It's a bit of a well-kept secret on the forum that there are a series of monthly "challenges" which run, with the objective of prompting people to actually
make some music (I know, wierd concept!) with their guitars instead of just talking about them or buying and selling them.
There are a range of challenges, from the quick and dirty through to one that usually results in commercial-standard compositions.
This thread gives the detail.
I'm wondering whether we should add another monthly challenge for "Bass Riff", to reflect that we've got a growing number of bassists on the forum now.
You don't need pro-standard recording equipment. Some submissions have literally been recorded on a phone next to an acoustic guitar. The focus is on artistic merit rather than amount of make-up.
Thoughts??
Comments
I know there are plenty of posters here who also dabble in bass and it would be a great idea.
I'd say that a good way to do it would be to pick a track (even a short one) and get members to add their own interpreted bass line to it (or post them playing along to it)
Will be interesting to see how many fancy it...!
Looks like it could be a go-er
Not quite sure who you're talking to there ... no "proper" bass players here
Watch out for a Christmas edition of one or more of the challenges ...
Now that is something that interests me as I prefer jamming along to music as bass is not a lead instrument as such. (Awaits the torrent of hate mail).
A track would get me out of my comfort zone too......
We (theFretBoard) has a paid-for SoundCloud account. We usually use that for these challenges.
The Solo of the Month works in a similar way. Find a backing track and then everyone creates a solo to play over the top. We could do a similar thing for the Bass Riff challenge, if someone has a good supply of copyright-free tracks (across a range of genres) excluding the bass part?
Taking Claypool as an example, much of his music revolves principally around the drums, bass and vocals. The guitar and any keyboards often add harmonic colours rather taking up most of the available "space". It would be difficult to assemble a "drums and harmonic colours" piece without prior knowledge of what key(s) or mode(s) the bass guitar is likely to employ.
Just a looped chord progression, either synth pads or a single strum of a guitar on each chord. No rhythm, just harmony.
Then the bass line can be any genre you like.
"Why from Jan, what's wrong with doing it in November and December???" I hear you scream at the monitor.
Well, that's because the November and December challenges are being rolled into one, with a theme, and prizes. Real, proper, wow-style prizes.
All will be announced when the current challenges close later this month.
http://www.vintagesynth.com/moog/taurus1.php
In the other monthly challenges, we have Riff (guitar, drums, bass, whatever's needed to make the track work), RawRiff (guitar only) and Solo (bass solo??) of the month competitions.
The solo needs a backing track to work, the others are created by the contestants.
I guess we (or "someone") could record some guitar / chord backing tracks and use those as the basis for developing a bass riff, or we go with the approach of the contestants creating their own, individually, to support their riffs.
Got a bit of time to get it sorted as all the challenges are going on hold whist we do the Christmas Special (there will be prizes!!) challenge in Nov/Dec.
Well I could if I get the time, which at the moment is like tyring to plait fog in a wind tunnel