Bass Nation

When I first heard Primus, I thought that it would be impossible to ever attempt to play bass like Les Claypool. But when you slow it down and break down the parts, it’s not that hard to learn and master with a lot of practice. Playing that and singing at the same time is a whole different story. So below is a nice breakdown of the first song on the first Primus album, minus the Rush sample intro. And here’s a clip of the original to compare.

Odd time signatures and polyrhythms are fun to play around with. It’s not going to make people dance. It could possibly create whiplash if you’re headbanging to it. It will make your progressive music that much more progressive and interesting. Rather than try to explain it myself, I turn you over to a drummer. And not just any drummer. Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy is the perfect music geek to help demonstrate how this sometimes difficult mathy stuff works in practice.

So that big gig that I had then lost then had again…

…well, I lost it again, and this time for good. The combination of learning a new instrument and learning to play songs in a style I have little to no passion for without the benefit of a drummer to help keep me where I need to be is what did me in. There just isn’t enough time to get my shit together enough to pull off a professional performance.  At first I was rather devastated by the news because I was more excited about playing in front of my town than I was about the actual music. I made peace with it quicker than I thought I would and I’m now well on my way to moving on to the next thing.

Seeing Opeth the other night definitely helped me to get past it. Despite the fact that you can rarely even hear the bass doing anything distinctive (with a few notable exceptions) either live or in recordings, seeing them a year ago inspired me to pick up my bass again after years off. And seeing them last week reconfirmed for me that I should not settle for playing music that I have no passion for just because it might be convenient. It’s always fun to play, but creating your own music on your own terms takes it to the next level. These guys play incredibly unique music completely on their own terms, taking liberal helpings of progressive rock and death metal and coming out with something completely unique, powerful and mind blowing.

I think I have one guitarist who is definitely on the same wavelength and another one who could be. We’ll definitely need a drummer, and beyond that it’s pretty open. Keys would be nice, though the idea of incorporating more diverse sounds is also really appealing. I’ve recently fallen completely in love with the sound of the bassoon, thanks to some stuff I’ve seen on YouTube. I also have a friend who plays the musical saw which could add a piercing sonic layer that can cut through everything else and induce shivers in the audience.

I want to explore different time signatures and polyrhythms. I want to create dynamic, moving, sweeping sonic tapestries that break down into seemingly aimless cacophony only to reemerge into tight, technical, progressive, heavy rock, based in everything but the blues.

This Thursday night I’m going into San Francisco to see one of my favorite progressive metal bands, Opeth! These headbanging Swedes make some incredibly intense, intricate, heavy and melodic music. Even in their early days as a death metal band, their sound was far more progressive than pretty much any death metal out there. They still incorporate some of that death metal sound, but they are musically in a league of their own. Check it out:

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be DELETED without prejudice.