Solo bass chord songs
July 5, 2018 1:31 PM Subscribe
I'm trying to develop some fluency with like actual proper chords on bass rather than the dissonant noiserock stuff I actually know how to do - do you have any recommendations for songs that work well for solo bass arrangements that aren't Blackbird by the Beatles? I'm starting to get a bit sick of that one...
Response by poster: That is kind of awesome, but not really what I'm looking for. I'm after more traditional harmonic chord-based songs that work well enough when the chords are stripped down to just two or three notes, since the bass muddies up pretty badly with, well, more than two, or three if you're way up the neck.
posted by Dysk at 2:21 PM on July 5, 2018
posted by Dysk at 2:21 PM on July 5, 2018
"Fast Car" works surprisingly well.
posted by thelonius at 2:25 PM on July 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 2:25 PM on July 5, 2018 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Assuming you mean the Tracy Chapman song and not Jonas Blue, then that's perfect, and an awesome song I hadn't heard! I'll be looking up more Tracy Chapman, and this has made me suspect that I can experiment with mining Joni Mitchell's back catalogue as well (as long as I don't try and sing!)
posted by Dysk at 2:33 PM on July 5, 2018
posted by Dysk at 2:33 PM on July 5, 2018
Yeah, sorry - Tracy Chapman.
I got that idea from a vlog by Janek Gwizdala, who has a lot of material about chords on bass, although the "Fast Car" one was about an ear training exercise (and it was playing along to a cover of the song, maybe by this Jonas Blue?)
The verse is, I think, like D, A , F#m, E - and those voicings fall pretty naturally on bass between the 10th and 14th fret, with options to use a lot of open strings.
posted by thelonius at 3:10 PM on July 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
I got that idea from a vlog by Janek Gwizdala, who has a lot of material about chords on bass, although the "Fast Car" one was about an ear training exercise (and it was playing along to a cover of the song, maybe by this Jonas Blue?)
The verse is, I think, like D, A , F#m, E - and those voicings fall pretty naturally on bass between the 10th and 14th fret, with options to use a lot of open strings.
posted by thelonius at 3:10 PM on July 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm not particularly great at it, but I like trying to play jazz standards (autumn leaves, fly me to the moon...) with bass.
There are simple standard 3-note voicings that put the 3rd and 7th on the G and D strings and the root on either the E or A strings. I think they're the same ones Adam Neely calls the "alpha voicings" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugt2wbcUOjs
They sound best to me well beyond the 12th fret, the sevenths are too muddy otherwise. You learn those in minor, major, and dominant versions and that gets you through 90% of standards. In a typical cycle-of-fifths progression the 3rds and sevenths slip a fret or two at a time down the G and D strings while the root alternates between E and A strings. You can do that, or play a bass line, or try some combination of the two.
posted by bfields at 6:39 PM on July 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
There are simple standard 3-note voicings that put the 3rd and 7th on the G and D strings and the root on either the E or A strings. I think they're the same ones Adam Neely calls the "alpha voicings" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugt2wbcUOjs
They sound best to me well beyond the 12th fret, the sevenths are too muddy otherwise. You learn those in minor, major, and dominant versions and that gets you through 90% of standards. In a typical cycle-of-fifths progression the 3rds and sevenths slip a fret or two at a time down the G and D strings while the root alternates between E and A strings. You can do that, or play a bass line, or try some combination of the two.
posted by bfields at 6:39 PM on July 5, 2018 [1 favorite]
Well... If you're talking about double-stops & bass chords, most bands don't love that because it can get kinda muddy in the mix. There's some bass players that can do some fancy things, but it depends on the context.
Lenny Kilmister was a genius at this kinda thing. He strummed his Ricky bass kinda like a guitar and made it fit into the entire mix in those classic old Hawkwind tracks. But I could note that this a unique place and time. Motörhead was a bit different, and interesting.
posted by ovvl at 6:56 PM on July 5, 2018
Lenny Kilmister was a genius at this kinda thing. He strummed his Ricky bass kinda like a guitar and made it fit into the entire mix in those classic old Hawkwind tracks. But I could note that this a unique place and time. Motörhead was a bit different, and interesting.
posted by ovvl at 6:56 PM on July 5, 2018
Oh, look at some Carol Kaye videos on YouTube. Some of her theme is following guitar arpeggios on bass.
posted by ovvl at 7:14 PM on July 5, 2018
posted by ovvl at 7:14 PM on July 5, 2018
Response by poster: For reference, I am already very comfortable in a Lemmy-esque style (and play that way in a couple bands), and already know how to construct chords of different voicings, I'm just looking for songs to play (at home, on my own) to develop some flow and fluency with more 'proper' chords. I currently have no plans to apply it in any of the bands I play in, as it would be wholly inappropriate in those settings.
posted by Dysk at 2:09 AM on July 6, 2018
posted by Dysk at 2:09 AM on July 6, 2018
Response by poster: So maybe we could focus on actually answering the question - recommending some chord based songs I can arrange for solo bass - and not so much on trying to teach me about chords or bass or tell me why it's a bad idea?
posted by Dysk at 2:12 AM on July 6, 2018
posted by Dysk at 2:12 AM on July 6, 2018
Check out Pinback. Tripoli is pretty great (here is a live version where you can see what he is doing). Basically all their songs are based on bass playing like this. Sometimes it is surprising that it isn’t a bass and a guitar together playing the part that just the bass is playing.
posted by umbú at 7:07 PM on July 6, 2018
posted by umbú at 7:07 PM on July 6, 2018
Loro by Pinback might be an even better example. Here’s the album track.
posted by umbú at 7:16 PM on July 6, 2018
posted by umbú at 7:16 PM on July 6, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by farlukar at 1:42 PM on July 5, 2018 [1 favorite]