Bass Nation

Although I’ve started several bands, apparently I’ve never done it right. But now, thanks to the great correspondent’s course from the University of Andy, I know how to start one:

The University of Andy is the best place to learn this and other valuable life skills such as surviving a bear attack and holding your liquor. Andy Botwin is a brilliant educator.

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 last night I got about an hour of amplified practice in with my new electric upright bass. I’m not sure why I thought I’d have such a seamless transition. I had played a higher end version of the instrument that I got at a jam session last fall. It was a shorter scale one, so it was really easy to play. Mine is a full scale neck, so especially up top the notes are really far apart. It’s a physical impossibility to play the same way as I would my bass guitar. There’s more sliding involved, which sounds amazing on an upright. My upright is one of the ones with dot on the neck to show you where the notes are. A lot of bassists consider this cheating, but I consider it a necessity, at least at this point. So we played a few songs and I really had to strip it down to the most simplistic lines as possible. There’s one song that involves quite a bit of left hand fingering and that was the one where my intonation really needs work. Otherwise I wasn’t too bad. I’m definitely going to need to put a lot of practice time into this thing, and hopefully take a lesson or two. For now, here’s a beginners’ lesson from YouTube:

What is post-metal? If post-rock is a genre that uses traditional rock instrumentation and sounds to create non rock soundscapes, post-metal does the same, but with metal instrumentation and sounds. Sometimes it’s lyrical, sometimes instrumental. Sometimes it’s called sludge metal or stoner metal. I like the term post-metal since I also really enjoy post-rock. Pelican are a 4 piece instrumental post-metal band from LA by way of Chicago. People expecting typical will be just as disappointed as those expecting typical post-rock sounds. This is something rather different. For more on the post-metal genre, check out wikipedia. And here’s a video of Pelican doing City of Echoes:

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I haven’t had the opportunity yet to do a full post on Geddy Lee who is one of my major influences from very early on. Rush is another one of those bands that people either really love or really hate, and while I may not love them like I did in high school and college, I still have a great appreciation for a lot of their stuff and their amazing musicianship while recognizing that some of their stuff was just really cheesy. There’s a great debate over when they jumped the shark, and it seems that people see Moving Pictures as the line where all things previous were great and all things post were meh. I would go a few albums after that. I actually really liked Signals, and my favorite song from that album is Digital Man. It’s somewhat epic, with a reggae infused chorus and just insane basslines throughout. I don’t get how Geddy could play lines like that while singing. It boggles my mind when I can’t even play those lines yet. Want to learn them? Here’s the tab. Here’s video of a guy playing along. And here’s Rush doing it in 83. And while owning a scalpel does not make you a brain surgeon, here’s Fender’s Geddy Lee signature Jazz Bass .

I just discovered an amazing artist the other day. Hiromi Uehara is a 29 year old pianist from Japan, Berklee School of Music Grad, and jazz fusion phenomenon. She played with Chick Corea when she was 17 and the two of them just recorded an album called Duet. I know that fusion is one of those musical genres that people tend to feel very passionate about. They either love it or hate it while very few are indifferent to it. Hiromi typically tours with a trio of herself, a bassist and drummer. She’s got a synth sitting on top of a grand piano and she rocks the shit out of both of them while her band is just ridiculously tight, playing insanely fast over all sorts of odd time signatures. Here’s the YouTube clip that got me hooked, Return of the Kung Fu World Champion. More clips after the jump.

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Some of the most recognizable basslines ever come from sitcom theme songs. I don’t know why, but bass equals funny on TV. Probably the most famous is the Barney Miller theme. It’s a groovy little funk line that any bassist old enough to actually remember Barney Miller always picked up and somehow managed to incorporate it into a live solo somewhere. I honestly don’t remember a thing about this show other than Abe Vigoda playing a cop named Fish. And as of this posting, Abe is indeed still alive.

And then there’s Night Court. I think both themes might have been written by the same guy or something, but I’m not sure. It’s another funk groove, a bit more slappy and a bit more 80’s to Barney Miller’s 70’s vibe. And it’s another one that winds up in a lot of bass solos. I used to love Night Court, but all I seem to remember from that show was that Harry loved Mel Torme and Dan was the funniest sleazebag ever.

And of course the mother of all sitcom basslines has to be Seinfeld. That theme is all bass. It’s funky and punchy and silly and it somehow managed to capture the irreverence of the show musically. Rather than posting the original though, here’s somebody playing it on an upright, which I must say is rather awesome. Enjoy!

When I first got my Fender Musicmaster bass, there was a little plastic thumb rest that was over the strings, right above the pickup. The idea was that you could rest your thumb there and then your fingers would be in the “correct” position for playing. The thing is, there are lots of different correct positions depending on what kind of sound you’re looking for. You get a different sound playing closer to the neck, or right over the pickup, or closer to the bridge. I eventually removed that thumb rest to gain versatility and my thumb usually rests on the edge of the pick guard, my forearm rests on the body, and as I move from string to string it’s my wrist that does most of the motion.

But there’s another technique which I might give a try. It’s called the floating thumb technique. The thumb and forearm do not rest on anything, and all the motion between strings is coming from your shoulder. Sounds strange, huh? I know. It sounds a little bit strange to me, too. But below is a more detailed explanation and demonstration by Todd Johnson. He says that it’s a bit difficult to adjust to at first, but once you get the hang of it it’s better for your wrist and supposedly easier to train your hand to play whatever you need to play. It’s also better for playing basses with more than 4 strings.

I stumbled on this YouTube video last night. YouTube will offer recommendations based on stuff you’ve already watched, and I’ve watched a whole lot of videos of different people playing the theme from Super Mario Brothers on a variety of instruments. So when I saw “Beatboxing Flute super mario cover ” I had to watch it.  Checking out other videos from the same user, I found this amazing Mingus cover. It’s the beatboxing flautist from the super mario video with an upright bassist and cellist playing some of the tightest shit I’ve ever heard. The musicianship is just ridiculous. The arrangement is perfect. And it’s shot and edited really nicely. The amount of practice that goes into playing something like this is astounding. I wish I had enough time to practice a fraction as much as these guys must. My practicing regimen has dropped significantly the last few weeks and I really need to get back on it. It also might help if my damn electric upright would get off of backorder and arrive sometime soon. Every time I see an upright bass these days I start getting a bit anxious. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Check these guys out: