Possibly the most overlooked member of any band is the bass player. Some may say that drummers are the most overlooked because they are always in the background surrounded by their equipment. Insert Tommy Lee joke here. The drummer and bass player set the foundation of a song. Think of a song being like a sandwich. The meat is the melody, the veggies are the chords and the bread is the bass and drums. Things like guitar riffs, solos and lyrics are condiments. If you do not use good quality bread, the whole thing just falls apart.

Van Dyke

Bass playing is not as easy as it seems on the surface. There is quite a bit to know in order to be good at it. I started playing bass because of an opportunity. I played guitar a little bit and happened to be in the right place at the right time and found myself in a band playing bass. I thought it would be easy. I found out pretty quick that you really have to develop an ability to feel where the drummer is going to go in order to keep the foundation level. This is not something that can be done overnight, it takes a lot of practice and sitting in your basement with your iTunes library is not going to get it done. It takes a lot of live practice playing with real people. Practicing by yourself is important, but it is not the same. You can learn the notes and the changes and practice them 12 hours a day, but until you are actually interacting with other players, you are not going to learn what bass playing is all about.

There are several great bass players in the area that you should check out. Pretty much every band I have seen around here has a decent bassist. I do not want to mention anyone by name because I do not want to leave anyone out. Just let me say that you need to get out there and see some of them, preferably all of them. They are all way better than I ever was, but hey, who isn’t?

Some of my favorite bass players are obvious because they are just beyond good. There is no need to list them because everyone knows who they are already. I will just point out some places to find excellent playing.

I cannot believe that I never knew how great of a bass player Glenn Hughes is. If you don’t know who he is, find out. He has worked with a ton of people and is mainly known as a vocalist, Most recently he has been with Black Country Communion. Great stuff.

Old ‘70s rock has great playing all over it. Foghat, Alice Cooper, the Stones, Bowie, glam, southern rock. Just about anything from 1970-‘77 has something to offer.

Even those ‘60s Motown records have some incredible bass playing on them. But for me, the best bass playing I ever heard was on some live recordings of James Brown. He had some of the best musicians. Wow. Swing bands have some great players too, like my good friend Michael Gerbino in the Louis Prima, Jr. band. He is a dedicated bassman that can play any style and knock it out of the park every time.

So what am I trying to say? I am trying to say that you need to reconfigure the equalization on the cd player in your car, on your mp3 player, or whatever you listen to music on, so you can hear what the bass player is doing (or isn’t doing in my case).

Now, get out there and listen to some local live music and watch the bass player.

Don Van Dyke