Tips and Inspiration from 14 Bass Greats – No Treble

The road to greatness is rough and rocky. Playing the bass is one thing, but be become a better musician is to follow a crooked path that’s often littered with pitfalls and plateaus. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of tips from the greats to provide insight, perspective, and inspiration to rekindle your spark.

David Hood (Legendary Studio Bassist)

Becoming a Studio Player

You have to be willing to try anything, even if it’s music you don’t really care for. You need to put that out of your head and do the best at whatever it is. That’s why we were able to record so many different types of music, because we were open-minded. We weren’t strictly country players, rhythm and blues players, or rock players, but we were willing to try anything and make believers out of the people we were trying to make believers out of, be it the artist, the producer, or the record buyers. We also played for the playback speakers… the drummer tuned his drums for the sound of the studio and would make adjustments if it didn’t sound right. It was the same with me and the guitar players; we’d hear a playback and then go back and figure out what it needed.

My rules have always been: be on time, be in tune, and be ready to work. Have your mind open to whatever they want you to play and do your best version of that.

Roger Glover (Deep Purple)

On Learning To Fail

I did a talk at a bass show some years ago. I’m a very simple bass player. Even just going in a shop and listening to people playing, they play better than I do. I’m a very simple guy. The bulk of my lecture was basically that, and I said, “My advice to any young bass player is to find three brilliant musicians and hang on tight.”

I think the advice to anyone doing anything is you have to learn how to fail before you learn to succeed. If the first thing you do is a success, you haven’t learned anything. You learn from mistakes and failures. You learn to hit the bottom when your expectations are dashed and you get up and keep on trying. It’s not easy. Back in the 60s when I was playing in local bands, we used to do five or six gigs a week. I did eight years of playing. By the time I met Deep Purple, I knew the road. Nowadays, it seems if you’ve turned 19 and you haven’t had a hit, you’re a goner, which is a shame. Music doesn’t always come instantly. Sometimes you have to let it build. I would say don’t expect too much. Expectations will kill you.

I never practiced that much, which is a bit of a shame, but I would suggest if you’re going to play you should practice a bit more. Practice more than I did, anyway.

Alana Rocklin (STS9)

On Keeping a Jam Interesting

I think it’s dependent upon who you’re playing with and what they’re contributing. In STS9, we try to make the improvisation a conversation where it’s not really any one person soloing necessarily, but it’s conversing. At one moment we might be in a really deep conversation and in another moment we might be in an excited fast conversation. I try to just let the music and what other people are doing guide me. As a bass player, you have this immense responsibility to lead the band in this way. I try to really keep my ears open and listen and let that guide me more than I try to control what the improvisation is.

The other thing that we try to do is compose on the spot. Not necessarily jam, though I think people might define it as jam. In our minds, we’re trying to make a new composition based on the song. We’re trying to create melodies and space for that to occur. It’s a really unique and fun way to improvise the way we do. It’s not about soloing, it’s not about making changes in a certain way. It’s about the conversation. That also has a lot to do with the crowd and the energy that they’re giving and what we’re giving back. It gets to be this really amazing circular thing.

My advice to anyone about how to get to that place with your improvisation: fundamentals. Always. I still practice scales every day and I still practice making sure my time is good. I’m working on my time at all times and making sure I’m honoring the tradition of the bass. If you do that, it’s amazing how your listening and your ability to just react in the moment becomes so much easier.

Pops Magellan (Adam Lambert, Willow, Avril Lavigne)

On Finding Your Voice

I’d say look further into your sound, like your voice. Most of the players, they just go work for other musicians, like side musicians and touring. But you should still develop yourself not just as a player, like techniques and simple, like as a whole package and as a musician.

If people nowadays could use less YouTube, because everything’s there, all the information, It’s really hard today to create something new. How can you be really true to yourself when you’re going to create and express yourself? There is so much going on and so many influences, you sit and start listening to another artist or to another bass player and [you risk becoming] kind of copy. You’re going to be influenced so much that where’s your voice? Who are you? So yeah, all the technology and access to information is amazing, but it’s tricky, too.

Matt Ulery

On Composing

Obviously, composing requires various skill sets. You need some way to communicate the best way to other people to play your music unless you can compose music and record it and have that method. That’s great, too. Find the way you’re best at communicating music, whether it’s scoring or recording demos or whatever it is. Call upon the people and technology that you need for that and book it.

If you’re looking to get into it as a bass player… this sounds like a terrible answer, but you just have to do it. If you want to get into it, just do it. One way to do that is to think of the kind of music you’d like to write and then try writing something like that. Say you like the tune “The Peacocks”. Try writing a song that sounds just like “The Peacocks”. You don’t have to worry about it being derivative or whatever because it will be and it had better be, because that’s how music works. It’s never not going to be you coming out. If you just sit down and do the work and listen to your musical ideas, then you’ll do it.

You have to set creative limitations. Don’t try just anything. Try doing something in particular. That’s always going to generate the most creativity. If you’re a creative person, you don’t want to be bogged down by all the possibilities.

Will McGee (Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country)

On Breaking Into A New Scene

It takes time to get yourself out there. You just have to always be developing the original music side of things so when you step into a situation you can provide to the music in that way instead of learning an exact part from a chart. Some people want you to do that, but I think there’s a lot of value in showing them what you can bring to it. It’s the classic bass player thing of trying to bring yourself to the music without making it about yourself.

I guess the advice I would give anyone trying to make music if they’re go to Nashville is to focus on getting three great kinds of sets. You need like a great 45 minute set, a great hour long set and a great 90 minute set. Make those with your own music as much as possible and songs you’re really proud of plus a couple of covers. You want more of your own music than covers if you can help it in that situation.

Nashville for a band scene is kind of a giant incubator because every show you go to, the audience is other musicians. So it’s as if you were a comedian and you were doing comedy for a room full of comedians – you’re not getting the biggest laughs, but you’re getting a lot of people paying attention.

Linus Klausenitzer (Obsidious)

On Writing More Melodic Bass Lines

When there is space for a bass line and for melodies then of course I use that space. You need to create that space in a composition, which no guitarist will do. In a band context you’ve got to suggest that there could be a bass part, and that of course works best if it’s not a blast beat and a sweeping guitar under it.

So bass melodies work when there is space. Especially for the fretless bass, which has more of a mellow sound so it fits very well over acoustic parts and clean parts.

That’s why on my solo record you can very often hear it in intros because I like to build the song up and I present the theme on my fretless bass. Then it comes later again in a guitar melody before the solo or in the chorus or something like that. I try to present a melody with the bass sometimes which is something I can recommend.

That doesn’t necessarily need to happen with a fretless bass; that can happen with any kind of bass. It’s a very typical commercial way of presenting a theme or a motive. If you have a strong chorus and a strong hook, you can present it in the beginning with any instrument you want.

Another idea is that very often you have chord progressions played with power chords on guitar and or melodies where the root note is very clear. Everybody can hear the root note because the guitar plays it or synthesizers also play the root note. In this case, the bass doesn’t necessarily have to play the root note. You can also switch to other chord notes. You can go on the third and the fifth. If you do that here and there, it gives your ear a surprising moment. It keeps the part fresh and gives it another touch and more character.

On a fretted bass something that I really like is when you play the root note and you just play the third with on the high string on the G or C string – whatever you have available – you can add another note so you play an interval instead of only the root note. Again, that works in more open parts where you have a standing chord or something like that from the guitars, where you don’t need to play eighth notes or sixteenth notes on the bass guitar.

Danny Ziemann

On Becoming a Better Teacher

Becoming a great teacher is about your mindset, and a lot has to do with natural intuition and human connection. Remember that you’re teaching people, not “just” bassists or musicians. While it’s easy to focus the lesson or outcomes just on what we can do — e.g., technique, exercises, playing songs, etc. — sometimes the biggest advancements come from fostering a very human connection with the people who study with us and making sure the student feels heard and understood.

One practical thing is to video record your lessons and review them after. Were there things you missed or glossed over in the lesson? This is a very confronting and vulnerable process, but one that can quickly lead to effective changes in your teaching.
Otherwise, think about something unique you bring to the table. Of all the teachers in the world, why did the student come to study with you? Was it only to learn about technique? (Probably not).

Whenever I start working with a new student, I think about the following two things: 1) What will they understand and be able to do/demonstrate after our lessons are finished?, and 2) What’s something that they might ONLY learn from me and my experience/perspective? So many early-career teachers focus primarily on technique and miss other teaching opportunities.

In a musician’s studying life — assuming they take lessons from other teachers — I know that there will always be enough talk about technique and theory. ALWAYS! Adopting a mindset around your unique experience helps create lessons that are more personalized without this feeling of “Oh shoot, I need to give them more exercises and ____.” That’s why I focus much of my energy on listening and creating activities that develop the ear, for example.

Victor Wooten

On Identity

A lot of people feel lost right now… Many of us define ourselves by what we do – so much that we’ve forgotten who we are. Right now we’re forced to face who we are, and we don’t know who that is so we think we’ve lost ourselves. No, this is your time to find yourself. Recreate yourself. Express yourself. Make it better.

Most of the world knows me as a bass player. That’s what I do, [but] that ain’t who I am. If I had to write who I am, bass player is not really who I am. My kids don’t care about that. My wife doesn’t care. Yes, that brings income, but I do that to bring income. Who I am, hopefully, is a good person, a kind person, a person who thinks, a person who sees, a loving dad, a loving husband, a person who wants to make the world better every time I take a step or a breath. To me, that’s who I want to be and hopefully, it’s a part of who I am. Right now in knowing and even improving who I am, when I bring that back to what I do, what I do has to be better, you know? I can literally put down what I do and put my bass down. We’re all being forced to do that, which is making many of us lost because we define ourselves by what we do. In many cases, we hide behind what we do. Many of us don’t even want to face who we really are.

Lorenzo Feliciati

On The Love Of Music

Never stop living the dream, no matter if you are a professional musician or someone playing only for the fun and love of it: music is the best. And if you want to let playing be your way of earning money be prepared cause there’s a jungle out there. If you prepare yourself and force yourself to work hard every day to make your skills better [you’ll have] good chances to be successful in the business. But the main force must always be your love for music.

Katie Thiroux

On Keeping It Simple

Strictly bass talk: Know and hear what sound you want and how to achieve it. Learn where every single note is on the instrument, harmonics and all. Otherwise, simple always wins. Everyone needs a bass player and simply having good time and intonation can get you by before you need all the fancy stuff!

Eva Gardner (The Mars Volta, Pink)

On Workflow

One of the biggest tips for me is making a habit. I read this great book called Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey. It’s about the habits of everyone from Chopin to Dali and how they work. One quote I really loved was something to the effect of “I only create when inspiration strikes. It just so happens that inspiration strikes at 9 AM every morning.”
You can’t just wait around to be inspired. It’s like working a muscle. When you sit down at 9 AM or whatever time, your brain sets off into the gear for when you create. It can work for anything. Even if you don’t get anything done that day, so to speak, you’re working that muscle. You train your brain and the ideas flow easier eventually. It’s like going to the gym. That’s when the pathways open.

Another one that I really liked that I mentioned earlier is just finishing ideas. Even if you think it’s complete crap, just finish it and you can edit later. Don’t edit as you go. I was writing an essay recently and someone told me about a feature on Microsoft Word where the delete key doesn’t work. You can’t fix anything, you just have to write, write, write, write, write. That’s been a helpful tactic, too. Don’t listen to that little voice that wants to edit everything.

Jimbo Hart (Muscle Shoals Bassist)

On Making Better Recordings At Home

There’s a lot of little technical things about it. The differences in DI’s and preamps come into play a lot, especially if you’re not using an amp. I recently got an old Urei 315 DI. It’s got the Urei transformer like an 1176. It sounds really good with a P-bass or with an active bass like my Sadowsky. A lot of times an active DI or a passive DI will change the personality of the bass. It’s all about impedance matching and gain stage. Gain stage is huge, especially when you’re recording bass.

Alex Dixon

On Being True To The Groove

I would say just try to lock in with your drummer. I try to make sure that feel is important. Just play for the song – don’t play to be noticed or try to show off. That’s what I go for. I’ve seen that with other bass players I’ve met, like Willie Weeks. Anytime he’s playing it’s for feel. For blues bass, sometimes less is more.

At the same time, it depends on the situation. I just listen to old records, man. I figure out what the sound is I like, and usually, it’s my grandfather [Willie Dixon’s] stuff. That’s how I learned upright bass for the most part. I just grabbed Chuck Berry’s box set and said, “Ok, here we go. I’m gonna learn all these songs.” That’s pretty much what I did, and I even told Chuck Berry that.