Bass Nut Replacement

One of the basses at GRC had a broken nut. I noticed it back at LRC and it has annoyed me ever since because it is a decent bass otherwise. Finally, yesterday I went to Guitar Center and bought a generic P bass replacement nut for 12 bucks...and in about five minutes made the exchange. I had to sand the nut just a hair to get the width down to fit...but otherwise the old one popped out and the new one popped in with no problem. I didn't even bother putting any wood glue on the the thing. The bass plays pretty good. The action seems great with no adjustment to the nut height.

This marks my second nut replacement (I've also done one saddle/bridge replacement on an acoustic).

I'd like to get a little bit better at string changing and at adjusting string height and intonation. Thinking I should get CT to show me the best way to wrap a guitar string and then change a couple dozen at GRC to get myself in shape.

More Ska

I was asked to take a look at Street Light Manifesto. I like them.



I dug out my Mighty, Mighty Bosstones



and my Sprawl too.



So...yeah...it seems pretty clear that the basslines move a bunch...but it is all simple scales or triads. I'll have to build some speed, but I was planning to work on that anyway. I probably can get away with root notes played with complimentary rhythms until I get the speed up on the scales. One thing that works in my favor...the parts are very repetative. Like you get this little bass scale lick that's kinda fast...but it repeats over and over and over again in the song. So get it once and you've got it.

I think that, if this works out and who knows if it will, this could be a really great experience for me. It lands in my lap right at the time when I'm thinking about scales and building speed and learning about relative intervals and writing bass lines. It'll end up seeming easy in a few years...but right now it is the perfect thing at the perfect time.

Ska

So a drummer that I greatly respect asked me to play bass in a ska band with her today. It was such a casual inquiry that I almost didn't catch it. Who knows if it will pan out.

I love Sprawl and the Mighty, Mighty Bosstones...so I think ska is awesome. I know that ska can be alot more serious than those bastardized versions, though...and that the bass playing is pretty specific. I don't think that she's leaning too hard core though.

Looking for advice...I go to the forums:

"There are many different versions of what ska consists of, but most ska contains four vital elements: a walking bass line, offbeat rhythms (usually guitar and/or keyboard), 4/4 time signature (percussion) and a lead melody played by horns."

"depends what kind of ska you wanna play but...
find out what the barre chords your guitarist is playing, and fool around with the arpeggio for that scale/chord. for instance if he's playing B major, try fooling around with something with these notes:

G------------------
D------------9-----
A-----6-7-9--------
E---7--------------

you could even play a scale in a walking bassline. for instance, the bassline for "gyasi went home" by bedouin soundclash (not really a ska song, more calypso) is pretty much just the bassist playing an A major scale over and over. you could also play the root note and then improvise on the chord or scale.

some good bands to check out for inspiration:
catch 22
streetlight manifesto
reel big fish
planet smashers
bedouin soundclash
the johnstones
madness
the specials

some songs:
time bomb - rancid
one step beyond - the specials
action - the johnstones
anything by streetlight manifesto
line em up www.myspace.com/onemoreroundmusic"

"I have found some common things in a lot of ska bass lines include:
•outlining the chord - using the arpeggios (like blackbassist described)
•playing two 1/8th on each tone
•Slamming down HARD on the root then going to the arpeggio for the meat of the phrase - when moving from on phrase to the next, use a scalar walk up/down
I love playing ska lines! They are energetic without being exhausting - that gots balls! They make people sweat! Obviously - check out some Sublime...also, "Tears of a Clown" (The English Beat, I believe) is another nice ska groover..."

Some instructive videos:


http://www.ehow.com/video_2260033_using-triad-outlines-ska-bass.html
This one is pretty helpful. Basically you want to do triads over the chords. Double the root. So you've got "R R 3 5" played with 8th notes.





Also...I just saw this on a bass forum and I think it is pretty funny:
"Seems to me the evolution of a bass player goes:
root --> root/five --> avoid root and root/five, too limiting --> realize the value of the root and fifths --> less is more except when more fits right.... roots are fine"

Things to Come

Fishwife?

Fishwife.

Fishwife!

Sure, why not.

Effects Pedals

Not having a fully developed identity as a player yet...and not having a great ear for sound quality...means that I don't mess much with effects. KiD plays a pretty clean, straight signal bass...so I haven't needed to mess much with it. I have takent the baby step to notice and react to the fact that she played a different kind of bass at different points in the Pixies' career and that this changed the tone. I might not have noticed this on my own admittedly, but I read it online.

Aria Pro II Cardinal Series – The Pixies' first bass belonged to Kelley,and is heard on Come On Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa and seen on the Town & Country live video. It later reappeared in the Kelley Deal 6000.

1962 Fender Precision Reissue– Acquired for use on Doolittle on Gil Norton's insistence. It appears in the video for "Here Comes Your Man". On the Bossanova album, the Precision was used on "Dig for Fire" for its "lazier, growlier sound" that was "not as boingy-boingy-sproingy".

Music Man Stingray – Added in time for Bossanova "because it was active and had a different sound" and became her main live bass "because it was a little less country-sounding than the Fender". The instrument was afterwards played by Josephine Wiggs in The Breeders and Luis Lerma in The Amps.

Steinberger headless (but full-bodied, two-cutaway) bass – Bought during the recording of Trompe Le Monde because the other basses were out of tune on the higher frets. Deal described it as having a "weird, organ-y sound".

The upshot for me as a practical matter is that there are a few songs that I either play with a pick or turn the tone knob "brighter" on. Well...now that I think about it...I really only do this for one song...Bird Dream. I turn the knob all the way bright (I normally play all the way the opposite). I play with a pick on Debaser, Blown Away, and Is She Weird...not for tone reasons per se, but because there are parts of those songs where I play alone and the boys couldn't clearly make out the notes (and thus the tempo) because they were too muddy. So I play with a pick to make them more articulated and louder. But as we are getting into the last of the Trompe le Monde and Bossonova songs I AM more aware of the different, brighter, tone. And I will probably adjust the tone.

My only other experience with effects or tone was for the Flaming Lips tribute. I bought a bass distortion pedal for that (that, even though it is the actual pedal that Michael Ivins uses live, I only ended up using on one song for an over the top punch in wall of ridiculous sound)fuzz pedal for that and borrowed a Peach Fuzz pedal (which is awesome, but pricey). I also briefly experimented with a multi-effects pedal on one song...but we ended up having the keyboard player use that pedal instead for that song.

I don't much fiddle with the knobs on my amp. I'm not sure what I'd even be trying to accomplish. I also have a modern and a vintage channel on my amp...but I don't much know the difference. I know that I like a fatter, less treble, bass sound. That's all I know.

I feel like I ought to try and understand more about effects and the quality of sound. Not so much because I care, but because it is part of the language. It would be nice, when RS and CT are debating this or that tone, if I had any idea what they were talking about.

So I've been obsessed with R Ring lately. And they use some serious effects...and in weird ways I gather. I took some pictures of their pedals the other night.

Here's KeD's guitar pedals. It is a little hard to make out what they are. Left to right it looks like...Boss tuner, Boss Digital Delay DD7, Ibanez/Tube Works Tube King Overdrive TK999 (maybe an older one), and Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Nano Reverb.  It helps to look at these pics on Flickr blown up and flipped right side up.

Here's KeD's vocal pedals. She kneels on the floor and adjusts these throughout the songs that she uses them on (personal side note here...the setlist is in this photo!). Left to right below is Boss Digital Reverb Delay RV-3, Boss Distortion DS-1, and...and...the label is covered...but it sure looks like a second Boss Digital Reverb Delay RV-3. I'm not sure if she runs these through her amp or through the PA. There's a direct box sitting there. I'm pretty sure that the acoustic guitars were run through the amps, so there's good odds that that direct box is for the mic that runs through the pedals. I don't remember her switching mics though. She would unplug her guitars/keys and run them through the same cable. But I don't remember that with the vocal mic. Hmm.

Last but not least here's MM's board from two angles. Top left to right: Boss Delay DM-2 (red), Boss Tuner, Radial Tonebone JX2 Pro Switchbone AB/Y Pedal. Bottom left to right: Boss Equalizer GE-7, Death by Audio Fuzzwar

I really have no idea how these particular combinations result in the sounds they produced on stage. But at least I know what they were using.

On Musicial Identity and the Fall Back Position

I went to a show this week with a drummer who's playing I respect a great deal. She's one of those people who has played all of her life in all kinds of situations. Things seem easy for her and she goes beyond the basics.

I really watched her at this show though, and I was surprised by what I noticed. She has a definite style. In other words...she has a fall back position.

I definitely have a fall back position...the things that I play when I'm going on pure instinct and not trying to copy anything in particular. My pattern. It's the kind of thing that I try to break out of as much as possible.

So her fall back position was to open the hi hat on "3"...and to play "+4" on the bass drum...or maybe it was "a 4" on the bass drum. The first song that she did this I was really impressed. I thought...I can't do that...she's so good. And then I noticed she did it on another song...and another...and another. And suddenly I realized...that's not skill...that's just a fall back pattern that differs from my own.

Don't get me wrong, I still think she's a great drummer. But I'm less impressed and less intimidated now for having noticed this quirk.

What this also tells me is that, while it is good to break out of set patterns...it is those fall back positions that give us our identities as musicians. They define who we are...our natural tendancies. And in a strange way it is kind of nice that I have a tendancy...because it means that I am finding a voice as a drummer.

And there's probably people for whom my fall back position seems hard...simply because theirs is different from mine.

Bass Lessons: Week One

I had my first lesson with H last night. Mostly she showed me lots of stuff. It was alot to take in, but not too much. At the end of the lesson she tried to write down what we'd done (which may mean that she picked up that I wanted this from my inquiry email).
Take-aways:

• I should learn the 2-3 octave "box" patterns for major and minor scales. Just gotta do that. Other scales probably aren't so very important at this point.
• I should be thinking about intervals and relative placement on the fretboard...so like knowing if I'm on the root...where else does the root live...and where do the 3rd, 5th, and octave live. Like the scale boxes, this is just memorization and repetition. the other intervals are important too...but maybe less so at first. And they will come with knowing these main ones. She also highlighted the importance of the 9th, which I've never thought much about before, but it does sound nice.
• We talked alot about the role of various scale intervals for major and minor scales in playing against guitar chords. She encouraged me to think in terms of bass lines against chords...rather than about scales and theory per se. And this is already how I think, so that was good.
• She talked about passing notes and moving from one chord to another and how to think about a progression.
• Despite the above, she encouraged me not to get lost in the theory, though.  To more just play and try things and not be afraid to mess up and to just learn what sounds good. To do this she suggested recording guitar chords and playing along and trying to write various parts. Just noodle and figure it out.
• She said that it is always nerve wracking to write parts on the fly even if you know what you're doing. So there's nothing wrong with being prepared.
• She reminded me that strategic accents can really change up a part
• What you play will often come from listening to the rest of the band. More on this below.
• I got a little confirmation on correct technique. With the left hand think of a claw...and with little pressure on the thumb. Don't let the fingers flatten. Use a soft touch. She recommended running scales with a metronome at various tempos and said that if you do this enough good technique just comes because you can't play fast without good technique. It was a similar exercise to the one I've seen before and already knew was a good idea. She also said "but maybe you don't care about playing fast" which was a nice point. I do think these exercises are easy and worthwhile though.

Going forward I'm going to try to have a lesson every other Thursday and see how it goes. She thought that we could either have me bring in songs that I'm working on parts for...or she could play guitar and I could try to write songs along to it. There were a couple of other ideas that I can't remember now. I asked if she had a certain approach to teaching and she said it was really individual. Usually people want to learn a certain song, or how to read music, etc. So it is well defined. What I'm asking is to develop my own style and voice...and that's a harder thing to address.  "You can't tell me who I am." I said and she nodded. But I think she'll be a good guide. She's open and non-threatening and didn't have any set expectations. A few times when she took a scale too fast I didn't have to say much and she was right there slowing it down and doing it over again. She could tell when I was confused and needed reinforcement.

On the drive home it struck me that I'm really interested in R Ring right now and that they play music without a bass. So writing parts for their songs would be a perfect exercise. So I think I'll use that as a jumping off place...along with refining the parts for Halle and Sarah's songs.  Those are the two things I think I'll bring in to lessons. At home...mostly I just need to play the damn scales every day and learn the pattern and start thinking more about relative intervals. It'll come if I just do the work. 

This morning I sat down before work and figured out a bass part to Hundred Dollar Heat pretty easily. Mike plays a bass line of sorts on the guitar, so it was cheating a bit because I was more following along with him rather than writing my own part, but it was still a good exercise. It also showed me that I pull alot from the other players...like the strumming style...in the case of Hundred Dollar Heat it is wide open and syncopated at the start in the verses and then becomes more driving and 8th note based and dense in the chorus. I followed along with that instinctually. I guess I always think of this as cheating...like when my bass drum line follows Twan's bass guitar line or J's vocal...but maybe it isn't so much cheating as just serving the song.

I think that I get really caught up in whether or not I'm complicated or technical enough...on whether I'm going to be "found out" as a total hack. But maybe fitting in doesn't make you a hack...it makes you a sensitive musician.  And there's the whole thing about...the million dollar riff doesn't come along every day. Not every song can be the catchy song from hell. And they don't all have to be. I don't know. I have alot of basic practice work to do...but way more than that I have alot of mental work to do. I need to stop telling myself these stories about how well I play or what I ought to be doing and just...play. As much as possible. 

I don't know who I am as a bass player yet. How could I? It's too soon. So I should stop putting myself in boxes and tearing myself down. I'm like a teenager in my bass life. I've got this whole long life ahead of me and who knows who I'm gonna become. I should give myself the space to have an adolescence without so much pressure to grow up.