TALKBASS Showing off, or sitting back – which do you prefer?

Minimalist versus flashy playing is a topic that seems to resurface on TalkBass every few weeks. This player is showing off and ruining the song, or that player is boring or just plays simple lines because they don’t have the skill to do otherwise… there are plenty of fairminded comments, but the zealots tend to draw the most attention, as usual. Clearly there is no right or wrong answer, but can we at least find a way to see the other side?

Every genre has its share of minimalist and virtuoso bassists playing in great bands. For every Billy Sheehan tearing it up in rock, there’s a Tina Weymouth keeping things simple. For every Jaco, there’s a Mark Sandman. Whatever type of music you’re into, there are examples of both flashy and simple players whose bass-lines fit the song perfectly and wouldn’t be improved by simplifying or complicating them.

If you’re the type of player who finds yourself eschewing music with busy players or bassists riding the root, make it a goal to seek out music you might think you normally dislike to find the parts you do enjoy. Maybe the kind of busy playing you hear in Victor Wooten’s ‘Classical Thump’ turns you off, but his active, bouncing lines from the Flecktones’ ‘Stomping Ground’ might sit perfectly with you. Musical pyrotechnics may be right up your alley, but it would be hard to not appreciate the powerful, simple line Tony Levin uses in ‘In Your Eyes’, or the slow, melodic brilliance of Charlie Haden throughout the entire Beyond The Missouri Sky album. Try to expand your horizons by learning some examples of the type of bass-line you do not normally play; you’ll gain a deeper appreciation about how a line fits into the melody and rhythms of a song by learning to play it rather than just listening to it.

Finding a way to appreciate the enjoyable aspects of players you might not normally like can open up the way you approach a song. We all want to improve as players – and being able to become a different version of yourself can be a great way to do it. www.talkbass.com