Why You Can't Hear The Bass

[cytania]

Hard to learn an instrument when you can't hear it's contribution to a recording you love. If you are a fan of soul, reggae and funk then this is less of a problem. I found it took 6 months before I got an ear for bass but even so there are reasons why some basslines are hard to work out.

1) On old acetate or early tape recordings the bass may be too weak or lost in tape degradation.
2) Some studios such as the 60s country stable in Bakersfield deliberately sacrificed bass to other instruments.
3) To accentuate bass country players used a pick in a deliberately clicky way, called playing 'tik tak'. Other times a guitar tuned an octave above (or an octave below standard guitar tuning) played alongside the bass, emphasising the percussive element.
4) In 40s jump blues type recordings the horn section in particular the bass sax may be making the groove.
5) On modern recordings the bass has been over-dubbed playing a break or solo, trying to fit this in with the strict groove line may not be humanly possible. Studio trickery...
6) The bassline is simple single root notes, often obscured if piano/orchestra/guitars are swelling above it on a ballad.
7) The bassline is slavishly following the guitars or playing more like a rhythm guitar (see Motorhead).

Think that's it...

[SteveO]

I found this to be a real bugbear when I started out, I can still remember listening for hours to one track over and over trying to work out what the hell was going on. Now I don't bother. If a bass player can't hear the bassline (with our ears attuned to picking out the low end) then the average punter definately can't hear it. In situations like this you can play what you like (keeping to the key / feel of the track obviously) and no one can say it's wrong, cos no one knows how it should be played.

[Bilbo]

Miles Davis used to say that noboby knows what it does but you sure miss it if it isn't there.

Sometimes its like astronomy; you don't see what you are looking for but evidence that it is there. The doubled guitar parts or piano parts may be higher in the mix but the bass is underpinning them and its absence would be obvious if it was not there. Sometimes you can recognise the required notes because of the piano or guitar voicings and the harmonic movement in a piece. In a nutshell, what you are experiencing is the subtlety of our shared instrument. The Victor Wooten/Marcus Miller/Jaco stuff is great; in your face, high in the mix, can't miss it kind of bass playing but most bass playing is much more sophisticated in terms of its place in the music and it takes a practised ear to locate it. But keep trying. Its a bit like those 'magic eye' pictures; once you have learned to see it you can't not!

[ahpook]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='312775' date='Oct 23 2008, 10:04 AM']Miles Davis used to say that noboby knows what it does but you sure miss it if it isn't there.[/quote]

plus the one.