It's only since I've graduated that I'v been paying more attention to HOW I play be bass. When I was in school (getting a jazz studies degree on upright bass) I focused so much on harmony and not so much the other elements of music (to get a good grasp of them, I HIGHLY recommend The Music Lesson. Bass is a lot of fun. One of my favorite ways to conceptualize playing bass is as follows:
You don't walk into a building and say "my what a nice foundation this building has." But if the foundation is off, everyone notices. Bass playing is setting up that foundations. Really getting into that groove. As quoted in Dance to the Music, "I'm gunna add some bottom so there's a dancer that just can't hide."
Have you been playing a lot these days? If so, are you playing upright or do you tend to play electric bass these days?
Living in rural Oregon doesn't provide too many opportunities to play. But I play at the (singular) bar in town with my roommate on guitar the third Thursdays of the month, and occasionally at the Elk's Lodge in the neighboring town. Primarily upright. The only time I played electric recently was when I was under the weather and didn't have the energy for upright.
Dude, you should get in on our original music club now that you have time! We have a backlog of songs that could use some base. Check them out #hubskioriginalmusicclub
Is there a way to see which songs need which instrumentation?
Here, check this one out. The lyrics are by Humanodon, it has drums and no bass. Might be a good place to start: What do you think?
I can't get this one to play for whatever reason. Can I get the link again?
Oh sweet. Yeah I already recorded bass for it however SoundCloud isn't allowing me to upload it. Maybe pm me your email and I can send it your way?
Not really, I can go real quickly and take a glance and find one that I know needs bass. Give me a bit