Playing with a bass player and staying out of his lane

[BEMcCut]

Position of my hand on the keyboard doesn't necessary mean I am playing bass notes. I use lots of splits to cover classic rock tunes. For example for Too Much Time by Styx I have the intro sounds that drop in pitch in the lowest octave notes A, G and F. Above that I have the sweeping sound that plays with the guitar when the synth bass comes. The synth bass is actually in the middle of the keyboard. That being said, I mostly stay away from what the bass is doing by simplifying my left hand doing single notes or waving to people in the crowd with it.

[MathOfInsects]

4 hours ago, JamPro said:

Respect the keyboard players' lane: I will be playing that bassline on Flashlight and I Wish, etc.

 

Why, though? 

[harmonizer]

I don't know about guidelines in general, but some songs have spots where you want the AP to add punch with the left hand down in the bass range. Our cover of the Gladys Knight version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" had this in the interlude before each verse.

 

Another exception for me is on "Working for the Weekend", which has the moving bass line (E-F-F#-A-E-F-F#) as a synth bass line played many times.

 

But most of the time my left hand is not down there. We don't need it in our 7-piece band, and thank goodness for that because I suck at keys.