KEYS
FIND A PLACE FOR SYNTH BASS | David Pfaltzgraff
Photo by Duncan Shaffer on Unsplash
In the movies there ’ s this cliche of the ‘ big , gruff guy who intimidates everyone a good bit , but once you get to know him , he ’ s a real sweetheart .’ That ’ s how I ’ ve felt sometimes when I hop into a new band on keys and broach the topic of adding in some synth bass . the worship team . I ’ m usually there ahead of some of the band . I like to have time to settle in , setup my iPad or Mac , run my cables and tie or gaff everything down , and then run through some parts with the actual keyboard I ’ m going to be using .
Before I ’ d had a chance to say hello , I heard the bass player pause , notice the subs in the room rumbling , and remark ‘ oh , well I guess I ’ ll just go home !’
Oops . I thought I had really done it .
Let ’ s get into the dynamics of finding the proper place for your synth bass .
I GUESS I ’ LL JUST GO HOME
I ’ m the kind of person who likes to show up early for things . My wife gives me a hard time for how much of my life I ’ ve wasted sitting around at airport gates after allowing a drastically oversized amount of time for getting through security .
This is also true for times I ’ m volunteering on
On one such Sunday a few years back I was running through the keys patches I ’ d prepared as the band began to trickle in . I was volunteering at a decent-sized church at the time , so it wasn ’ t uncommon to have someone I ’ d never played with before on the rotation . As I was playing , I noticed a guy with a bass guitar in hand walking onto the stage . I happened to be playing the big , epic build of ‘ So Will I ’ at the time and true to the recording I ’ d programmed a big , sub bass sound to provide some extra punch .
Thankfully , right afterwards he laughed , came over , and introduced himself . He told me loved the part and was looking forward to layering our bass parts together .
But it might not always go that way , especially if you try and unleash synth bass sounds on your team for the first time without any context .
WHY IT ’ S WORTH IT
If your worship band is like many then you probably have drums , an acoustic guitar , an
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