How to play my bands songs better?

[ButcherBass95]

So the other day my guitarist said I need to play the songs he wrote better, thing is I've played them how he's told me to, I've thrown my own little twists in to some of the songs but he says they were his idea. any and all help is appreciated. 

Example

G:------------------------------¦
D:------------------------------¦
A:00--44--5555-7777¦
E:------------------------------¦

Basically that's one of the songs we play and that's all I play. Some parts i play single notes then on build ups I play the 7 faster with added plucks  I'm not very good at what it is I should be searching for I'm very slow and stupid when it comes to the bass but I can play the basics.

Cheers in advance.

[ahpook]

Well, in fairness 'play them better' is a pretty vague instruction !

Did he say anything more specific ? If he didn't I think it would be worth asking what his idea of 'better' means - Timing ? Note choice ? Technique ?

[Newfoundfreedom]

19 hours ago, ButcherBass95 said:

So the other day my guitarist said I need to play the songs he wrote better, 

19 hours ago, ahpook said:

Itt would be worth asking what his idea of 'better' means - Timing ? Note choice ? Technique ?

 

........ With a different guitarist. 

[Frank Blank]

13 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

........ With a different guitarist. 

This, with big ol’ Bells on.

[Jonse]

I'd probably hand him my bass and ask him to show me how he'd play it. If he came back with something like "well you're the bass player" I'd be tempted to pack up and leave, or insert my bass up his backside to the 12th fret. 

[Horizontalste]

If ask him to define better! Really pick him apart & put him on the spot by asking why he thinks what I'm doing with the line he written isn't cutting the mustard.

It would be very difficult for anyone to make recommendations on what you should try playing without first hearing what's going on harmonically with the song. But be assured, there's absolutely no reason why you can't groove the shiz out of four notes!

[FinnDave]

10 hours ago, Jonse said:

 or insert my bass up his backside to the 12th fret. 

That's really not a very sensible suggestion.

 

 

At the very least, you're going to need a new set of strings, and a thorough cleaning job.

[Stub Mandrel]

Strikes me that rather than falling out, the two of you are on the verge of starting to step up to the next level.

You need to tell him that you can add to the songs, but he needs to trust you and understand that you'll develop your style over time.

 

You don't say what style of music you are playing. If it's funk you are going to be putting in very different 'fills' to blues and if it's death metal you might want to simplify your bass lines (joke).

 

I'm not a flash bass player at all, but I love putting in little runs and decorations (just not at turbo speed).

Knowing what key you are playing in, understanding a few basic scales - pentatonic major and minor are good starting points. You can't go far wrong putting in a little run up or down to lead into a verse or chorus. Another trick is just playing an inetrmediat noe (e.g. the the third or seventh note of the next chord) ahead of the first downbeat to 'lead into' the change. Very cliche but it's popular for a reason.

[Heathy]

Have you tried recording yourselves and listening back to it. In the past I have done that, and it help identified note choices and lengths that weren't working well.

[paul_c2]

On 11/02/2019 at 14:30, ButcherBass95 said:

 

G:------------------------------¦
D:------------------------------¦
A:00--44--5555-7777¦
E:------------------------------¦

 

Ummmmm.........I don't think he actually wrote that. It looks like "when the saints go marching in". That or "The number of the beast" by Iron Maiden.

[BreadBin]

On 12/02/2019 at 20:46, FinnDave said:

That's really not a very sensible suggestion.

 

 

At the very least, you're going to need a new set of strings, and a thorough cleaning job.

Better to insert his guitar instead. You may need to go past the 12th fret to achieve the same level of penetration but it's all relative, right?

[chris_b]

I've just had this.

The band leader told me I was playing one of his originals wrong. I asked him to play it the right way and then had to tell him it wasn't anything like the mp3 he sent over! I told him I could play whatever version he wanted, so which one did he want. He insisted the mp3 was right. I sent him the mp3.

Silence since!!

To the OP,  get him to tell you exactly what is wrong and what he thinks you can do to put it right.

[paul_c2]

This is why actual proper notation (ie sheet music) is so good. It simply beats a vague description of a vague idea, or a tab (with no rhythm information, probably without articulation, dynamics etc either). Then, you're not relying on another's interpretation (of those notatable elements), you can actually write them down and have it in black and white.

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, paul_c2 said:

This is why actual proper notation (ie sheet music) is so good. It simply beats a vague description of a vague idea, or a tab (with no rhythm information, probably without articulation, dynamics etc either). Then, you're not relying on another's interpretation (of those notatable elements), you can actually write them down and have it in black and white.

Sadly, some of us can't read the dots, even after over forty years of trying (I think I have musical dyslexia). Good tab can show as much as written music if it is done well, but it isn't as elegant, only possible to sight read at low tempos, and unfortunately much tab is really badly done.

What tab does well is give fingering information. an advantage lost because most tab writers appear to have twelve fingers on their left hands.

[paul_c2]

Indeed, there's an interesting debate to be had for tab vs normal notation. And I agree, if the tab is done well, then it can show all the information needed to play it properly (including most importantly, the rhythm). Lots of tabs are low quality, but that's another issue really. Its also possible to have poor quality normal music notation and it leaves you guessing, or open to further broad interpretation.

BUT with normal music notation, you're pretty much guaranteed to be provided with a key, a time signature and the accurate rhythm of the notes to be played (and the rests too - which IMHO is just as important).

I guess I'm lucky in that I learned piano before bass (so I knew both treble and bass clefs). I didn't realise not that many bass guitarists can read.

[Geek99]

Why not tab plus ? Normal rhythm staves joined to fret positions 

[paul_c2]

Its kinda veering off-topic a bit, but a good argument for not using tab is that its effectively limited to the bass guitar (and closely related instruments, where their players could probably make a good stab at interpreting it). For example, if you presented a piece of music written in bass tab (plus), a pianist couldn't play it. Or trombone, etc etc

 

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, paul_c2 said:

 For example, if you presented a piece of music written in bass tab (plus), a pianist couldn't play it.

Sounds like a winner to me

 

[Stub Mandrel]

10 hours ago, paul_c2 said:

Its kinda veering off-topic a bit, but a good argument for not using tab is that its effectively limited to the bass guitar (and closely related instruments, where their players could probably make a good stab at interpreting it). For example, if you presented a piece of music written in bass tab (plus), a pianist couldn't play it. Or trombone, etc etc

 

Surely classical notation is piano tab 🙂

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Surely classical notation is piano tab 🙂

No, because tab is an incomplete and limited system that, so far, only seems to relate to a limited set of stringed instruments.

How does tab on a piano or trumpet work? They don't write novels in short-hand because there is a much better way of expressing yourself, words.

Notation has developed over that last 1000 years to be be a comprehensive system of writing any musical idea for any instrument. It's complicated and tough to learn, but that's what lessons are for. That you and most of us have got this far without notation and tab is probably an indication that neither is really a requirement for a Rock n Roll bass player.

[Stub Mandrel]

44 minutes ago, chris_b said:

No, because tab is an incomplete and limited system that, so far, only seems to relate to a limited set of stringed instruments. 

 

Missed smiley alert!

Just a jest because the staves could be argued to be one line per string on a piano 🙂

[paul_c2]

I kinda got what you mean. I guess the true origin, or descendant, of what we call the modern musical notation stave is singing - where they would have used one vertical position per note of the scale. And the predominant scale, eventually evolved to be the 7 note major scale as we know it - which of course relates to C major on a piano, so they match up nicely. I'd say its more of a happy coincidence than a deliberate thing though.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Of course tab does have a history as long as classical notation:

[chris_b]

1 minute ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Of course tab does have a history as long as classical notation:

It has, although it was seen as limiting and dropped in favour of notation about 1000 years ago.

[Hobbayne]

I always use tab. I have no interest in learning to read music. Although I,m quite aware that a lot of it is wrong, I just need the basics.

 

Oops Wrong thread, this should have gone in the other thread. 🙁

Edited April 23, 2019 by Hobbayne