Through high school I worked at a music store, mostly in the guitar department. I can’t tell you how many times a client would bring in a relatively new acoustic guitar, complaining that it was distorting or had no sound coming out. A familiar call and answer would then ensue:
Me: “did you check the battery?”
Customer: “it has a battery?!”
Once the band is locking into each other rhythmically and not clashing with each other sonically, you’ll have a great sounding rhythm section. One thing is missing from that picture though … Lead Lines.
A lead line is basically the melodic line that you hear at the forefront of the mix. It is determined in rehearsal as “the most important sound of the moment” that will attract the listener’s ear. It can be anything from the riff of an electric guitar to the sung vocal line of the lead vocalist. We all understand when and where the vocal line fits into the overall picture of the song (the songwriter determines that) so in talking about lead lines this week, I want us to focus on those melodic lines that, in a band context, we typically hear in the electric guitar or right hand of the piano.
A song without any lead lines would be excruciatingly boring.
When playing together in a band context, by now, I think we would all agree that the sonic range I’m playing in (the octave I’m singing or playing my instrument in) is just as important as the rhythms I’m playing, right? Knowing this importance is one thing, but working it out in rehearsal can be very challenging and time consuming.
If there’s one instrument that runs the highest risk of eating the whole pie (100%) in the sonic plane, it’s the keyboard. The lowest note on the keyboard is an A – two semi-tones lower than the low B on a 5-string bass guitar. If your bassist is playing a 4 string, the piano has a whole 5th below the low E on the bass. No one in the band can possibly play those notes in the low A-E range except the piano player. You might think, “Great! Sonic room for me to play without worrying about anyone else running into me.” Well, let me put it this way, if there’s a bass guitar player in your band, let them live up to their name and actually be the bass player in the band. Keyboardists, let the bassists have their range and take that left hand and bring it up the keyboard. I know, that’s almost two whole octaves chopped off of the low end of the keyboard. There is an exception to almost every rule, but when it comes to the keyboardist’s left hand, I wouldn’t have it playing much lower than the C that is one octave below middle C. When keyboard players get their left hand away from what the bass player is playing, the sound will significantly tidy itself up and the listener will feel more depth to the overall sound.
There is an exception to almost every rule, but when it comes to the keyboardist’s left hand, I wouldn’t have it playing much lower than the C that is one octave below middle C.
Whoever could have guessed that musicians had to think so much when they jumped into a band context? If I’m a great player of my instrument, I should be able to step into any setting and sound good! Unfortunately, without experience as a band member, this is likely not the case.
We’ve been talking about the horizontal “rhythmic” plane (as we call it) of playing together within the 100% rule. If you don’t know what I mean, go back and read “Playing Together as a Band: Rhythm Playing“. We know that there is so much more to talk about in each of these areas, but for the sake of keeping everyone’s interest, let’s move onto the vertical plane of sonic ranges.
Imagine this … Continue Reading…
The bass guitar is glue that holds the band together.
I have no idea what this analogy means. I’ve heard it said about bass – and almost everything else on stage – and I cringe every time I hear it! But, I shouldn’t complain without an alternative, so I’ll offer my own view of how the bass functions in pop/rock music: Continue Reading…
And we’re starting to build the band now. We’ve spoken to the consistency of the drums, now it’s time to add another instrument. You probably know what instrument makes the most sense to add at this point (because it’s in the title of this post) — the bass guitar.
There are many reasons the bass fits logically into the puzzle piece that we have in the drums right now. Sticking with the “100% rule” logic here, the bass fits in with the kick drum on the drum set. Why? For one reason, the sonic range is actually similar. Hanging out around that 50-150Hz mark, both instruments are more often felt than they are heard in the mix. Secondly, when both instruments (kick & bass) line up their primary accents, the groove of the song becomes clear for the rest of the band to build on top of. Continue Reading…
