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GMC Forum _ Bogdan Radovic (Bass & Beginner Guitar) _ Bass Mtp

Posted by: Iluha Sep 19 2008, 04:21 PM

Hey Bogdan, I wanted to wait till the MTP's trial period was done before I ask you this, but than I figured, why not now?

I was wondering if you will be intrested in mentoring me on bass? I think I'm on an intermidiate-ish level, but I still got some symptoms of the "Guitarist on bass" disease, and I'm hoping you can help me get rid of those.

Thanks in advance man smile.gif

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 20 2008, 03:49 PM

Hello Iluha,
Generally I would be interested to mentor you on bass, I just need to wait till the trial period is over to see how things work on mentoring program exactly (and also to see required time for such assignment to compare it to my free one on disposal)..I must admit that mentoring program concept is currently not that clear to me (how it works on GMC)..
Till we wait for results from trials , we can talk here about exact things you are facing when playing bass...You can begin by describing how long have you played bass, what techniques do you use, what do you see as a weakness and everything.. smile.gif

Cheers mate! smile.gif


Posted by: Iluha Sep 20 2008, 07:11 PM

QUOTE (Bogdan Radovic @ Sep 20 2008, 04:49 PM) *
Hello Iluha,
Generally I would be interested to mentor you on bass, I just need to wait till the trial period is over to see how things work on mentoring program exactly (and also to see required time for such assignment to compare it to my free one on disposal)..I must admit that mentoring program concept is currently not that clear to me (how it works on GMC)..
Till we wait for results from trials , we can talk here about exact things you are facing when playing bass...You can begin by describing how long have you played bass, what techniques do you use, what do you see as a weakness and everything.. smile.gif

Cheers mate! smile.gif


Well I'm playing bass for about 4 months now.. and my biggest problem is that I'm just not creative on the bass, I ussually find myself being stuck following whatever the guitar is doing.

So I want to learn how to make things more intresting on the bass, like adding slap lines to heavy rock songs.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Sep 20 2008, 08:36 PM

As Bogdan said - we don't really have any guidelines for mtp yet - so I would advise you to use the forum for now!

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 21 2008, 10:06 PM

QUOTE (Iluha @ Sep 20 2008, 08:11 PM) *
Well I'm playing bass for about 4 months now.. and my biggest problem is that I'm just not creative on the bass, I ussually find myself being stuck following whatever the guitar is doing.

So I want to learn how to make things more intresting on the bass, like adding slap lines to heavy rock songs.


Do you play with fingers or a pick ? You may want to try playing with fingers (for the sake of change from guitar).I would suggest you to listen to some music genre that has involved bass lines like funk music (just tune into a radio station on some streaming web site and choose the genre).Try focusing yourself exclusively on drums.Good exercise would be to play on the bass guitar notes on kick drum only and perfectly in time..Just put some groove to play , isolate the kick drum in your head and lay some roots there..After you play some different grooves , you want to incorporate some more notes around those kicks..You want your bass to "groove" , to drive forward the song, you want it to blend with the drums..Guitar has a different role..When it comes to choosing what notes to play around roots which are most important, choose any of the chord tones! Those are your strong notes, you want to outline what the guitar is playing but not get in the way..You don't want to play busy licks for example , that's the job of guitar..You don't need to many notes in a bass line to make it good, its more about the feeling and keeping the groove going with the drums..Also muted notes in a bass line play a large role, try playing with them...They are as important as other notes..So to sum it up, in order to make a cool and strong bass line - think about your chord tones and build small catchy repetitive lines around them...And many times , less notes is better !
Regarding slap lines , they are very cool to use in songs...In a "commercial" songs simple slap licks (involving octaves mostly) will be a best bet..Use them in parts of the song you want to "Brighten" and make "explode" .Do not overuse it , just from time to time to keep it interesting...
So to enhance your bass ideas listen to a lot of bass involved music (power chords guitars don't leave much space for bass to shine through).

Posted by: Iluha Sep 22 2008, 09:53 PM

QUOTE (Bogdan Radovic @ Sep 21 2008, 11:06 PM) *
Do you play with fingers or a pick ? You may want to try playing with fingers (for the sake of change from guitar).I would suggest you to listen to some music genre that has involved bass lines like funk music (just tune into a radio station on some streaming web site and choose the genre).Try focusing yourself exclusively on drums.Good exercise would be to play on the bass guitar notes on kick drum only and perfectly in time..Just put some groove to play , isolate the kick drum in your head and lay some roots there..After you play some different grooves , you want to incorporate some more notes around those kicks..You want your bass to "groove" , to drive forward the song, you want it to blend with the drums..Guitar has a different role..When it comes to choosing what notes to play around roots which are most important, choose any of the chord tones! Those are your strong notes, you want to outline what the guitar is playing but not get in the way..You don't want to play busy licks for example , that's the job of guitar..You don't need to many notes in a bass line to make it good, its more about the feeling and keeping the groove going with the drums..Also muted notes in a bass line play a large role, try playing with them...They are as important as other notes..So to sum it up, in order to make a cool and strong bass line - think about your chord tones and build small catchy repetitive lines around them...And many times , less notes is better !
Regarding slap lines , they are very cool to use in songs...In a "commercial" songs simple slap licks (involving octaves mostly) will be a best bet..Use them in parts of the song you want to "Brighten" and make "explode" .Do not overuse it , just from time to time to keep it interesting...
So to enhance your bass ideas listen to a lot of bass involved music (power chords guitars don't leave much space for bass to shine through).


Thanks Bogdan, I figured just as much that I need to listen to more "cool" basslines... and that my fault is probably that I almost never heard an intresting bassline in a rock song.. got any suggestions?

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 22 2008, 10:21 PM

Hmm I would suggest listening to some Beatles songs (Paul McCarney makes great bass lines)..Also I got lots of inspiration from the RHCP (Flea almost always plays a fun line)...And most important , FUNK! I have these compilation cds In Yo' Face!: The History of Funk : http://www.amazon.com/Yo-Face-History-Funk-Vol/dp/B00000332V/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1222119556&sr=1-1
Really sums well all the important songs of the time....Also check out famous solo artists Victor Wooten , Marcus Miller and Stu Hamm for some inspiration...

Posted by: Iluha Sep 23 2008, 05:04 PM

QUOTE (Bogdan Radovic @ Sep 22 2008, 11:21 PM) *
Hmm I would suggest listening to some Beatles songs (Paul McCarney makes great bass lines)..Also I got lots of inspiration from the RHCP (Flea almost always plays a fun line)...And most important , FUNK! I have these compilation cds In Yo' Face!: The History of Funk : http://www.amazon.com/Yo-Face-History-Funk-Vol/dp/B00000332V/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1222119556&sr=1-1
Really sums well all the important songs of the time....Also check out famous solo artists Victor Wooten , Marcus Miller and Stu Hamm for some inspiration...

I'm aware of all of those, all awesome musicians, but I was talking more about the hard rock, metal even, that got intresting bass lines.

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Sep 23 2008, 08:10 PM

QUOTE (Iluha @ Sep 23 2008, 06:04 PM) *
I'm aware of all of those, all awesome musicians, but I was talking more about the hard rock, metal even, that got intresting bass lines.


I don't listen metal much , but Tool got really really cool bass concepts, also Mudwayne features cool lines.Rhapsody of fire got a cool bass player.Some Nightwish songs are fun on bass.Regarding hard rock , bands like Rush ,Guns n roses, got cool lines..Also there are Rage Against the Machine , Primus , Audioslave....These are just on top of my mind right now..But main thing is to listen other genres and try to apply ideas you get in your own composing...If you want to slap in a heavy song or play tapping in a pop song nothings stops you from doing it..Listening bass engaged stuff and isolating bass lines in your head when listening will give you a little different perspective on the whole instrument and will inspire you... smile.gif

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic May 17 2010, 05:05 PM

I heard that a new phase of MTP will start soon, so are there any interested players how want to take part in bass mtp? smile.gif

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic May 17 2010, 06:38 PM

QUOTE (VictorUK @ May 17 2010, 06:31 PM) *
YESSSSSSSSSSSS


Awesome I'll let you know when there is sign up thread available. Phase should start in June, so I guess it will come up really soon! smile.gif

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