How to prep for Drum & Bass playing?

#1

So since it didn’t work out with the band I turned to my drummer friend who I played together with in a band when we were around 18. He is motivated and interested in playing together and we’re currently looking for a location, but before we spent money or worse commit to a regular fee…

Drum & Bass as genre is not something I am very familiar or involved with and seemingly also often purely synthetized music(?).

Anyways: Are there any good tips how I could prepare myself and prepare the session overall so we have some structure to it? Or maybe some example of simple drum & bass grooves that we can practice and maybe gradually add stuff while we’re getting better?

While I’m sure that I will work something out I am eager to hear your input.

My goal here is literally just to play with other people again and while we’re not opposed to playing with others we don’t think it makes sense for us to first look for a full band as this will likely fizzle out before we get the people together. With just us two we can be certain that we get to playing as long as we get the practice room.

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#2

Drum & Bass? The electronic genre? Pendlum and co. ? :open_mouth:

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#3

Yeah I’m interested in how this goes too :slight_smile:

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#4

Maybe I should rephrase the question.

What to play with only drums and bass in a practice session so both members can enjoy the practice? Because covering famous songs is probably not the way to go here :wink:

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#5

I would personally prepare some samples at home. (Loopcloud etc. ) Some 16, 32 bars of guitar, synth etc. and I would try to create a “song” on the basis of the sample. After you are done with that you can take a look on another, continuation sample, or try to create something with free vst instrument and construct a whole song from this beginning spark.

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#6

For inspiration, Kiyoshi is working on her sixth album of just her and a drummer :slight_smile:

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#7

I know you’re a fan and she is quite impressive but never tickled my fancy to be honest.
I still will have a look for inspiration, although it will never be on Kiyoshi level when we try it :smiley:

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#8

Maybe select a few lead sheets of songs in the genre you both like and work on creating bass lines with different rhythms based on the chord changes?
Experiment with different effects backed by a solid “live” drum pattern?
Work on you timing for soloing?
It sounds like fun and you will have a solid foundation when you expand the band!
Have fun and keep us updated.

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#9

As the very first step you need to buy a Hot Hand :slight_smile:

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#10

That sounds like a really good starting point.
I guess looking up the chord progressions of a few songs we like and then maybe start with just looping the progression and later on add in some more form or something.

Thank you.

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#11

:+1:

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#12

Royal Blood is a another Drum & Bass only band. The bass player comes from a keyboard background and has some unique signal paths to create the sound. Not sure if they are what you are looking for… here is one of their tracks: Royal Blood - I Only Lie When I Love You (Official Video) - YouTube

Now if you are talking Drum and Bass (or DnB) genre, then go learn about the Amen Break, as it is the foundational rhythm structure for the genre. Problem is most DnB is sampled tracks sped up that would be a real challenge to play. Most of the bass lines are synthesized, a Reece bass being one of the most common. The bpm is usually around 160-180, with an Aeolion scale being the standard too. Here is my track I had to create for my Composing & Producing for Electronic Music Class: Stream Steady by Sully | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

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#13

I played in a drum and bass band for a good long time.

Really, anything you both like to play is fun to play just bass and drums.
I played complicated rhythms and slap lines, and the drummer got to play allll her drums. It was great.

But sometimes we would just play covers we liked, or simple funk jams. Anything, really.

It’s tough when it’s a duo, because you may find yourself missing the melodic lines. One thing that was real fun for me - and helped develop a melodic line while still keeping the low end - was tuning a 4 string to dropped D, letting the low note ring out, and then playing D-scale melodies on the G string.

You can make a career with that!! (cough cough, Tool, cough).

Hope you have a lovely time.

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#14

The Ting Tings were two musicians who used loops extensively to get a fuller sound.

Blu DeTiger is a bassist who plays with just a drummer and backtracks, but Blu plays the instruments on the backtrack.

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#15

Thanks for all the tips and suggestions.

We booked the practice room yesterday and had a 2 hour session (minimum booking time).
As the drummer didn’t have any opportunity to really practice on a drumset for like a decade he naturally was a bit rusty.

The song we enjoyed the most was Terrorgruppe - Wir müssen raus. A German punk band we listened to in our youth and a song with a catchy bassline. I practiced it during the week and it was the song the drummer knew the best because it was one of the songs he practiced extensively in the past.

Apart from that we played other relatively easy stuff like Feel Good Inc and Daddy Cool and also just played a one chord vamp jam session, which worked really good. It seems I automatically started with the rythm pattern from the lesson and the drummer picked it up immediately as it is one of the first standard beats/grooves you learn. So to me it felt as comfortable as the groove from the lesson, although he added some stuff here and there he didn’t change the underlying groove and so I felt really comfortable jamming to that.

We definitely want to continue and are also looking for people in our social net to recruit for a more complete band. In that regard I recently nudged on a friend to play an instrument, because it’s really a shame that he doesn’t. He has a good ear for melodies and a good sense of rythm. Apparently it worked as he messaged me today that he plans to go to the music store to buy a guitar so he doesn’t have to wait for any delivery.
Unfortunately for me he is more interested in an acoustic than an electric, but overall I’m happy that he starts playing something.

There’s also the drummers daughter (7 y.o.) who voiced an interest in keyboard and also joining us in the practice sessions. I’m all for it and also gave the drummer my keyboard I still had hidden away somewhere. It’s not a good keyboard as it theoretically has weighted keys, but practically the weighting mechanism does not work correctly and thus some keys are always louder and some are always quieter but you can deactivate the weighted keys feature so it isn’t too much of an issue. At least in terms of finding out if she has the endurance and keeps the interest in the instrument up. If she really is into it then a new keyboard would be in order.

In summary: A huge success. We had fun and are starting to recruit more people into the world of music and maybe our band.

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#16

Small update: The friend could not wait for a guitar and I accompanied him to the music store yesterday and he is the proud owner of a new accoustic guitar with pickup.

Not only that but now I also have someone to share my yousician premium membership and I pay less than half of the subscription fee now. There was also an offer 50% off for new members… as he is one he bought the family pack, with 4 profiles and we still pay less than if we both would have bought the single premium account.

New songs on the list for the next session are: The Wellerman and 5,6,7,8’s - Woohoo
I can’t wait to get into a routine/regular schedule for making music with someone.

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