So why bass players are the most important musicians in a rock band? I don’t want to be controversial by saying that, I’m a guitar player first, but in this article, I want to demonstrate that the bass, the sound but also the guy who plays the bass, has a great impact on the quality of a band.
Power and responsibility
There are some studies that claim that the human brain finds it easier to understand and find the rhythm in a song when it is played at a lower tone, such as a bass. I’m not gonna go into details about how it’s like that, but I can say that this fact gives a lot of power and also a lot of responsibilities to the bass player.
As a matter of fact, in a live situation, if there is a musician that will get noticed if he hits a wrong note, it’s the bass player. I mean, if I’m playing a guitar solo and I miss a note, it will probably go unnoticed, but when the bass player misses a note, everyone in the band knows it.
So the bass player can’t be sloppy, but it’s the main thing I want to talk about in this article. I want to talk about music composition, and also being in a cover band, which is what I do. (Well what I did before breaking my hand and then the pandemic, but it’s another story)
Music composition
So for music composition, the bass player has some important choices to make. Sometimes it’s a struggle between what’s best for the song and what’s fun to play, it’s true for all instruments but I think it’s the bass that has the most sacrifice to make sometimes, due to the nature of the instrument.
There’s also a lot of small variations on what you can play, but they will have a great impact on the final result. On this YouTube video, I’m showing some variations on the bass, using the same guitar riff, just to demonstrate how you can change the feel of a song just by changing little things on the bass.
Cover band
If you’re in a cover band that plays rock or pop music, you don’t get the chance to improvise a lot, like say the guitar player or the keyboard. If you change the bass line too much, you’re going to change the nature of the song, and most of the time it’s bad. I think that great cover bands are the ones that understand what the foundations of the songs are, and they respect that.
Great bass lines examples
There are two great examples of classic rock songs that I play regularly and they demonstrate that perfectly.
The first one is Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Well AC/DC is a great example of how you play bass for the song first and not for yourself. In Thunderstruck, the bass player plays the same note for 2 and a half minutes, that’s literally half of the song on a steady B note. During this time the guitar plays a flashy lick, so the bass player has to be really unselfish during all this time and stick to that note.
But when the time comes to change the riff, the impact is amazing, all this tension leads to a great release. And it would not be possible if the bass player didn’t accept to play a boring riff. That’s a great example of what it means to play for the song.
The other song is Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. We all know the classic guitar riff, one of the most iconic in rock history. But did you notice that the bass never plays that riff? The bass line is really simple, it’s the same note except for the end of the riff. It may be boring to play, but it helps the song. The bass line allows the guitar riff to stand out, it creates tension and releases at the end when the bass locks with the guitar.
It also drives the beat, it gives the illusion of movement when it contrasts with the other parts of the song. If a cover band plays that song and the bass player does the same thing the guitar does, I’m pretty sure the crowd won’t get into it as much, even if they won’t be able to explain why.
Conclusion
Playing bass is sometimes overlooked, but it’s one of the most important instruments in a rock or pop band. The bass player has a lot of power to influence the feel of a song, but it comes with some responsibilities and some choices to make, like what is best for the song.
Check the Squier by Fender Affinity Series Jazz Bass V String, my bass used in the video.
