Playing different music to what you normally would

[Muzz]

Funnily enough, I played a 40th last week, and before we started the second set the DJ was playing some banging dance choon*, which went on and on and on, so the three of us (we're a trio) started to play along (it was two chords, basically) while we were waiting for the thing to end. He clocked us, and dropped the song out while we carried it, then brought it back in again, then out while we picked it up etc, for a couple of minutes. Great fun...

Any time the singist/BL suggests something new, I love the challenge.

 

* I'm 55, gimme a break here...

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Muzz said:

the DJ was playing some banging dance choon*

"What's this? It's got a good beat!"

[TimR]

@Reggaebass Elvis Costello is an amazingly versatile artist. 
 

His keyboard broke one tour and they searched the small ads of Loot to find a keyboard the same as an emergency replacement. My dad just happened to be selling his. Their roadie (or whatever) turned up at our house with a handful of £5 notes from the box office takings. 😂

[Reggaebass]

1 minute ago, TimR said:

@Reggaebass Elvis Costello is an amazingly versatile artist. 
 

His keyboard broke one tour and they searched the small ads of Loot to find a keyboard the same as an emergency replacement. My dad just happened to be selling his. Their roadie (or whatever) turned up at our house with a handful of £5 notes from the box office takings. 😂

Great story Tim , that’s quite a claim to fame 👍

[chris_b]

2 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Great story Tim , that’s quite a claim to fame 👍

I used to drive past his house in Chiswick. I'm sure I saw him waving at me from behind the curtains.

[TimR]

3 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

Great story Tim , that’s quite a claim to fame 👍

Steve Nieve is their keyboard player. It wasn’t him, in fact I just remembered the guy didn’t even try it out and said he couldn’t play. Was just sent to pick it up. 
 

Seems he still has a spare that he uses for parts. 

Edited December 12, 2019 by TimR

[blisters on my fingers]

7 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

I happened to hear this a while ago,  I remembered  it was out when I was 14 in about 1978 ,and I liked it then,   I’ve never played it before, so I’m looking forward to nailing this one , listening to it, it seems fairly straightforward, it’s such a great tune and a nice heavy Bassline which I like .   Are any of his others anything like this 🙂

 

Hope this helps !! an all that 💕

[Reggaebass]

7 hours ago, blisters on my fingers said:

Hope this helps !! an all that 💕

I was going to transcribe it by ear , but that makes things easier, thanks very much for that 👍👍

[Monkey Steve]

16 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

I happened to hear this a while ago,  I remembered  it was out when I was 14 in about 1978 ,and I liked it then,   I’ve never played it before, so I’m looking forward to nailing this one , listening to it, it seems fairly straightforward, it’s such a great tune and a nice heavy Bassline which I like .   Are any of his others anything like this 🙂

 

I find his stuff quite mixed - used to do a cover of (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea in an old band - me playing guitar, but it's a great bass line - and we also gave Watching The Detectives and Alison a go (but they never made it past a couple of rehearsals) but I can't say I like very much of his stuff beyond the early singles.  YMMV

[mangotango]

I started out as a teenager playing rock music because that was the music to which my mates, with whom I was in a band, listened. Eventually however, I realised how much I enjoyed improvised music and began to listen to Miles Davis and Weather Report. The result was that I ended up in a jazz-rock band before going to University where I was in a punk/reggae band -hey, it was 1977. Post Uni, I was back to playing jazz right up to the point where I stopped playing bass for 35 years or so. Instead I moved over to guitar and played in an original rock/pop band with funk and reggae elements. However, once that broke up, I ended up playing blues/roots music for a decade or so, then drifted into a covers band for a lack of anything else going on. 

Once I was approaching 50, I decided that it was time to get back to the jazz that I had loved when younger; all of my musical involvement since then has been playing that sort of thing pretty much exclusively.

When I came back to bass, it was to play funky jazz, but to get myself back into playing bass and up-to-date with how things had changed since last I was a bass player, I started learning online, specifically SBL Academy videos.  As a result, I've learned a whole bunch of techniques from different musical styles - slapped funk, gospel, straight-ahead walking jazz bass, latin….

And I still haven't used the word "eclectic" yet...oh wait, there it is.  The more stuff that you play, the better, more informed your playing will be, IMHO.

Only two or three styles have never appealed; I don't much like metal of any type, I hate country with an unbridled passion (although that Poco tune  "Rose Of Cimarron", posted in an earlier post, was never any hardship to listen to - it's just a good song) and even though I consider myself a jazzbo, I can't bear theBritish version of Dixieland Jazz - especially the bit where the clarinet goes "oooooweebeedeebeedeee" as it always does; or when the drummer gets to a break and everyone shouts "ooyah! ooyah!!" I'm sorry, I've been to New Orleans and heard traditional jazz in its natural environment; and groups of old white English blokes calling themselves "Syd Aspinall's Creole Steppers" or the like...is just bullsh!t, basically.

[Reggaebass]

2 hours ago, mangotango said:

The more stuff that you play, the better, more informed your playing will be, IMHO.

Thanks mangotango,    This is what I’m thinking, because I’ve only ever played reggae for 35+ years , and I’m really enjoying playing different genres, if it’s got a good Bassline that I like, I’ll have a go.    I’m liking quite a lot of pink Floyd bass too ,that Roger Waters is a bit good 🙂

[Lozz196]

As I’m going soon to be out of a band for the first time in years I’m going to look at other styles and genres. 

[TimR]

6 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

As I’m going soon to be out of a band for the first time in years I’m going to look at other styles and genres. 

It’ll be refreshing. Hard work, listen lots, but worth it. 

[Woodinblack]

I find it refreshing. I personally would love to do prog, but never had a chance on that one, so I have played rock and general pop with Ska and a bit of funk most of the time, in my youth I did folk and stuff that was a bit dangerously close to jazz.

But I was asked to join a motown / soul sort of group and thought I would as it was something I knew nothing about. It is my second group so not that busy, but it has been hugely entertaining playing along to things I have never really listened to (even though I have been aware of it), and there is a lot in there I would have never noticed before.

[Uberkate]

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 🙂

Currently learning some p. gnarly mathy rock stuff for a big Euro tour I'm depping for next year (come from more of an indie/pop background) - need my calculator for some of these time sigs! It's improving my playing though, for sure.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Uberkate

[Reggaebass]

4 minutes ago, Uberkate said:

Currently learning some p. gnarly mathy rock stuff

Thanks Uberkate, I can’t say I’ve ever tried anything like this, it sounds interesting, would you have a recommendation 🙂

[Uberkate]

1 minute ago, Reggaebass said:

Thanks Uberkate, I can’t say I’ve ever tried anything like this, it sounds interesting, would you have a recommendation 🙂

Maybe something like Refused (more on the post-rock end but hella riffs).

Propagandhi for speed.

Battles.

[BassTractor]

On 30/06/2019 at 12:28, Reggaebass said:

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

All the time, long ago. That's how I broadened my scope - - from an exclusively classical one to one also comprising of jazz and eventually rock.
Two major lacks of success though: blues and latin.

Blues night was me depping, having never played it before, and not having had one second of rehearsal. BL told me afterwards: "You classical guys stink big time when playing the blues". I don't doubt he was completely right. 

Latin was depping again (as always) in a big band, and suddenly BL decides we'll do some latin tracks - sight reading.
Happily for me, not only the classical boy was slightly taken aback this time. IME latin is very hard to do without preparation if you're new to it, and evil tongues told me it remains difficult even when you're experienced. I guess they're right.

Edited December 13, 2019 by BassTractor

[mangotango]

3 hours ago, BassTractor said:

Latin was depping again (as always) in a big band, and suddenly BL decides we'll do some latin tracks - sight reading.
Happily for me, not only the classical boy was slightly taken aback this time. IME latin is very hard to do without preparation if you're new to it, and evil tongues told me it remains difficult even when you're experienced. I guess they're right.

I had that at a rehearsal band a little while back - Latin tune with a tumbao bassline.  Keyboards got it, drummer didn't.  Me caught (both physically and musically) between the two, had to call a halt.  Needless to say, neither was happy with the other; and all of a sudden I'm the UN Peacekeeping Force, trying to establish a Buffer Zone in the Rhythm Section...…..

[Reggaebass]

i started playing this last night and in this video he uses open strings, I tried this and I preferred fretting the notes, do any of you peeps play this, and what do you do, cheers 🙂

[Woodinblack]

I don't play that (I used to do pump it up by elvis costello, which is a good bass line), but if I did it I wouldn't tend to use the open strings. No idea why, I just don't do it much, so I tend to be more round the 5th-8th rather than 0-3rd.

[Reggaebass]

3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I don't play that (I used to do pump it up by elvis costello, which is a good bass line), but if I did it I wouldn't tend to use the open strings. No idea why, I just don't do it much, so I tend to be more round the 5th-8th rather than 0-3rd.

Yeah that’s what I prefer too , and it sounded better, I’ll take a look at Pump it up, thanks woodinblack 👍

[ambient]

I’ve not necessarily enjoyed it playing different stuff, but it’s certainly brilliant practice.

Edited December 20, 2019 by ambient

[chris_b]

8 hours ago, ambient said:

I’ve not necessarily enjoyed it playing different stuff, but it’s certainly brilliant practice.

+1

I'm doing some gigs with a Chicago Blues Band. I haven't played this style since I was at school. It's pretty much, find a line that fits and repeat ad infinitum. While there are limited opportunities for being creative, it's quite a discipline to get it right and just make one line work for the whole song. Makes you concentrate more on how you play rather than what you play. You can improve your abilities in any situation, even playing things you thought you already knew.

[MacDaddy]

I'm not sure what music I would normally play. My band does covers from the 50's to now, so most styles are covered. In the past I've played other styles. I don't think I have a 'normal'.