Absolutely @joergkutter!
I gave it some listens, and here are my feedbacks:
- I like your more compositional / song-structured approach. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but leaving out the first few bars and then entering with a bass statement was real cool!
- The bassline is varied in a real nice way. It has two arrivals, and the second one makes you want to hear a resolution - it’s a nice structure for a repeating form.
- great job in finding and experimenting with fills all over your bass
- It sounds like you’re aiming for what you want to hear and not just playing through a finger formula.
All real good stuff.
The main stuff I hear to work on would be rhythm related.
It sounds like your ear is really tuned to the notes and the melodies you want the line to carry, but the rhythm feels a bit pushed through.
The rhythm could be much more accurate.
And by that, I don’t mean metronomic. I mean: the drum feel on this is a behind the beat, kinda sloppy, relaxed feel. You want to emulate that and match it on bass.
Your tendency in the recorded track is to rush, and against this soundscape and drum feel, it stands out to me.
This is a problem that I’ve had for the entirety of my playing career. It has to do mostly with what you focus on. If you’re a melody-tuned player (guilty), it is easy to focus on the notes you want to hear, and the sounds you want, and not so much on the precision of when they show up.
Guilty, guilty, guilty.
If I were your teacher, I would subscribe the following:
Find live drummer loops on youtube, or download the funk drum loops on Drumgenius (that app I love).
THEN - listen to the drum patterns until you’re singing them. Until you are feeling like you could dance to them - until they are deep in your bones. THEN - lay your left hand over the strings so they’re all muted.
THEN - play a bass line on the muted bass.
Only pay attention to how your rhythm is phrasing. The only mission is for your non-pitched muted plucking to groove completely with the drum loop.
THEN… if you’ve got it… you can play ONE NOTE. A groovy one note bass line.
That’s it.
And do that for a different groove every day, or every time you sit down to practice. Hopefully it will transition your ear a bit deeper into the rhythm.
Great job on the line, I’m so glad you and these other awesome folks were able to get some mileage out of my jam track, and keep it up keep it up keep it up!
Hope this is helpful.