charleshaupt wrote:
1.....hi all,just a general question......... saw lemmy of motorhead playing solid 3 note bass lines....... sounded tight and in the groove..... recently saw quite a few bands at the kknk and each of those bassists were overplaying. should the choice of notes always serve the song,or should you play the way you interpret the song? just curious........
I think the bass needs to reinforce the rest of the band (the whole locked with the drums idea), because that allows the rest of the band to do their thing a lot better. Sure, you get plenty of virtuoso bassists who are impressive to listen to during a bass solo, but the majority of good bass playing serves the song, and the other band members.
If the bass player is playing too loose or hitting bum notes in important places, it can REALLY stuff around with trying to play guitar or sing over the chord changes. I remember there would sometimes be sections of a song where things just didn't feel "right" at all, like I was singing the right note but it sounded wrong, or anticipating a chord change in a solo only to fumble around a sort of subliminal "wrongness" somewhere. It was almost always the bass player needing correction (great player, just highlighting how important the bass is to the rest of the band).
