no bass player?.. no problem!

WhoIsTony?

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maybe some of you have experienced this before.... but I never have in all my years

so I get a call to play for Brooklyn artist Drue Davis ... awesome singer/producer/songwriter.... my buddy Allan Mednard ...who is a great NY drummer... usually has the chair on the gig but he has other obligations so I'll be taking over for a while ..

anyway.... I go to the first rehearsal yesterday afternoon and when I get there I find out that the bass player cannot make it but Drue will be bringing his computer with the stems and will be playing the bass lines from his album through my monitor and the PA .

I was a little skeptical when I heard this ....I'm lying ... very skeptical ....mainly because I vibe so much with a bass player when I play any type of music that I wasn't sure at all how this would go over.... and this being my first rehearsal with the band I wanted to make a good impression since these guys work A LOT in many different projects around NY that get a A TON of attention ....

and its a pretty big band with a horn section and background singers... the whole 9...sort of hip hop/ R&B type stuff... really funky.... great material

so they hook all this stuff up and boom there is the bass coming through my monitor and off we go .....

I closed my eyes for a bit just to lock in with the stem bass track and it felt really great .... but in the process of concentrating with the bass track I missed a few cues from Drue.... but it was all good we ironed all that out ....

I was really looking forward to stretching the tunes out a bit and going off the beaten track a bit ... but playing to the stem we couldn't really do that....

I was really surprised at how good it felt ... and how live it felt playing along to the bass track once we got going ... I really felt like he was standing right next to me .... and the rehearsal was a success ... the band sounded killer

I never had an experience like this before and was wondering if any of you have .... full on live band ... but the one main piece that we as drummers are to gel with.... especially in the type of music I was playing yesterday.... is a track.
 
I can vibe with a backing track. I just started with groove essentials, absolutely great fun. The difference is the people on the recording can't react to you. I have played with some guys that were about as responsive lol.

Congrats on the gig.
 
I can vibe with a backing track. I just started with groove essentials, absolutely great fun. The difference is the people on the recording can't react to you. I have played with some guys that were about as responsive lol.

Congrats on the gig.

thanks brother....

... this was quite a bit different than playing drums to a backing track though .... it was a full out band.... keys, guitar, horn section, 2 background singers , Drue, and myself..... the only track was the bass...

slightly odd... but felt pretty good after a song or two

I was actually surprised at how effortless it was to stay with the track once I took my focus off of it and was able to focus on cues from Drue
 
I had to do it once, many years ago. It was to the studio bass track, but on cassette, & only at a rehearsal. To me, it was like working with any other click track, but more pleasing. The downside - it was a prog setting, so rather than playing intuitively & feeling my way through the refrains, I had to count through without the benefit of cue communication. I'd do it again, but not by choice.

I'm actually more interested in the gig you just snagged (congratulations). Horn sections & dedicated BV's are a major wish list gig situation for me. Please post some stuff if/when you get it :)
 
Congratulations on scoring a great opportunity!

I've played live gigs with a guitar player (jazz standards) or just a piano player (again jazz standards) but never live with a pre-recorded bass line and certainly not with a band of that size.

I've played on a ton of studio recordings where the bass part was already tracked.

Long winded way of saying I've done similar but not the same.

Knock Em' Dead!
 
Congratulations on scoring a great opportunity!

I've played live gigs with a guitar player (jazz standards) or just a piano player (again jazz standards) but never live with a pre-recorded bass line and certainly not with a band of that size.

I've played on a ton of studio recordings where the bass part was already tracked.

Long winded way of saying I've done similar but not the same.

Knock Em' Dead!

thank you brother.... looking forward to some killer gigs

I had to do it once, many years ago. It was to the studio bass track, but on cassette, & only at a rehearsal. To me, it was like working with any other click track, but more pleasing. The downside - it was a prog setting, so rather than playing intuitively & feeling my way through the refrains, I had to count through without the benefit of cue communication. I'd do it again, but not by choice.

I'm actually more interested in the gig you just snagged (congratulations). Horn sections & dedicated BV's are a major wish list gig situation for me. Please post some stuff if/when you get it :)

you can check him out here if you want

http://druedavis.com/

this will be the first gig he does with the full horn section and background singers



glad to hear you guys have done this before ... it was new to me

I mean I have definitely tracked drums in the studio to bass lines already tracked.... and even tracked to a full band already tracked....
but never played with a full live band with only the bass being a stem
 
Most of the stuff I play has been recorded by my band mates so, if someone doesn't show for a rehearsal, the other two can just cue up his part and get on with it. I often cue up the recordings and just mute the drums and my vocals and work on the song by myself.

The technology available in our living rooms is amazing.
 
Congrats on the gig, Ants!

I have never done quite what you're describing before. Closest I've come is playing with a guitarist who used one of those loop pedals where he'd record a chorus of himself playing chords and then we'd play along with it so he could solo over it. It worked okay but, to be honest, I never got comfortable with it.
 
For a while I was playing a string of lower-volume (plugged-in acoustic) gigs with one of my 3 piece bands at places like wineries and golf clubs etc... It was actually fun for me and all of us to strip songs down to bare acoustic stuff. At any rate, initially, the guys would both play guitars since neither had an acoustic bass. It sounded really cool and was always fun, but without a bass guitar in the mix to help with low-end and beef stuff, I always felt like the rhythms suffered a bit and the melodies took more control of the song. I felt pulled to add more on my part to make up for the lack of bass, and at the same time, with the songs in "bare" form as they were, I also needed to keep my parts lower in the mix and atmosphere of things. One of em eventually bought a acoustic bass, so we got all the angles covered now. Point is, I can see how you'd get a little skeptical at first of the "no bass player" deal. It makes a huge difference in all aspects of the music when creative parts/people are missing.

Was there a click running, Tony, or was it just the bass you were going from?
 
Was there a click running, Tony, or was it just the bass you were going from?

a click count off at the top then just the bass line running .... so tunes where the bass and I did not come in right away were slightly challenging at first and all players really had to keep solid time so that we all landed in the right spot when the bass and I would kick in.

it was an interesting and fun challenge and we got quite good at it

but thankfully the bass player will be at the next rehearsal .... but now at least we have that option :)
 
a click count off at the top then just the bass line running .... so tunes where the bass and I did not come in right away were slightly challenging at first and all players really had to keep solid time so that we all landed in the right spot when the bass and I would kick in.

it was an interesting and fun challenge and we got quite good at it

but thankfully the bass player will be at the next rehearsal .... but now at least we have that option :)

Poor bass player just lost his live gig!!! :)
 
It is good to be skeptical about such things, methinks.

I played in an organ trio off and on for years without a bassist. B3 Organ player played bass, respected what a good bass line meant, and it was perfect.

I played one gig with a fine singer and piano player (coffee shop deal) and it worked well. Again, the piano player - solid player and not flashy - kept it all together well.

Played with a quartet and the bass player had to cancel last minute. The piano player - one of the best I've ever played with - said, "No prob. I'll do the bass lines." All was well for the first time through each chart. Then he either got adventurous or played a solo ... bass line went to pot. It was a disaster ... even when it was brought to his attention. He couldn't help himself, I guess. Again, this guy is a brilliant player.

My experiences ... for what it's worth ... which may be less than $0.02. LOL

Glad you had a good time, Tony.

radman
 
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