Playing with a Bass player, drummer and Keyboard player

JohnAnderson

Getting Better Now...
Hi Griff. It might be useful to have some sessions on what the other band members are expected to do in their jobs. For instance, the drummer: what drum does he use for basic timekeeping? Is the downbeat on 1 done with the kickdrum or another drum? What drum plays what beats?

The bass player: when does he/she typically hit the root note? What beats does he play on? What cues does he give the guitar player?

Thanks. John Anderson
 

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
I know you're asking Griff, but here are a few things to getyour started:

The bass player should generally hit the root on the 1 beat at least, although there are many arpeggio patterns that only hit it every 2nd measure. That's OK because the blues has most changes over multiples of 2 bars.
Many bass players like to do a lead-up to the next chord duringda change, usually from the scale or chromatic and again hit the root of the next chord on the 1.
Rhythmically the bass player will usually try to place notes at the same time as the bass drum beat, although that doesn't mean it's all they play.

Drummers usually okay the 1&3 on the bass (kick) drum and 2 and 4 often on snare. That doesn't mean exclusivelt though, for example the bass drum might also hit the "and of 2" in addition to the 3.

Many drummers will play a fill of some kind leading to the bar 1 and often bar 5 and 9 to outlines the chord changes of the blues. They may also highlight the 1st beat of bar 1 with the crash, etc...

Listening to the drummer and bass player should make it easier getting back on track if you lost the progression.
 
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