Types of Bassists (Part 1)

In order to further my purpose of helping the world understand bassists I think it would be to my advantage to give laymen a guide to the different types of bassists out there.

The Meat and Potatoes Bassist – This is probably the most common type of bassist out there. These musicians generally stick pretty close to the root note, don’t ask too many questions and hold down the fort for the rest of the band. Generally they are the master of a few styles of music and technique though they only get fancy when required. A great example of this type would be Tom ‘Two-Tone Tommy’ Blankenship of My Morning Jacket.

The Picker – This class of bassist is probably the second most common and is made up of the youngest demographic of bassists. These musicians are often converted guitarists who have not learned to play finger-style yet or they simply prefer the pick sound to finger-style. Many older bassists often look down on these players because the pick technique is considered easy (despite the fact both Paul McCartney and Sting used this technique quite often). Personally I rather enjoy playing with a pick when I get a chance. A great example of a modern picker would be Michael Jared Followill of Kings of Leon.

The Funk Master – This class of bassist enjoys playing in a “slap n’ pop” style using their thumb and finger to bounce the strings off of the fretboard and get that signature funk sound (see the intro to Seinfeld if you don’t know what I mean). It is technically much more challenging than picking and finger-style and often takes an experienced bassist to pull off correctly. Most people have probably heard Flea play some slap bass for the Chili Peppers though is you want to hear a true master check out Victor Wooten of the Flecktones. He is probably one of the greatest bass players of all time.

Of course these are many more types of bassists but I will get to them next week with Types of Bassists Part 2.

When a Bassist Meets a Bassist

Though there may be quite a bit more bassists out there than let’s say accordion players, in comparison to guitarists, drummers, and pianists there are relatively few of us. This has led to an interesting phenomenon which occurs whenever a bassist meets another bassist.

Now bass players are generally by nature somewhat quieter than their fellow band mates and pretty used to disrespect and disregard by both musicians and laypeople so when they meet another of the same species there is an instant connection. It does not matter what type of bassist they are or how long they’ve been playing. All that matters is that they don’t have to worry about the judgment of others for once in their musical careers.

Non-bassists have no idea how refreshing it is to talk to someone from the same musical family. It is almost like meeting an old friend. Upon encountering another tamer of the low frequencies it is customary that first you have to talk about your bass collection, amplifier rig and pedals. Only once these formalities are finished you get into the real nitty-gritty. We are known to talk for hours about technique, bass icons or how they wish guitarists would stop peacocking around the stage like they musically important or something like that. And believe me; we don’t get to talk about this kind of stuff almost ever. Whatever happens in this conversation there will be a deep connection between both parties involved, even if you never meet again.

I was not consciously aware of this phenomenon until it was brought to my attention by an anecdote from Stewart Copeland’s autobiography. In this story Copeland describes events similar to what I described every single time Sting encountered another bassist. I’ve had other musicians point out the same thing.

Only a few months ago one of my friend’s bands was practicing at my house and they had brought in a new bassist who was sitting in for a show or two while theirs was away. I ran into him just they were leaving and after giving his bass a test drive we ended up talking about Les Claypool, pedals and technique for a good three hours. Bear in mind I had never met him or seen him before in my life, but were able to become almost instantaneous friends.

Until next time give Les and Stewart a listen:

Jesus Band: Apparently Not All Musicians Are Created Equal

While I am still on the subject of my formative years as a bass player I feel I am about due for another story of discrimination against bassists. You see back at my wonderful sausage fest of a Catholic high school our campus ministry department gave us a quota of “service hours” which we had to complete on a yearly basis. In order to fulfill this requirement I joined the “music ministry” group which was just a loosely organized group of musicians who put together music for the weekly church ceremony.

Now I am not a religious person put this whole Jesus band experience was probably one of my favorite parts of high school. We got to skip homeroom and show up late to all our classes after church on top of the performance experience. Most of the time we spent just dicking around and playing just barely passable versions of the new age-y worship songs the campus ministry department gave us and a few of our own additions.

Throughout my years in the group we had a few different six-string slinging student band leaders (and the occasional 12-stringer). Usually they would organize all the music and bring it with them in the morning and even if things fell apart it was all in good fun. Like the rest of us they were not always the best musicians, but that just made everything more laid back. As the last one was poised to retire at the end of my junior year I was ready to pick up the torch of band leadership.

I felt I was perfectly positioned to be the band leader. I was on good terms with the campus ministry department, plus I had seniority over all the other members. I had perfect grades; perfect attendance and I could play all the music forwards and backwards in my sleep. Unfortunately there was one factor that I overlooked: my instrument was two strings short and an octave low of a guitar.

It turns out that the administration felt the position of band leader should be passed down to the senior member of the guitar playing line of the Jesus band much like the obsolete patriarchal succession of the monarchies of old. Now I try not to judge the senior guitarist too harshly, I mean it is not like he even asked for the position, but there could not have been a worse match for band leader.

My entire senior year in Jesus band can be characterized by me hauling equipment from my house to school (thanks to the draconian ruling of the band teacher which I will discuss in a later post) at around six in the morning and setting up the drum kit, music stands and microphones alone until our fearless band leader showed up an hour late without the music. He also had this mental inability to start a song that was in the time signature 6/8 which just happens to be about 50% of all church music. To make matters worse his guitar was made of ply wood and he had a tiny amp that we nicknamed the “T-Rex” because whenever he turned it up it had a distorted signal that might be desirable in some forms of death metal.

I did everything in my power to try and convince campus ministry to let me be leader. I came early and organized all the music. I led the regular band meetings. I even brought my own guitar amp to prevent the use of the T-Rex. No matter how much I pleaded with the administration they remained adamant that a guitarist was more suited for the position. They literally told me “we just don’t think that a bassist can start songs like a guitarist can.” As the cherry on top of my enduring the weekly humiliation of bad performance after bad performance they give this guitarist twice the service hours because he had more “responsibility” as a school “leader.” It was at this point in my life I decided I needed to start standing up for my people.

The Trials and Tribulations of a Singing Bassist

Early on in my quest to start a band and woo the fairer sex I realized that bass players go unnoticed more often than not and I set out to figure out what I could do to remedy this. In my research I discovered a common factor that connected all the famous bass players (with the exception of maybe Flea): every single one of them sings. Therefore the only way I could achieve my goal was to become that rare species of singing bass player. Unfortunately for me, it did not take long to realize why singing bass players were so uncommon.

Now I’m sure everyone has seen somebody sing and play a normal guitar. I’d say 80% of singers can sing while strumming a few chords or maybe playing a bit of piano, though rarely is one seen hanging out in the low end and the melody. I thought bass is just like guitar right? This should be easy. You just play notes and sing and next thing you know you are famous right? Well it turns out playing bass and singing is akin to playing operation without looking while reciting Shakespearean verse. If you don’t believe me try it for yourself.

I attempted song after song, but it was to no avail. I figured maybe I’m just not good enough. To test my hypothesis I picked up a guitar and learned a couple chords and literally within 15 minutes I could play and sing any song consisting of the chords G, C, D and E minor which any musician would tell you is the chord progression for just about every song ever.

I was completely baffled at this point. Why couldn’t I just sing while playing music like all the guitarists out there? The answer lies in some technical music mumbo-jumbo which basically comes down to the bass part of a song counters the melody (the sung part) of the song and the brain has quite a bit of trouble doing two opposing actions at once. So now the real question is how in the world do these people do it?

Thus began my obsession. I poured over hours and hours of Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney, and Sting with a new found respect for what they were able to do. All three of them completely blew me away with their abilities. Then a girl by the name of Esperanza Spalding came in to my life. This Grammy winning jazz singer and bass player absolutely obliterated what I thought was possible in the realm of singing and bass playing.

With the divine inspiration I received from these bassists and their styles I painstakingly taught myself to play and sing. It eventually just came down to learning a song to the point it was muscle memory. After 5 or so years I could finally do it consistently. Even today after doing it for years I still find it challenging, but my bass heroes are testament that it is indeed doable.