My three tips for beginner bassists as an old dude: 1) Get a drum machine and practice against it non stop. Timing is everything when you are in the rhythm section. 2) Learn chords and understand how they fit into scales. Yes you won't use them directly, but a chord is just an arpegio played all at once. These are the basic notes you'll be writing your baselines from. So if the songs in A minor. The chords will be triads that fit that scale. Theres your notes, now use them to make the drummers beat pop. 3) Keep it simple, and follow. By supporting the beat, and supporting (not defining! Unless thats what the song is, of course) the chords and melody, you make the whole band sound great, and hopefully they'll pass it back and give you a chance to pop your own spotlight. and finally, when your competent, go learn jazz. Seriously, those cats have some fucking great theory going on, and even if its not your first choice of music , it WILL make you a better musician. Oh and in Jazz, the bassist gets to solo....every.....damn.....song. Mingus, Pastorious, Wooten, all those guys are/where fucken amazin
Right on. Jazz really teaches you a lot, even if you don't want to play it full time afterwards. And one of the greats, Ron Carter, is pretty far from a flashy player. Most of the time he's just outlining the chords or walking through scales. In the groups he played for, like Miles' Second Great Quintet (with Tony Williams on drums!), he was essentially the music director. No matter what crazy ass out shit one of the other players was doing, Ron was there making sure the form carried on and everyone knew where it was, including the listener.
@@theredhotchilipepperssexof4269 You know, separate the art products from the artists. I like Metallica music even though I knew Lars is a manipulative and greedy s.o.b who almost screwed his bandmate's career. That's just my opinion, though. And I thought Western countries have respect toward different opinions.
@@theredhotchilipepperssexof4269 thank you for that report. I have a feeling we would have a much lower opinion of many of our male heroes if we spend more time listening to the women that had to work with them.
It is when he stops all the slapping and popping. In other words when he's in Atoms for peace. RHCP have to be one of the most overrated bands of all time.
I play a lot of slap on my own as I find it funnier to play, but when I play with others I'll only slap if they REALLY want me too, which they rarely do. I enjoy being the one who keeps the groove, and, in my opinion, how simplistic the bass line may be, it's not about the difficulty or speed, but about making the other band members truly shine.
saber wolfe it all depends what type of music your playing. If your just in some cover band or typical rock band then you won’t use it much. Funk jazz fusion and such you do it a shit load. Also, if someone is slapping a lot in GC or something they are just having fun and most players enjoy seeing each others slap techniques and learning new stuff. Plus they feel who wants to hear them sit there and finger 3 notes over and over. Wake up you guys. Don’t be so one sided. The guys slapping great are likely dialed in with the typical shit already. I wanted to toss a guy out yesterday cuz he was playing horrible and with mostly treble in GC for like 30 minutes. He finally left. Then I realized who he was and I’ve seen his band and he’s great. Y’all got too much hate for slap, hope you don’t tell victor wooten, Marcus miller, Stanley Clark, Stu ham, bootsy, flea, and so on the slap isn’t even bass.
As a Lead Guitarist I always depended on the melody of my bass player to determine what I would do. By doing so, much like what Flea is saying here, I always felt like the bridge between the singer and the drummer. I was blessed with one of the finest rhythm sections I have ever seen or heard and by being so tight as a unit (they were always playing together in their respective roles for 15yrs since starting) I always considered them as almost one instrument. That being said, learning bass was one of the most gratifying things I've ever done as a musician. I loved feeling like I was not only an anchor, but with my experience as a Lead player I could really verbalize and express melody in a way you sometimes can't on a guitar. Hearing Flea's love letter to the bass guitar here is really incredible because I agree with him fully. It's a beautiful, real and (in my heart) correct statement he makes here. The funny part being I am one of the people he talks about being a support for but by taking time to invest myself into his instrument of choice and loving the experience I respect it even more than I already had. Bass players get a raw deal sometimes, and at times they may deserve it (looking at you every band brodude who realized they sucked at everything else and moved on to bass) BUT the reason for poking fun or being negative towards bass players is because we all know drums, vocals, guitar or otherwise that we need them. Sure, sometimes dropping bass makes something a bit more unique (Kiss by Prince for example) but at the end if the day it NEEDS to be there. Flea, thank you for this moving statement on the thing you love most. It makes the world happy when you're happy. This man had THE best, most honest humble and loving RnR Hall of Fame speech of all time. I don't think anyone was quite as grateful and happy to be honored in that way in all the years I've been watching thise ceremonies and singlehandedly made me an RHCP Fan. Peace, Love and Rock n Roll CJ
"You wanna make sound the drum player like the best in the world" Now I get why people think lars is a great drum player with cliff here anyone can be the best
He is not great. He is just OK for the job. Just listen to And justice. There is so much going on in the music while he just goes on. It works for the specific band he is in, but there is litle creativity going on.
He's at the very core of the band. The band has always been the way it has because of lars, with the ups and downs of it. It's not just about playing your instrument in a band, unless you're doing cover bullshit
Lars Ulrich is a good drummer, not an exceptional one. But in Metallica the music doesn't really need a Neil Peart or a Danny Carey to drive the sound. He just needs to keep the beat.
I think I would trust Flea's advice about Bass and it's position in a band setting as he has play in at least one band in his lifetime and that style was/is popular (by that I mean accessible to a large audience). He has also played in a recording setting many times. All of that together puts him in the positon of SME (Subject Matter Expert). Way to go Flea!
Bass has just always felt right for me :) I've always been the "supportive" guy in all my social circles, and I like to think I'm a giver, so in the name of Flea, and in my own name too, I'll strive to make whoever I play with sound legendary :D Only been playing for 8 months, but I'll take my time getting up there in skill
Wow. I am NOT a Flea fan, but WOW. Very eloquent, thoughtful, cerebral, scholarly. He's like one of those athletes you see onfield/court who's a total animal, eyes rolling up in their head and blood streaming down their chin, but then you see him interviewed and he's a total erudite Oxford scholar. Blown away, great clip, great quotes. Who knows, maybe I AM becoming a Flea fan...
Spoken like a true pro. Words of wisdom from Flea. It's beautifully executing these things he's talking about which make him a great bassist. He can be busy as hell, but he also knows when to lay back. He knows when to slap aggressively and when to give it a soft finger walking approach because he's listening to the band and playing what is appropriate for the song. He's giving great advice that every young basis should heed. Hell, it's advice bassists of all ages should heed.
my dads been playing sense he was 13. these are basically the same things he always told me. and the only things he taught me. was the notes. how to tune. where the notes are and how to hold my hands. that's it. no songs. not how to read music. (he can't himself). his advice is. you are married to the drummer. that's his number 1 advice. his second is any mistake you make. move on and learn from it. don't make it look like there was any mistake at all.
Great advice. I've finally taken up bass when I found one that felt right (short scale gretsch). I was a guitarist and I knew I wasn't cut out to be one, but my ego stopped me dropping onto the instrument that would fire me up properly. Now I realise, as with most things in life, it's a greater pleasure to give than to receive, but in giving you always get back more than you could ever expect..
and feel - listen and open yourself to a kind of empathy for the players in the band. Let yourself feel what they are. As you are playing, this is when music becomes something else, transcends.
The true spirit of a band is the guitarists and drummers support every instrument to shine like a mini solo or breakdown not to drown out or steal the light all the time that's selfish. Some bands do this and it shows through their music. So no bass isn't only a rythym support instrument it has its spotlight moments when the guitarist stops while the bass does a solo etc.. Don't let the instrument role limit your ability to shine yourself. You need more stamina than the guitarist too.
thats really inspiring. When I saw RHCP last summer, they sucked complete balls but the rythm section tried everything to save the performance, especially Flea
flea is boss AF. thank you so much for this . i also love how some people claim to be "real musicians" but then they look at an instrument as "inferior" to the other instruments. everything has its part. appreciate it dont hate it #wewantequalrights #stopbeingbassist #wearefriendsnotfood #beateamplayer
Listening to everyone else is good advice, but vague. Putting your bass note in the "o" of the "pop" of a drum hit is great, specific advice for a bassist to get synced with the drummer. As long as the drummer has good time, that is.
Sage words from a master. Thank you Flea. One question that has often occurred to me is: In the context of supporting the other instruments, how does Paul McCartney's lines in such songs as 'Something', most of the tunes on Sgt. Pepper, etc... fit into this concept of 'support'? To me it's almost as is the roles are reversed! It's not that the songs suffer from his playing, in reality, they thrive because of it, but I find it a curious accomplishment that other bass players rarely attempt (including Sir Paul himself these days).
11rfpro why? You can't do a live performance at the Super Bowl (except vocals). There is no time to do a soundcheck and get everything right. It has to be fast. Al those other artist where also play backing. Coldplay, bruno mars, everybody. It's not so difficult you know...
All big time musicians do that sooner or later. And the Joe Schmos in the audience and TV audience don't have the ear to know the damn difference anyway, so WTF? People act like it's such a mortal sin to do that, but it's really just standard show biz.
So very important to listen to the other instruments ... right, so that's why every time this non-singing drummer played out I was handed a monitor with nothing but vocals in it and the amp backline was alongside of me facing straight forward. So very important to be yourself and love what you love ... so that's why I quit playing out.
I'm the girl who massages her own ... ta tas.. from down under.. this is bliss as a musician songwriter. You are beautiful and you speak beauty my grandfather taught me to play music by ear...
Think of the last time you were at someone's home and used their bathroom.. You take aleak, flush the toilet, the water spins around and goes down the drain. You go to the sink, turn on a little hot water, a little cold water, wash and rinse your hands and turn the water off. Now what are the odds you'll walk out of that bathroom and tell every how great a job the plumber did..?? And such is the bassist...
