DUMB BASS QUESTION

[rayc]

Yes, indeed.

I've watched A LOT of bass player YouTube videos this year...partly to fill in my day in isolation and partly to see/hear what bass players have/do/sound like.

I've noticed quite a lot of bassists ON YOUTUBE bend their strings almost as a matter of course...not just to alter a note but they seem to be heavy handed and pull down the string constantly when fretting and/or striking/plucking/picking.

Is this a trick of videography, light or loose string tension or something else?

When I'm playing/recording I can hear the tuning difference and it often bothers me but I don't distort the string nearly as much as folk like
this fellow for instance...

[Greg_L]

I notice this too from people that want to be or claim to be bass masters. They think their out of tune vibrato is fancy or something. Often their bass antics are accompanied by the ugly cousin of the blues face - the bass face. It's just bass, dude. Keep it tight, keep it steady. That's your job.

[JD01]

It's just bass, dude. Keep it tight, keep it steady. That's your job.

Yup. I've always thought Krist Novoselic was a really underrated bassist.

[Greg_L]

[vomitHatSteve]

I notice this too from people that want to be or claim to be bass masters. They think their out of tune vibrato is fancy or something. Often their bass antics are accompanied by the ugly cousin of the blues face - the bass face. It's just bass, dude. Keep it tight, keep it steady. That's your job.

At least with bass, it's not as big of a leap when you photoshop out their instrument and replace it with a giant fish.
Altho, I guess the meme is actually slugs.

That guy in the video is pretty over-the-top. It's like he can't decide if he's Mudvayne's weirdo bassist or a guitar god.

I guess if there's no guitar, the bending thing makes more sense. The bass is the lead instrument, so melodic flourishes like that work.

[Lt. Bob]

I find solo bass vids have little to do with anything about playing bass in a band.
Most of that stuff would just lose the groove and get you fired.

But solo bass is a real thing for some and I don't have a problem with the bending when he's a solo instrument ..... just trying to have some expression and that's one way to do it.

Another is to play something besides bass since in a band setting you're a very important part of the rhythm laying things down for vocalists and other instruments to shine over.
You're not supposed to shine for the most part ...... you're to hold everything together.

[Armistice]

Geddy is not a looker at the best of times.

[Armistice]

Don't know who the girl is but she appears to be playing an open E string, the easiest of all notes... Not much to get bass facey about there, although perhaps she was doing something difficult the note before.

[Tadpui]

I was editing a video last week and I caught myself doing the vibrato thing on bass after the fact. I don't even realize I'm doing it at the time. I think it's just force of habit from doing it on guitar any time I'm playing single notes. So at least in my case, it's "guitar player trying to play bass" syndrome.

[Armistice]

Yes, indeed.

I've watched A LOT of bass player YouTube videos this year...partly to fill in my day in isolation and partly to see/hear what bass players have/do/sound like.

I've noticed quite a lot of bassists ON YOUTUBE bend their strings almost as a matter of course...not just to alter a note but they seem to be heavy handed and pull down the string constantly when fretting and/or striking/plucking/picking.

Is this a trick of videography, light or loose string tension or something else?

When I'm playing/recording I can hear the tuning difference and it often bothers me but I don't distort the string nearly as much as folk like
this fellow for instance...

Interesting definition as he's running through the machine's specs... "headphone in" - I would have called it a "headphone out"...

[Greg_L]

Don't know who the girl is

Este Haim. Nearly permanent bass face.

[rayc]

It is part of the playing alone thing I suppose...frame rates would emphasize some of it too.
There are SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many of them and so few are actually entertaining or educational that I wonder how the proliferation occurred...lock down?

I recall tuning my bass, as a teen, by holding the string in front of a distant television tuned to white noise and plucking the string...the wave was clear to see. Don't know if it's still visible without a cathode ray tube.

[WhiskeyJack]

I remember the first time i saw Haim on SNL i wasn't entirely sure if that her bass face was like some kind of "hey we are network TV i am going to be silly and do something people will talk about for years ot come" or what.

Nope. That's her all the time bass face.

[CrowsofFritz]

She gets pissed off by people commenting on her bass face saying, “you wouldn’t say that about a man.”

Uh...yes. Yes we would.

[Armistice]

She gets pissed off by people commenting on her bass face saying, “you wouldn’t say that about a man.”

Uh...yes. Yes we would.

Indeed we are!

[JD01]

I notice this too from people that want to be or claim to be bass masters. They think their out of tune vibrato is fancy or something. Often their bass antics are accompanied by the ugly cousin of the blues face - the bass face. It's just bass, dude. Keep it tight, keep it steady. That's your job.

At least with bass, it's not as big of a leap when you photoshop out their instrument and replace it with a giant fish.
Altho, I guess the meme is actually slugs.

I do like the one of John Mayer... 'cos he's got this look on his face like he's just looked down and is shocked that his guitar turned into a slug while he was singing a few lines, like "Oh my fucking god, what just happened!"

[rayc]

It's just bass, dude. Keep it tight, keep it steady. That's your job.

Yup. I've always thought Krist Novoselic was a really underrated bassist.

I suspect part of that is the expectation that he just hammers the root but he was far more harmony based in that early band of his.

[JD01]

Yup. I've always thought Krist Novoselic was a really underrated bassist.

I suspect part of that is the expectation that he just hammers the root but he was far more harmony based in that early band of his.

Yeah, his basslines were often quite interesting. They're just rarely flashy at all!

[Greg_L]

She gets pissed off by people commenting on her bass face saying, “you wouldn’t say that about a man.”

Uh...yes. Yes we would.

My making fun of bass face knows no gender identity. Her bass face is ridiculous, bordering on satire, like she's doing it over the top on purpose. Man or woman or whatever they go by in between, her bass face deserves to be laughed at.

[JD01]

Robert Trujillo is always good for a bass face