Why do some bassists change how they play live?

#21
Having not watched the video....
I like to switch it up to:
Get different tones,
Alleviate boredom,
Rest my hand by playing in a higher position where spacing is closer and less pressure is required,
During practice to ensure that if I change into a different position without thinking about it that everything is still familiar.
 
#22
Mushroo said:
Bb and Eb please, not A# and D#.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself, I know nobody likes a know it all. ;) But my point being, maybe if you learn your scales and note names, you will be more comfortable playing up and down the neck like your hero from Gaslight Anthem. A good exercise is to play each of the 12 major scales over the entire range of the instrument and on every string. Go slowly, use a metronome, and say the (correct) note names out loud. Good luck!
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That actually depends on the key or scale the notes are taken from. Sometimes it is A# not Bb (even though they are the same pitch)
 
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#23
socialleper said:
The studio and the stage are two completely different worlds. All musicians will play different, use different instruments, and use different techniques between the two.
Adding things will often happen because the recording is the first couple of times the band is playing the piece. It is relatively new to them. By the time you see it live, the band may have played it dozens or hundreds of times. They add things that didn't occur to them in the studio. It is also to given the audience something extra.
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This a thousand times. Live and studio are two different worlds. And what sounds best in one doesn't always carry over into the other.

Another thing is that very often songs are recorded when they're brand new so the CD is available for sale during the tour. I can't speak for every player or band, but in my case I never considered a song really "finished" until the band played it out for about half a year. Things got added and removed, subtle changes got introduced, lyrics and riffs tightened up, etc. Which is why I'll always buy live concert albums when they're available. Because I've usually been disappointed in the studio version of a song if I heard it played live first and it was a good performance. The studio version always sounded unfinished or missing something. (But maybe that's just me?)

Unless the concept and music was created primarily as a studio album like the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's and most of the Alan Parsons Project was, I'll take live every time. It's the difference between looking at a movie or a snapshot and going to a play.

Two different worlds, with two similar but still very different aesthetics.

Or so I think anyway. YMMV
 
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#26
40Hz said:
This a thousand times. Live and studio are two different worlds. And what sounds best in one doesn't always carry over into the other.

Another thing is that very often songs are recorded when they're brand new so the CD is available for sale during the tour. I can't speak for every player or band, but in my case I never considered a song really "finished" until the band played it out for about half a year. Things got added and removed, subtle changes got introduced, lyrics and riffs tightened up, etc. Which is why I'll always buy live concert albums when they're available. Because I've usually been disappointed in the studio version of a song if I heard it played live first and it was a hood performance. The studio version always sounded unfinished or missing something. (But maybe that's just me?)....
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It was *years* before I could enjoy the studio version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed", and I believe that was a very "new" song when they cut the studio version.

Peach-head extra credit: Compare Berry Oakley's tone & playing on this song between the following versions:
Idlewild South (studio); Fillmore East (live); New York City Blues (live broadcast from studio; 8/26/1971).

I am consistently floored by his aggressive tone & timing in the NYCB recording: it's quite a change of pace. FAT FAT FAT, and compressed[?]
 
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#27
what's the point of playing live at all if it's not going to be a little different? What's the point of going to live shows if there are no surprises. Setting aside jazz for a second (where this is the norm) some of the best shows I've ever gone to where those where the musicians changed it up.

For example:
•Sting/Peter Gabriel trading songs during Rock, Paper, Scissors tour
•The Cure doing a half hour long version of A Forest
•Prince mashing up EVERYTHING during the Musicology tour
•Steely Dan "Rarities" night
•Failure managing to play Fantastic Planet in it's entirety with only three guys on stage
•Front 242's Reboot '98 tour with a live drummer

...the list goes on and on
 
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#29
While someone already pointed out that this guy is mostly playing live the same way he did on the record... I'll say that if you've got a producer in the studio you end up playing to their ideas (which I do enjoy. I've came up with ideas, sounds, and bass lines at times that I never would have come up with without a producers guidance). After I've recorded with a producer giving tons of input, I can't wait to get on stage and break free.
 
#32
We played a more respectable venue Saturday night. I blew a whistle on one song during a feverish build. First time. None of the three of us play our parts exactly the same each time. We improvise off each other. We don't really do the songs the same each time we play them - even as a whole. There's a blue print, of course, but whoever is singing directs the arrangement: solos, bridges, etc.
 
#34
I think German electronica band KRAFTWERK "played" their songs basslines exactly live as in studio, once or twice... ;) So if you have a problem with this, stay out of playing ANY real instrument at all, and go for electronica where computers or sequencers plays the same line over and over without fatiguing and getting fed up.
 
#35
I tell you one thing. Especially on bass, if the venue is boomy and muddy and reverberant, you bet your *ss I play more sparse than required, even on the most requested covers. I listen to what's reverberating around, and if it's too much, the BUSY notes just gets muddied up, so I adapt in real time to that. On a damped, crowded club with virtually no acoustics, or full outdoor festival, I can take liberties with starting adding a lot of notes on top of the original ones. If you don't have any ear for such things, then again, bass playing is not for you, period.
 
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#36
mbell75 said:
Couldn't figure out the best way to word my question, but anyways. Learned this Gaslight Anthem song for a cover. Its called handwritten and it starts at 4:12 seconds in the video below. Its really easy, just 4 notes basically, A#, D#, F and G and his bass is in drop D. However, watching it live, he is all over the fretboard. Sometimes he's playing the G on the D string, sometimes he's playing it on the E (tuned to D) string, sometimes he's playing the D# on the 13th fret of the E string. Seems he alternates it between the chorus and the verse and then in the breakdown (at 6:43) he plays all 4 notes on the E string...why? Is it to cut thru better when the guitars get louder? I hate playing on the D and G string or above the 12th fret. I just play it on the 1st, 3rd and 5th fret of the E string and only alternate between the A# on the A string and playing it on the E. I see some bassists play a song the same way every time and some mix up where they play the notes thru the song like this. Just curious as to why.


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because it is rock and roll
 
#37
Depends on the song of course, but there are different philosophies and priorities behind performances on a record and live. Remember too, that a recording is just an aural snapshot, whether a live show or a studio project.

Here's an example of a live cut with my old group where we'd been building over a couple of shows--you'll hear fills and fun stuff here:

Got To Get You Into My Life

But here's the track we did for the album: since we had to accommodate a collaborating fiddle player, sitar, and tabla, I played way more conservatively, so they had room.
 
#38
40Hz said:
This a thousand times. Live and studio are two different worlds. And what sounds best in one doesn't always carry over into the other.

Another thing is that very often songs are recorded when they're brand new so the CD is available for sale during the tour. I can't speak for every player or band, but in my case I never considered a song really "finished" until the band played it out for about half a year. Things got added and removed, subtle changes got introduced, lyrics and riffs tightened up, etc. Which is why I'll always buy live concert albums when they're available. Because I've usually been disappointed in the studio version of a song if I heard it played live first and it was a good performance. The studio version always sounded unfinished or missing something. (But maybe that's just me?)

Unless the concept and music was created primarily as a studio album like the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's and most of the Alan Parsons Project was, I'll take live every time. It's the difference between looking at a movie or a snapshot and going to a play.

Two different worlds, with two similar but still very different aesthetics.

Or so I think anyway. YMMV
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While I'm sure the performance is "improved" when seen live, there are so many factors that can make live performances less than optimal. Someone in the band having a "bad day," bad engineering, jerks around you, all the typical expenses that go along with seeing a band live, even where you stand in the room can ruin the sound.
If I could have a recliner right in front of the stage and my own personal mix, it might be worth the $50-$100 to see a band live.
I love playing live, but hate everything about seeing a band live.
 
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#39
craigie said:
Having not watched the video....
I like to switch it up to:
Get different tones,
Alleviate boredom,
Rest my hand by playing in a higher position where spacing is closer and less pressure is required,
During practice to ensure that if I change into a different position without thinking about it that everything is still familiar.
Click to expand...

This. Also, sometimes over the course of playing a song many times live and at rehearsal I'll come up with something I believe is better than the part I played on the recording. Yet another possibility is that someone else has changed how they play a part in a way that leads me to want to change my part.
 
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