Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio

To Pluck or To Pick?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 02:48:00 +0000

It's been in recent weeks I've been investigating a new tone. I'm a strong believer in not using a pick as a bass player. Now keep in mind, I love so many tones that use a pick. Many of the old school and modern punk bands, metal, classic rock. I started on my fingers and was determined to get my speed that way. I feel I've achieved that and of course I will continue to keep it in shape and develop. I came up with the impression at first that folks used a pick to develop speed easier. To me that seemed as a weakness. On that account, I worked very hard on my right hand to gain speed and articulation playing finger style early on. It of course is an on going mission. In fact, I still do and will encourage my students to develop a finger style first and foremost. As time passed on, I still heard tones I loved that used picks. In fact, I've spent much of my focus time wise competing with pick tones. After all, I spent all the time working my right hand finger technique. Beyond that, I would get compliments on the speed I could acquire with my finger style. I've used different pedals, compressors, muting techniques, plucking positions, etc. Now I'm facing a new project where I just may have to use a pick. In this case it's not about speed, it's about tone and vibe, nothing more, nothing less. Sure I could tweak pedals for days and get a fairly competent tone. I know in my heart of hearts the music isn't too fast that I can probably take some practice time and use a pick. So that's what I'm going to do! I will use finger style for this project as well but it's apparent that if I want it to sound as authentic as possible, I'll have to get over my ego and years of investment in finger technique and break out a heavy pick. I love the prospect though. I don't anticipate being a huge advocate for pick playing as a bass player but I'm excited about a new challenge for sure.

There's a link in this blog that has a small demo of me playing fingerstyle but getting a bit of that plunky pick tone. It was a demo for a students to study the Oingo Boingo song "Elevator Man". Because it was just for reference, I simply plugged my P-Bass into a SansAmp VT Bass pedal and then into the computer.. You can hear even as a fingerstyle player with the right technique you can get a pretty good sounding pick tone.

Now keep in mind, if it were a personal project it's just not my interest to play with a plectrum. As years have passed, my attitude towards the betterment of the project has become more important than exposing the fruits of my labor as a player.

Evolving as a player is not just about theory and groove. We have to make sure we continue to evolve as team players, bandmates, product producers. It's equally important.

It's plunky time!

Elevator Man (bass sample)

Stage Volume

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:13:00 +0000

Have you ever walked off stage thinking you played a great show? Someone walks up to you and says, "I couldn't hear you at all". Funny, you were plenty loud on stage. Have you ever walked off stage thinking you couldn't hear yourself very well? Someone walks up to you and says, "You were so loud!". Turning up and turning down in the middle of songs, bandmates doing the same. It can get crazy sounding on stage. Everyone want's to "feel it". For many "feeling it" means cranking it up.

Does loud stage volume constitute good stage volume? Hardly. Most of the time, if your band is going through a P.A., the soundman will want you to have a conservative amount of stage volume. Why is that? Most soundguys believe that they can do a good job mixing the band if the sounds from all the amps don't cary into the crowd too much. If you don't agree with this, I understand. You might be one of many who says "The audience must hear me at all costs, and I must hear myself." What happens when you perform with that attitude? You sound great to yourself and the first 5 human rows of people in the crowd, the engineer turns you all the way down in the P.A. because even then your amp is still too loud. In addition, your band can't be mixed well because you decided you needed to hear yourself at all costs. Your statement.... as long as I sound good, I'm happy. Nevermind how my band sounds as a whole.

Sometimes I feel I have no right to write these articles as I believe I'm always learning. I have a lot of experience and I've made many sacrifices in my search for the best stage volume. It all started when I got into playing through smaller amps in larger venues. That reality about the amp on stage being just for my listening pleasure hit home in a big way. After that, I started asking soundguys to tell me if I needed to bring my stage volume up or down. They always seemed very happy about my welcoming them to chime in on the issue. Sometimes it was great, sometimes I could have held a more roaring show in my bedroom with some volumes that have been requested of me.

What is the correct stage volume? There's no right answer. As most of you know, every gig is different. I used to think if I matched my stage volume to the drums things would be pretty good. Not so! I learned that my stage volume is almost never as loud as rehearsal volumes. At rehearsal, your amp volume is in fact responsible for filling up the room so everyone can hear. The same can be said for gigs with minimal P.A. systems where maybe they just put the vocals through.

It takes a lot of experimentation and of course it's a venue to venue issue on this subject matter. I've had plenty of shows where I set my own conservative stage volume and then suffered as far as not being able to hear myself on stage or lost my headroom for playing dynamically. Dynamics is how you want to gauge your stage volume. If your amp is so quiet that you feel you have to play with more strength than usual, it's good cause to turn up. If we were all blessed with masterful monitor mixes on the stage and nice lengthy soundchecks all the time it would never be an issue. I imagine most of you reading this are entry level to intermediate players in addition to players who gig in many different styles like me. My amp doesn't have a "set it and forget it" setting that I use for all gigs and all instruments. Sure I know what I like to do with my amp typically but I always do a minute or two of adjusting once I put my gear on stage. Sometimes, I think I have my amp set up the way I'd like it but then get on stage and found out the room drinks low end for breakfast and I have to crank some "bass" in my bass. Some rooms fill up will little effort so I may have to turn way down.

There are so many variables. Being aware of your surroundings and what is happening all around you is the best advice I can give on almost all of the musical experiences. Sacrifice is inevitable yet it always comes with a lesson to learn. Ideally, your stage volume is for you, possibly the drummer a little if he isn't getting a good monitor mix. You will probably play your whole show and not know exactly what your instrument sounds like to the crowd until you walk off stage and people start telling you what it sounded like. This is the angle of live sound that always keeps me humble. What I hear on stage through my amp and even my monitors is just for me and my bandmates. My awesome expensive speaker cabinet is almost always for my reference only. There's lots of good and bad live sound engineers out there and you usually don't have control over it. All you can do is ask the crowd a few times "Can you hear everything alright?"

Much of your stage volume is going to have to do with the equipment you choose and how you set it up on stage. I've had very comfortable stage volumes with smaller amps set on a chair. I've had hard to hear stage volumes with a cranked amp and a huge speaker cabinet. Some of these issues are dependent on the directionality of a speaker cabinet. If the speaker is sealed up and has no porting on the front, it may not fill up a very wide area. I've found much of the time, standing right in front of your amp isn't always the best place to hear yourself. I usually have to walk around the stage some to find the sweet spots when it comes to hearing my bass.

Personal Experiences:

I played a gig and the soundman wanted my stage volume very low. I struggled to hear myself during this set but I made it through OK. After nearly a 90 minute set, the singer moves from the center of the stage during the last tune. I decide to stroll over to center stage. Holy loftiness, Batman! I was supercranked! I wish I had known the whole show. I wouldn't have been pluckin away on stage playing with a bit of frustration towards the soundman requesting my low stage volume. My amp volume wasn't cranked, but from center stage at this particular venue at least I could feel the sub woofers and the rest of the overall P.A. much better. I heard the band had a great mix that night in the audience and my bass was plenty present.

Sometimes you have to lose to learn. Again, it's about sacrifice. If from your very first gig, you thought you had the art of live playing down, then your that way too loud guitar player that many bands have or maybe that drummer who keeps speeding up. Maybe, your that bass player that's annoyingly loud or slaps when it's completely uncalled for. This doesn't mean you don't deserve to be pro-active and try for a great stage tone and volume.

Most live sound engineers are characters. They mix up to 25 bands a week and your band is no more special to them than the others until you start your show and have a chance to prove yourself. When you soundcheck or linecheck and are asked to play your bass, if your way cranked, the soundman will think your an obnoxious selfish jerk and will probably think that will set the tone for the whole evening. If your lucky, the engineer will communicate with you and maybe even school you. Every chance I have, I always ask the engineer after each show if he had any thoughts or comments on my tone or volume. If there's a soundcheck I'll ask after that. Even if your not working with the best engineer, he probably knows something you don't. One more note about soundcheck. When the sound man asks you to play something to he can check the line and tone, don't play some slap line if your playing in a blues band. Play something that's representative of what your going to be doing most of the evening. That way, there's less of a chance to surprise the sound man or yourself when things start sounding different. I've also walked off the stage after soundcheck telling the sound guy "Thanks, everything is great." Then moments later, Joe guitarist says "i just turned up", or maybe you decided in retrospect you were a bit loud or soft. That's ok. Sometimes it all takes a moment to soak in. Instead of surprising the sound man, tell him your concern. Maybe he'll tell you there's room to turn up or turn down. Maybe he'll have another idea such as if one part of your tone could use some sprucing up which man get you more presence on stage as well. I like a very aggressive tone for some gigs and it can get thin if I don't watch out. Sometimes, all I need i someone to tell me it would benefit from some low end out front to help out greatly.

Mixing humbleness with awareness is a great way to move forward as a live player. Things may not always go your way but you'll learn from each experience. These lessons can only make you better.

Practice Makes Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:11:00 +0000

It seems a lot of these blog ideas come up by things currently surrounding me in my life. Maybe it's something for myself, or something that may be coming up frequently with my students. On occasion, like this particular blog, it's both.

My last blog covered a lot about practice. Today I'm going to talk about the two types of practicing approaches I live by. It's really important that you keep at least one of two philosophies behind your practicing habits. 1) Frequency. 2) Variety.

FREQUENCY: Students and of course parents of students will ask me how much practicing should be going on. For an absolute beginner they may not have as much material or even stamina to go for hours on end. Maybe your a experienced musician who's going through a busy time in your life which doesn't grant you the enjoyment of lots of practice time. My answer is 15-30 min, five days a week, and seven if you please. I follow it up by saying. Not 15 min one day, skip three and then 45 min the next time to make up for it. It's the frequency that your looking for. The five days in a row. With this type of practicing habit, physical goals are going to be a lot more slow going but you will still have some effective mental practice which of course is important as well. For the more experienced players, it may just be up keep until we can get back into a deeper regimen. I don't think this approach should be used as a replacement for serious nose to the grind stone practicing. I think it's good for experienced players who are just a bit busier trying to make sure their bills get paid, their relationships are in tact and are taking a breather from music from time to time for whatever reason. Possibly other pleasures in life? For beginners, I feel that after 6 months, you should probably at that point be motivated to play at least 30 min a day or more.

VARIETY: If you can squeeze a variety of tasks into a short practice successfully, more power to ya. Usually if I'm going for such an approach, I'm only running down a few things that needed very little work to begin with. Maybe I'm just running down two or three songs I need to get up on stage and play that night or the next day. Think of it this way... Do you get much from jumping in on the middle of a 30min TV show for 7 1/2 min and then flipping to another one for 7 1/2 min? Usually not. It's all a bit disjointed and of course if you liked the first show to begin with, you would have stuck with it. So one of those 7 1/2 min slots was probably a waste. You might of caught on to the plot, but you probably don't know all the characters and there's still a lot of holes in the story. Bummer. Now, the rest of this portion of the blog is about those of us who love those practices that go on forever, or would like to know how those who do practice for hours on end get there.

Let's say you have 60 min or more to get some practicing done. I'm not going to get into an exact regimen because all players have different needs but I'll give you a few basics I go by. I spend about 1/4 of my time warming up. This usually starts with very simple and painfully slow right hand exercises that gets me warmed up and gets my mind and body going with some sort of solid rhythm reference such as a metronome or drum machine. After that, I'm spending some time on some sort of chromatic exercises. Gotta make sure my left and right hands are agreeing. From there I'm probably running down some scales in various keys, chords, etc. Depending on what your studying it may be other things. You'll notice how I haven't talked about the creative side yet. This is because I believe the #1 key to a good long practice is eating your Wheaties and makings sure you get some educational progress going first and foremost. Once we start vamping on a groove or tune, we probably aren't going to be very motivated to go back to modes and arpeggios after that. Here's the beauty of this approach though...This is exactly how shorter practices turn into enjoyable marathons. Time permitting of course. After you've done all your cerebral stuff, you may have already covered nearly 60 min. Then when you get into your songwriting, grooving, vamping, hashing out a tune you grew up listening to, they may carry you for quite a bit longer. The importance and effectiveness is much deeper than how simple it sounds. Of course you can spend longer on one part of your initial practice if you feel you need it or are especially enjoying/appreciating it.

I'm sure there will be more blogs in the future on practicing. For now I encourage you to experiment with your practice regimen. Make sure that when you change something, you sit on it for a while and don't abandon it so quickly. Really give it a chance to be effective. That goes for everything!

Chi, Flow, Zen, The Force...Whatever.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:55:00 +0000

Stop me if you've heard this one. "There's something to be said for spontaneity." How about this? "I don't improvise or jam, I'm more of a riff guy."

Maybe you've said those very lines yourself. I'm hoping through these blogs, one thing I can break down for some folks are the stigmas that come with well...... practice, learning theory, playing with a metronome, etc. Basically anything that takes time, effort, and usually leads to frustration.

Many are discouraged from the above mentioned subjects because they will usually either learn it and move on, or learn it but not well enough to actually use it in real world playing situations. Real world being outside of the bedroom. That's ok though, I feel the same way about learning foreign languages. Sure I may know a few words but I would hardly dare use them in fear someone would ask me to complete a whole sentence.

So why is the title of this blog "Chi, Flow, Zen, The Force"? I don't think musicians need to learn theory or practice certain physical techniques to earn their stripes and suffer with the rest of us geeks. I don't think those are the only paths to musical enlightenment either. Of course you'll have additional benefits if you do learn the above mentioned subjects. I do believe that good practicing habits and as much time as you can invest is paramount though. Maybe it's mind numbing finger exercises, maybe it's songwriting for hours on end.

Let's face it, it's not always fun to think so hard. Chances are except for a rare occasion, I'm having much more fun playing a song I've practiced quite a bit or I've already played live many times before. How many times does one need to hear "Practice means perfect." to believe it. It's like a brainwashing motto to tell you that brainwashing is beneficial.

We're talking liberation here folks. We're talking about being so equipped from our day to day preparedness, that it takes little or no effort to execute what we hear in our heads.

Ear Training: When learning a part of a song, we can try next fret, next fret, next fret, and maybe we decide we've got the right notes. Or we can spend time frequently ear training, learning songs and eventually get ourselves at least in the right zip code.

Shows: Very simple. I can look down at my instrument the whole time, sweat various sections of a tune, and all other sorts of uncomfortable moments. Alternatively, I can prepare in large amounts and enjoy a bit more, look up and connect with the audience, focus on my articulation, just flow a bit more overall.

Be it theory all night long or inventing your own scales when you practice, one thing is for certain, the end result of what you do is the real answer to how hard you need to work or prepare. It comes out in shows, recordings, lessons, jams. "This section is really tricky" is something one unprepared guy at rehearsal may utter as the other players think "He doesn't even look like he worked on it." So nobody wins in that situation. The song doesn't that's for sure, nor does the vibe. While your sitting there sweating out a tricky passage or trying to find all the notes in the key of the song, your enjoyment is suffering. If your smiling, it's out of nervousness.

Music should be enjoyable. Forgive me but allow me to point out the world "able" in "enjoyable". If your able, your most likely going to enjoy.

Before I was Joe Musician, I used to watch all those Van Halen videos that came out to support the album "1984". One thing I noticed was Eddie was always smiling. While many guitarists are crying over learning his licks, this guy is smiling. Not because he practically invented a style, because he's that practiced. I'm leaving some live Eddie footage below to show those videos aren't just what happens when your playing along to a pre-recorded track on a soundstage.

Smilin' Eddie

D.I., D.I., D.I., My Darling!

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:55:00 +0000

A short lesson for those who don't know what D.I. is. D.I. is short for "Direct Injection". If your amp has an XLR (3 pin plug) out on the back, that's your D.I.. If you go to a club and they plug a box between your bass and your amp, that's a D.I.. What a D.I. does is takes the signal of your instrument which is made to go into amps, pedals, etc. and converts it into making nice with mixing boards and recording devices. You can find a inexpensive D.I. for around $40 or a high end one for around $500 up. The D.I. I use is under $200 and I'm very happy with it. Of course if you go to a studio they should have D.I.'s out and ready to go for you. Many bass players have D.I.'s they feel are reliable and a part of their sound and will bring them along to sessions and shows.

Some D.I.'s folks use are not so much dedicated D.I.'s, but have a D.I. as one of their features. The Tech 21 Bass Driver D.I. is a great example. People buy that product more for tone features than D.I. purposes. Otherwise, they would just buy a stand alone D.I. In the case of multi-function pedals that have D.I. as a feature, I typically will send that out to a dedicated D.I. but beware as there's a possibility at that point of getting some noise going. If you encounter that, adjustments will have to be made. I've gotten some great sounds just plugging the D.I. of my SansAmp Bass Driver into a recording device. Let me stress, in the end your tone will be up to you and/or the engineer. If you have a good D.I., and sensible quality bass, you should be able to get a tone that makes you smile. Depending on the style of music you play, fresh strings can be a factor too. Just like any piece of electronics, no two units are the same. Though the concept of the D.I. is to bring the natural tone of your instrument to it's full potential, some units have one or two features which can shape your tone even further. Many come with a "high pass" filter which excludes some of the lower end frequencies and let's all the other frequencies after pass through. I don't find myself using this feature too often on bass. Depending on the instrument I'm using, it can come in handy. D.I.'s are very common for use on keyboards and acoustic guitars and at times a "high pass" filter can be helpful. Other D.I.'s may have an additional tone boost feature to augment your sound. The Eclair Evil Twin D.I. is a good example. It has a toggle switch to boost selectable high end frequencies.

Once you start recording with a D.I., you may find your instrument responds in a different way than when your playing through an amp and cabinet. There's lots of factors of course. Remember, your amp is usually made to fill a room and not car speakers or ear buds. Recording is an audio illusion. When you see a car blow up in a movie, you sit there and think "wow". Not usually thinking "They didn't sell it because I wanted to see a car blow up inside the theater." Same with recorded audio. Your tones are implied. Four inch boom box speakers are not there to replace our large speaker cabs that we use live. If your looking for a very pure tone, I suggest using a D.I. or direct out of your amp and nothing else. Minor adjustments can be addressed at the mixing board or compressor. Coming up with tones takes a lot of faith in your equipment, playing, engineer, the room, etc.

Using the D.I. from your amp can be very useful as well, just make sure you know the rules about if your amp has to be plugged into a speaker or not to function properly. Looking at the manual will usually give you that info. I will typically use the D.I. from the back of my amp if I'm only going to record one channel of bass. The benefit is I can do some tone shaping from my amp. Keep in mind, concept wise the D.I. from an amp is different than plugging into a dedicated unit.

CREATIVE BENEFITS

A friend of mine once scolded me for not recording a D.I. of a guitar on one of my demos. The demo could have been the real thing except I just used a whatever guitar tone and worked on my tune. Had I used a D.I. going at the same time, I could have later "re-amped" and had a very non-demo sounding guitar. Alternatively, I could have used the D.I. tone and ran it through some software for more of an advantage. The same can be said for bass. If your going to record with a mic, or a D.I. from your amp, use a separate D.I. of your natural bass tone in addition. This means your tone can always go through another amp later if you aren't happy with what you committed to while recording. It's important you always record a true uncolored version of your bass for possible later use and back up. Options are good right?

D.I.'s can be easy to use if your just a plug 'n play type of person. If you are going to record two different tones or give yourself multiple options for tones later, D.I.'s can get a little more involved when it comes to routing your tone and such. I feel a video on the subject coming on!

Pride vs. Brick Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:33:00 +0000

It's all fun and games until someone wears themselves into submission. I've spent quite a bit of time writing about dedication, repetition, and perseverance. I'd like to talk about taking a step back.

I will be the first one to tell you that quitting time for me is about 2 hours after everyone else has told me to take a break. I'm a bit better now but I bet I get some of those same feelings you other musicians get about walking away from a challenge. My reservations? Will I leave and come back and not have the same flow creatively, or loose sight of what I was working on? Even worse, might I forget some of my ideas? Once I can let go of those issues, I've still got pride to contend with. We all know about that. Taking a break or leaving and coming back does not equate to weakness or giving up.

It's funny to think after all these years of playing and writing that I still haven't completely caught on to the benefits of taking a step back from a challenge. I say this because just about every time I do take a step back, I end up coming out on top in the end.

The spark for this blog came to me yesterday while I was trying to work on some new material. I had one idea I wanted to pursue. To my frustration, not much else was happening. I tried things but nothing was fitting, complimenting or as strong. Thanks to my bladder, I had to walk away for a few. Abracadabra! One 2 minute pit stop equated to two new sections that I heard in my head full instrumentation included. This is because I let my mind get in the game. Makes sense right? We are creating after all. How often though do we hear ourselves or other fellow musicians play the same thing or within the same patterns and shapes?

I wanted to write a shorter blog today on this particular subject because it ties in with a few other subjects. For now, I'd like to ask you to think about the difference between writing inside your head vs. writing with an instrument in your hands. Over the past many years most of my sparks for songs have come when I've not been playing and I've had to grab an instrument to see it through after the fact.

Is there a difference between writing music and thinking up music?

Dirt

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:32:00 +0000

There are quite a few bass players who have made their career using distortion in their bass tone. Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, John Entwhistle, Lemmy Kilmister. They all utilized distortion on their bass in a unique way. Some used it to cover more sonic area along with the guitars, some for color in their tone, and some to augment the definition of what they were playing. It's funny to think that us bass players at times can distort our tone to have a more intelligible sound in the broad sonic spectrum that is a band.

Think back to the hollow bass tones of rock n' roll from the 50's for artists like Buddy Holly And The Crickets, or earlier Elvis Presley recordings. You can hear the bass only if it was turned up quite a bit in the mix. Otherwise, most of what you heard was the percussive snap of the plucking hand pulling at the strings of an upright bass and snapping onto the fingerboard. Now think back to some of those Motown hits. James Jamerson's P-Bass with decade old flat wound strings. The tone was round, at times thuddy. Both of these examples worked well for what was going on back then. Why? Because distortion on guitars, tone of drums, and overall production is nothing like what it was about to be like in a few more years. I honestly don't know who was the very first to put dirt on guitars but I've heard stories about Ike Turner, The Kinks, and The Beatles all making the creative most out of a blown speaker or amp. As years went by, people started finding ways to manipulate their amps to get these sounds in addition to the production of pedals made exclusively for the task of adding some dirt on to their guitar tone. Now I suggest you put on a hard rock or heavy metal album from the 80's or later and hear how much dirt they put on guitars compared to the 60's or 70's. Just like anything, the music community has continued to go bigger and more extreme with their sounds.... and why not? In addition, the effects that were starting to get used on guitars we're projecting larger sounds and taking up more sonic space.

With the advent and utilization of so much distortion, the guitar became a much more featured instrument compared to the sparse clean tone stabs every other beat on a tune like "My Girl". With more modern music there was a lot more overshadowing of the bass. Unless we're talking bands like 311, Red Hot Chili Peppers, or Iron Maiden where the bass is a focal point, much of the time the bass is felt and not heard to the average listener. Some might call this a problem but who are we to say for so many successful artists? Let's not forget to mention the countless modern artists who base their tones on more vintage sounds and have let the bass come back up front a bit more. There's your history lesson for the day!

I didn't always use dirt in my bass tone but I have been for about the past 14 years. Not for everything of course. I could write pages and pages on all the various types of distortions. I'm just going to talk about how it can augment tone and a few different applications.

Let's start with some obvious full on guitar type distortion carried over to bass. Not hard to imagine. Taking a listen to the first two bars of "Ace of Spades" by Motorhead will do! I've used this type of distortion sparingly myself. In one instance, I used some full on guitar distortion for a bass solo in a tune. At first I was thinking it sounded "like a guitar". Later I threw on some chorus effect and I thought "Like a keyboard emulating a guitar". I found it a bit more unique. There are some moments where I do use a full on distortion for the meat and potatoes of a song. In this case I'm still opting to keep my clean bass tone in tact so the overall mix of the band doesn't just loose what it had. I will typically run an A/B/Y box so I can keep the clean and dirt separate or combined. A similar effect can be achieved with a distortion pedal that has a "blend" feature but it does take some experimenting. In this case it lets you chose how much of their distortion you would like coupled with the natural tone of your bass before it hits whatever your amp has going on.

The dirt I usually add to my bass tone couldn't be identified through the full roar of a live band or even through recordings unless my instrument was isolated for the listener. So why is it useful to create tones that listeners aren't going to get the literal effect of anyhow? Good question, thanks for asking!

I personally like my low end to be nice and clean. I'm typically utilizing my distortion to get right hand plucking articulation more present. This is in attempt to not kill my stamina having to dig in as hard as I can for every note. Again, I'm also going for an articulate tone that has some percussiveness in it but isn't louder than the melodic value of my notes. Maybe I'm even trying to get the sound of my strings vibrating off the neck more musical sounding for those moments I do dig in. This way I don't have to throw in so much treble into my amp or instrument tone controls. The downside of dedicating a large portion of your amp control knobs to just articulation is you can't use them for other musical colorings which you may appreciate as well. Simple yes? Yes, I spent a few years being guilty of those practices trying to find ways to cut through heavy guitars and leaving casualties in my wake. I'll never forget a show where every time I reached for a note on a higher string, one poor guy up the front row had to cover his ears.

More times than not, while I'm dialing in my bass tone, I'm only looking for a little grit. I typically will boost the distortion until it starts to reveal it's self some through my tone. At that point I'm usually adjusting the other knobs of the distortion pedal to make sure the high end is present but not harsh and my low end is still where it was before the pedal was on. If I can't get these two important angles happening, I will just not use distortion. It's that simple.

Fresh strings are very helpful when using distortion for bass. In this case, your less likely to ask the distortion device to compensate high end for lack of brightness from your bass. Typically I prefer the natural high end of my instrument and fresh strings to whatever high end I can throw in with a pedal. I find it easier on the ears.

There are variations to be had on some of these dirt digging philosophies. I find some pedals work better on basses with active pick-up's, some work better on basses with passive. There's also the question of do you play finger style or with a pick. What size are the speakers your playing through? All these elements come into play when picking the right device for gettin' your grit on.

I'm sure I've a lot more to say on the subject and can get even more in depth. For those of you interested in getting some grit in your bass tone, I'll leave a list below on some products that I've either owned, or spent some time with. There are more and more great pedals coming out dedicated to just bass distortion but don't rule out some of the guitar pedals as well. Just make sure they come with some tone control so you can address any changes in your fundamental bass tone it can possibly skew. Also, I'll leave a playlist of various types of dirt on bass from the ultra-heavy and obvious to the crisp and discrete yet effective.

Thanks for reading!

Boxes of Dirt
Tech 21 - Bass Driver DI (This is a must have for all bass players, distortion theme aside.)
Tech 21- GT2 (More of a guitar type pedal but has a wide range of overdrives.)
Tech 21 - VT Bass (Again more of a multi function pedal, a different type of dirt than the Bass Driver.)
Tech 21 - RBI (A rack piece, not a pedal. Just like the Bass Driver but with "Mid" control and a few extra hardware options.)
Ibanez - Bass Tube Screamer (This pedal only gets so much drive but it's very usable and sounds great. Some of the guitar Tube Screamers are worth trying out as well.)
Electro Harmonics - Big Muff Bass (Goes from very top end heavy dirt to the muddiest of muddy)

Playlist
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Faith No More - The Real Thing
Yes - Roundabout
Rush - Circumstances
Overkill - Thanx For Nothing
Metallica - Orion (intro)
Black Sabbath - NIB

Sifting Through The Flotsam & Jetsam

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 09:30:00 +0000

I think what's interesting about this subject about getting to the good stuff is the applications are boundless and experience only helps you utilize the philosophy. The challenge though, never goes away.

Practice
Song writing
Live performance
Recording

Sometimes we have to get through a lot of manure to get to the good stuff. What is manure anyhow? Simply something that started as a good intention that has gone as far as it's gonna go after it's processed. (Sorry for the gross out) What it yields before it gets to the end stage is a different story. Weather you get daisies in the end is only up to how you feel about it.

Here's some examples.

Practice: I'm sick of having to read this song so slowly just to get through it. I'm frustrated with having to play this exercise at a snails pace. Why am I studying this theory if I can play the notes but don't understand where it's all going half the time? I find that some folks will not attempt challenging things unless there's some pre-guarantee that they either won't fail, become embarrassed, or frustrated. Is this realistic if something is new or your headed towards a higher level on some subject than where your currently at? I don't think there's any need to answer this question because the question it's self seems a bit silly. More importantly, what's your chances of accomplishing your goal? You can practice, learn, flesh out the frustrating parts, or not get to your goal. Sadly, it can always end in the poor attitude of "naw I don't wanna learn that stuff that badly."

Songwriting: My band Artisan has this one particular song where it took us weeks to come up with an ending. We finally came up with the ending and played it for about a month. It was a pretty cool ending but it wasn't as strong as it could have been. So I suggested we try something else. One more ending for the tune was developed and it was by far the best for this song. We went through a lot of ideas, even pretty damn good ones to get to the ending that said what we wanted it to say. Sometimes, it's good to not let every angle gnaw at you when your being creative. We all want to make sure we don't slow our creative flow down or lose sight of an original thought. In the end though, sometimes you have to take a detour if you know deep down there's more or better out there. That means sifting through mediocre or only decent stuff to get to the gold.

Live Performance: Ever have a note or section you have to sing live that's always cool at practice but then always gets funky (in a bad way) at shows? Maybe it's a groove that usually doesn't feel right unless your stage volume is optimal and the monitors are right. That's not how it works in music though is it? You have your show and however that section goes down is how it's been counted for. Never mind the reasons. Nobody wants you to walk away from a gig pining over one section, but there's lessons to be learned. Your chances of coming out on top are much better if your continuing to polish these sections at rehearsal and continuing to try things out at gigs. Heed the symptoms and miscalculations and re-think your approach before you just give up and start thinking about a workaround. There's no need to ignore or be in denial of an obstacle. Have some humbleness, take a step back, see if you can't come out on top that way. Most importantly, don't beat yourself up over a show incident. Unless your completely in the wrong band, you should be enjoying and learning from every show you play.

Recording: Upon take #57 in the studio you start to ask yourself "Is this part really going to happen or do I need to come up with something else?" Good question!

With experience we can mentally endure these shenanigans a bit better. These situations only get better with a better attitude. We can learn to tell ourselves when it's time to move on to a different part of the song, or when to re-write. Maybe we're half way through that walking basslines book but it's time to go back to the first page. Your gonna hit that pitch in the vocal booth, but you may have to change your approach. Doing that may involve having to get good and used to a new approach, that could take time. Might not happen today. That's alright. As long as there's another session to be had things can still be cool. If there are no more sessions, then you gotta keep plugging away or re-evaluate your approach.

With these examples, I'm not here to tell you that unless you have experience you are up the river without a paddle. I'm actually hoping to share with folks that this is all normal stuff for players and writers of all levels. Very few things besides yourself will tell you how many takes you'll need to hit that note.

Without sounding like I'm reprimanding the entire music community, I will be very honest in saying: 50% of the performance issues are due to lack of practicing, preparedness, and confidence. Maybe that practice is gonna happen right where you stand on the stage as your band plays it's 100th gig, or in the vocal booth, or in the chair you practice in as you pull your hair out over some dotted laden rhythm with rests your trying to read. It's unnecessary to put yourself in those positions much of the time. The culprit is often again lack of preparedness and some sort of personal denial that it's going to work out or it'll just have to suck or abandon an idea.

Regarding education and practice. We all know that it's more a matter of wood shedding and making sure we aren't skipping steps. Sometimes we have to hear the same instructions 3 different ways to comprehend. That's not a horrible prospect. Eventually, we will learn how to gravitate to the best route sooner.

Much of this blog has been examples more than helpful hints. Just like our bodies, our musical ventures can get colds. We can be miserable and down for the count. Or we can slam 1000mg of practice, or good attitude, humbleness, and eventually lick the issue. The biggest thing I'd like to convey is that's all the things that come with the challenge of getting to the good stuff is OK. Everyone goes through it and very few situations are similar. In the end you have to decide if your frustration is more important or if the intended goal is. Sometimes, the stronger answer is to change the goal some. I've had that approach quite a few times and ended up very happy with the results. It's not a matter of compromise. It's a matter of asking yourself "What else is just as good?".

Hopefully you have a great support system of bandmates, musician friends, teachers, or maybe a producer or engineer around that can either be patient or hopefully guide you. In return, you must work hard to minimize these issues be it revising an approach or going home and making sure you nail it next time. On a creative level, how long or how short productivity should take is very subjective. Some of my own tunes I'm most fond of have been cultivated over the course of a few hours to many months. Some of my proudest creative outbursts have been impulsive. My best advice is experiment, experiment, experiment, and make a record of all of your ideas. If your not a recording buff or you don't own a hand held recorder, paper will do just fine.

I'd like to thank all of my readers thus far. For those of you who have worked with me in the past, if you have any suggestions as far as subjects you'd like to see me cover, feel free to contact me.

Float Like A Butterfly

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:04:00 +0000

I'm asked quite often how to play fast. I'm sure most people who ask that question know that it won't be a simple answer. They are just hoping that maybe I can put them on the path. We are going to talk about playing fast but only focusing somewhat on physical technique.

The first instinct when trying to play fast is to hit the strings hard. What happens here though? It takes more back swing on our plucking fingers. We are also challenged with strings that are hit harder therefore vibrate in a larger way. The downfall is getting more of a percussive tone from the largely vibrating string ricocheting off the fingerboard. Another angle I find is greatly missed is, playing an instrument much of the time is about efficiency. If you get a big 'ol back swing going on with your plucking finger so you can play harder to play faster, how much longer will it take to get back to the string compared to if you were just using your moderate plucking strength. So in the end are we gaining anything by striking the strings harder? I think we're just giving ourselves a sense of dominance so we can will the bass into sounding fast. If you want it to be in time and articulate, it ain't that easy.

Allow me to retract my last sentence in the last paragraph. It is easy, as long as you don't make it difficult on yourself.

Don't get me wrong, there's moments when the bass sounds great when were beating the hell out of it. Yes, sometimes I hear a track I need to play on and I tell myself, "I think if I could pick out a bass that sounds great when I beat the hell out of it, I'll be happy with the sound." I'm not implying that you just need to feather or just scratch over the top of the strings to play fast. Pluck! Pluck but look for any points where the string resists you too much. Ask yourself if the movements on your right hand could be smaller or less exaggerated. Does your tone not sound as good as when you were playing a big open groove? Can you only get a good rolling sound when your right hand is based off the bridge pick-up because it has more tension? It shouldn't have to be that way. For some passages, I find the tone can get thin with that approach.

I'm sure a few of you have noticed that I haven't mentioned the left hand technique yet. I could write many blogs on left hand technique. To be simple, I'll leave it at a few points. Keep your thumb behind the neck and don't let it creep up over the top of it unless it's for a special technique.

The left hand does need to develop speed as well. There's two very simple ways. Firstly, focus on making the most efficient movements you can. Secondly, the strength you need to hold down your strings is dictated by how hard you are plucking with your right hand. Experiment with holding down a fret on the low "E" string. Use your everyday strength. Now pluck with your right hand lightly, then pluck progressively harder. Meanwhile, keep that left hand strength the same. You'll notice how for a lot of the right hand plucking, the note fired off just fine. As you started to pluck the string with more force, the note you were trying to hold down started to buzz. Hey! Some folks make a living with that sound.

If your right hand plucks lighter in an effort to play fast, your left hand doesn't have to hold the strings down as tight. In turn, they can move around faster as they don't have to exert as much energy.

We should touch on practicing speed or fast passages in general. Probably the most common way to develop speed is to plow through the part at full speed and let the clean and rhythmic accuracy appear over time. This is the worst, long standing, widely used practicing habit I see. Don't let your patience beat you! It IS the long way.

Let's say you have a passage in a tune that's at 160bpm. Chalk full of 8th notes and faster. Play it at the absolutely slowest you need to to play to be intelligible and clean. Make sure at that speed you can still think strait and your not just using "The Force". Find that speed your comfy with and practice with a metronome. Let's say your speed is 80bpm. Two days later, crank the metronome up only 5bpm more. At first, you'll find 5bpm fairly seamless. After a while at higher speeds you may find you need to spend a few extra days on one tempo. Even if your tempo is easy, stay there for a few days. If your already good at it, get better. In a week your speed can be up to 94bpm. You can get there with ease and you can get there playing just as clean as when you were playing slow. In a month, you can reach your goal. Two months, maybe even faster. If you are honest with your progress, these are much better results than the standard approach to gaining speed. I see a lot of people waste years just moving their hands fast thinking that over time their notes will make sense.

Speed can get frustrating and comes in different forms in music. You may work up a rhythm at one tempo, but it may not work out at the same tempo with a different rhythm. It's good to get into practicing various rhythm groupings with the metronome. It doesn't have to be a part of a song, it can just be an open string or one fretted note. If your at a lack for rhythmic exercises, ask a drummer friend, or pick up a drum rudiment book.

In this blog, I'm not diving too much into the subject matter of which direction your fingers should pluck at faster speeds. There's a lot of ways that work for many great players. I'd like to eventually spend time talking about various right hand techniques.

For myself, I use three fingers on my right hand for the really fast stuff. 1,3,2,1,3,2,1,3 etc. I always attack with my index finger as long as it's logical for the phrase I'm playing and my plucking pattern always stays in the same direction despite any variations in the rhythm. My fingers are always crawling in the same direction while using three finger technique. As of the last years, I've used two finger technique for as much as I can until I've reached my limit in speed. Tonally, I prefer it. It's also fair to mention I don't exclusively use but favor the "floating thumb" technique on my plucking hand. For those of you that don't know about "floating thumb", look into it! I will for sure do a little blog on it in the near future.

I'd love to hear from some of you who might try out some of my techniques from this blog. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to warm up!

Confidence and Preparedness.

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 02:22:00 +0000

For those interested, my goal is to write 2-4 blogs a week. So sign up for updates and check back frequently!

I feel that between my own experiences past and present I could write volumes on the subject matter of "confidence" for musicians. Being fortunate to work on many projects, I've been able to observe how other musicians use and abuse confidence for good and evil. Like any task, confidence would seem like a no-brianer as far as music goes. It's a requirement. It gives you permission to close your eyes when you are playing your instrument, to try some off the cuff lick on stage, or create the most awesome ensemble of vocals on an album. I feel it gets lost much of the time though. Sometimes through experience, and sometimes by someone's lack of preparedness.

First, I'd like to point out how people can often mistake confidence for "will". Sometimes "will" can give us a push physically as a musician just like it can athletes, but people forget to nurture the cerebral parts of music and in those moments "will" can't help you. Did you feel "confident" on that test you never studied for? Did you "will" to have this weeks winning lotto numbers as they popped up on the TV screen? Did you "will" that high note to come out of your voice just because it was important you nailed it? Did you pull it off? We're your chances better if you had the confidence of preparedness in your corner? I hope after reading this, you will find that "confidence" and "preparedness" run many parallels.

Below is a list of a few key places I feel confidence and preparedness can make or break one's progress as a musician.

Lesson Plans and Goals: I can't tell you how many times I've mismanaged my practice time by undermining what I feel I could accomplish with the time I'm given or where I'm at as a player. You can't lie to yourself and decide your going to learn to sweep pick on the guitar before you've learned how to construct an arpeggio. Actually, you can. You can just learn a pattern and the mechanics. The problem here is you limit yourself and this in turn limits not only your creative ability but your "confidence". How many times have you set out to learn a tune or technique and only moments in you decide "forget it, it's too hard or ain't gonna happen today"?

Live Performance: It can still happen to this day! I'm on stage and I realize I'm not paying much attention to the audience and focusing too much on the notes of the tune. In those moments, I may lack confidence in my knowledge of the song. In turn, I don't have much of a mental or physical capacity to be entertaining on stage or look up at the audience and connect more frequently. We'll get into my philosophies on live interaction some other time.

In The Studio: "I never had this much difficulty when practicing." These are words I hear during lessons and in the studio often. First off, there will be plenty of blogs about being prepared for the studio.

The studio is the last word in where the quality of your playing is that day and overall. There is nothing to obscure all those little swiping sounds on the guitar like a loud band. Let's face it, the studio has been developed to reproduce our performances the best it can. Many of us can all agree that at times, it reproduces a bit too well. It can be a very sterile environment and without a good deal of experience and/or "confidence" it can be a creativity killer or send a project into the depths like an anchor. Learn about the sonic qualities of your instrument, the frequency ranges, how live tone doesn't always mean album tone. How live technique or even the strings you use may not translate the same. There's been a few times for sure where my confidence was broken in the studio because I couldn't use my favorite bass because it wasn't right for the song. Maybe I was struggling to find the right tone. Does this mean I intend to lay down a lack luster track? "confidence" will determine that.

Creative Process: The more confident I am with my song writing, the stronger it gets. It's that simple. Am I confident I can even play this very technical section I'd like to write? If I'm not, it's probably not going in the song. Am I confident that this really simple section in the tune is going to be effective? If I'm not, the section will probably sound small.

Sense of humor, patience, desire, knowledge, and persistence. All these things are granted through "confidence". Most everything else is just a reason why very little has been yielded.

My final thought is this... The biggest let down when your lacking "confidence" is, it's very difficult to have fun at what you do. I feel this is the biggest sin of them all.

Check out this little guy full of confidence, he's having a blast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z4PKBNzmuo

Your Influences Influences

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 02:12:00 +0000

As many of you know, I've been part of a number of projects in various styles. Many of you also know I'm a dyed in the wool metalhead. My bass playing and love for metal has some parallels going on. Even more so, my creative side about metal has more parallels with my non-metal influences. There has always been a stigma about blending other styles of music into your metal. Us bass players have been doing that the whole time though. Former bassist of Metallica, Jason Newsted sites how he had no choice but to be influenced by Motown by way of his upbringing in Michigan where the whole Motown sound originated. I can site players I love like Steve Harris, Bob Daisley, Geezer Butler, and John Entwhistle. Who were their influences though? No matter how superhuman these folks playing is, their style didn't materialize out of thin air.

Some of the most famous artists have very little problem siting their influences and what they've come up on. Let's take Rush's Geddy Lee for example. He sites Yes' Chris Squire as an influence as well as Motown famed bass player James Jamerson. Some of you may think "Chris Squire, yes, Jamerson I don't hear it." Geddy does! In fact, the late 80's he would say how his Wal basses gave him "that Motown sound". Nobody hears "My Girl" in the tune "Roll The Bones"? That's O.k., that's not the point. The Who's John Entwhistle and Cream's Jack Bruce have also sited James Jamerson as a game changer for them. Of course many of us now can site Geddy and Jack as influences. See where I'm going with this? I don't believe it's enough to just learn how to play "The Trees" by Rush, I believe it's important to know where it came from.

These folks came up on styles where the bass was equal to the presence of the guitar or primarily driving the tunes. We're talking counter melodies, interplay with the drums, muting, and a slew of other styles and articulations. Otherwise, what are we bass players doing but doubling guitars the whole time?

I thoroughly accept the fact that my influences influences have influenced me. That the stuff my sister would listen to while I was growing up stuck with me and has molded me as a player and songwriter. A little Duran Duran, or Tears For Fears never hurt any bass player. Those Carpenter's and Air Supply 8 tracks on family road trips contributed to my style as well.

As I tell many of my students, I don't sit at home and play James Brown all day though I do play James Brown at home sometimes. You better believe that when I do have it on that I'm listening very carefully. As the years pass and I meet new folks or play with new artists, my vocabulary grows... always plotting how I'm going to use some of my new flavors in my next metal tune.

Can you hear the parallels? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAF8P8DCDKY&feature=related

Welcome First Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Bear - Bass Player/Artisan Road Studio) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:19:00 +0000

Welcome to my first Blog page. I'm going to finally try to put my 21 years of bass experience, 11 years of teaching, and my growing experiences as an engineer and producer to public use. I'm going to write about whatever I feel like. Even non- music related.

I'm sure there will be plenty to say about band stuff, all the equipment I get to try out, the equipment I have, shows, sessions I either record and/or produce with various artists and such.

So, welcome, welcome, welcome, and tell your friends.

Best Regards,
Mike Bear