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Applied Techniques With Igor Saavedra: Tips for the Modern Bass Player – Part Four
Meet Igor Saavedra –
After many years of experience, after many mistakes, after many experiments, and finally after many conclusions, I think I have something to say regarding this matter. There’s no better master than experience itself, because when you experience something it is more likely that you’ll never forget it. So beware of this article, and don’t think because you read it you will be completely prepared for everything that might come your way because experience itself will be the only one that will really teach you.
There are tons of tips for me to give you, so this series of articles will be divided in 3 or 4 parts at least. I don’t want to give you all the tips at once because I think it will be much better for you if I give you enough time to think and to process each of them. Well, let’s go then with this fourth part.
On this last Part of the Saga that is going to be really very brief, the tips I will be sharing with you are not going to be related with the obvious aspects, like Technique, Equipment or Music Theory. On this article I’m sharing with you some thoughts that are going to be included on my Poetry Book that will be released in 2011. These thoughts are related with YOU, the “Human Being”.
Tip #1 – “I love the Electric Bass… but never forget this: “First of all you are a Person, then a Musician, and compared to that, the less important thing really is that you are a Bassist”.
Tip #2 – “Whichever experience you will have in your life that will not kill you.. is going to teach you something”.
Tip #3 – “Be Perseverant.. do not be Obstinate”.
Tip #4 – “Don’t worry so much about making a mistake in your life, because the most important action you can perform is not the one that you just did, it’s the following one… so the most important note that you can play, even if it’s a wrong note, is not the note you are actually playing, it is the following one”.
Tip #4 – “Perseverance and Talent are tools that are capable of building a house completely. The Talent makes it able for you to build a house in just one month that will last ten years, but your perseverance is capable of building a house in these same ten years that will last forever”.
Tip #5 – “I always tell my fans and followers in my Concerts and my Clinics that they have to always keep studying, and I often put myself as an example… but don’t take me wrong… what I really tell them is that my only Talent is to have been able to overcome in every moment and a thousand times my oppressive lack of Talent”.
Tip #6 – “Simplicity is the real treasure… and Complexity is just the key to its door”.
Tip #7 – “When I have one of those unlucky days in which I’m being attacked by a fanatic, dogmatic or fundamentalist position… the only thing I can think about, but not to say, is that if life would be only about music.., there would be nobody whom to dedicate a song”.
Tip #8 – “In my humble opinion… a Mistake only exists if it is sheltered by Ignorance, if that’s not the case, what you really just have is Irresponsibility and Inconsequence”.
Tip #9 – “The Error as a concept does not exist unless there is a context of successes on which to cope. Different, very different… is failure”.
Tip #10 – The greatest day in the life of a musician………. is one in which, after a long process the Neuron eventually hands over his work of years, so that the Hormone is responsible for publishing it.
This is for now my friends… I see you next month on my next article…
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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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