Getting better tips please

[SamIAm]

I'd say I'm a 2 (or maybe 3) out of 10 bass player.

 

I can groove a root + third bassline (With a octave thrown in for good measure) to most anything I can see the chordsheet to.

 

But I'd like to step up my game and knock socks off lol

 

I would love your advice!

 

Sam x

[nekomatic]

What style(s) of music? Have you got an example chord sheet you can post?

[SamIAm]

40 minutes ago, nekomatic said:

What style(s) of music? Have you got an example chord sheet you can post?

A wide range of cover stuff for jam evenings (I've recently been invited along to a weekly ukulele jam evening as the 'resident' bass player).  On the night folks just pick from a selection of the many dozens of songs in the various books they've produced.

I've just like to throw in some more variety than root/third and looking for some tips to add a bit more colour.

 

For example ...

 

 

Sam x

[Paul S]

As a person who believes scales are a piece of kitchen equipment, all I have ever done is copy and paste bass lines for songs I am learning.  Whenever I have learnt a new song, I try to learn the bass line as it was recorded - if I can - the main bits and all the fills.  Eventually all those fills and runs have kind of stuck so, if the occasion demands it, I can paste together what I know in new and appropriate ways.  But, really, knowing how the original goes and copying it can't be criticised.

[nige1968]

Root notes are going to be your bread’n’spread for jam nights (hey, get me with the mixed metaphor), but you can probably help flag the changes to keep folk together. So little chromatic runs up/down and ending phrases on the fourth or fifth of the next root (whichever sounds righter).

 

To go beyond, and apologies if this is stuff you’ve been doing since childhood: learn to harmonise the major scale, and maybe the modes too. Both much easier than they sound and can help you find new places to go.

[nekomatic]

As @nige1968 says, with that sort of material in that sort of context you can probably go a long way on roots and thirds (and fifths, surely) most of the time, so learning to add in a few passing notes and fills - keeping aware of what the chord notes are - sounds like a good next step. 

 

I'm a big fan of looking at the bass part for a tune I like - either finding a transcription or even better transcribing it from the recording myself, which is a great exercise - and identifying patterns or devices that give the tune its feel, then making those into exercises to practice. Try that with the original bass parts of Lola and I Saw Her Standing There for example, there's a few in there. What chord notes are they using, how do they join one chord to the next, and so on?

 

2002 I can't help you with, I'm not sure you even need the thirds for that one 😁

[Baloney Balderdash]

Well, you might find it easier to hum an interesting bassline, then copy that on bass, than coming up with it on the bass directly. 

 

In any case I think starting to think more melodically, and coherently as one single song, rather than individual blocks of chords stacked together, would be the key here.

 

 

Edited February 11 by Baloney Balderdash

[SamIAm]

I’m trying to look at the next chord in the song and ‘walk’ to it, even if just one beat of the semitone above or below.

 

Sam x

[Rodders]

One thing I would add that I don't think has been mentioned yet, is perhaps look more closely at rhythm and how you can vary note length and add articulation to add interest to the bassline rather than adding more or different notes.

This isn't necessarily appropriate for cover songs but I sometimes think a long the lines of, I'll only use 2 strings, stay in one area of the neck or create the feel of a walking bassline. It's sort of a challenge but can sometimes help with diffent ideas for fills or overall sound.

 

May or may not work for you, just offering a different spin on it.

[SamIAm]

OMG!

This is probably not a revelation to anyone but it was for me.

A Fifth can be played one string higher and two frets up .... but a -fifth can be played one string lower on the same fret (With a 5er this is very flexible) ... PERFECT for 'A Man of Constant Sorrow' which we are playing at our jam; and it sounds really really nice!

Sam x

Edited January 27 by SamIAm

[TheLowDown]

Simplicity is best I think. Rather than adding more notes, add a ghost note or replace a note with a ghost note of 2 as well as experimenting with different rhythms and note lengths with a drum pattern. A good exercise is to put on a  metronome or simple drum pattern and try to be creative with just one note.

[Geek99]

@SamIAm the best reference I found for this was in “Bass guitar for dummies” by Patrick pfeiffer in which he goes through the scale for various chords and identifies which notes are good in strong beats and which make great passing notes on weaker ones 

 

it was the first explanation I ever read which made me think “ah!”. If you’re not 100% a music natural like I am not, a simple explanation is worth gold, frankincense and myrrh. Though maybe not so much myrrh next time … as Brian’s mum said 

Edited January 29 by Geek99

[jrixn1]

@SamIAm

Good replies above about what notes to play (fills/runs etc).  Also important is having solid timing and note placement.  One thing that helps is to record yourself (either live with your group or at home with a backing track) and then listen back with a critical ear.  For example with myself, I notice I'm not always as firmly right on the beat as I think I am, and I need to consider my note durations (note was brought off when I should have held it for a bit longer, or vice versa).

[cdog]

I'd agree with all of the above : your role in the jam session is to drive the rhythm and to help the other musicians to anticipate what's coming ( which is what a good drummer does too eg any song by the pixies). So I'd be really focussing on roots and 5ths, and leading up and down to changes with runs where appropriate. Keeping it simple and in time will be much better for the group than trying to put loads of notes in. At home I'd play along to jam tracks on YouTube where you can experiment with your runs and make your mistakes. 

[itu]

Sorry, @SamIAm, I am late just like @cdog. Have posted this elsewhere, too. These chords are played with three strings only (it's easy to move or expand these across the fretboard). Play and listen to the chord voices. May help you to find some interesting sounds and possibilities. Sorry for funny coding of the four first triads: v = diminished, m = minor, d = major, y = augmented; I did this with a matrix printer maybe +30 years ago. Cross on a dot means the root note. To compare these, start the pattern from the same root note, like E (played from the seventh fret of the string A). You need to move your hand every now and then to keep the one-finger-per-fret idea through the chords.

 

Concentrate first to the minor and major triads, then study 6, m7, 7, mMaj7, and Maj7. The rest is jazz. Where's my coat?

 

 

One easy approach in playing is not to go to the next note from the direction you are coming from: say from A string third fret C to D string third fret F via D string first fret Eb. Then play that same C and approach the F from D string's 5th fret G.

In other words starting from the beginning of the Smoke on the water:

C - Eb - F or C - Eb - E - F (or C - Eb - Gb - F, or the now funny sounding major version C - E - F, and C - E - G - F, and so on)

How about this, then:

C - G - F or C - G - Gb - F (and C - Gb - Eb - F, or C - Gb - E - F etc.)

You end up to the same place but they all sound very different. If you use four notes instead of three, you need to rethink the phrasing, the rhythm.

[paul_5]

sing while you play - that way you internalise what each note sounds like even before you play it. Chord theory helps massively too, so work on dominant 7, major 7 and minor 7th chord arpeggios - they'll give you the root, third, fifth and seventh (if you choose to use it) of ANY chord in 95% of western popular music.

[tauzero]

Certain types of bassline go with certain types of music. Country, for example, is very much root-5th dominated (and is handy for other music forms where you haven't quite worked out what to do but want to add a little variation).

 

"Saw her standing there" uses a variant on a walking bass line, which generally takes the form root-3rd-5th and then either 3rd-root or 6th-flat 7th and back down. Someone has written a treatise on the walking bassline with all the rules about what you can and can't do, and it gets quite mind-boggling, so I just stick with the simple variants. Anyway, that will serve for most blues songs. Note: Folsom Prison Blues is a country song, I've heard it played with the bassist (who is a guitarist who owns a bass) doing a walking bass line and it sounds utterly shit.

 

The basic pentatonic square is a useful device - root, 4th, 5th, flat 7th, octave. Dropping the 9th in after the octave as a passing note can be effective too.

 

Transition from major to relative minor (eg C to Am) - drop in the 7th as a passing note, so C B A in that case.

 

The more strings you have, the more chances you have to look flash by playing the same thing in different places on the fretboard. Sliding up an octave and then doing a fill on the pentatonic square is guaranteed to impress (as long as you hit the octave).