This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he shares 3 things he wishes he’d known back in his rock band days.
It’s been about 10 years since I quit playing in rock bands, and looking back, here are 3 things I wish I’d known at the time.
This one’s especially for anyone currently in a rock band wondering, “is there some new approach I could be taking?” — hopefully it gives you something useful.
Contents
3 Things I Wish I’d Known Back in My Rock Band Days
I Wish I’d Played in an Acoustic Band
In a loud band, everything around you is loud too, so — for better or worse — the bass tends to get buried in the mix, and you can get away with a lot of sloppy playing.
Acoustic and jazz bands are different: the bass is way more exposed, so you get a much clearer, more visceral sense of what your actual role is.
In fact, I distinctly remember that after spending some time in acoustic and jazz bands and then going back to a rock band, my own bass tone suddenly felt a lot more three-dimensional.
Back then I was completely consumed by my own band, but I wish I’d had the bandwidth to peek into genres outside of rock.
I Wish I’d Worked on 16th-Note Feel
Once you can really feel the smaller subdivisions, your phrasing vocabulary opens up, and your sense of sustain sharpens too.
I wasn’t exactly playing slap-funk back then, but I wish I’d spent even a little time training a 16th-note feel and brought it into my rock playing at the time.
I Wish I’d Understood What Melody Was Riding on Top of the Chords
Back in my band days, I’d come up with a melody humming to myself on a walk and just slap power chords underneath it. I wish I’d thought more about things like:
Is the melody riding on top of the chord a chord tone?
Or is it a tension note?
And exactly what scale degree is it, relative to the chord?
If I’d been thinking about that while writing, I think I could’ve written deeper songs.
No point dwelling on regrets, and honestly, “all gas, no overthinking” is a perfectly valid way to be in your 20s as a band member. But skills like this are also exactly the kind of thing that makes you easy to pick up by another band if yours ever breaks up.
“I’m not exactly planning on my band breaking up!” — fair, but having more tools in your kit rarely hurts. Hopefully this gives you something useful to chew on.
Hearing about these ideas is one thing — actually being able to apply them in real time on your instrument is exactly where a teacher’s feedback speeds up the process.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.