Torgo Satyr Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 As a singer/bass player myself... usually the bass line (of non-Rush/God bands) follows the rhythm dutifully, so if you "hold the bottom", it's not that hard to sing along while you play. But Geddy is a different animal! He is constantly pushing the melody and counter-melodies (Verse of "Carnies" for example), and rhythmically he is dotting and dashing all over the place. For those of you who are non-musicians... I can tell you... this is just verging on super-human. I read an article a long time ago (back when "Presto" came out) when the journalist asked Geddy about this very thing... How does he do it??? Geddy responded that he has to learn how to sing it, just like playing it...after certain notes he plays (on bass), he knows he must interject the vocal note in-between the bass-note so that he keeps the groove of the song... and learn the whole "puzzle" note-for-note (bass/vocal) I completely understood what he meant. So, here is some love for "Dirk"... my top 10 INSANE Geddy Bass-lines...How Does he Sing to that??? 1) Circumstances 2) Digital Man 3) The Analog Kid 4) Marathon 5) Territories 6) The Spirit of Radio 7) Anthem 8) Hemispheres Cygnus X-1 Book II (lots of counter-melodies and rhythm in this beast) 9) Distant Early Warning 10) Clockwork Angels What are yours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tombstone Mountain Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 QUOTE (Torgo Satyr @ Oct 4 2012, 08:54 AM) As a singer/bass player myself... usually the bass line (of non-Rush/God bands) follows the rhythm dutifully, so if you "hold the bottom", it's not that hard to sing along while you play. But Geddy is a different animal! He is constantly pushing the melody and counter-melodies (Verse of "Carnies" for example), and rhythmically he is dotting and dashing all over the place. For those of you who are non-musicians... I can tell you... this is just verging on super-human. I read an article a long time ago (back when "Presto" came out) when the journalist asked Geddy about this very thing... How does he do it??? Geddy responded that he has to learn how to sing it, just like playing it...after certain notes he plays (on bass), he knows he must interject the vocal note in-between the bass-note so that he keeps the groove of the song... and learn the whole "puzzle" note-for-note (bass/vocal) I completely understood what he meant. So, here is some love for "Dirk"... my top 10 INSANE Geddy Bass-lines...How Does he Sing to that??? 1) Circumstances 2) Digital Man 3) The Analog Kid 4) Marathon 5) Territories 6) The Spirit of Radio 7) Anthem 8) Hemispheres Cygnus X-1 Book II (lots of counter-melodies and rhythm in this beast) 9) Distant Early Warning 10) Clockwork Angels What are yours? Ceiling Unlimited is flat out ripping it a new one. In fact, Vapor Trails is very much Geddy's experimental album. He's a different bass player on that record. Big Money? Where's that one? Try playing that and singing at the same time. To me, it's his best showcase song of the entire catalog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemari77 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Yeah, I agree with both of you.... It's nutty stuff he's doing. I don't know if folks in general realize how hard it is to do what Geddy does...but then, the man gets lots of respect, so maybe they do. Another method to accomplish this is to learn how to play the bass part inside and out until it's ingrained in your muscle memory. Then go and learn the vocal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBob Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 QUOTE (Torgo Satyr @ Oct 4 2012, 09:54 AM) As a singer/bass player myself... usually the bass line (of non-Rush/God bands) follows the rhythm dutifully, so if you "hold the bottom", it's not that hard to sing along while you play. But Geddy is a different animal! He is constantly pushing the melody and counter-melodies (Verse of "Carnies" for example), and rhythmically he is dotting and dashing all over the place. For those of you who are non-musicians... I can tell you... this is just verging on super-human. I read an article a long time ago (back when "Presto" came out) when the journalist asked Geddy about this very thing... How does he do it??? Geddy responded that he has to learn how to sing it, just like playing it...after certain notes he plays (on bass), he knows he must interject the vocal note in-between the bass-note so that he keeps the groove of the song... and learn the whole "puzzle" note-for-note (bass/vocal) I completely understood what he meant. So, here is some love for "Dirk"... my top 10 INSANE Geddy Bass-lines...How Does he Sing to that??? 1) Circumstances 2) Digital Man 3) The Analog Kid 4) Marathon 5) Territories 6) The Spirit of Radio 7) Anthem 8) Hemispheres Cygnus X-1 Book II (lots of counter-melodies and rhythm in this beast) 9) Distant Early Warning 10) Clockwork Angels What are yours? Wow, I always said Geddy was the best Bass player ever, but now I have a new found respect for the man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadianice Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 The man is simply a Bass playing GOD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
professornutbudder Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 I've been learning Geddy's bass lines since I started playing back in '82. I can hold my own playing them, but singing them too, never. Throw playing Taurus pedals/keyboards in there too, forget it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torgo Satyr Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 QUOTE (Tombstone Mountain @ Oct 4 2012, 08:58 AM) QUOTE (Torgo Satyr @ Oct 4 2012, 08:54 AM) As a singer/bass player myself... usually the bass line (of non-Rush/God bands) follows the rhythm dutifully, so if you "hold the bottom", it's not that hard to sing along while you play. But Geddy is a different animal! He is constantly pushing the melody and counter-melodies (Verse of "Carnies" for example), and rhythmically he is dotting and dashing all over the place. For those of you who are non-musicians... I can tell you... this is just verging on super-human. I read an article a long time ago (back when "Presto" came out) when the journalist asked Geddy about this very thing... How does he do it??? Geddy responded that he has to learn how to sing it, just like playing it...after certain notes he plays (on bass), he knows he must interject the vocal note in-between the bass-note so that he keeps the groove of the song... and learn the whole "puzzle" note-for-note (bass/vocal) I completely understood what he meant. So, here is some love for "Dirk"... my top 10 INSANE Geddy Bass-lines...How Does he Sing to that??? 1) Circumstances 2) Digital Man 3) The Analog Kid 4) Marathon 5) Territories 6) The Spirit of Radio 7) Anthem 8) Hemispheres Cygnus X-1 Book II (lots of counter-melodies and rhythm in this beast) 9) Distant Early Warning 10) Clockwork Angels What are yours? Ceiling Unlimited is flat out ripping it a new one. In fact, Vapor Trails is very much Geddy's experimental album. He's a different bass player on that record. Big Money? Where's that one? Try playing that and singing at the same time. To me, it's his best showcase song of the entire catalog You are absolutely right... Big Money is SICK... I almost added that one, but the only reason I didn't is, that the rhythm repeats and doesn't evolve as much as ...let's say Digital Man or Analog Kid... but because it's such a rhythm puzzle it could make any list for complexity... I just felt that both Marathon and Territories have the same "challenge" and are a bit tougher to nail as far as the doubles and triplets vs. singing it.... but...yeah... Big Money is super-sick...one of my fave bass lines (especially in the solo section). *- wanted to also clarify that the "counter melody" in "Carnies" I was talking about is actually from the "C" change: ..."How I prayed just to get away..." That is a really cool counter-melody/harmony bassline doing something totally different from Alex (like a majority of the Hemispheres: Cygnus Book II bass line) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakota2112 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Anarchist... "the lenses inside of me, that paint the world black..." That whole section has a bassline which is in a totally different rhythmic groove than the vocals are. I noticed this while singing and playing air bass in the car ...and I think I even read an article where Ged mentioned this as a tough spot as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakota2112 Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Nobody mentioned Turn the Page yet? (sorry if they did and I missed it) That might trump them all! The bassline and vocal line have absolutely nothing to do with each other in that song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tombstone Mountain Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 QUOTE (dakota2112 @ Oct 4 2012, 11:28 AM) Nobody mentioned Turn the Page yet? (sorry if they did and I missed it) That might trump them all! The bassline and vocal line have absolutely nothing to do with each other in that song. Nice one. We forget how brilliant of a bass album HYF is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torgo Satyr Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 QUOTE (Tombstone Mountain @ Oct 4 2012, 11:31 AM) QUOTE (dakota2112 @ Oct 4 2012, 11:28 AM) Nobody mentioned Turn the Page yet? (sorry if they did and I missed it) That might trump them all! The bassline and vocal line have absolutely nothing to do with each other in that song. Nice one. We forget how brilliant of a bass album HYF is It's funny you mentioned that... now that you jarred my memory... in the article I mentioned...it was "Turn the Page" that Ged sited in having to learn to sing the in-between notes for the performance... well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevefoote Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 He's a freak! In a good freak kind of way..lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theprestobunnies Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 I've been thinking about this very thing recently actually. I've always had the greatest respect for Geddy as both a bassist and vocalist, but not until just recently, I think it was CA that did it actually, that I was listening to, and it hit me, how freaking different the bass and vocal melodies are and how awesome they are individually, and that it is the same guy doing them at the same freaking time. For whatever reason it took CA to make me really appreciate him even more, which I had already thought impossible. Its funny, I had of course known that he does both jobs amazingly but never REALLY realized how completely epic that is, given the technical complexity and variety between the two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shreddy Lee Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Geddy's talked about this recently in relation to The Anarchist: QUOTE Listening to the record it's apparent that some of the playing is very technical, Geddy's bass parts particularly so. It's perhaps strange that he doesn't explore the possible difficulties he'll encounter when having to handle bass, vocals and keyboards at the same time until they start rehearsals for the tour. "I don't want to think about that because it scares the shit out of me!" laughs the frontman. "As soon as I recorded the bass line for The Anarchist', and then put the vocal on it, I looked at Nick and said, This song is going to be a motherf*cker to play live!', and he goes, 'What? Really? It's not so complicated.' The thing is, it's not about what's complicated, it's about the direction they're moving in; the bass is moving in one direction and the vocals are moving in another direction. I'm going to have to play that f*cker so many times that I can't think about it anymore, and that's why we've left ourselves more rehearsal time before this tour than we have for any other record, because I think we're going to need it - at least I know I will!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder Bay Rush Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 I know nothing about playing bass guitar, but I've heard from some who do, and they all say that Geddy's simultaneous bass playing/singing is probably the most advanced or "difficult" in the rock music jonre. Let's face it, he plays bass better than most rock bassists out there and he sings better than most rock singers out there. Then, he does them at the same time, meanwhile, playing keyboards and synthesizer pedals of various types. This guy is superhuman if you ask me. Apparently, the album Hemispheres has some of the toughest singing/playing on it of all the Rush albums, but I'm also hearing that CA is right up there, if not moreso. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tombstone Mountain Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 QUOTE (Thunder Bay Rush @ Oct 5 2012, 10:49 AM) I know nothing about playing bass guitar, but I've heard from some who do, and they all say that Geddy's simultaneous bass playing/singing is probably the most advanced or "difficult" in the rock music jonre. Let's face it, he plays bass better than most rock bassists out there and he sings better than most rock singers out there. Then, he does them at the same time, meanwhile, playing keyboards and synthesizer pedals of various types. This guy is superhuman if you ask me. Apparently, the album Hemispheres has some of the toughest singing/playing on it of all the Rush albums, but I'm also hearing that CA is right up there, if not moreso. Yeah, it's not chewing gum and walking...Les Claypool is more amazing IMO because of the bass playing alone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticklight Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 (edited) Edited October 5, 2012 by Sticklight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losingit2k Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Distant Early Warnings The Anrachist BU2B New World Man The Body Electric You just about every RUSH song has a singable bass line. Its because Geddy writing os very melodic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeddyRulz Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 The fact is, often a bassline is 'contrapuntal' and will go against the melody of a song. Therefore, singing while playing bass is harder than singing while playing any other instrument. It's even easier to sing while DRUMMING than it is to sing while playing bass. With bass, it's quite hard. Bass Player magazine once asked Geddy, Chris Squire, and Will Lee (studio musician, and from David Letterman's band) how they can sing while playing bass. They all pretty much said the same thing: first learn the bass part, continue practicing it until it becomes "automatic" to you... and then you can sing at the same time without having to think about the bassline any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeddyRulz Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 QUOTE (Gemari77 @ Oct 4 2012, 09:06 AM) Another method to accomplish this is to learn how to play the bass part inside and out until it's ingrained in your muscle memory. Then go and learn the vocal. There it is. Just what Geddy, Squire, and Will Lee have all said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tombstone Mountain Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmaj7flat5 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 ...gotta throw "Turn The Page" in there too! Also, check out some bootlegs from '74 and '75. Geddy used to alter the vocal rhythms DRASTICALLY from the studio versions, dragging lines across the bar and all over the place, but meanwhile keeping the bass part tight like a tiger. RiDONKulously difficult to do, but as we all know, the man is a few notches beyond human! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnus 2112 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 It's like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. While walking and chewing gum. While hopping on one foot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SchemingDemon Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I am not a bassist, but I imagine Prime Mover would be pretty difficult to play/sing at the same time. Territories I disagree with, since when bass is played, it alternates bass line/vocals/bass line/vocals. During Territories he's not really singing and playing the line at the same time. For instance, 4:13-4:40. Of course I could be totally wrong, but it seems fairly easy to me I see Big Money and Turn the Page have been covered already. Those lines are insane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
briremo Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 I play guitar. I can sing when listing to music. But I cannot sing and play guitar. My voice tracks along with the notes in pitch. No matter how I try I cannot do both. Utmost respect for Ged, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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