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I Get It, Extended Bass
In my pursuit of understanding tonality, I discovered that I play way too many notes. I’m reminded of a comment about my 11 string bass, when someone stated that, “If I have 11 strings, I should use all of them on some songs.” That made me think about a piano player hitting all 88 notes per song. That would be horrible.
To me, music is the ultimate language. I’ve been blessed to travel around the world four times as a musician and I’m in awe every time someone who doesn’t speak English, feels exactly what I wanted them to feel in the music. By their listening, we connect.
The art of listening is the only thing that’s harder than learning to play. I turned 47 this year and I finally learned to hear with my heart. When I started playing bass in 1976, my only concern was to let everyone know that I had as many chops as the latest bass hero. In fact, I learned to emulate all of my heroes, but made no contribution to the world of creativity. I studied all the licks and none of the intent.
When great bassist like Marcus Miller and Chuck Rainey play music, they are not only in tune with their musical environment, but they are masters when it comes to interpritation. When I go to a music store, I hear variations of Victor Wooten, Flea and Marcus Miller. I’m glad that people are moved to emulate these great musicians, but please don’t stop with just their chops. There is so much more going on when they play bass.
Listen to when they pause.
Listen to how they played against or with the melody.
Listen to the WHOLE piece of music.
Twenty years passed by before I cared about the other parts of the song. Chuck Rainey told me that his fellow players inspired his grooves. His ability to hear the holes in the art made him a driving force in music. Gus Thornton was the bassist for Albert King and Stevie Ray for several record projects (allmusic.com). His solid bass playing has really inspired me.
Blues bass is the hardest form of bass playing that I’ve ever performed. The ability to support and drive the music and not fill every other measure is so hard to me. I always wanted to show off when I had a bass in my hands. I have nothing to prove now. I’m chasing melodies in my head. I want to share the music that I create with the world. My new music is not as challenging to learn. It’s not as fast as it was 3 years ago. It’s not as harmonically challenging as it was. It’s simple music, played by a simple man, playing an 11 string bass.
I get it!! Music is a language that speaks to it’s own audience. When I was younger, I belonged to a different audience. Now I worship melody and space. I love the 11 string bass because I’m a multi-instrumentalist. I don’t have to keep changing instruments. There are so many people who don’t get the ERB thing or the MIDI thing but they belong to their own audience. I still love playing my 5 string bass and I love learning country fiddle. But I’m in love with music again. Music makes me happy again.
I meet bassist all the time who ask me how can they get out of a rut. I knew that answer would take some heavy thinking, but I’ve got it. Learn to listen all over again! Old songs sound new again. Great input helps with great output. Listen to an old song that you used to love and listen to everything but the bass. It’s wonderful!
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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