Technique and the Imagination

I would like to share a little about how I believe technique and imagination are two of the fundamental, but sometimes neglected, elements to a musician’s growth as a player. I will also explore how these two areas can increase both your own and others’ enjoyment of your playing. I will be talking specifically about techniques for the bass guitar, but my comments on imagination can be applied to other instruments.

The electric bass guitar is a modern instrument and the first basses only began to be mass-produced by Fender guitars in 1951. Because it is so young, there is a lot of unexplored ground in the potential of the instrument and, unfortunately, many people still underappreciate or dismiss it in favour of ‘flashier’ or ‘cooler’ instruments that have had much more visual and celebrated users.

Bass guitar has its role and function when playing with others. It is the foundation of the music being played and the reference for all harmony instruments. Because of this, many people are happy to leave it at that, and a lot of prejudice has grown up around bass players trying to express themselves in ways that involve more than playing simple root notes or playing evolutions of the instrument, with more than the original 4 strings. For most situations 4 strings is plenty for a bass, but evolutions and variations of the instrument should not be dismissed simply on the fact that it is ‘different’. (In fact, the ‘original’ Precision Bass only had 4 strings because Fender were trying to tempt double-bassists, with their enormous instruments, onto a much more portable new Fender instrument!). A musical instrument should be accepted or disregarded according to the quality of its sound, the music that can be created on it and how well a musician can express him/herself when using the instrument.

In the 21^st century technology and innovation are constantly changing our lives and I do not see why this should be any different in the creation of music. Technology will constantly be improving the design of our instruments and as musicians we have to continue to innovate to keep up with the technology and keep pushing music forwards. I feel technique should be an extension of the imagination of the musician and should allow them to completely master their instrument with a strong link between their ears, mind and hands.

Here are a few playing tips and points on technique for you to consider and perhaps adapt to your own playing. Some may be obvious, but I know a lot of good players who have not thought about some of these points and it will only increase a player’s control of the instrument if they can overcome problems in their playing. (Some of these are aimed more at intermediate to advanced level students):

• You have five digits on your hands so try to learn to use all of them to express yourself through your instrument. This is aimed particularly at the picking hand. Two fingers is enough for many things, but you have these extra fingers and they are available to use, so I would recommend you experiment with using them either to pick one string, or to help with arpeggios across strings. As pieces get faster, or involve more crossing of strings, try to adapt your style to keep up with the music you are trying to create. All five plucking hand digits can be especially useful if using the ‘tapping’ technique.
• Watch your favourite musicians on your instrument (and others!) and study their hands. What angle is their picking hand? Are they playing closer to the neck or the bridge? How many fingers are they using? Where is their thumb anchored, if at all?  Are they using effects? When slapping, is their hand open or closed? Can you spot inefficiencies in their playing? – YouTube is an incredible resource for learning musicians.
• Think more about how your playing ‘sounds’ and less about whether you have physically hit the right note. Does it SOUND how you want it to sound? Yes, the note you played may be a C, but does it really sound beautiful and convey emotion to the audience? Are you proud of and happy with how that note sounds?
• Control the note throughout its life and make sure you end it in a satisfactory way. Don’t just stop it; think about how you want the note to sound when it stops. Should it be a dead stop, fade out or slide? Listen to how some of your favourite musicians end their notes and phrases. This is especially important if playing fretless bass as you have much more control throughout the note’s entire lifetime.
• Try not to hit the strings too hard if taking a solo as it will diminish the sustain of the note. You will get a lot of attack, but the note cannot breathe and will not last as long. I see this a lot in bass solos where the soloist feels they have to hit harder because they are playing their solo, when their normal plucking volume would be perfectly adequate.
• If you are struggling for volume in a solo, turn yourself up, or get the other musicians to play more sparsely – you will always lose in a volume battle! If you cannot reach your amp, start the song at 70% volume on your bass and turn up to full volume when taking your solo.
• Try to avoid letting your strings hit the frets too much when picking – it can make the playing sound dirtier and more ‘human’ but can also sound ‘sloppy’ if not made consistent.
• Experiment with the sound of a pick. Experiment with the angle of the pick – with the flat side in line with the string it will sound cleaner, but the more it is angled the more it will scratch the string and create a ‘dirtier’ and perhaps more ‘characterful’ sound.
• Don’t disregard looking at and learning a technique because it will not be useful on one of your own gigs. If it helps you create and play music for yourself and improves your playing and self-expression, then it is valid. Practice is different from performance.
• If you are struggling to keep up with something, break down what your plucking hand needs to do – note by note. This has helped my students and I endlessly when trying to play difficult passages. Should you begin with the same finger every time the passage repeats? If so, make sure you do. If it starts on a different finger, again, make sure your fingers alternate every time you repeat. You will KNOW whether you played the piece consistently and correctly this way. This is an incredibly helpful tool when trying to play more difficult pieces.
• Use economy picking to your advantage – when travelling from a thinner to a thicker string, let one finger pluck across all the strings instead of trying to alternate every time.
• Make sure you are muting all the strings except the one you want at all times! Every time you play a note it will make any string related to that pitch begin to vibrate as well – try it, you may be surprised. Play the 14^th fret A on the G string - hard. If you are not muting the A string it WILL start ringing. Mute it by moving your plucking hand thumb onto the A string and mute the E string with the back of your thumb.

A lot of the previous points are things I have noticed while teaching and while watching other bass players perform. Some of them are simply observations, while others are very open-ended to allow you to use your own imagination to find your own answers and own questions, which you will hopefully learn from to improve your own playing.

I see the use of ones imagination as mostly a search for finding one’s own voice on their instrument. The more interesting and varied things a musician can learn and take inspiration from, the more varied and colourful the palette becomes that they can draw upon. It will become the musician’s own, personal, inspiration pool and the way the musician combines these influences into their playing is how they will develop their own voice.

Here are a few suggestions that may help you think ‘outside the box’ and come up with more original basslines and solo ideas:

• Learn to read and write music notation. This will help you to play and write down anything you work out. This is especially helpful if you want to play something again a few years after originally learning or creating it.
• TRANSCRIBE! Work out bass lines and your favourite solos or vocal melodies, whether they are performed on bass, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, drums or sitar. You will have to push yourself to learn and try to play along with music that wasn’t written for bass!
• If you are not confident in transcribing, buy transcriptions of other instruments WITHOUT tab. This will help you to learn to read and interpret rhythms. Take books of saxophone music, cello, piano, flute, guitar and play as much as you can. If the music is too high, transpose to another octave until it fits comfortably on your instrument. You will find playing saxophone, flute or other music not written to be played on a string instrument will really push you to find interesting left and right hand fingerings. Most of the music you find yourself will never have been played on bass guitar before, so you will have to find your own way to do it. (If trying to play music with chords, which is often impossible on bass, you can play just the lowest note of the chord, or try to take some key notes (top and bottom) and play them together.)
• Find a musician you like and study their style. This can be someone on any discipline of instrument. A favourite guitarist, pianist or even a favourite singer! Do they use certain scales? What is their vibrato like? Try to work out some of their key phrases – what makes them sound like ‘them’? Watch and listen to them as much as you can – YouTube is a great help.
• Explore and find out the history of other civilisations and their musical styles – western tuning and music is only a small percentage of music and is not the ‘right’ way to do it.

If a musician keeps a healthy and imaginative mind they can never feel like they have reached a plateau, as there will always be more to explore, more solos to transcribe and more musicians to learn from. If they can attain a technique that allows them to play all their favourite music then that is what will keep them ultimately happy as a player, while giving them the facility to express themselves in their own way and without boundaries.

As musicians, we play musical instruments, which are simply tools we use to express emotions, no matter how they are played. Remember, technique is there as a tool to allow you to express exactly what you hear inside.

I hope that expanding your playing habits to force you to play things not intended for your instrument will help you to better find your own voice and give you a much stronger connection to your instrument.

Thanks for reading, I hope it has helped or given you a lifetime more work!

Arran McSporran