Walknbluez wrote:eric wrote:i will defer to a real bass player on that one .....btw , your band sounds grate!
Thanks eric! BTW, it seems like "box pattern" talk is immediately recognized by guitar players but seems like something that bass players, even really good ones, don't know anything about. But then there is stuff online, i.e. your link that talks about it.
I personally don't focus on box patterns at all... since we move at about half Jerry's speed, there's plenty of time to think about individual notes or at least intervals or scale degrees without relying too much on muscle memory.
Walknbluez wrote:
The song in question was "Don't Ease Me In". Easy two chord song but I'm not really playing it like Phil and I think I'm using the fifth (lower fifth) too much so there's too much of a cowboy tune feel to it. They want me to bounce around more and get rid of the cowboy feel. I've listened to several versions with Phil and I can't quite cop what he's doing so I decided to keep it simple when we first started but agree that it's time to venture out more. That's when the box pattern suggestion came. Here's a recording of the song....if it's not too much troube maybe you guys can critique my playing and give me some ideas how to venture out on this one (either using the box pattern theory or something else, whichever works)?
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_11108808
You're actually pretty close to what Phil's doing! I'd make just a couple of tweaks:
You're starting nearly every verse with the two-beat country feel, and extremely behind the beat. This song is from their initial country period back when they had a ton of energy, and came back right when Brent was re-energizing the band, so make it bounce a little more: Shorten up those first few notes a little and play a more on top of the beat.
There's nothing wrong with using that classic root-five bassline, but you need a little more variety. Sometimes go root and then the higher five, etc. The same goes for your climb-ups between chords - what you're doing is fine except that you're a little too consistent. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than what you're already playing, it just has to keep changing. Slight and subtle variations are enough for a song like this, you don't want to make radical changes that stick out like a sore thumb. If it helps, sit down and plan out 10 different ways to play a verse that all still sound like Don't Ease.
Playing Phil is the opposite of being a normal bass player where we train ourselves to be consistent, you have to be a little bit unpredictable at all times.