What Amateurs Don’t Understand About GETTING GOOD at Bass

[@jaggedstudios3315]

Great comments from four giants. I'll add that, it doesn't matter how technical you play, as long as you have the confidence in your playing and drive to make a song sound good, you're going to work out there. Play what the song demands. Work with the members of your band to create and play good music. For me, it hit years ago when I was playing a hall in PA. There were multiple rooms, and a drummer friend of mine was playing in another room opposite my band. We talked during a break and he said he knew it was me in the other room even without seeing me. I asked him how he knew and he said, "You have your own sound, and I know how you play." That alone made me feel as if all the work I put into my playing, all the practice, paid off.

[@BlackRootsAcademyOfSoul]

Brilliant video, all great Musicians 👌🏿 How I wish Anthony Jackson was interviewed too 🖤 Greetings from Uganda 🇺🇬👊🏿🖤

[@johnwattdotca]

I was in Niagara Falls, Canada, and a coin from Uganda was in some change.

[@adsagp]

Yes, very good video. Last time years ago I was in a covers band. I learned the songs by ear as close as I could to the original, no tabs back then. I learnt most of my runs and fills from learning those bass lines. I'm not one for solos myself, only now years later trying to learn some more skills. Started with the basics of the solid bass lines. These are real musicians who play regularly, I like what they said.

[@randyclere2330]

4 TITANS of the Low End!!! Bravo!!!

[@stephencampbell2018]

I started on an instrument of torture for a 4 yr old child (the piano). It taught me rythmn, melody, harmony, chords, and how the left hand (bass) not only supports but is the foundation for all of the above. In other words, it taught me what music is. I doubt my Precision would sound like it does without that damn piano.

[@3340steve]

Definitely true...so good to hear real musicians talking about the craft, its not about solo, its about play the BASS .

[@RichieLee-dn3fd]

Great straightforward video.

[@folkrock4u]

This video has virtually nothing about "what amateurs don't understand about getting good at bass." Amateurs could care less about soloing- they want to know how to lay down a bass line to a three chord blues, country or rock song, and this video doesn't even touch on that.

[@brianfrolo245]

Yeah I was like, did the social media intern screw up?

[@eckie4679]

Yep - the usual clickbait

[@hbalexander5742]

That is exactly what it was about if you read between the lines. It was sort of like Miles Davis telling Herbie Hancock to not play the “Butter Notes”. Not specific but specific enough.

[@unclemick-synths]

​@@hbalexander5742 yes, but beginners aren't at the level where they'll understand what's meant.

[@johnwattdotca]

A Buddy Rich joke: A trumpet player was seeing new guys at gigs with Afros and wearing tribal clothes. He thought he needed to refresh his cultural roots so he flew to Africa. When he was getting off the plane he could hear drums in the distance. He asked the stewardess about the drums and was told, watch out when the drums stop. In the cab on the way to the city he heard drums, and the cabby told him, be careful when the drums stop. At the hotel, he could still hear the drums and asked at reception, what happens when the drums stop. They said oh no, a bass solo.

[@darengraves1717]

Where can I find a copy of this DVD?

[@Frisbieinstein]

Bass is basically a drive or groove supportive instrument. Usually the faster you play the worse it sounds.

[@jfn467]

It's a rhythm instrument, nuff said!

[@triplehood]

I actually think that this statement goes against what the guys in the video are saying. The bass can be both rhythmic and melodic. You just need to find what makes the song tick. A great melodic bass line can still support the song while an overly complicated rhythmic bass line might get in the way of what everyone else is doing.

[@jfn467]

@@triplehood Why a complicated rhythm? Most often thats not what a song need.

[@triplehood]

@@jfn467 I was arguing that a bass is not just a rhythm instrument. It is also a melodic instrument. Even a simple rhythm might not be what the song needs. It could be that the song needs a complicated melody on the bass. That's what it means to get good at an instrument, especially in a band setting ... You listen to what the song requires from your instrument. I find that there is a certain melancholy in melodic bass lines that guitars cannot hope to match. It is all about timbre and not getting in the way of each other.

[@Frisbieinstein]

@@triplehood melancholy. Yeah.

[@jabulaniharvey]

serve the music first