Bass Nation

Steely Dan are considered a guilty pleasure by many. People either really love them, or totally hate them, finding them cheesy and overproduced. Count me into that first camp, with no guilt in my pleasure. I’m an unapologetic fan. Their musicianship is top notch. The songs are catchy as hell. The lyrics are interesting. And sure, there’s a great deal that goes into the production and ridiculous amounts of studio musicians playing on it, but the producers are also the main songwriters so it’s exactly how they want it to sound. Don’t hate them for being perfectionists!

Peg is a fun song, most notable for having Michael McDonald’s amazing backup vocal harmonies. But the bass line is pretty sick and super fast with a bit of slapping and popping. Here’s the tab . Below is a YouTube without any distracting video so you can play along. Here’s video of somebody playing along on bass and here’s a clip about the making of this song which is great stuff for all the real hardcore music geek types.

Here’s a a real quick song. The Minutemen got their name for their song lengths usually coming in around a minute and a half. But they pack a whalloping amount of musicianship in such a small package. While their speed, aggression and lyrical themes put them in the early 80’s hardcore punk scene, their music has more in common with jazz and funk than punk rock.

This little song has you going all over the neck very quickly in a funky groove. Rhythm is everything here. Sometimes you’re playing on the beat, but you’re also playing around it a lot which is what gives it the funk groove.

The tab is here , and a youtube clip without any video distraction is below. If you want to see somebody trying to play it, that’s here , and some really roughold beaten up footage of the Minutemen playing it is here.

Here’s a real fun song to play. It’s got three finger galloping and synthesized tapping. And it’s just a great song. I remember when I first heard Muse that they sounded like a bit of a Radiohead ripoff, but when I heard the whole Black Holes and Revelations album it rocked my world. It’s proggy and poppy at the same time and there’s some really great musicianship. They rely a great deal on synthesized bass tones. I’d really like to pick up a bass synth at some point. There’s one in particular called the Moogerflooger which is basically an analog Moog synthesizer without the keyboard. I ran my bass through an old friend’s Moog and it sounded ridiculous. Of course, those things are not cheap and I have other gear needs ahead of that. But anyway, back to Knights of Cydonia…

Here’s the tab. I usually like to provide a YouTube link that doesn’t have any video so you’re not distracted when you try to play along, but the sheer awesomeness of this video made me feel the need to include it.

During the couple years I took between college and getting a real job, I was one of those 90’s slacker guys. I stumbled through my early 20’s watching TV, writing zines, smoking pot and not getting laid. And I also had a band. Inspired by the writing of the late great Robert Anton Wilson, we were called Fnord and we played eerie, dark, sludgy music and put on a scary live show involving dangling kielbasa sausages and flaming brass instruments. I played a lot of really crazy tapping, slides and chords and had a lot to do with our dark direction. We mostly played at people’s houses, though we had a few really great sets at the local youth center, a punk coffeehouse and a few other makeshift venues. Then I moved to DC and our drummer moved to New Orleans and we were no more. Later, our drummer and guitarist both wound up in Las Vegas and they play some blistering death metal. Here are two MP3’s from back in the day, and the video is a reunion of sorts when our old guitarist was out visiting last spring and we played one of the old tunes acoustically.

Flaming Sam Büca

The Song that Dare Not Speak its Name

Here’s a little something to get you going on a Monday. It’s Master of Puppets like you probably have never heard it before. Metallica’s original defined thrash metal back in the 80’s, but in this clip from Woodstock 94 (I think), we’ve got Primus teasing the intro. And since it’s Primus, it’s all about the crazy bass. Back when Metallica were trying out new bassists after Cliff Burton’s untimely death, Les Claypool tried out and was rejected because he was too good and the rest of the guys didn’t want to be outshined by their bassist. So instead they got Jason Newstead who they put way down in the mix and never let him have any creative input or side projects. So anyway, here’s about a minute of Les just tearing this song up.

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So yesterday I got home, did all the usual after work routine of trying to keep my daughter from completely tearing up the place while I clean the kitchen, take out the garbage, run to the store and make dinner. Somehow I also managed to drag my beat up old Peavy TKO 60 amp out of our storage shed and make sure I had all the gear I would need to jam… my fender, 2 cables, my Boss Bass EQ pedal, my tuner, and the little speaker cable that connects my amp to the speaker (not a standard feature on a combo amp, but the guy who had it before me had bought another amp and was using this one as an extra speaker, so it was modified). After dinner was served and the little monkey was put to bed I loaded up and drove down to the rehearsal space to try out. I was both elated and nervous. As I said in my last post, I haven’t tried out for a band in a while and the last time was a total bust.

So I got down to the rehearsal spot and was blown away. It’s a huge warehouse with tons of locked practice rooms with 24 hour access. One of the guitarists was there with a sweet black strat with a modified bridge and really nice active pickups. He had  a Line 6 effects processor running into a laptop which was running Cubase and also controlling the effects, and that was running into a small PA. I plugged in my amp for the first time in probably 4 years and didn’t know if it was even going to work. There are some loose connections in there and sometimes you need to fiddle around with the knobs just to get some sound out of it. The first sound that came out was a loud screech, but eventually I started hearing my bass come through and after some fiddling around with the knobs and my EQ pedal I got a tone I was happy with, deep and low with ridiculous sustain and a little bit of mud. I’m amazed that this amp works at all. About fifteen years ago my old guitarist put his case through the speaker cone and a friend of mine repaired it with epoxy and then coated the rest of the cone with jesso to even it out and miraculously it worked. It’s not the cleanest sound, but it’s works for the kind of stuff I play.

So we started to jam. He ran me through some chord changes and I tried my best to make up the kind of fast and intricate lines I thought he would want to hear. The more I stumbled on it, the worse my playing got. I’m really not great playing over pre-recorded tracks and that’s what he had been using to work out these songs, but eventually I found my groove and we had finally had some good interplay together towards the end. And the guy was super patient with me which was cool since I was getting ready to just give it up.

So we’ll see if he asks me back. They’re going to be trying out 3 drummers over the weekend. I really hope I get a second chance so I can play with a live drummer. With a drummer it’s a lot easier to get into a rhythmic groove and then melody will come more easily.

So I hit the craigslist musician ads today and came across one that might be up my alley. Two guitarists/songwriters with a rented studio not too far from me are looking to put together a full band to play progressive hard rock. They’re around my age, have day jobs, realistic expectations and a good plan on how to go about putting something like this together. I sent them links to some of my old stuff and they’re interested in jamming, possibly as early as tonight!

I haven’t tried out for a band in a few years. When we first moved from the East Coast to San Francisco I briefly looked for something but I was already badly out of practice. The one tryout I did I was rather musically timid needless to say that didn’t work out and I felt dejected, though looking back I could hardly blame them. I came really close to trying out for a 60’s cover band about 2 years ago, but the time commitment was too much for me at the time and it wasn’t really my thing anyway. I think at that point I was just looking to play anything and they practiced right in my neighborhood.

I’m in a completely different place now. I know what I want to play. I practice regularly and try to expand my sounds. I’m ready to jump right in and rock the hell out. I promise to keep both ofmy regular readers up to date as this progresses.

When I first got my Fender, it came with very heavy gauge round wound strings and very high action. I was 13 and didn’t knot any better, so I learned to play on heavy, tight strings pretty high off the fingerboard. Later I put on medium strings (also round wound) but didn’t change my setup so it was a little easier to play. Much later I had my bass set up professionally for the first time with medium strings and low action and it was like a whole new instrument, so much easier to play. And my playing improved because of it. My current strings are GHS Boomers and I love their sound and playability.

Then I got my acoustic and it came with medium toward heavy brass roundwounds and at the suggestion of the guy who upgraded my Fender I replaced them with medium flatwounds.

Now that I’m starting to take playing more seriously, I’m exploring the idea of experimenting with different strings. I did a little research on Steve Harris recently and found out that he has his own signature line of strings by Rotosound. They’re very heavy flatwounds, and only come in long scale which means I can’t put them on either of my short scale basses. I love his sound and everything, but his stuff is hard enough to play on medium strings, so I’m not sure about going back to heavies. Plus I’d probably need a new setup to make them playable and that’s an expense I’d rather not make (though everything I make through this blog I plan on putting into my music in some way or other). And speaking of expenses, bass strings are not cheap, so experimenting with different kinds that I might not even like along with setups could be really pricey.

I’d always thought that rock was all about roundwound strings while flats were for jazz and other genres, but I am finding out that more bassists who I really like play on flats. Rounds are brighter and good for slapping and popping which I don’t really do a whole lot of, and flats are more warm and mellow sounding. I may just try some medium flats on the Fender and see how I like them.

It’s Metal Monday again, and this week I’ve got an old favorite of mine. I’ve been messing around with the basslines of this song forever and while I can get parts of it down, I’ve tried playing along and just can’t keep up. I’m not sure the source of this video, but it’s way oldschool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen video with Paul DiAnno on vocals before. While I like Bruce Dickenson’s vocals better, Paul’s voice really fit the material of their first two albums. While Bruce’s voice soars, Paul’s was much more raw and dirty. Steve Harris’ basslines are sick, and this is quite possibly the most intricate one he ever wrote (see also Invaders).

Just look at the intro, played fast, in (I think) 3/4 time:

G|------------------------------------------------|

D|------9-10-9----12-9----10-9--------------------|

A|-9-10--------10------10------10--9--10--12------| x4

E|-----------------------------------------------7|

G|--------------------------------------------------------------------|

D|--------------------------7-7-7-9-9-9-10--12-14-14-14-14-14---------|

A|--------------7-7-7-9-9-9-------------------------------------------|

E|--7-7-7-9-9-9-------------------------------------------------------|

G|-------------------------------------------------|

D|-12-14-14-14-14-14--12-14-14-14-14--12-14-14--14-|

A|-------------------------------------------------|

E|-------------------------------------------------|

And the three pronged attack of bass and dual lead guitars jumping across time signatures takes it to places where metal had not gone before. Enjoy, and keep it evil.

Here are a variety of finger warmups, exercises and riffs to experiment with.

Here’s one to get you up to speed skipping a fret across the strings and up and down.

G----------1-3---|-2-4------------|----------3-5---|-4-6------------|

D-------1-3------|----2-4---------|-------3-5------|----4-6---------|

A----1-3---------|-------2-4------|----3-5---------|-------4-6------|

E-1-3------------|----------2-4---|-3-5------------|----------4-6---|

…etc. I haven’t tried tried this one yet, but I could see it being really helpful, especially if you mix it up with different hand positions. Here’s the whole thing , along with a slap warmup.

Here’s another cool one that I’m going to try. It’s like your basic chromatics, but it slides up a fret each time you move over a string.

G|------------------------4-5-6-7----------------------------------|
D|----------------3-4-5-6---------5-6-7-8--------------------------|
A|--------2-3-4-5-------------------------6-7-8-9---------8-9-10-11|
E|1-2-3-4-----------------------------------------7-8-9-10---------|

G|----------10-11-12-13|
D|9-10-11-12-----------|
A|---------------------|
E|---------------------|

There are plenty of other variations on these. I suggest using any combination or version that works for you. While I was rather diligent about doing these kinds of exercises daily, I’ve fallen a bit off the wagon, jumping right into grooves I want to experiment with and skipping my scales all together. While any practice is good practice, regular practice of the basic fundamentals, while not nearly as fun, is really key to being able to play well. I have to remember that and get more disciplined about it.

Another tip I’ve heard is that when you’re playing scales you should call out the note you’re playing, so that while you train your fingers you are also ingraining into your mind the exact note of each fret of each string, which combined with really knowing your scales inside and out will help give you the ability to quickly improvise. I’ve tried it a little bit and it’s harder than it sounds. I rarely have the patience to get about halfway through a major scale with it, and haven’t even attempted it with anything involving sharps and flats. I really wish I did all this stuff back when I was a kid and had time to practice an hour a day.