When I get to play bass, it's easy to play on every note of every song.
It's something else to play one or two notes per measure - not letting them ring, but choking them off and play NOTHING for the rest of the time.
I learned this trick playing out with Craig Curran of Isabelle years ago back at Victor's Coffee in Redmond. He had this great, tight sound with the drummer, Doug Finefrock, and I asked him what his secret was. He said, "I hardly play at all." He'd seriously play like one or two notes and then nothing... a couple more.. nothing. It was just tight sounding.
He's right. Listen to pop radio, or some Nashville-produced bands. I personally like Sarah Bareilles' "Love Song" (which has the incomparable Matt Chamberlain on drums, but I digress). The bass line during the verses is sparse, playing only a pickup note and a root here and there, regularly in time with the kick drum. When the song comes round to the chorus, the bass kicks in big time, thumping on every eighth note, creating a big difference between the parts of the song. Additionally on the bridge again, the bass does this masterful eighth node walk up-down in perfect contradiction to the work in the other parts of the song. And at the end of the bridge, nothing! Just space for the piano and vocal to re-establish the chorus.
It's just slick.
No gizmos, gimicks, slap techniques or 6-string bass licks.
Just simplicity that drives home a song.
Try it. Just play less notes.
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