By proxy of it being in my bedroom, my 5-string bass has received exclusive attention for the past month or two, an it's shown. My bassmanship has opened up tremendously and my style has expanded.
I've long had help the assertion that great music has a strong core rhythm section, and the guitars, melodies and harmonies are built around that. So my writing style has been beat and bass first, then guitars, synths and hopefully someday lyrics, would follow. I don't think it's much to argue, and may even be the foundation that a lot of people use. But to expand on that theory, just last week around the time I lowered the action on my bass [it plays so easily] I realized that of all that music I hold close, a great majority has strong basslines to carry the music along.
So with inspiration from my two favorite bass canon, Rage Against the Machine and The Mars Volta, I'm going through all my music, bass in hands, putting priority on writing strong bass tracks to support the entire piece. I'm so far please with the results and am looking forward to reworking the funk.
In real world agendas, I may try out to be bassist for a peer's musical project. When I saw them playing live, their percussionist was hand tapping on some sort of traditional natural skinned drum 'bout three feet tall. Can't for the life of me remember what it's called. If I go to play with them though, I'll make sure to get in sync with that drum for a great performance. After the New Year starts, when I head back to work...
