Question:
i need advice quite fast. i have youth group tonight and our bassist is sick. our lineup is Guitar/Vocals, bass, piano, and drums. i'm wondering if anyone has any advice on how to fill in the low end. i know that keyboards are quite capable of this task, but our pianist utterly hates the keyboard with a passion. and i want to know how to coax him into playing it.
Answer:
When we don't have bass, I have the drummer switch to aux percussion (djembe, conga, shaker, tambourine, etc.). That helps the lack of bass fell less prominent. "Unplugged" sounds kind of cool every now & then.
Answer:
If you have an octave fx pedal that drops the guitar sound 1 or 2 octaves, split the guitarists signal (parallel) so that part of it runs through the normal fx/amp chain for guitar
and part is sent off (usually post compressor, pre distortion ) to the octave pedal and then to a bass or keyboard amp, or direct into the PA board.
Answer:
Or, don't worry about it too much Do what you normally do, we haven't had a bass player at all this year, and well, we've just had to continue on and try other things (alt. percussion as Tony mentioned) 1 or 2 acoustic guitars only, things like that. We've also just done our "normal" thing minus the bass. Everyone will understand that the bass player is sick and I'm sure they won't hold it against you
As far as the pianist thing, perhaps when he hears what the band sounds like with no bass, he'll reconsider?
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maybe he will. thanks for the help guys.
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We have no bass player, I just kick the bass drum a little harder then everything else on the kit.
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Just crank the lows on the guitar. It won't be the same but it'll work.
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You could always just ask the pianist to stomp on the left hand.
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Let us know how it worked out
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Pianos are capable of filling in the low end too.
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Ooo! Can you bring in an organist? They'll rock the low end better than a bassist anyday!
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if you have more than one person in your group who knows the notes on the top string, they can follow along well enough to fill in the low end, given that they know what key you're playing in, or if they have the sheet music.
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Originally Posted by Jay Tea Ooo! Can you bring in an organist? They'll rock the low end better than a bassist anyday!
Answer:
Originally Posted by Dave_01 Let us know how it worked out
well, after my bit of panic, our bassist ended up showing up after all. i guess he must have been feeling better, and we sounded better as a band than we have before.
Answer:
Originally Posted by guitarfreak217 well, after my bit of panic, our bassist ended up showing up after all. i guess he must have been feeling better, and we sounded better as a band than we have before.
Glad to hear it worked out after all