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All About That Bass


This was what came to my mind as I wrote the title, but I’m not referring to the bass you’re talking about Meghan

I was in sixth grade when my dad enrolled me for music classes. I was given his barely used guitar, which he had been using for four months before. A few years later I bought a Yamaha F-310, which was made from wood of a higher quality and resulted in a warm and bright tone.

I had restricted myself to acoustic guitar for six years after I had begun playing the instrument. Many acoustic guitarists move on to an electric guitar, which had its own attractive sound signature – as it offered people to change the tone and sound to their preference and need. Electric guitars was often people’s entry into playing pop or rock oriented music.

I had joined another school in my 11th grade. I didn’t know many people there, only a few friends from my tuition classes. A good friend of mine, Sanjay, whom I had befriended after joining Omega(my school’s name) came up to me one day and asked if I know to play a bass guitar. I asked him what a bass guitar was.

Let me establish some background. It was the inter-school cultural fest season in Chennai and most major schools were participating in intese competition ranging from sports to debates, quizzes and musical performances. Since the school was not going to allow the 12th graders to participate in the inter-school competitions without the students putting up a fight, the 11th graders decided it was their last sure-shot of enjoying a day out of school. The music teacher assembled the music band members and singers to decide the song to be performed for the “Battle of the Bands.” The theme for the song performance was “Time.” Ironically, the management granted permission only 2 days before the event, so we were had very little “time” to prepare. The band members decided a song for the competiton and assembled the singers. But they realized there was nobody to play the bass. Sanjay was the rhythm guitarist for the school band and was sent out to hunt for a bassist. He knew that I could play the acoustic guitar. So he fetched me.

This was the first time I was performing with other people, in a band-like setup. I was really excited to play in the band and quite scared if I would be good enough to play the bass in one day. Sanjay reassured me and I joined the other waiting members of the band in the cramped music room. A short discussion followed and the band briefed me about the song to be performed. Later that day, Sanjay sat down with me and showed a few videos about the bass, to give me an idea of the instrument and how it contributes to the band performance. With a decent understanding of the role of the instrument I went back home to listen to the song that was to be performed. We were going to cover In the End by Black Veil Brides. The song was not too difficult to practice and play in one day, and did fit into the theme required.


I spent the whole evening and night listening to the song.

 

It’s high time I introduce a bass guitar before I can go further into the story. A bass guitar plays sounds in the lower end of the sound spectrum, which is the bass sounds or low frequency notes in music. It has thicker strings than regular guitars and is much longer.

The role of a bass guitar is to bridge the vocals and the percussion(like drums). The percussion sets the tempo and rhythm foundation of the entire song. A song is structured in this manner according to instrumentation (Low level to high level) –

  1. Percussion

  2. Bass

  3. Rhythm instruments

  4. Lead instruments

  5. Vocals

Without the bass, the rhythm, lead and vocals would sound disjoint from the drums. The bass brings a sense of order to the song, by anchoring the beats to the rhythm. The video below shows the difference in a song with and without bass.


I’d recommend headphones for this video

 

Enough of the digression. Coming back to the school story. The next day was quite tiring, as we were practicing for the entire day. I managed to get a good hang of the notes and by the end of the day, could play the entire song without a mistake, with only a few issues while syncing with the drummer. I went home and practised the notes on my acoustic guitar until late night.

The day of the competition was exciting. A school bus filled with excited schoolchildren was headed to the venue in the morning itself. We did two rehersals of the song before leaving and felt confident that I’d be able to do it well. The music competition was scheduled to be held later in the afternoon. As soon as the bus reached the venue, everybody split up and got to their spots for their respective competitions. I was exploring the place with another friend and trying to find familiar faces from other schools, and like every other hormonal teenager, doing quite a bit of sightseeing.

The music performance happened in the host school’s large auditorium. It was filling up with participants from many schools as they were all eager to watch the performances. After one last rehersal and small changes, it was Omega’s turn to take the stage. I walked up to the stage with the bass in my hand. It was a nerve-wracking experience to walk onstage and take my position. I plugged the bass into the mono jack cable provided and got a thumbs up from the sound engineer to play the bass and test it.

I gently plucked a string and something changed in me. I heard the note rumbling across the auditorium. The low growl of the bass completely blew my mind and I felt refreshed after playing the note. A smile came to my face as I completed the sound check and was eager to hear our performance. The timer struck and we started promptly. I could hear every single instrument come together to form the unity of a song and reverbrate across the walls of the auditorium. The experience felt gratifying and I knew I couldn’t ask for anything better.

We did not win the prize that day, but that was of least importance to me. I found something more fulfilling. The rumble of the bass and the energy of a band’s performance was my biggest gift I had gotten that day. The next time I managed to play the bass onstage was during the annual day of the next academic year. That was equally intense and fulfilling to me as I loved the presence the band was able to command with the music. Those two experiences are something I hold very fondly in my heart, hoping to experience the same some day again.

I’ll close this post with the words that stuck with me fondly about the bass –

“Four strings, one love.”

Skandha

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