A compliment...and a concern

[One Bad Monkey]

Finished a three-run gig of playing the original soundtrack with a band (I'm not a full-time member at this point, more of a hired gun), set to Buster Keaton's silent film, the General. Overall, had a blast playing something that was more technically demanding than I thought; keeping a solid tempo when the drummer has to add crashes and fills to the film that don't necessarily go along was tough. All in all, it was the most fun I've had in a while playing live.

Anyway, after the show, the lead singer comes up and says "You know what's wonderful about your playing? You play with DYNAMICS!" and everyone else started chiming in on all these little things that I added that helped lift the songs in different areas, and take it down when it didn't need to be.

So, while this is a great compliment, I still have to wonder; is it really THAT hard to play with dynamics? I mean, really?

 

[Matthijs]

Go see some bands just starting out on your local stage and find out: yes, it is

'Dynamics? Sure, I move around a lot on stage...' <--actual answer I got once...

 

[One Bad Monkey]

HA! Nice!

My other thought too would be that playing with dynamics is definitely a team situation; if one person is doing it, it makes no sense. Everyone has to be doing it for it to have any sort of real power and musicality.

 

[Florin]

Dynamics are an art form by themselves.
It is hard to use dynamics with taste. Not too much, and not linear.
So your quality is that you are an expressive bassist, that can follow the lead singer (or whatever is leading the song) with good taste.
Bravo!

I like your site BTW

 

[beda]

what does a drummer answer if you ask him to play more with dynamics?

BUT I´M ALLREADY PLAYING AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE!

Serious, these days many bass-player underestimate the importance of a dynamic style, which is very sad imo.

 

[One Bad Monkey]

Thanks Florin. As for the site, it's constantly a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks right now.

 

[Florin]

beda, that's the modern music - FLAT. As a bass player, you still have some space, but you need to be subtle

 

[golem]

Right.

FLAT ... but flat out
... all knobs at eleven.

Yukk.
​

 

[flipper_gv]

beda, that's the modern music - FLAT. As a bass player, you still have some space, but you need to be subtle

yup, everything is over the top compressed. Sure it makes your iPod mp3's louder than ever, but what for people who actually enjoy listening to music?

 

[Florin]

Beatles

 

[flipper_gv]

Beatles

I know this may be blasphemy, but I really don't like the Beatles :|. But, I got a thing on my pc that kinda does a dynamic enhancer on my music, which is pretty nice, especially for old school 50's and 60's jazz.