Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was just thinking back to about a year ago when the fellow who played drums(electronic due to MS) for us had to leave. He had to move north as the hot weather in socal was too much. They ended up at Pismo Beach. Anyways, We played together about 5 years. The last year and a half he was here, we decided to see how few notes we could play and still keep the groove. My bass playing ability shot WAY up according to him. I trust his opinion, because before he got MS, he was the drummer in the Gene Krupa band. It became all about accenting and not "busyness". I know you guys have fought the less is more battles many times, but I think our little experiment took it a bit further!

Well, by the response, maybe not!

Geddy Lee said recently that he has learned how to be more expressive with fewer notes and that many of his earlier lines were too busy. Finesse comes with age and experience.

The funny part is, I wasn't all that busy anyway!

Charly, you are right on with the less is more, when it is done well. It can oftentimes be harder to execute, but is often better. When I look back at the auditions I've had for "Bass Player Wanted," it's funny, I've heard more than once after I got the gig that the last guy could really fly, but he was way too reckless and would get lost.

Actually, though, tonight I'm in a different space. My guitar player wrote a great song around a bluegrass feel (which is mostly new ground for us), and I have come up with two basslines to date that are okay but not really what is probably needed to really make the feet stomp. So, tonight I am trying the all-out note assault... haha. If it works, it will be quite out of character for me and probably a nice changeup for the folks that support our music. Gotta always keep an open mind....

One of my new(to me anyway) tricks is to find a syncopation with the downstroke of the rhythm guitar. Not on every downstroke, and depending on which ones you accent with the bass, it changes the whole feel of the tune. Stay locked with the drum of course but accent the "groove".

"Stay locked with the drum of course but accent the "groove"."
That last comment is one to remember, Charly.

"I trust his opinion, because before he got MS, he was the drummer in the Gene Krupa band."

He must have been some drummer even with electronics.

I also agree less is more and is also much harder to achieve, I picked up the upright (try to say that fast) within the last year and my bass playing has changed as a result, I am less busy and stay with the groove more even on electric, I also learned how to really play blues over the past 5 years and learned most of what I know from a certain drummer.

I’ve been listening to a Stevie Wonder compilation CD lately; I think its call The Definitive Collection. You want to talk about groove - listen to the relationship between the drums and bass all throughout that CD!

Didn't we have a similar discussion regarding overplaying recently?

It depends on a lot, but in generl "less is more" is a good mantra. Audiences can get lost if the playing is too busy, and the melodies that stick in our heads are usually the simple ones. But the bass, with all it's connection to the rhythmic part of a song, is still a harmonic instrument, so rhythm is not everything.

I think it also depends on the group and it's goals. Are you guys trying to be a "shock troupe" or a polished top-40 type band. How many pieces? My band is basically a power trio with a singer-when the guitarist goes into a solo I have an opportunity to do a little more rather than just hang out in a nice pocket with the drummer.

But I do recall hearing a song (forget who and what) when I was a kid, just learning bass. I was hanging with the keyboardist I played with, and he said the bass line in the tune on the radio was boring. It was just straight 8ths...

But then I thought about how hard it was for me at that time to keep a line like that so even and constrained, and I said "yeah, but it takes a whole lot of skill to play it that boring"

I'm also reminded by a comment from Igor Stravinsky...can't remeber it verbatum. But he said, in essence, that he felt the most free composing when he restricted himselft to the least amount of different notes. It let him explore the rhythm and the silences quite a bit more...

Playing simple and playing in the groove are not necessarily the same thing, it's easy to play simple and not so easy to play in the groove, especially if you are coming from being a busy bass player. (I know)