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Reaching Goals and The Plateau: Slap Bass With Ray Riendeau
Meet Ray Riendeau –
As a teacher for many years a common question I get from many students is about how and what to practice. Sometimes it’s from a beginner, other times it’s from a player wanting to take “the next step” in their musical journey. Below are just a few opinions/ideas regarding the subject.
Private Lessons
My advice is to find a credible teacher that can give you concepts and ideas you can develop and ultimately learn about how music works and how that transfers to bass. Your goals should be to obtain and understand the elements of music and also how it all applies to bass.
A good teacher will also see what areas you need work in and give you specific things to work on to accomplish your goals. Steer away from teachers that just want to show you songs or just teach “random” things without any real understanding of why, where and how something works.
I cannot say enough about getting with a good teacher that can help you obtain your goals.
Live Music
I would recommend playing with as many people as you can. I’ve even told students to post an ad in your local area looking for other players (with your skill level or better) to get together to jam. Interaction with other musicians (even other bass players) is a great source for learning and sharing info.
Jam nights are also a great place to play and meet other musicians.
Computer Technology
I’m amazed at how things have changed since I started playing bass (showing my age here…LOL). There are now so many ways to access information. It’s still amazing to me that with a simple Google search you can find transcriptions, tabs, videos, etc. The Internet is like having your own personal library at your fingertips. You Tube has become a constant source of inspiration for me, being able to see and hear players live is a great resource.
Music in a box
Drum machines, looping devices, sequencers, etc. Here is another area that can be very valuable for a musician. These tools are all great for practicing & composing.
Teach Yourself
Creating exercises to help you obtain your goals is very advantageous. I do this by taking something I want/need to work on, maybe a scale, technique, whatever and make music with it. Create a groove, write a song, and again make the learning process musical. When you do, it has a purpose and you retain it better.
The Plateau
This is a big part of any journey in music and even other things like sports, martial arts, etc. In the beginning of learning anything we see results almost every day, as time progresses we see these “advancements” farther and farther away with “plateaus”, time periods where it seems we are not moving forward. This is just the natural process of learning.
There is a book I HIGHLY recommend regarding this subject in detail. It is “MASTERY – The Keys To Success And Long-Term Fulfillment” by George Leonard.
For many, music is their passion and a labor of love, if so you should be able to look at practicing/learning/discovery as a ongoing process that is a benefit of music and not something that seems like work or you don’t look forward to. Just like life itself, it’s more about the journey and not the destination.
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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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