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Worship Bass: Hey, New Kid! by Steve Gregory
Greetings to all of you worship low-enders out there – it has been a while since my last worship bass column! I have been involved in a number of great things that have kept me away, but I am happy to be back. I hope your bass blessings have been plentiful since my last writing.
One major shift in my personal worship bass life has been leaving one church ministry to join another. No juicy, tabloid-worthy upheaval at play; rather, I felt a calling to move to the new opportunity when it arose. I’ll take advantage of this space for one short moment to offer my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Highlands Fellowship for allowing me to grow as a worship musician and for putting up with my band-leading shenanigans during my tenure there. To Blue Ridge Church, thank you for your warm welcome and I’m humbled to be a part of your team!
This change has had me thinking, from a very personal point of view, of what it takes to successfully integrate into a worship team as a bassist. Interestingly, I was often asked for advice along these lines when I served as a bandleader. I now have to, as the saying goes, “eat my own dog food”! Informed from both points of view, here are some quick tips for being successful as the “new kid” on a worship team.
Foundation first
The number one job of a successful worship bassist is to support the worship leader and back the team. When in doubt, playing strong, solid, foundational parts that support others will always win the day. It is crucial that you enable worship by making the music feel good to the others on the team. This is a big shift for many bassists, who believe that they should “play to” the congregation. Make the worship team feel solid first and then you can enjoy the worship with on the congregation.
Be prepared
This should be obvious, but I’ve met many who insist on “winging it”, for one reason or another. Carve out time prior to rehearsal and/or worship to learn the music and your parts. Listening to the songs on the drive to rehearsal and hastily jotting down notes on a fast food restaurant napkin doesn’t cut it. (Not that I’ve ever done that, of course, but I know a guy…) I’ve never found that over-preparation is a problem, while the opposite leads to uncomfortable rehearsals and ultimately, short tenures with worship teams.
Every Song Is A New Song
This advice goes along with being prepared: don’t make assumptions about song arrangements. Let’s say you see a song on the set for the week that you’ve played approximately 7,391 times. While you may feel like you know it inside and out, there is a good chance that you’ve assimilated changes and tweaks over time that may or may not fit in your new setting. Revisit the original source material, along with any notes that are given to you, and ensure that you’re on the same page with your new team. By the way, this is good advice for those established and playing with a team weekly: don’t make assumptions and check out the tracks, notes, and charts give to you, to avoid being surprised.
Bass player: no. Bass musician: yes!
“Bass musician” is not just the title of this excellent publication, but is the highest version of being a “bass player”. Bass players play notes without thought; bass musicians think about the notes, rhythm, dynamics, song parts, interaction with other musicians, and more. Aspire to bring your best musicality to the worship. There should be a reason for every note you play and a defined way in which you play it.
Flexibility makes friends
The worship leader needs a whole note instead of four quarters in the first bar of the verse? Great. You are asked to be softer during the bridge? Great. The bandleader wants you to not double the lick with the guitarist, even though you spent a lot of time learning the part? Great.
I’m not suggesting that you become a mindless robot (very much the opposite!); however, if you are able to musically make changes that are asked of you, make the changes. In my experience, being flexible keeps the worship strong and the team happy. By the way: if you choose to follow the advice above to be prepared and play musically, your playing is often accepted as you first present it.
Your cool ideas may be cool…someday
But, you have a great idea! Like, really great! Substituting a C-7 in the second bar is sweet, sweet magic and you are positive that it is an earth-moving change. It may be, but some ideas are better to save, initially. Learn the team’s arrangement, as it is, then decide if your suggestion is still valid. If the idea is still rock-solid, there is almost always a preferred method of sharing ideas. Find out what that method is and then wait until an appropriate time to suggest the idea to the worship leader or bandleader…and then be cool if they want to keep it their way.
Don’t be a sound engineer’s nightmare
Here’s a free tip on how to ruin your day: make your sound engineer unhappy. Know ahead of time what your signal chain needs to be and how to get good, solid sound. If you are using the church’s equipment, come early to set it up. If you’re expected to use their gear, don’t demand that you be allowed to bring 22,000 pieces of equipment of your own because “you have to have your sound”. If you do need to bring your gear, make sure it works and that you can get a solid sound, easily.
Find the groove
The last hint is a bit subjective, but in my experience, I have found that every team has their own groove. Often it’s not a simple overarching theme like, “play everything a touch behind the beat”. Usually, it is a sense of how the team interprets different feels, tempos, and time signatures. Working to discover the “breathing pattern” of a team is challenging, but is well worth the work.
I hope these suggestions help anyone who is trying to join a team or, like me, is integrating into a new team. Further, these tips are good to review for those who have been playing in the same setting for years. Change is difficult, but change can lead to amazing things – just remember that it takes effort from you!
Bass CDs
New Album: Jake Leckie, Planter of Seeds
Bassist Jake Leckie and The Guide Trio Unveil New Album Planter of Seeds,
to be released on June 7, 2024
Planter of Seeds is bassist/composer Jake Leckie’s third release as a bandleader and explores what beauty can come tomorrow from the seeds we plant today.
What are we putting in the ground? What are we building? What is the village we want to bring our children up in? At the core of the ensemble is The Guide Trio, his working band with guitarist Nadav Peled and drummer Beth Goodfellow, who played on Leckie’s second album, The Guide, a rootsy funky acoustic analog folk-jazz recording released on Ropeadope records in 2022. For Planter of Seeds, the ensemble is augmented by Cathlene Pineda (piano), Randal Fisher (tenor saxophone), and Darius Christian (trombone), who infuse freedom and soul into the already tightly established ensemble.
Eight original compositions were pristinely recorded live off the floor of Studio 3 at East West Studios in Hollywood CA, and mastered by A.T. Michael MacDonald. The cover art is by internationally acclaimed visual artist Wayne White. Whereas his previous work has been compared to Charles Mingus, and Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet with Charlie Haden, Leckie’s new collection sits comfortably between the funky odd time signatures of the Dave Holland Quintet and the modern folk-jazz of the Brian Blade Fellowship Band with a respectful nod towards the late 1950s classic recordings of Ahmad Jamal and Miles Davis.
The title track, “Planter of Seeds,” is dedicated to a close family friend, who was originally from Trinidad, and whenever she visited family or friends at their homes, without anyone knowing, she would plant seeds she kept in her pocket in their gardens, so the next season beautiful flowers would pop up. It was a small altruistic anonymous act of kindness that brought just a little more beauty into the world. The rhythm is a tribute to Ahmad Jamal, who we also lost around the same time, and whose theme song Poinciana is about a tree from the Caribbean.
“Big Sur Jade” was written on a trip Leckie took with his wife to Big Sur, CA, and is a celebration of his family and community. This swinging 5/4 blues opens with an unaccompanied bass solo, and gives an opportunity for each of the musicians to share their improvisational voices. “Clear Skies” is a cathartic up-tempo release of collective creative energies in fiery improvisational freedom. “The Aquatic Uncle” features Randal Fisher’s saxophone and is named after an Italo Calvino short story which contemplates if one can embrace the new ways while being in tune with tradition. In ancient times, before a rudder, the Starboard side of the ship was where it was steered from with a steering oar. In this meditative quartet performance, the bass is like the steering oar of the ensemble: it can control the direction of the music, and when things begin to unravel or become unhinged, a simple pedal note keeps everything grounded.
The two trio tunes on the album are proof that the establishment of his consistent working band The Guide Trio has been a fruitful collaboration. “Santa Teresa”, a bouncy samba-blues in ? time, embodies the winding streets and stairways of the bohemian neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro it is named for. The swampy drum feel on “String Song” pays homage to Levon Helm of The Band, a group where you can’t always tell who wrote the song or who the bandleader is, proving that the sum is greater than the individual parts. Early jazz reflected egalitarianism in collective improvisation, and this group dynamic is an expression of that kind of inclusivity and democracy.
“The Daughters of the Moon” rounds out the album, putting book ends on the naturalist themes. This composition is named after magical surrealist Italo Calvino’s short story about consumerism, in which a mythical modern society that values only buying shiny new things throws away the moon like it is a piece of garbage and the daughters of the moon save it and resurrect it. It’s an eco-feminist take on how women are going to save the world. Pineda’s piano outro is a hauntingly beautiful lunar voyage, blinding us with love. Leckie dedicates this song to his daughter: “My hope is that my daughter becomes a daughter of the moon, helping to make the world a more beautiful and verdant place to live.”
Bass CDs
Debut Album: Nate Sabat, Bass Fiddler
In a thrilling solo debut, bassist Nate Sabat combines instrumental virtuosity with a songwriter’s heart on Bass Fiddler…
The upright bass and the human voice. Two essential musical instruments, one with roots in 15th century Europe, the other as old as humanity itself.
On Bass Fiddler (Adhyâropa Records ÂR00057), the debut album from Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and bass virtuoso Nate Sabat, the scope is narrowed down a bit. Drawing from the rich and thriving tradition of American folk music, Sabat delivers expertly crafted original songs and choice covers with the upright bass as his lone tool for accompaniment.
The concept was born a decade ago when Sabat began studying with the legendary old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky at Berklee College of Music. “One of Bruce’s specialties is singing and playing fiddle at the same time. The second I heard it I was hooked,” recalls Sabat. “I thought, how can I do this on the bass?” From there, he was off to the races, arranging original and traditional material with Molsky as his guide. “Fast forward to 2020, and I — like so many other musicians — was thinking of how to best spend my time. I sat down with the goal of writing some new songs and arranging some new covers, and an entire record came out.” When the time came to make the album, it was evident that Molsky would be the ideal producer. Sabat asked him if he’d be interested, and luckily he was. “What an inspiration to work with an artist like Nate,” says Molsky. “Right at the beginning, he came to this project with a strong, personal and unique vision. Plus he had the guts to try for a complete and compelling cycle of music with nothing but a bass and a voice. You’ll hear right away that it’s engaging, sometimes serious, sometimes fun, and beautifully thought out from top to bottom.”
While this record is, at its core, a folk music album, Sabat uses the term broadly. Some tracks lean more rock (‘In the Shade’), some more pop (‘White Marble’, ‘Rabid Thoughts’), some more jazz (‘Fade Away’), but the setting ties them all together. “There’s something inherently folksy about a musician singing songs with their instrument, no matter the influences behind the compositions themselves,” Sabat notes. To be sure, there are plenty of folk songs (‘Louise’ ‘Sometimes’, ‘Eli’) and fiddling (‘Year of the Ox’) to be had here — the folk music fan won’t go hungry. There’s a healthy dose of bluegrass too (‘Orphan Annie’, ‘Lonesome Night’), clean and simple, the way Mr. Bill Monroe intended.
All in all, this album shines a light on an instrument that often goes overlooked in the folk music world, enveloping the listener in its myriad sounds, textures, and colors. “There’s nothing I love more than playing the upright bass,” exclaims Sabat. “My hope is that listeners take the time to sit with this album front to back — I want them to take in the full scope of the work. I have a feeling they’ll hear something they haven’t heard before.”
Available online at natesabat.bandcamp.com/album/walking-away
Gear News
New Gear: Esopus Guitars Launches New Acoustic/Electric Bass
Esopus Guitars Launches New Acoustic/Electric Bass…
Esopus Guitars is proud to announce the new “Tailwater” bass guitar, from legendary bass luthier Stuart Spector. This 32” scale bass is handcrafted by Stuart using the only finest woods and components at the Esopus Guitar workshop located near Woodstock NY in the Catskill Mountains.
From its fully carved spruce top (the top is carved on both its exterior and interior surfaces) with a thumb rest that is elegantly carved into the top, to its custom-made Fishman piezo pickup and super hard Carnauba wax finish, every detail of the Tailwater is part of creating the ultimate playing experience.
The Tailwater bass features a fully chambered spruce over alder body (15.5″ lower body bout width, 2.25″ body thickness measuring from the peak of the carved top) that delivers a super comfortable tonal tool for all your low-end needs.
Each Tailwater bass is hand-signed and numbered on the back of the peghead by Stuart Spector. A very limited number of Tailwater basses are handcrafted each year at the Esopus workshop.
“I am proud to present the Tailwater bass, a bass that I have spent the last three years perfecting. The Tailwater is a culmination of all of my 45 years of experience, knowledge, and passion for bass guitar crafting. I am so eager to hear what fellow musicians create with this exciting new instrument.” -Stuart Spector
Direct Pricing : $4995.00 plus options.
For more information about Esopus Guitars and Stuart Spector’s handcrafted instruments, visit www.EsopusGuitars.com.
Bass Videos
Tour Touch Base (Bass) with Ian Allison
Ian Allison Bassist extreme…
Most recently Ian has spent the last seven years touring nationally as part of Eric Hutchinson and The Believers, sharing stages with acts like Kelly Clarkson, Pentatonix, Rachel Platten, Matt Nathanson, Phillip Phillips, and Cory Wong playing venues such as Radio City Music Hall, The Staples Center and The Xcel Center in St. Paul, MN.
I had a chance to meet up with him at the Sellersville Theater in Eastern Pennsylvania to catch up on everything bass. Visit online at ianmartinallison.com/
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Tour Touch Base (Bass) with Ian Allison
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New Album: Avery Sharpe, I Am My Neighbors Keeper
