@ the Helm

Rock the Bass

photo by Jennifer Chrumka

How to Rock Part II: The Bass

The bass is cool. It doesn't get in your face, it doesn't preach, it doesn't fight for your attention. The bass just slides up and wraps its sound around your backbone, and before you even realize it you're hooked.

The bass player is an integral part of rock, and three of Vancouver's finest practitioners of the low gave me some insight into the craft: Barry Higginson from the Doers, Johnny Uljevic of Notes from the Underground, and Rebecca Stewart from Vancougar.

The Players

All three came to the bass from different directions, but there was never any doubt that bass was their destiny. Like many others, Barry came to the bass by way of the guitar. When his band's bass man didn't show up one day, Barry got his chance.

"There is something about the bass, I didn't choose it as a default," Barry said between sips from his beer. "I view my brief period as a guitar player as a happy accident to point me in the direction of bass...bass was the destination."

Johnny initially thought that drums were his thing back in high school. He saved up his cash from a gas station job to get a kit. But the drums were never meant to be; something always seemed to sidetrack him before he made a purchase. "One day I woke up and said, I'm going to buy a bass," Johnny recalled. "It just needed to happen."

Becca dug a little deeper when she reflected on her reasons for choosing bass. At first she wasn't so sure. But later, in the clatter of a pub, a realization dawned on her.

"Oh my God," she gasped, "I think I became a bass player because I'm a middle child with abandonment issues, and a bass player will never be abandoned." Then she turned to me with a resolute gaze, "Someone always wants a bass player."

Good bass players are indeed precious resources to be coveted and fought over. But it takes a certain type of person to really do bass. Johnny said that bass players are "people who don't mind minding the shop." Then he talked about cleaning up the shop, and keeping thieves away, and then...

"Like that post in a big tall building. It's hidden, you can't see the post, all you see is the nice decorations outside, nice looking girls going in and out, it's great!" said Johnny, his eyes wide.

"No one ever sees the post, but being the post is nice. First of all, no one bothers you. You just want to play, relax and take it easy. You don't want people to bother you, and it's nice." Becca and Barry echoed Johnny's perceptions of the bass player mentality...more or less.

Pluck versus Pick

"Nothing's wrong with picking, but if you're a good friend of mine and I've watched you do gigs..."

Barry told me of a fellow comrade in arms (who just happened to be Johnny), that used a pick maybe a little too much for a show. "I like to rib Johnny and I like to wag my finger and tell him to put the pick away," said Barry with a large, slightly tooth deficient grin. "Every once in a while a bass guitar needs to be played like a guitar, so there's nothing wrong with a pick. But if you really care about the bass and you really care about the sound, I think you'll eventually start plucking with your fingers."

Johnny filled me in later. "He came up to me after a show, and he's like, hey how's it going?" Johnny then pulled himself up in his chair, raised an inquiring eyebrow, and in his best Barry voice said, "used a pick eh?" and promptly burst out laughing.

"Class though, total class. A bit of concern, a bit of interest, wanted some answers, but without demanding them," said Johnny, still chuckling. "I just told him, I love the fingers, but once in a while a pick can be a lot of fun."

Becca doesn't do the pick thing at all, but it's not because she doesn't like the sound; in her case it's more about the feeling. "I think there is something tactile about it. I've tried playing with a pick and I always end up dropping it. It's like a barrier. It's like a condom...there's something about the feeling of it on my fingers," said Becca, once again pondering the inner workings of her bass motivations.

"Sometimes I wish I could do the pick thing for fast Dee Dee Ramone stuff...but it's not comfortable for me."

Gear

"Whatever looks nice and sounds nice to you, that's what you should have," said Johnny, and Barry and Becca pretty much agreed. A bass player's gear is a very individual thing, and largely depends on what kind of sound is desired. It takes a lot of time and experimentation to get to what's right for each player.

Barry's main advice was to "borrow people's gear as much as you possibly can, and then you'll start learning what can do what."

Becca got a little more particular. "Tube amp. An amp with tubes in is key for a big warm sound. And I think it's better to have a half stack rather than a combo amp, because with a combo amp, when one thing breaks the whole thing is broken."

Beginner Mistakes

Barry once again got philosophical when I asked him about common mistakes that bass players make when they're just starting out. "Maybe I'm just an optimist, but I don't tend to see flaws in their playing as mistakes so much as maybe they haven't learnt how to play it better yet," said Barry after a long ruminating pause.

"Most of the time they play it like a guitar. But that's how I started doing it too, so there's nothing wrong with that."

Barry also cautioned against getting too focused on gear. He explained that often beginners "get ahead of themselves by acquiring or desiring better gear when they have a hard time arpeggiating a chord or keeping time." No amount of gear, no matter how cool, is going to help you if you can't play the instrument.

In Becca's mind, the biggest mistake beginning players make is "trying to learn everything all by themselves and not jamming." She told me that learning how to play bass and make music depends on playing with other people. You have to get over sounding like crap at the beginning and just do it.

"It's like sex. If you play by yourself too much, you won't be able to play well with others."

Playing well with others is fundamentally what the bass player needs to be able to do in a rock band. Bass players are the hidden posts that make the foundation of rock. So if you think you've got what it takes, go get yourself a bass that sounds good, feels good and looks good, and do it!

But remember, it's more than a guitar, it's a bass guitar.

Barry gave me a good quote from Luke Rogalsky of Mystery Machine that sums it up: "Duh, one note at a time."

band

The Doers------------------Vancougar--------------Notes from the Underground

influences

Mike Watt--------------------Tina Turner--------------Cliff Williams
Charles Mingus-----------Ko Melina-----------------Duff McKagan

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i published this article in the March issue of discorder

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