Bass Nation

This past Monday was my birthday and the icing on the cake was our Monday night band practice. I had a really great birthday celebration with my wife and daughter and then it was off to play some rock and roll! We had to take last week off because our drummer hurt his arm, so I had a whole extra week to practice on my own and I think it paid off. I don’t really get to practice the upright much at home, so most of my practicing is done unplugged on my Fender.

Something that’s really helped my playing is a book by Victor Wooten called The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music. It’s written as a novel about a mystical music teacher who shows up and teaches him a new way to approach the music, and some of that stuff is slightly painful, but what he actually teaches is incredibly helpful.

The most important thing is that the groove is more important than the actual notes. Since your typical scale is made up of 7 notes and there are 12 whole tones per octave, you’ve got more than a 50/50 shot at hitting the right note, and if you hit the wrong one it’s easy to use that to get to the right note and still make it sound right as long as you’re playing in the groove.

There’s other stuff about how to practice more effectively and a whole lot more which I haven’t even gotten to yet, but just the bit I have read has helped me greatly and I would recommend this book to anyone who plays any instrument.

Anyway, here’s an MP3 of us covering King Crimson’s Easy Money. I’m on the upright and there’s a brief bowed part during the jam. To the casual listener it might sound like just another rock song, but those who know music will be able to tell right away that the time on this one is a little bit crazy. During the verse, the vocals are in a different time signature as everything else. I don’t know how John Wetton managed to sing that one and play bass at the same time when I can barely sing harmonies during the intro (I didn’t even attempt that this time).

Easy Money

Now that I’m actually playing music, I find myself not feeling a whole lot of need to blog about it. But for both of you people who actually read this thing (and to get enough unique impressions to maybe make more than $.50/month), I really ought to post more often. So in that half assed spirit, I’d like to share a clip from our last practice. I had just gotten a bow for my birthday (thanks, Dad!) and last monday night was the first time I really tried using it with the electric upright. While it took a bit to get comfortable playing with a bow and it’s going to take a lot more practice getting proficient with it, It was a lot of fun to play and I managed to get some cool sounds with it.

Here’s our attempt at playing Red by King Crimson. We’ve been working on this one since the first jam session a month ago. It’s still a little bit rough. We’ve got 2 basses on this. Our singer was playing bass guitar while I was playing the upright, and I play the drumless interlude with the bow (which is particularly rough sounding here).

Listen Here

After a few weeks of jamming around, it looks like we’ve got the core of a band. There’s me on bass, a guy who plays keys and guitar, another guitarist and a drummer whose wife might be our singer. So far we’ve been doing a bunch of Pink Floyd and King Crimson covers like Echoes, Red, Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive, One More Red Nightmare and we’re struggling to get Larks Tongue in Aspic pt 2 down. So what now? Besides getting our shit tight through lots and lots of practice, we need a name. Before I even started putting this band together I’ve been thinking about band names. The one I really liked was Strange Botwin, a reference to the first few episodes of Weeds. I’m not so sure about that now. I also don’t want to have the name be a reference to the bands we cover since that is more for single band tributes. The other thing is getting gigs. I’m not sure how much of a market there is for a cover band that plays nothing but old prog and psychedelic rock from the 70’s. There’s a great coffee house near me that has live shows where I’m sure we could book our debut performance. I also work right next to a place where Johnny Cash recorded a classic live album and I’m sure the inmates of San Quentin would enjoy any performance people are willing to give them. Tonight we play at our drummer’s warehouse in Oakland. It’s not as convenient for me as our space around the corner from my house, but it beats having to load a full drumset in and out every week which also cuts into our playing time.

I know, it’s been ages since I’ve posted anything here. Life has been rather hectic as of late. In fact, until last night I hadn’t picked up a bass in several weeks. I’ve written before about the local Thursday night jam session in my town. I haven’t attended in a long time. Besides being somewhat bored by the standard blues rock fare, I’ve been really busy on Thursday nights. First it was the Opeth show which completely rocked my world. Then I was recovering from some minor surgery. Then we were having a really tough day with the kid and I just couldn’t deal with other people after we finally got her to bed. Plus thre’s something like 3 other bassists who have been going and from what I hear they’ve all been playing at once. Four would just be ridiculous!

So that led me to organizing my own night at the studio. I took out an ad on craigslist looking for people who are into playing hard prog rock and got three solid responses. One guy played sax, drums and theramin, one played guitar, and the other played keys, guitar, bass and drums. All of us were really into King Crimson, and we busted it out last night. After some aimless noodling, we gave Red a try and it really came together after a while. It’s a tough song with a lot of parts, and I got most of the parts down but definitely need work on the opening riff and figuring out where each one starts. We also did a sick 21st Century SchitzoidMan jam, One More Red Nightmare, and a half assed attempt at Thela Hun Gingeet. We did Shine on You Crazy Diamond. We did Tom Sawyer that went into a pretty sick jam, and some freeform stuff that the sax player referred to as being rather quaalude-y.

For the most part, I played the electric upright. At one point I picked up my Fender and the guitarist said I should keep playing the upright since it creates such a different sound. I got a really killer tone from it last night too. At the other jams, I’d been going for more of a standard thumping low sustain upright bass tone, but last night I cranked up the gain, sustain and the lows and it was nice and fuzzy. The more I play that thing, the less I want to play my Fender, and I love that Fender!

I was so pumped from playing I could barely sleep when I got home. I kept tossing and turning with those riffs going through my head. I can’t wait to do it again next week.

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.

So last night was our dads and kids acoustic jam. It’s typically from 5:30 - 7:30 but my bus was ridiculously late and wound up not even picking me up until 5:30. I walked in the door of my house at 5:45 to my screaming daughter being carried to her room for a time out by mu flustered wife. Fifteen minutes of screaming ensued before I could get her out the door.

Now did I also mention that the temperature has been in the 90’s all week so far? Well it has, and I’ve been working mostly outside the last couple of days in preparation for our office move. So when I get home from that, I’m even more burnt than usual (and I’m usually pretty burnt after work as it is).

So we wind up getting to the jam at around 6:15 and I get set up while my daughter starts playing with her friend. Did I also mention that we’re potty training? She’s been mostly out of diapers for a week, and while she’s been really good about getting to the potty on time, this is the first time she’d need to possibly interrupt me mid-song to get there. So every chance I could, I’d ask her if she had to go. We got to play 2 songs which both sounded really good. I’m making progress on the upright and I think that it just needed some breaking in for the buzzing to stop.

So after 2 songs we got pizza from the place down the block. The girls at the pizza place either know my voice or my order because they always know it’s me when I call. I brought my daughter and her friend over to pick them up because I wasn’t going to leave a potty training kid with my buddies, even though they’ve already gone through that with their older girls. We get back with the pizza and I give my daughter her slice and then go to get some for myself. The pizza comes with these little plastic cups of Parmesan cheese, and before I could do anything, my kid has the lid off of one and is proceeding to down it like a shot. Needless to say, that doesn’t work out so well and she starts choking. A couple whacks on the back gets it dislodged, along with the entire contents of her stomach, which magically holds more contents than her size somehow. So there’s puke all over the floor. She’s crying and puking. I am completely overwhelmed at this point.

There’s even more annoyances involved which I won’t get into. Let’s just say that despite the fact that what little music I did play I played rather well, this was the worst practice ever.

BTW, below is a closer up picture of me playing the new bass.

Despite my misgivings in my previous post, last night’s jam was a hell of a lot of fun. It was the most comfortable I’ve been playing the upright yet. I got there a little late because I had family stuff I had to take care of, so I got myself all set up and the guy next to me suggests we do Heroes by David Bowie which I had brought in 2 weeks ago. He then sticks a mic in my face so I can sing it. I’m still not 100% up to speed on electric upright and I wasn’t even warmed up yet, so it was really awkward and I gave up singing halfway through the first chorus. turning it into a slow instrumental jam. I had printed out a couple of chord charts for stuff I knew I could play and sing at the same time, but I left them at work, so I just focused on playing. But at one point I went to the bathroom and this other guy was playing my bass when I came back (he was a classically trained cellist, so he did some amazing shit on it and at one point asked if I had a bow which I really wish I did just to hear what this guy could do with it) so I got behind a mic and started doing some background vocals and then sang lead on a verse and chorus. When I’m not trying to play an instrument, I can really belt it out, and this was a really fun song sing (Turn on Your Love Light - I was a deadhead for years so this one brought me right back). We did a lot of blues and early bluesy rock which led itself to great walking lines which I’m really starting to get the hang of. I really need to get disciplined about doing my scales on this thing so I really know where to go. Seeing what that cellist could do was like a kick in the ass to me.

I missed last Thursday’s jam session because I had family in town, so I was a little bit surprised this weekend when one of the local, for lack of a better word, eccentrics, came up to me and said that she was there and didn’t see me. I was taken aback. What was this lady doing at my jam session? Well apparently one of the guys has gone and started inviting anyone and everyone. I hate to sound like an elitist snob, but I kind of liked when it was by invitation. Now it’s splashed across the front page of our local community website telling anyone and everyone to come on over and hang out. While it will be good to meet other local musicians, the more people playing at once can become chaotic. And I’m not crazy about a room full of hangers on either, despite my love and desire for attention. I’m still trying to get up to speed on my electric upright and it’s one thing doing it in a room with other musicians and another thing with a frakkin’ audience. I’ll see how it goes this week and report back. I hope it doesn’t suck.

So it’s been five days since I got my electric upright bass and I’ve been trying to play it at least a little bit each day. The other night I was just messing around with it unplugged and noticed a buzz on the lower notes of the lower strings, so I played around for a really long time adjusting the bridge height and the truss rod. I at least isolated the buzzing to 2 notes on one string which are less noticeable when it’s amplified, and I can get rid of it if I hit the string just the right way. I’m not sure if this is something that a simple professional setup might fix, or if it’s something I can eliminate through proper playing technique.

And speaking of proper technique, I’ve decided to take a few lessons just to make sure I don’t develop bad playing habits so early on. I think I may have found somebody who I can afford on craigslist.

But just messing around and playing simple lines on it at least is starting to sound good. Besides trying to develop some of my own grooves on it, I’ve been covering Hey by the Pixies and Walking on the Moon by the Police (links go to bass tabs). They’re both really basic but also very melodic and involve a little bit of sliding. Hey has a nice little walk to it as well. My sister took some great pix of me playing which I’ll post once I get them, and once I’m a little more confident on it I’ll take some video.

I am now the proud owner of an NS Design Wav 4 Electric Upright Bass! I could barely sleep last night knowing this thing was coming. I had it shipped to work and of course the second I bring it in my boss arrives acting all micro-managey, which is already annoying first thing in the morning but even more annoying when I’m finally getting my Christmas bonus 4 months after the fact and I’d like to check it out a little bit. I took it out of the box, put it on the stand, got it somewhat tuned up (it was at least tuned to itself, I don’t have a tuner with me) and played it for about 5 minutes. It feels great! The long scale is definitely going to take some serious getting used to, but the simple lines I’m playing for this festival gig should be a really good place to start. Tonight is our semi-acoustic practice night. It’s also our kids’ playgroup, so there’s going to be a room full of kids from 7 months to 6 years old there, as well as my mom, my sister, and my little nephew. I can’t wait to plug this thing into an amp, even if I only get to play it a little bit tonight. I’ll have pictures and a full review tomorrow.

I’d like to once again send profuse thanks to Bob and Mark Gollihur at Gollihur Music for getting this thing to me, for having awesome customer service, and for even including a couple of cool stickers. Hit these guys up for all your upright bass needs.