Stingray Recordings

[CFA]

I decided that next year since I'll be out living on my own, and out of the boons I'd try my hand at busking every once in a while for kicks. I also figured I should probably practice a lot more, and was influenced by a European I saw on Youtube that uses chords and plays (to my ears) the lead guitar parts instead of the bass parts.

So even though I'm not about to start playing Eric Clapton riffs on my bass, I figured I'd take a more bass dominate, guitar/chord oriented bass style and work on it as a side project to my main band, and I created a profile on unsigned to help me practice.

CFA - Rock / Funk / Experimental Artist

Any comments/advice would be much appreciated

And before I forget, all tracks were recorded with my 'Ray, direct into the comp (No pedals whats-so-ever, just a 3 foot chord, with 1/8th inch jacks on each end, and a 1/4 inch-1/8th inch jack adapter thing into the bass, and the other 1/8th inch plugged into my computers microphone input). The only thing after recording was I cleaned up some clicks and pops and boosted the overall volume on some of the tracks using cool edit pro.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

There's a really annoying buzzing (fret buzz) that I am hearing most of the time. You might want to bring up the action a little or play lighter or maybe your not fretting some of the notes properly while playing the chords.

As for the songs... they sound incomplete; like there should other parts or something else going on. Maybe a vocal line or something. It's hard to make solo bass sound good and keep it interesting.

Keep at it and write and practice and see where it goes. I've never seen a bass player busking before. Good luck!

 

[TheAntMan]

For Her...

This one has some real potential IMO. I like the mood / feel / vibe of it.

Need to clean up on the technique but keep at it, it will smooth out the more you work on it.

Never stop working on what you feel and makes you feel

-- Ant

 

[roscopeco2000]

yeah they are beautiful songs really like them but smallmouth is right please please get your ray set up that buzz is really messing up ur vibe.

 

[patobrujo]

i think you get the idea on the buzzing sound so i'll point in another direction... i really think you need to complete the songs, give them rhythm. There's no need to add a full drum set but something that holds the tempo. That will help you're playing too, and since you want the tracks to be all bass you could record another bass voices (leading, groove, etc) some effects could help you to give different colours to the voices...

Keep up the work man!!

 

[CFA]

Strangely I never noticed the buzz before it was mentioned here, so thanks a lot for pointing it out. I'll get right on trying to fix it up.

I know the songs sound incomplete, and honestly that's because I'm trying to write them as I go. I know that probably sounds like a strange way to do it, and it's different then how I'd write in a band situation. Basically what I'm trying to practice is making up songs as I go, so hopefully with time they'll start sounding more complete.

Also, if you want to look up the player there's at least one video called "Amazing bass player lomanis" or something similar, I won't post the video here since he's not playing a EBMM

For Her is the oldest recording on the site, while most were recorded around when it was created that one was recorded back around late December/early January. That recording I'm pretty sure was a rough take I did to get the ideas down in order. I stopped working on that when it became a band song, and left it as it was for the time being... hopefully in the future it can live up to its potential

Unfortunately, I only have 3 pedals at the moment, a broken guitar Crybaby, a Boss Chorus, and a Boss Distortion, and the only thing I have on hand is the broken Crybaby. I was planning on adding effects as soon as I get my pedals back, and hopefully that improves the overall quality.

Thanks for the replies, advice, and encouragement, as some things I wouldn't have noticed otherwise were pointed out. I'll definitely consider everything mentioned.

 

[oli@bass]

As already mentioned, For Her is really nice chords work. Would love to see a tab of that (yeah, I'm too lazy to figure it out, and no bass handy right here)

For the buzzing: Before adjusting the bass, check whether it's actually a problem of your technique, i.e. the fretting fingers not pushing the strings properly on the frets. To play chords on bass takes quite some strenght and it might just require a bit more trainig.

One more thing which you've probably heard a million times: Practice with a metronome!

 

[CFA]

Thanks Oli, I'm pretty sure it was 1 part weak pinky finger, 1 part playing too hard, and one part action slightly too low. I raised it a tiny bit the other night (Probably 1/16th of a turn for now) and I'm gonna see what happens. I'll figure out the tab for it in a little while.

 

[CFA]

G|-11----11--11-11-9---9--9--9-9-9--9--9-9-9--9-9--9--9-9--
D|-0------0---0--0--0---0--0--0-0-0--7--7-7-7--7-7--7--7-7--
A|-------------------------------------------------------------
E|-------------------------------------------------------------
That could be wrong, not 100% sure if I got the number of times each is played right, but I think it is. I'm almost positive those are the chords I played on that recording as well (I just realized its an older version then I thought)

The chorus part is:
G|------------------------------------------------------------------------
D|-11----11--11-11-11---11--11--7----7--7-7--7-7-7--7-9-9-9-9-9-9-9---
A|-0-----0----0--0--0----0---0---5----5--5-5--5-5-5--5-7-7-7-7-7-7-7---
E|------------------------------------------------------------------------

G|------------------------------------------------------------------------
D|-11----11--11-11-11---11--11--7----9--9-9--9-9-9--9-7-7-7-7-7-7-7--
A|-0-----0----0--0--0----0---0---5----7--7-7--7-7-7--7-5-5-5-5-5-5-5--
E|------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rhythm for that last chord in each of those is not shown with any rhythm related to the actual song. Definitely use the song over my lax demonstrations via spacing. The basic layout of the song is:

G|-11--9--11--9--9-- x2
D|--0--0---0--0--7--
A|-------------------
E|-------------------

G|---------------------- x2
D|-11--7--9--11--9--7--
A|-0---5--7---0--7--5--
E|----------------------

And that's pretty much all that's to it. Hope this helped.

 

[oli@bass]

Hey, thanks a lot! So simple, yet so effective. By just listening and not analyizing it, I'd have sworn that there where chords with more notes than just 2 involved. Gotta work on my listening skills...

 

[CFA]

No problem, I'm just glad to help And I'll take this opportunity to say that I listened to some of the previews of songs on the Skaramouche site, and I'm really digging them, I gotta try getting a copy of the CD ASAP.