Calling all ska bassists!

[JPS]

I'm hoping to be auditioning for a ska band, or two, in the near future. Have never played ska in anger before, although know plenty of songs etc. I'd greatly appreciate any top tips from experienced ska bassists therefore, be it on playing styles and dos and don'ts, gear, types of gigs/venues that ska bands commonly play or whatever.

Great - and perhaps underrated - style of bass playing and good fun to play as well.

Cheers

JPS

[essexbasscat]

Don't know answers to your questions in detail but I agree, Ska is great fun and I'd love to be in a Ska band myself. I'll be watching this one with interest

T

[JakeBrownBass]

Are we talking classic ska like the specials, or modern ska like streetlight manifesto??

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='jake_tenfloors' post='920199' date='Aug 9 2010, 11:29 PM']Are we talking classic ska like Byron Lee, or American sh*te like Reel Big Fish??[/quote]

Fixed for you.

Edited August 9, 2010 by thisnameistaken

[Marvin]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='920201' date='Aug 9 2010, 11:38 PM']Fixed for you.[/quote]

[ThomBassmonkey]

Learn your arpeggios and if you're playing in a modern ska band (excuse the people who don't know how to seperate opinion from facts) then learn to do them quickly.

I play in a "Zydeco" (loosely, some songs are basically ska with an accordian) band and basically if you can keep arpeggios and scales moving around with the chords, then it's a lot of fun. If you're not too fast, don't worry, so long as you try and stay fairly busy it should be ok.

All bands vary though, try playing it for yourself and see what works with your band mates.

[Stingray5]

You might want to practice playing whilst running on the spot, too!

[JPS]

Ha ha. More first and second wave ska than, erm, modern/contemporary ska i.e. The Maytals/Bryon Lee through to 2-Tone.

[thisnameistaken]

Don't forget to listen to all the other Jamaican pop music sounds to broaden the range of what you can do on bass. Especially the souly feel of rocksteady and the simple and powerful bass in dub and roots reggae. A lot of it is just 1 and 5 but the feel is what makes it work.

Don't be shy of mixing it up a bit (ska is a fairly limited sound after all) but only go where you can take the drummer with you. Avoid blues licks.

[Davo-London]

Maintain lots of energy on stage. That should get you the gig.

Davo

[JPS]

So to summarise - learn to play arpeggios and scales confidently and quickly, don't over complicate things, maintain lots of energy, practise playing whilst running on the spot and don't try not to get involved in arguments about what constitutes "real" ska. Cool!

[lee4]

[quote name='JPS' post='921252' date='Aug 11 2010, 08:18 AM']So to summarise - learn to play arpeggios and scales confidently and quickly, don't over complicate things, maintain lots of energy, practise playing whilst running on the spot and don't try not to get involved in arguments about what constitutes "real" ska. Cool![/quote]
And wear a pork pie hat

[JPS]

Ah good point.