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Playing different music to what you normally would


Reggaebass

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I was asked to play at a private reggae garden party yesterday for a few hours, so I went down my summerhouse before to practice and , Baby Jane by rod Stewart came on the radio and I started to play along, I had the basic Bassline down in about 15 minutes and absolutely loved it.   So have you ever found yourself playing something you wouldn’t normally play and enjoyed it 🙂

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I dep with bands so I regularly get to play different styles of music. From blues rock to soul, blues funk, the old style R&B, pop covers from all eras, reggae, americana and ragtime. I love the variety and playing with good drummers in these styles improves my playing on every gig.

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Yeah I always find myself noodling around to unsuspecting songs in different genres.  I play in a function band too that forces me to dip into a wide selection of genres. For me, i feel it can only improve you as a musician and also surprise you into new and enjoyable musical experiences.

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A friend of mine plays in a Swing type band and I went along once to have a listen. Not really my bag, but their bass player asked me if I wanted to play a couple of of numbers.

I did this song called 'L O V E' which is basically a II V I in A.

I quite enjoyed playing a walking bassline, although I did overplay at times.

I have a recording of it somewhere.

 

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On 30/06/2019 at 10:28, Reggaebass said:

So have you ever found yourself playing something you wouldn’t normally play and enjoyed it

Recently I've been going to a couple of open mic nights - one at my local bar that's just gettting up and running & one at a nearby pub that's well-established.

The established one is run by a group of Windrush generation musicians who play all sorts of reggae influenced music. I've heard loads of songs I'd have never come across & leant the bass parts so I can play at the night.

The open mic at my local is a bit chaotic at the moment, with people with all different tastes in music wanting to play. As a result, I've told them I'll learn anything as long as they tell me in advance, and it's working quite well so far & I'm listening to & learning all sorts of music.

The only problem is in response to the question:

Me: "So, you do play it in the key that is was recorded, don't you?"

Them (various): "Oh yes! Of course!"

Song starts...

Me: "What jeffin' key are you playing it in!?!" O.o

Them: "Erm...I'm not really sure." 

Or...

Them: "Oh, it's in Am"

Me: "Fine, but you're not playing it in Am."

Them: "Oh, is this not Am?"

Me: "No - that's Em"

Them: "Well, I just put the capo on here for a change..."

Me: *sighs* "Ok then."

:D

 

 

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25 minutes ago, Teebs said:

The established one is run by a group of Windrush generation musicians who play all sorts of reggae influenced music. 

That sounds like my kind of place 👍.   Where is it .

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I once had a memorable jam with the guitarist from a proper, signed thrash metal band!

I was even in a band that played the sort of music I probably wouldn't listen to much (a bit like the Housemartins/Beautiful South, although the basslines were very Jam-influenced) and I always enjoyed it because they were all very good and professional even though we were only a 'pub' band.

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13 minutes ago, mingsta said:

Yup. Always good to play different styles. I did a stint in a metal band a few months back and it was great as you need to be tight tight tight and I levelled up with my pick playing coming out if it. 

A friend of mine is a bass player in  a heavy metal band , and has said I can step  in and play a few tunes if I want, I might try it just for the experience 🙂

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I did a year teaching music in prisons. Best fun I had was learning reggae from a couple of Jamaican “import/export professionals”. I was supposed to be the educator, not a chance, these guys showed me how to jam every week.

Ive played most styles I think, but never played “metal” to my knowledge. Maybe I should try sometime but I think it’ll be too loud for my liking. 

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12 hours ago, oldslapper said:

I did a year teaching music in prisons. Best fun I had was learning reggae from a couple of Jamaican “import/export professionals”. I was supposed to be the educator, not a chance, these guys showed me how to jam every week.

Ive played most styles I think, but never played “metal” to my knowledge. Maybe I should try sometime but I think it’ll be too loud for my liking. 

My son was into slipknot for a while, and it was definitely louder than my reggae 😄

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5 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

My son was into slipknot for a while, and it was definitely louder than my reggae 😄

Mine was too! I took him to see them at the CIA (in Cardiff), about 15 years ago.

The drummer (and his kit) went upside-down, while I blagged my way on to the balcony, along with the wheelchair dudes and dudettes! 😃

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4 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said:

Mine was too! I took him to see them at the CIA (in Cardiff), about 15 years ago.

The drummer (and his kit) went upside-down, while I blagged my way on to the balcony, along with the wheelchair dudes and dudettes! 😃

From what I saw of them , I wouldn’t want to bump into them at Halloween 😄

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I've always played in bands that are somewhere within the very large venn diagram of musical styles that I will listen to, but I'd say that few of them have been the sort of music that would feature on my Desert Island Discs list.  All sorts of rock/punk/metal, which I do like, but even when doing originals in bands that I've formed, I can only think of two that were exactly to my favourite tastes.

The last lot I played with were a very technical death metal band, not a genre I have played before, and I joked that there might not be very many transferable skills to help with my UEB playing, and got a semi-serious lecture from the drummer about how you should be able to learn from playing all different types of music, and be able to apply different techniques even if it doesn't seem like an obvious fit at the outset. He had a very good point.

Then last week someone asked me if i wanted to join his reggae band...

I politely declined.  Not because I hate reggae (although it would be on the very outer reaches of my venn diagram...I have a few Bob Marley albums and UB40's first LP, and i only really like one track from that) but because white men playing reggae badly is one of the worst musical crimes on the planet

In fairness, he only asked me because he wants to form a reggae band and doesn't know any other musicians

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I'm mostly into various styles of rock and metal, but enjoy many styles of music. Hiphop and rap are well outside my comfort zone though. And yet, a producer friend once asked me to play bass on an album by a rapper friend of his... And actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Lots of rock and metal influences, that must have helped of course 😅

In the end the rapper decided not to release the album though 😣

Looks like some tracks are still on MySpace: https://resurrect.myspace.com/micgeeband/music/songs 

Edited by LeftyJ
Wrong MySpace
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On 30/06/2019 at 11:28, Reggaebass said:

I was asked to play at a private reggae garden party yesterday for a few hours, so I went down my summerhouse before to practice and , Baby Jane by rod Stewart came on the radio and I started to play along, I had the basic Bassline down in about 15 minutes and absolutely loved it.   So have you ever found yourself playing something you wouldn’t normally play and enjoyed it 🙂

I read pirate reggae garden party... now that's an interesting cross over🤣

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  • 3 months later...

Just in case anyone doesn't know who the singing bass player in Poco was , he was the man who , when Carvin wanted to make a signature bass for him , he asked that it should only have the one control knob , a volume control .

 

And , back on topic , give Santana;s Flor De Luna track a listen , particularly the coda (3:47) where the bass does that typically Latin thing of pushing the track along by anticipating the one of the bar by playing on the four and the four and of the previous bar . So simple , but it rolls along .

 

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