Grooving

As a bass guitar player it is your job to keep everything anchored. The other musicians in the band, even if they don’t realize it, are depending on you. Musicians refer to this as groove. Groove is a sense of rhythmic feel created by the rhythm section of the band (drums, electric bass guitar or double bass).

This is not to say that you, as the bass guitar player, should play the root over and over or just following the guitar player. It does mean that you have to have a solid understanding of time and a good sense of feel, ergo groove. If you as the bass guitar player makes, a mistake in timing, or "loses" the groove, every one listening will feel, the other musicians and the people listening to your music will “feel” it. Most non-musicians will not understand it, but they will know something is wrong and that the music just don’t sound right. It is you job to keep this from happening.

So how do you keep this from happening? In a word, or maybe I should say several words, Practice, Practice, and Practice.

There are a couple of ways you should practice. First, by yourself, you need to learn the structure of the song. This is somewhat of a misnomer because I don’t feel there is much structure in live music. If a song become too structured' it become boring. If you have ever played in a band that used a drum machine, you know what I mean. It is the musicians that make a song interesting because of groove and feel. But I digress; let’s just say you need to learn how the song goes.

With that said, now I am going to tell you to go and buy a metronome ( Boss DB-30 Dr. Beat Metronome ) and or a ( Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-3 )drum machine. Metronomes are cheaper but drum machine are more fun. I have  practiced with both for years, and I played in a duo for a little over a year with a drum machine and they are invaluable for learning and keeping time.  

Now find some slow simple songs (don’t try to start with something by Dream Theater) that you like (or kind of like) and remember, you are not going to marry them (no life time commitment here), you are just teaching yourself how to keep time. I started out with three chord county songs. Go look up some old Buck Owens songs and learn them. Don’t play along with the CD, play only with your metronome or drum machine (you may have to learn the words and sing along, but that will help you vocal skills, something you will never regret).

Now it is back to Practice, Practice, and Practice. This can be the hard part. You need to commit part of your day, everyday to practice. Try to make it part of you day. Something you do every day and at the same time. Start out slow, maybe just a half hour at first and try to make it fun, not work. 

In closing let me say, if you follow my works of wisdom, though I can’t guarantee you will succeed, but odds are great that you will.