I've read a lot of blogs and forums lately where people have described the bass as an instrument that's "main purpose" is to basically aid the drums. These arguments have ranged from "the best thing to keep in mind while playing bass is to only hit notes timed to the drums" to almost cryptic posts like "the purpose of the bass is to emphasize the drums."
Posts like that are idiotic and a major clue that the person telling you this shit probably has no idea what they're talking about and their own music probably sucks. If the Bass was that limited in it's purpose, it wouldn't be such a major part of rock bands.
Imagine 'A Day in the Life' with a simple little bass line that just followed the drums... It wouldn't sound the same because a major part of the song is the incredible bass line. Another great Beatles song that gains a lot from an amazing bass line is 'Rain'. Try to picture that song without the bass line (if it's even possible)
Sometimes it is a good idea to just use a simple bass line that just repeats the root, but if you get into a habit of doing this on every track you're music is gonna start to sound the same on every song. It's just as important to experiment with the bass as any instrument. Don't be afraid to try something different.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Bass Is Important
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Update Time!
I've been pretty busy lately working on a new rock album for my virtual band The Four Suns. It's a concept album that's a little more ambitious than Blazing Son. On that album, I just used the concept of the virtual band itself be the concept of the album (basically). This time it's a little different.
The title of the album is 'The Art of War' and every song takes place in an alternate reality caught up in World War III. But it's still not a straight up rock opera. It's somewhere in between. I'm also using a lot more electric guitars on this one.
I've completely finished four songs for the album and completed the instrumental arrangements for just about every song. I've got about 30 songs all together, but I'm gonna cut it down to around 14 for the album. Hopefully it'll be finished by the end of February.
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