How to Play Behind The Beat (no-bs examples for bassists & drummers)

[Music] it's like just like a race to the bottom right [Music] there is this thought pervasive in music or at least for sure in the bass player community that like the baddest cats play behind and i smile because i i don't ever actually really say cats um uh but there's this thing right i mean you've got to feel that too we're like oh man it's cool to play behind you don't hear the same thing about playing ahead like oh man everyone's playing ahead and it feels so good because it doesn't because it doesn't um but i'm curious like from a drummer perspective if we can kind of dig into what it means to play behind if we both are playing behind what are we playing behind two do i just play behind do you play behind how far behind yep do you play to make it cool is it always cool a lot of questions but that's why steve gould is here to answer the questions oh i'm going to do my best yeah um the behind the beat thing it works a couple ways one of them would be like i choose one part of my groove to play behind where that that side stick is a little bit late yeah compared to where the hi-hat was right and you can hear both and that's what lets you know that the the side stick was laid another thing that you hear a lot of the like the quest love they call it the philly sound would be taking the note that's supposed to go on the and the halfway point and playing it intentionally late which i'm not great at that sure that's hard to do right and and it feels kind of weird yes in recent years maybe in the past 10 years that's become kind of popular and sought after right that's me playing all my quarter notes on beat and my and counts behind the b one and two and three and but if i were to play everything behind the beat yes it wouldn't sound behind the beat it would just sound like the new beat side note slowing down decelerating yep retardant yep it adds weight sure and that's something to pay attention to that's why a feels so heavy [Music] i'm i'm able to give so much drama to that last note yes because of the decelerating tempo yes accelerating tempo does the opposite it adds energy yes not weight energy you have one or the other so stuart copeland playing in the police and kind of rushing yeah or all the guys in rage against machine like when the drop finally gets there yep and they they they're off to the races yep and it just brings so much energy whereas oftentimes i would hear zeppelin like bottom plays notes a little bit later than i expect them to and that makes it feel super heavy yeah right so that's another thing that i'm thinking about when it comes to playing behind the beater in front of the beat i'm thinking about when i want to infuse the song with energy yeah or infuse the moment with weight ooh that's great but that's a totally different thing than picking one part of the beat and intentionally playing it behind every time can we demonstrate what it feels like if you're on and then the base is behind let's do it right i'm going to play like a drum machine i'm not going to listen to you got it which is actually i'm saying that because it's hard for me to do this sure as soon as i hear you get behind i want to go you want a few yeah you want to start to pull back well so first what i'm going to do i'm going to play four bars on to the best of my ability and then i'm going to lean back and we'll see how that feels we'll see what we notice all right here we go yeah [Music] back to on oh sorry uh here comes lee [Music] yeah and i feel like that second time i the first time was more dramatic to sort of illustrate the point right but for me being a tiny bit behind the drums just ever so slightly i feel like lets the weight of the drums and the weight of the transients happen in fact it's really like the way i play the bass is like this too so instead of playing there are people that play that way where it's a percussive hit right [Music] it almost sounds like a slap or a pick i mean getty leave from rush right it has this percussive thing and i hear a lot of bass players and i don't particularly like that sound i feel like it also robs the drums of their transient i think that that unless it is perfectly bull's-eye on starts to get in the way of syncopation and i don't actually hear the snap of the kick drum and the like crack of the snare as much let me let me do that with you i'm gonna i'm gonna smack it [Music] and what it feels to me in that is like i'm trying to lead you i'm not actually very good at playing that way i feel like i'm leaning on top does it feel that way to you yeah yeah like when i'm doing that i watch your energy and you're like okay i'm tolerating it exactly you're like all right got it that's how this is gonna be i suppose eh that's how that's like your body language and face it's flat but if i'm playing where i'm trying to let the transient of the drum come through i feel like it's a tiny bit backside and then it allows steve to lead we do one more time yeah three [Music] oh it feels so much better to me yeah i think so too and i think if you looked at that on a grid what you would discover is that even though i feel like i'm playing on my my aesthetic is i like the sound of the bass to be slightly behind the drums because what i envision is the kick drum or the snare drum the transients of the drum triggering the bass note i don't want to hear boom your note grows out from my notes yes we're like that is the producer like that is the thing that lets the bass note go it's how i thought about drums as a little kid the toms to me i thought that that was the bass and that the percussion was first it makes it makes a lot of sense to me as to why i like the bass player to be a little bit behind yeah instead of on top but i think the point you were making initially or at least the thing that really resonated with me is the idea that we can't both be behind yes i have to be on so that you can be this secondary like your notes grow out from my notes yes look at this guy bringing it back that is so true i mean because if we are both behind what does that sound like i don't know it sounds like they're slowing down yeah i'm just getting slower i'm trying to it's like just like a race to the bottom right right yes which i i guess can feel cool but somebody's gotta take the reins for sure for sure and so in this if you're thinking as a bass player about how to play how to manipulate the beat uh whether to play dead on a little bit behind a little in front i recommend that you just do it uh like an action step for you would be to put it into a daw like pull up pro tools garage band whatever you have and see how it feels to you see what your natural tendency is when you're playing on play eight bars of one note of an eighth note bounce and so what i'm doing to do that bounce is i'm muting slightly with my left hand and then i'm playing and i'm lifting up slightly with this hand but you don't hear that you don't hear this you don't hear the of it lifting up because i'm muting with this hand and i'm playing short long short long short long short long and if you do that you will immediately see your tendency in a dog insta-click you'll go oh man the second note is always a little on top or the my first note is rushing every time you'll see that and then you'll sort of start to be able to go okay uh i want to try to put all of these in the same place i want to try to lean them all back or want to try to lean them all a little bit forward i really like what you're saying because i think you're pointing out that actual control over playing behind the beat or playing in front of the beat with intention it comes from just the presence of precision at all yes like if you don't know how to hit the dead center of the beat then you're not gonna be able to control your ability to play behind the beat or in front of the beat that's true uh that's that michael bland quote yes it's not cool to play behind the beat aim for the middle right learn how to hit the middle and then once you get that ability you can start to choose to play behind the beater or in front of the beat when you want that yeah when you want more energy or when you're so true more weight michael bland is a drummer that from minneapolis that steve and i both admire and he has this thing about like ah don't worry about a heading behind aim for the center and then what will happen is you'll have a tendency and then if you embrace that tendency if it's a musical tendency that you really like he calls it calls it your feel is like your face yeah your musical tendency as far as the timing is as signature to you as the shape of your face and as soon as i start listening to you play with your own tendency yeah i can tell it's ian even though i can't see ian's face behind the bass guitar i'm like oh that's ian right like everybody knows the way matt chamberlain as a drummer feels the way steve jordan as a drummer feels and a lot of that feel has to do with the timing tendencies that they have but they don't think they're playing tendencies i think those guys just are hitting what they think is the middle yeah they're doing what they think sounds good yeah right that's a good way to say that they're like yeah this feels and sounds great and that comes from i love that though that comes from this respect of precision then you can't be precise you can't be 100 precise not as a human of course that's why we have programming yeah so then you'll have this fluctuation and to really hone in on what that fluctuation is for you and what you like about it is very cool hey thanks so much for checking out this lesson guys obviously huge shout out to ian and steve for just bringing the goods and being awesome every single time now if you enjoyed this lesson and you want to watch the rest of the course which is awesome by the way um or if you're a member of scottsbasslessons.com you can log in today and get started checking that course out and if you're 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Channel: Scott's Bass Lessons

Views: 319,787

Keywords: bass guitar, bass lessons, beginner, beginners, clinic, cover, funk, groove, jazz, masterclass, scott devine, slap, soloing, tuition

Id: NXQ3lMHzykk

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 02 2021