I agree with this
And I disagree with this.
To play, you need to have huge ears.
No one needs to know the rules of grammar and spelling to be able to speak well - at whatever level.
Wisdom is communicated through careful words and thoughtful responses.
Wise bass playing is communicated through experienced ears and thoughtful choices. It can work in any genre.
Theory and modes and scales and the circle of fifths help all genres equally.
Because jazz is the non-classical music taught in schools, it gets the theory crown. But the theory of jazz is pop music theory. All music theory.
Theory doesnât make you a better bassist, and in my experience with students, it can just as easily lead to an understanding of theory for theoryâs sake (bad) as it does to a deeper understanding of practical/applied theory for musicians.
I agree with this in theory, but in my experience, the players that have learned by ear flourishes and have explored their bass by ear to play their own little flourishes are 100% better players than people who are making choices based off of learned scales, patterns, or being told âthese notes work - use theseâ.
I do love this. Thanks @joergkutter .
Theory can be a way to break through an obstacle - often the obstacle can be broken through with listening / transcribing - when it canât, it may be knowing and understanding the underlying structures is what you need.
Yâall are rad folks, and I love these discussions.
On my BassBuzz Forum Bio / Character Sheet, my theory alignment would be:
Chaotic Good.
Chaotic - because I believe (as @John_E points out above) that the playing can still happen without the deep theory divesâŚ
Good - because I know how rich and wonderful the world can be when the theory starts to hold together and make sense.
It helps with composition, it helps in transcribing and analyzing, it helps in communicating to musicians, and it is indispensable if youâre ever trying to read a chart.
SoâŚ
Dive in when it can help⌠but itâs not the secret bass-hack that some folks make it out to be. The secret bass hack is spending bazillions of hours playing and performing and transcribing bass lines on your bass.