Bass Guitar Worship Blender

We're finally back with a new episode.  Time for some catching up and to tell you about my latest Precision persuasion.

Sorry to get heavy on you, but secular musicians laugh at us when we struggle to memorize 4 songs a week.  As worship musicians we should be the ones setting the higher standard.

Another "Average Joe" interview - this time with my new friend, Brandon Moore, of Transformation Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.

In this episode we lighten our load by *GASP* selling 2 MusicMan Stingray basses in order to "Make Room" for something new.  Brent also gets on a soapbox about bass weight before sharing a recording of his worship team performing a song... minus the worship team.... 

It's been a little bit of a delay since last episode, so it's story time to tell about everything going on.

In this episode I do an "Average Joe" interview with my new friend Ian Burns.  Since the interview is in person, I get to check out his collection of boutique basses while learning about his pre-Jesus history touring in a popular secular band.  Oh, and we get interrupted by his loud goose...

In this episode we interview Jesse Phillips, bassist at Church of the City.  Jesse is a talented musician with a great list of credentials (Church of the City, Chris McClarney, Christy Nockels, Aaron Shust, etc.).  But the coolest thing about him is his heart for Christ and a desire to build up others in the Kingdom.  

In this episode we talk to Jeremy Carriger of Short Circuit Electronics.  Jeremy makes some very clever replacement control plates for Jazz basses.  These are not your typical preamp control plates - in fact they are not preamps and are completely passive.  Find out about his unique products and his questionable-at-first product naming conventions.

This episode features new gear, a funny and true worship story, an experiment on if weight actually does increase sustain in a bass, and why everything is spinning around my head right now.

At the time of this podcast recording, we're a week into the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.  There are people on both sides that don't want war.  There are Christian brothers and sisters on each side that need our prayers.  This podcast, I share my feelings of heaviness on the situation and how it is impacting me.  

High pass filters are getting more attention lately by bassists, and for good reason - they clean up your low frequencies and help you to sit better in the mix.  Find out how this utility device reduces the bad rumble.  

It finally came after 2 months on backorder.  Yep, a new bass has arrived and it is awesome.  Learn about the new Ibanez EHB1005SMS.  Also, have you ever been surprised when a worship leader starts playing a new song during service that wasn't on the agenda?  Well, here's some basic hacks to figure out a part by ear - assuming the song follows much of CCM's common formulas.

Finally kicking off the 2021 podcast season, just in time for Easter.  It's a busy time when you play on 2 church worship services.  I give my Easter prep overview plus reviews of two new gear items I started using.  The first is iReal Pro, a low cost Band-In-A-Box alternative for the iPad and the EHX Nano Battalion, a cool overdrive/preamp that sounds great and is lower cost than most overdrives on the market.

Gospel bass player and YouTube star Travis Dykes is interviewed in this episode.  Travis talks about his playing style, his musical background and his secrets to his bass tone.  Good information you don't want to miss!

My new adventures with a short scale bass has me thinking more about ergonomic basses.  I discuss the models interesting me most, such as Ibanez, Torzal and Strandberg offerings.  I also do a review of the ForScore iPad app that is a perfect replacement to ringed binders of printed chord charts for bass players not blessed with a church using Planning Center.

I finally got to my long promised review of the Source Audio C4 synth bass pedal.  A also talk about my new adventure into the land of short scale bass.  In addition, a segment on 6/8 time and the misinformation/misunderstand regarding it - yes, reputable sources have it wrong.

The first in our Average Joe interviews!  In this episode we interview Joe LeGrand, a worship bassist who became active in worship after retiring.  No sitting around saying "I've paid my dues...", Joe is an inspiration for everyone that it's never too late to learn something new.   Here is the book Joe references in the interview about helping to prevent injury while playing bass: https://www.bassbooks.com/shopping/products/1461-the-bassist's-guide-to-injury-management-prevention-and-better-health-2nd-edition-ebookpdf/

3 segments in this episode featuring an example on how changing your hand position can change your bass tone (and examples of how to use this in service), thoughts on the advantages (and disadvantages) of playing sitting down vs standing up, and an overview of our Worship Blender chapel and how we play to use it.

Yes, we're feeling the effects of the Corona Virus here at the Bass Guitar Worship Blender.  This episode talks about how our lives are different right now.

It's our 10th episode - we finally made it!  So, let's have a pop quiz, shall we... This episode blends a pop quiz with this year's non-Daniel-fast fast, an overview of NAMM 2020 bass gear and an idea for less clutter and confusion on the music stand.

Merry Christmas listeners!  This episode features some tips on adding Reggae-style grooves to your alter calls, options for less common Christmas songs to listen to, an overview of how chord charts lie (especially at Christmas), and yet another version of Angels We Have Heard On High.

There's a lot of interest in fretless bass but not everyone has immediate access to one to try it out.  We go over what it is like playing a fretless bass and how it compares to a fretted, plus all the instrument's pros and cons.  Additional segments on Worship Around the World, What We're Listening to and a few stories to tell since the last episode.

Westminster Effects is a Christian-based company building some outstanding effects pedals for guitarists and bass guitarists. In this episode I interview Cody Fields, President of the company, about his products for bass guitar and the clever Christian church history-themed naming conventions of his products.  Website: Westminster Effects Website Podcast: Westminster Effects Doxology Podcast On their website, check out the Wittenberg Bass Preamp (based on the Yamaha NE-1) and the Calvin Compressor.

This is a busy episode with 4 segments, the primary segment being how to deal with a keyboard player's bass heavy left hand. Other segments address playing through injury, an interesting exercise to confirm your knowledge of your fretboard, and an overview of some of the basses I played at various music stores.

Need to play some synth bass on the platform, but don't know which synth to buy? How about trying plugins with a MIDI controller? In this episode I overview options for both paid and free synth plugins and why they might be a good choice.  Another segment discusses protecting your hearing when you play and how I'm doing that on a noisy stage.

If you're a bass player that has to go direct instead of using an amp, but you already have a laptop and a portable audio interface, then you may already have a setup you can use live, instead of an expensive pedal board.  In this episode we explore IK Multimedia Amplitube Ampeg SVT and Overloud MarkBass plugins. Our second segment is on the controversy of click tracks, and in our third segment we bring a little Jesus into the mix, with a short overview of a Roman's Bible study.

In this episode, we talk to Dave, a favorite contributor on the P&W Bassist Club on TalkBass.com. Dave is pro on bass and has been serving on worship platforms for years. However, this year he was told by his church he no longer fit the visual - he was considered too old! Dave still plays just fine and he's really not that old, so what's going on here? We explore Dave's situation in detail to discuss this troubling trend of axing anyone over 30 that is creeping into more and more churches.

This episode's featured segment is on how to imitate a synthbass on your bass guitar without having to buy any new equipment.  Even if your signal is bass to direct box, you don't have to spend money to sound like that spiffy contemporary worship song.  Most of the time the best solution is adjusting your technique.  Additional segments on alternate ways to play octaves and a crazy idea for a fretted fretless bass.

This podcast is for those that serve from the bottom up.  Since this is a new podcast by an unknown host, I spend time explaining who I am, along with a brief musical history.