advice from the man...hopefully

[ninjas and tacos]

shaun...i too play the bass, and i just recently bought a 5 string fender jazz bass. i was just wondering if you could give me some tips on how to incorporate the fifth string into my playing. and also any clues on how to make some bass lines that don't follow the guitar, cause you are way kick ass at that sort of thing.

[Shaun]

Hey,

Thanks for all the complimenting my bass playing I really appreciate it.

The easiest way to start coming up with bass lines that don't follow the guitar directly is to start thinking about what the guitar is really doing. What chord is being played, is it major, minor, a 7th etc...? Then you can go from there. Start throwing in a 5th, an octave, or a 3rd. Those are almost always safe bets. It's also a good way to incorporate the low B string. Try out lower octaves etc. The 5th string can be pretty tricky and it just takes time to get used to it. The quickest way to get used to it is to make yourself familiar with where all the notes are on the B string from the first fret to the last.

Most importantly however, you have to lock with the drums. Pay specific attention to what the kick and snare are doing and follow it. A wise man once told me that the bassist is the glue of the band. It holds the guitar and drums together.

Another thing I do is listen to the complete chord progression. When Straylight practices we'll just play the same chord progression over and over to get the feel right and I'll mess around with tons of different ideas. Sometimes I'll hear a melody in my head and play it on the bass.

The best advice I can give though, is to learn from listening to some really great players. Some of my biggest influences are:

Paul McCartney - Beatles

Donald "Duck" Dunn - Booker T. & the MG's, Blues Brothers etc etc...

Bruce Thomas - Elvis Costello

James Jamerson - Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and the majority of Motown records...

Mike Dirnt - Green Day

Stanley Clarke - solo

Jaco Pastorius - Weather Report, solo etc.

I could go on forever but I think that's a good list to start with. Oh and Eben from Saves the Day, and Jeff Darosa from The Exit do really great work.

I hope this helps you out and doesn't bore you to tears. Good luck with your playing and let me know how it's going. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask.

peace,
Shaun

[ninjas and tacos]

thank you very much for the info, it was quite usefull. but i recently decided to go back to a 4 string. i bought this way awesome fender american p-bass special, one of the ones with the p/j pickup combo...it's freakin sweet.

[twistchi36]

scales are good to know too!

[brightenough]

Shaun said:

Oh and Eben from Saves the Day,

YES. if you and eben played a full-on bass show together and the ticket price was a thousand dollars, i would do some crazy things to get in, i'm telling you. i would probably sell my soul or something.