Double Bass Tuning a rhythm section

[Tom Lane]

I'm curious what advice you folks have for how to tune a rhythm section. By "tune", I mean, make them sound better. By "rhythm section" I mean piano, guitar, bass, and drums, maybe vibes instead of one of the other harmony instruments. IME, it mostly comes down to good technique and listening. Of course, in an afternoon you're not going to improve their technique much but you can offer them exercises to improve, and I think you can work exercises to help with their listening. Maybe if you had a weeklong workshop you could have some impact on their technique? Anything else?

 

[Quentin MCB]

That's a great question and I'm interested in the answers also

 

[jj.833]

Bigband player here.

As for intonation, I try to set myself so that I would be able to 1) hear myself 2) hear the piano 3) hear even the farthest and most silent woods. I'm listening to everything, piano being more important than other instruments as it cannot change tune. Notice I don't mention guitar - I found out that I'm not able to hear guitar's intonation very well, due to rather deep and bassy tone usually used usually swing comping. Generally, I think that horns and voices should be intonating according to bass and not vice versa, so I try to supply authoritative and precise intonation.

As for rhythm, I listen to and strive to be in precise timing with: 1) drums 2) myself 3) guitar 4) everything else. Generally in that hierarchy. I feel that the 'rhythmic authority' of rhythm section is shared mostly between drums and bass, one driving the other, and the other driving the first; the rest of the band reacts to drum+bass rhythm.

That's my theory which I really never discussed with anyone. In practise, most intentions come out less brilliant than intended, and of course other instruments have theories of their own. The most important method to 'make us sound better' I know of is to look for more and more subtle rules and sort them into some kind of hierarchy.

 

[longfinger]

I suggest:

- Keeping the harmonic material very easy. ie 12 bar blues, vamps, or easy standards they all know very well.
- Focussing on concept of "on the beat", "ahead of the beat", "behind the beat" (time zones)
- players being in different time zones will create different "feel", "swing" , "groove" etc.
- have players hear, recognize and switch, into and out of these time zones at will, to switch the "feels"
- have them play with a click and without a click

This can open them up to awareness and how to practice a certain thing even when you are not in the room with them.

 

[Kevin Hailey]

I once saw Christian McBride do a workshop talking about playing either side of the beat. If he stayed in the center and the drummer shifted it sounded cool.
If McB shifted, the drummer went with him and the tempo would change.
In straight ahead (and imho) most other music the bass is the center of the beat. The whole ahead/behind thing either happens organically or is for very advanced players.
What I have found very useful for getting a bass and drummer to really hook up is to watch each other and for the drummer to put his ride cymbal beat where the bass players right hand is and vice versa.

 

[statsc]

I would also focus on the sound of each instrument (both volume and especially tone) to produce a coherent balanced sound where the bass cuts through but doesn’t overpower other instruments, and other instruments don’t cover up or overpower the bass.

 

[Tom Lane]

Another topic would be the use of dynamics - showcasing the melodist more, louder for fills. And, responding to the soloist, repeating a rhythmic figure that they just played.

 

[bassmanbrent]

I would say maybe get everyone to play quieter, at least at first as an exercise. Also, I find it helpful to set up as close together as possible. If the players are inexperienced, make sure they can see each other well. Seems obvious but I’ve noticed that students can get so inside their own heads that they forget to actually look at each other while playing. I might get the bass player to stand a little behind the drummer so they can see everything the drummer is doing and remind them to watch each other. This is mostly for less experienced musicians/students.

 

[Tom Lane]

I epect that everyone in this group will be intermediate or better. I have found exploring where to put the beat to be a useful exercise for folks who have the basics down.