The Bass Player And The Drummer

mikyok said:
Lost count of the pedestrian bassists with volume issues. That's the joys of ampless and IEMs, I turn them off. It's way too off putting and annoying.
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In their defense bassists can’t tell how loud their amp is when they stand close to it. Almost none of the stages I play on allow enough room for the bassist to stand 6ft away, something scientific about the way low frequencies travel which I am not good at explaining.
 
"it's not that they follow" it's that they (bass and bass drum) occupy a similar space and need to be aware as the drummer you can leave some notes of yours out- leaving it to the bass-

Now when there's no bass player but your bass drum... then the fun - and control starts. You as drummer are -with the piano's keyboards left hand controlling that territory. And I love it
 
JimmyM said:
I didn’t watch this, but as a bass player, I wish we could get rid of the idea that the bass and bass drum need to follow each other at all times. They do sometimes but not all the time. Many of my favorite songs have them ignoring each other.
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100%.

While they lay down the foundation together, they don't always follow each others leads. I will say that the bass player & drummer need to get along in a band setting. I've been in one where he was never happy with my playing. I was either too fast/too slow/too loud...etc. I exited that project with a quickness.
 
Duck Tape said:
In their defense bassists can’t tell how loud their amp is when they stand close to it. Almost none of the stages I play on allow enough room for the bassist to stand 6ft away, something scientific about the way low frequencies travel which I am not good at explaining.
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True, it usually travels to under my drum stool and rattles my chest what ever the scientific phenomenon for that is lol!

Most times they just need to tweak their tone for the room.
 
Sometimes you lock with the bass and pull against others.

Sometimes you lock with someone else and pull against the bass.

Sometime you lock with the widest range of band mates possible...while at others, you don't even play!

Anyone trying to lock me into a pattern across all songs will be disappointed.
 
Cmdr. Ross said:
100%.

While they lay down the foundation together, they don't always follow each others leads. I will say that the bass player & drummer need to get along in a band setting. I've been in one where he was never happy with my playing. I was either too fast/too slow/too loud...etc. I exited that project with a quickness.
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sounds like he was singer or guitar player in disguise....
 
Otto said:
Sometimes you lock with the bass and pull against others.

Sometimes you lock with someone else and pull against the bass.

Sometime you lock with the widest range of band mates possible...while at others, you don't even play!

Anyone trying to lock me into a pattern across all songs will be disappointed.
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i will add that sometimes you lock in with the bass player

and sometimes you play in their space to create variety and conversation


and now that I think of it...the only musicians I ever hear talking about the bass drum and bass guitar always having to be locked in....are non bassists, and non drummers....

sort of the same ones who tell me that I should never go above the 5th fret on a bass, or that I should always play as simple of beats possible as I can on my set

seems like there are a ton of rules made up for us by people who do not live in our world....
 
I don't know if it's semantics at this point, and I also didn't watch the video, but I agree with JimmyM. As a bass player, "locking in" with the drummer doesn't always have to mean playing the same kick pattern, etc. Or even playing in the same time signature. To me, locking in is just being aware of where the drummer is and where they are going.
 
nickybass said:
I don't know if it's semantics at this point, and I also didn't watch the video, but I agree with JimmyM. As a bass player, "locking in" with the drummer doesn't always have to mean playing the same kick pattern, etc. Or even playing in the same time signature. To me, locking in is just being aware of where the drummer is and where they are going.
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Unfortunately, many people think that’s exactly what “locking in” is, and that’s why I hate the term ;). I used to work with a drummer who used to do that, and it drove me mental, But you couldn’t tell him because he was a sociopath.
 
One of the best bass players I have ever played with always wanted my bass drum to be right on his bass part.

His skills were great...his taste was off in my humble opinion.
 
Otto said:
One of the best bass players I have ever played with always wanted my bass drum to be right on his bass part.

His skills were great...his taste was off in my humble opinion.
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I know a guy who used to tour with the R&B singer Bobby Caldwell, who had the hit "What You Won't Do For Love," and he demanded that the bass and bass drum ONLY play when the other did. They had some fairly intricate bass and bass drum, too. Sounds like prison to me but I'd do it if it paid enough. And it probably didn't :)
 
Otto said:
One of the best bass players I have ever played with always wanted my bass drum to be right on his bass part.

His skills were great...his taste was off in my humble opinion.
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In some way it’s a compliment that he didn’t feel crowded by a drummer that was ghosting his every move. You must have been a tight unit.

Sometimes I just like to play a kick on the 1 and then two bars space, if only one little syncopated stab added somewhere in the second bar. Sometimes I do like to match the bass pattern but not that often, it’s case by case for me.
 
nickybass said:
I don't know if it's semantics at this point, and I also didn't watch the video, but I agree with JimmyM. As a bass player, "locking in" with the drummer doesn't always have to mean playing the same kick pattern, etc. Or even playing in the same time signature. To me, locking in is just being aware of where the drummer is and where they are going.
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I tend to lock in to the drummers subdivisional hand more than anything else....
 
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