothing like the music I listen to.

[BigRedX]

Everything and nothing.

I'm sure that pretty much all the things I do on whatever instrument I am currently playing come from subconsciously using every bit of music I've ever heard. However it's all long, long since I deliberately incorporated what I'd heard another musician do into what I am playing.

At one time my biggest source of inspiration came from my inability to be able to play what I'd heard, but discovering something completely different in the process.

These days I just play what I hear in my head.

[Spike Vincent]

Smacking people over the head with a Fender Precision,got that one from Sid Vicious.

[uncle psychosis]

I quite often attempt little fills which (to me at least) I've totally ripped off from Mike Mills.

[Prime_BASS]

I don't have too many influences to call from, I played bass on my own in my room with only what I learned from guitar to fall back on for about a year.

however I believe I've taken Takeshi Ueda's constant fills and runs at the end of chord structures, Tim Commerford's fingerstyle, along with Doug Johns' attack.

Also I learned to not really give a crap too much about what I'm doing, as long as I enjoy it.

[ezbass]

Tritone substitutions from Roscoe Beck. Fretless fingering beyond 12th position from Gary Willis.

[dmccombe7]

My early pick days from Dave Hope (Kansas)
Then it was Geddy Lee hammer ons.
Later my fingerstyle was more Jack Bruce trying to emulate his right hand 3-5 finger picking.
Then it was onto Berlin, pastorious and few others.
Finally Anthony Jackson, Alain Caron for their 6 string playing.

I still pick up various bits and pieces from people like Glenn Hughes, Roger Glover who still have a great technique altho maybe not as technically fast as Caron and Jackson but still extremely accomplished bassists.

I guess I'm just learning all the time no matter what the style.

Dave

[Roger2611]

For me the lead bassline styles of Bruce Foxton and Peter Hook have been the biggest influences on the bass parts I wrote especially in my early days but having been playing rythym guitar for the last 5 years that is probably the biggest influence on the bass at the moment as in picturing an interesting rythym guitar part and creating it on bass

[Szorn]

Never really took much note of it but people have mentioned I remind them of Geezer Butler, I suppose being a finger style player it's something I took on board in my rock playing as I found I really dug in with my right hand when playing. Reggae wise I'd most definitely say Aston "Family Man" Barrett's melodic yet heavy bass lines really float my boat.

Also, I think Flea's statement regarding "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" with the bass playing just what the song needs and nothing more really stuck a chord with me. (in regards to everything, not just bass.)

[Doddy]

I learned some chordal stuff and soloing ideas,amongst other things,from Janek Gwizdala and some
right hand technique and technical ideas (and different soloing ideas) from Bryan Beller.

Literally

[Dave Vader]

I learned everything I know about bass from Craig Logan (google him kids )

[Leen2112]

I'd like to say I've taken a load from the likes of Geddy Lee etc but my playing doesnt have much to do with them. However, I saw, years ago a guy called Fred T Baker at a folk gig playing bass through a whole raft of effects and hitting 3 or 4 harmonics at a time and having them ring out, he would fade them in and out with the volume and It was the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard! I now have a pile of effects and now and again throw in some tasty harmonics. Also sometimes....very rarely I do a bit of tapping.....thanks to one hell of a bass solo by Stu Hamm on a Satriani tour where he played the theme to star trek! Awesome.

[Leen2112]

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1358715267' post='1944014']
I learned everything I know about bass from Craig Logan (google him kids )
[/quote]

he was from my neck of the woods too!

No google needed!

[Lozz196]

To play what sounds good, irrespective of it being wrong technique, or wrong technology.

And to play for the song, and not myself.

Edited January 20, 2013 by Lozz196

[nottswarwick]

The inspiration to pick the bass up. Bernard Edwards.

And then I realised that I sing bass lines all the time, but it was his lines that started me.

[discreet]

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1358705288' post='1943706']
How to play with a pick, I count Macca, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn and Anthony Jackson responsible for really opening my mind![/quote]

Me too! But not Anthony Jackson. Also Holger Czukay and Rosko Gee - both wildly underrated - for their pure inventiveness.
I'd also like to thank my parents, my octopus wrangler, my personal trainer, God, and anyone else who knows me. Ha, ha!

[Kobra11]

The Steve Harris two-finger gallop. well...... I'm still trying to pick it up

[deepbass5]

Just keeps being amazed when learning other people’s lines, we are all wired differently and so other guys approach chords differently to what I might. So I am pleased to have to learn numbers I would not choose to learn and continue to get light bulb moments from old has-beens recording stars who deserve more credit.

[HMX]

As previously mentioned, Bernard Edwards (thereafter John Taylor) for use of ghost notes. Mic Todd (ex-Coheed) for note timing and placement.

[uncle psychosis]

One other thing that I've learned is that the gear you use isn't all that important. I've seen enough pros just using "any old gear" now to realise that so long as your gear is setup well and in tune talent and hard work are more important than the name on the headstock or amp.

[oldslapper]

A nasty rash.