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Gerald Weinberg posted a comment about musicians and systems thinking recently. Here are my thoughts about this subject:

Music can be played and created in solitude, but an extra dimension is added when musicians meet and play together. You don’t have to improvise; even playing a familiar song is a greater experience when played together with other musicians. Add an audience and you have yet another dimension. An enthusiastic crowd can inspire you and make you play like you never before. There is more to listening than just consuming. Listening can be participation and interaction. That makes such a difference. Of course each musician has to take his responsibility, but the whole is surely greater than the sum of the parts.

Music has much to do with relationships. It is said that international sports promotes understanding and fellowship, but think about it, competition is a main ingredient in sports. Imagine a musical movement where people from different countries meet and play together without competition and create music together. There you have some promotion of fellowship. Especially Jazz music is an universal concept that crosses all cultural boundaries. In fact, I believe all creative Arts promote connectedness.

Some of today’s music is produced like on assembly line, barren and without lasting impact. It is commercialized fast-food.

I had worked in the computer industry for some 15 years when I started playing myself. I had a rather analytical and left-brain approach to my work and life in general. Along this path I eagerly developed the technical and solitude side of playing bass. I soon discovered the other side; the need to play with awareness, to be connected with myself and with others. Music is to be played together with other people, whether they play or just listen. Being the person I am, I began to reflect over this new perspective and started to hunt for more information along this path. I found a way of thinking that felt natural. This is the way the world operates. If you let loose your artistic right-brain side, it will teach you connectedness.

You may live by these principles more or less, but perhaps you are not aware of the system or how things fit together. I have found that the better I understand the system, the better I can direct my steps, and maximize my musical learning and experiences. There are always problems along the way that needs to be solved and if you can see the principles, you have a better chance of finding a solution. Thankfully, often intuition comes to our help.

We, as citizens of this earth, should strive for wholeness. Only then can we break the downward spiral of destruction. We cannot afford to live in our own egoistic, disconnected world. I believe musicians and artists have an important role to play for us and for the future.

Now I have used Auralex Great Gramma for some months. It looks like this; my Behringer PEQ 2200, EBS HD350 and Ampeg 410HLF neatly stacked on top of it.

This product from Auralex.com is an acoustic isolation platform that floats the speaker cabinet. I bought it because several prominent bass players on the net recommended it and I got curious. I have written about it earlier here. The advertisment promises great purity of tone and after using it for a while I have to concur. My tone is now more defined and there is less disturbing vibrations. My bandmates confirm my opinion; they can hear me more clearly now. I can allow a higher volume on the deep tones on my equalizer.

The annual Jazz Festival in UmeÃ¥ has ended for the fortieth time. It’s a great experience with all kinds of jazz and its magnitude and the caliber of visiting artists competes with (surpasses) Stockholm Jazz Festival. Miles has been here, Duke, Ella and Coltrane also. Unfortunately I missed them, but I have seen John Scofield, Wayne Shorter, Mike Stern and Joe Zawinul. This year the highlights were Richard Bona, Etienne Mbappe and Robben Ford.

Richard Bona was great, of course. He played the whole range from the sweetest ballads to storming funk. He can do anything he wants with his voice and with his bass. In one song he sang together with himself (using a looping machine) in multiple voices. No instruments, just Mr Bona himself, from the lowest bass to the highest pitch. It was awesome and the audience was captivated.

Robben Ford gave us a lot of 12 bar blues roundups during two hours. But he and his crew were good, really good. During the concert I was placed so that I could see the hands of the bass player, Terry Carlton (son of Larry Carlton). Terry was a very nice acquaintance. I watched him groove during different kinds of blues songs and I was inspired and got something into my system. I will definitively push the limits a bit more, when we play the blues in my band. Lesson learned: Always place yourself so that you can see the bass player!

I continue to report observations and advancements concerning the bass part of my life, a part that contributes to much joy and satisfaction in my life.

As you know, I like to experiment, so after a year with floating thumb (see earlier posts); I went back to the “standard” way of having your thumb resting on the pickup or B-/E-string. I noticed a little bit more edge on the funky feeling and when playing fast. With the floating thumb technique the fingers are bent and with the standard technique the fingers are more straight. Obviously I still have more control over fast movements when the fingers are straight. I believe that the finger should hit the string with enough speed to get a good sound and that might do the difference. There is not much difference, but enough to be noticed and felt.

As the speed of a song increases, I tend to play more and more staccato-like, that is rate of tone/pause decreases. I don’t let the string ring enough. This behavior was also improved as I changed to standard technique.

This month I am working on “Charlie” by Red Hot Chili Peppers and I find it easier to capture the funky feeling with straight fingers. I felt kind of liberated when I did the change back. Still floating thumb has its advantages, especially when playing on the G-string. I might end up using both at different times.

I have recorded the playing of my band several times during the last weeks and as I listened to it, I became aware of some things about my own playing. It is very obvious when the bass in not playing, even more than when it is playing. The silence of the bass can be musical, but if it is not, it is like a hole in the music. I thought I was doing fine, locking in with the drums, standing close to my cabinet. But no, sometimes it did not sound good.

Legato, binding notes to each other should be consistent, independent of how difficult your finger movements are. If you break up the legato it should be on purpose, making phrases in the song. My bass, a Warwick Streamer LX, has a lot of sustain and that can also contribute to the sometimes chopped sound.

This led me to experiment some more with playing with my thumb, while resting the side of my hand on the strings close to the bridge. By doing this I get less sustain, the tone will die away more quickly and the holes will be less obvious.

Last night my band had a gig at a local party, with about 50 people. We had a great night with everyone being enthusiastic and happy. But the hall was very special. I noticed that every time I played a G, whether it was low G or high G, the note was amplified by the room and continued to sound even though I dampened my string. We’re talking about some resonance here! I have never seen a room behave like that before. I was lucky to have my parametric equalizer with me and I set it up to notch out low G at 49 Hz and its higher cousin at 98 Hz. That made my sound tolerable.

I love the way you can affect the tone of your bass with just your fingers. Where you hit the string with your finger affects how the string will vibrate and how it will sound. You can pluck the string from the middle of the string above the fretboard all the way down to close to the bridge and vary your tone considerably.

If you play close to the neck you will get a warm, round tone. The fundamental tone is accentuated, that is your tone will be more like a sine wave. You will get a deep, bassy sound.

If you play closer to the bridge the harmonics are accentuated and the tone has more treble in it. The tone is dry and dirty. The string is stiffer, which means that it will be in the same place each time you hit it. You can play faster. On the other hand the volume is weaker than when you play close to the neck. More effort is needed to produce the same volume.

How you pluck also affects the tone. If you play with a pick or with your nails or hard fingertips more of the harmonics are retained. If you play with your pads the vibration of the string is dampened at the pluck and the tone has less harmonics.

Added to all this we also have slap and pop and playing with thumb. I try to give the basslines of each song we play in our group character by varying the way I play. As bass players we are limited in the possibilities of adding effects because of the nature of the bass sound. Too much of effects just make the tone diffuse and undefined and your sound disappears among the guitars. But with a mostly clean tone and fingers we can achieve much!

A while ago I read a lot about acoustics and the implications for a bass player. I might write more about that later, but clear is that the acoustics of the auditorium and the people inside it has great influence over how our bass sounds. We can’t do much about it, except accommodating by adjusting our equipment and perhaps give suggestions to the owner of the place. Reflections, standing waves and vibrations are our enemies. Absorption of midrange can be tamed, but boomines because of reflections is more difficult. Having a good sound at stage and having a good sound out on the dance floor is often conflicting.

One product I read about and that seemed very interesting was Auralex Gramma which you put under your cab to isolate it from the stage. Ed Friedland recommends it and also Patrik Pfeiffer. I have experimented with different kinds of isolation materials under my cab, but I have not found a good solution. I decided to try it, ordered one for myself the other day and will let you know how it works when it arrives (in two months!).

Last week I picked up my fretted Warwick 5-string Streamer bass again. For some six months I have played fretless exclusively. Why? Because I fell in love with the tone, the expressiveness and I figured that if I played all sorts of music for a while, it would help me to get real fluent on fretless. Anyway, it was an interesting experience to play fretted again. It felt like I had cleaned up my technique quite a bit.

After having been forced to have my fingers on left hand exact on the right spot, now my fingers fell naturally close behind the fret and the result was a fuller and clearer tone. Imagine that you push the string 45 degrees down in the crack between the fret and the fretboard. This will give a clear sound with a minimum of fret buzz.

After having been forced to listen closely to get the right intonation, now my ears felt bigger. I could hear more details of each note I played.

Also, I appreciate the clear tone of a fretted bass and the ability to control attack and note length and to funk out real bad. It is just like this; each instrument has its place.

When I was looking for a fretless bass a year ago, I ultimately chose one with fretlines because I wanted to have a quick start. I got advice both that is is good and that it is bad to have fretlines on your first fretless bass. Good, because you can begin to play at once. Bad, because you will get used to staring at the fretboard. Some weeks ago I decided that it was time for me to stop looking at my left hand and train myself to play in tune by ear. I discovered that I did not dare to look away or close my eyes from fear to play out of tune.

It is very obvious that if you have fretlines and if you look at your left hand, you are going to trust your eyes more than your ears. At least for me, the visual feedback was stronger than the aural feedback and it blocked my musical growth. I really want to have an automatic connection between my finger and my ears.

What is my strategy then? There is a some good advice on the internet, like using open strings often, playing scales again and again, playing against a chord played on another instrument. I have done like this: I play the songs of my band with my eyes closed. I have chosen songs with a low tempo or lowered the tempo of other songs, in order to hear every note I play and have time to correct it if I am out of tune. It is good to start out slowly. I had to allow myself to play out of tune in the beginning.

You have to hear yourself relative to the song. For the sake of feedback your tone has to be clear and strong.

I discovered a new level of attention as I listened closely to my playing. Now I have to concentrate on every note I play. As a side effect I have became more aware of how the note sounds and how I can affect and shape it with my fingers making slides, vibrato and mwah for example.

At first I felt lost when hitting the wrong note, but gradually my “fingers” learned how to automatically slide in to the correct tone. I had to force myself not to look, but only trust my ears as the source of feedback. I believe that as we use our ears as reference, they become more and more sensitive and accurate. When I say “development of ears” I really mean the development of the sense called hearing as a channel into our mind.

Now I am playing the same songs over and over again, trying to relax and put my trust in my ears. Things change slowly. It is evident that you have to be persistent. But it is really fascinating how you can develop your abilities. Are you struggling with the same thing? Why not share with a comment?