bass and lead

[alecras234]

H, I was thinking do keyboard players play bass and lead? I can't help thinking that if theres already a bass player in the band then why should the keyboard player play bass?

 

Ash

[CEB]

I play a lot of bass and I work with a good bassist. It's what the song calls for. ..... And I played in several bands where we had no bassist. I was the bassist. One band had two keyboardist and no bassist.

 

There are no rules. Genre oftentimes determines best practices. Do what the the song calls for.

 

[BEMcCut]

Like CEB said do what the song call for. If the keyboard isn't playing bass I didn't unless my left hand was the bass player. Most of the time we did have a bass guy. Sometimes I used one hand to wave to people I knew and only played with the other. Other times I was very busy.

[stoken6]

IMHO "lead" is not a particularly keyboardesque word, but certainly it's absolutely possible to play a melody/top line or similar with one hand, and a bassline with the other. Organists in a trio do this all the time - check out Jim Alfredson with Organissimo for a top example.

 

If you think of bassline/harmony/melody as three elements in the frequency spectrum then:

- In a jazz piano trio, the pianist is often playing harmony (left hand) and melody (right hand), and the bass player is playing, well, bass

- In an organ trio, the organist plays bass (left hand, and/or pedals) and melody with the right hand. Guitar provides harmony

- Solo piano accompanying a singer - the piano plays bass and harmony, and the singer sings a melody.

 

This is obviously a huge simplification, but hopefully helps the OP understand the possibilities.

 

Cheers, Mike.