Arts & Entertainment, Business, Music
The Bass Sound
Lesson time 08:28 min
Bass guitar virtuoso Robert Trujillo explores the vast possibilities of his instrument. Learn how to construct the right sound for every situation and find your place within the song.
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Topics include: Choosing the Right Bass Sound · Do What’s Best for the Song
Teaches Being a Band
8x Grammy Award–winning rock band Metallica teaches you the keys to communicating, collaborating, and successfully creating as a group.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] ROBERT TRUJILLO: When I joined Metallica, it was really a bit of a surreal moment, let's say, because everything about it was different than what I had ever experienced in my life. The workload was much more intense. The press was much more intense. REPORTER: You've been in the band for five minutes, and already you're an icon. - It's such an honor, and you know, I'm stoked so. I realized that this is the way it's going to be at least for now, you know. I'm going to be playing catch-up, you know. They've got an extensive catalog that has existed for so many years. And nobody knows exactly what we're going to play. So just be ready. So I always sort of had some paper and a pen or pencil with me to figure out and chart out music at the last minute because I never knew what I was going to get. And obviously, that made me a better player. It made me a better person, you know. My work ethic had to grow. I could never phone it in. And then I realized I got to be 10 steps ahead of these guys. So I started learning songs like "Call of Ktulu" and "Orion" and "Dyers Eve." And these were songs that were nowhere on the radar. They were not on the radar yet. But I thought to myself, okay, these guys are gonna-- they're gonna throw this at me at some point in the next few years. And I better be ready because it's not gonna be about waiting for Trujillo. It's going to be about-- you know what I mean? It's going to be about pulling it off. So I started thinking ahead and working on stuff before we actually played it, and then of course, eventually we did play all these songs, which is great because I love those songs. They're classics, and I really wanted to play them anyway. So thank God we got to play them. Hopefully, we'll play them in the future. [MUSIC PLAYING] So now I want to get into the role of the bass and how it relates to Metallica. Now, within this band, you can have many different sounds. I always like to start from sort of the basic structure of the instrument and-- and the power and the rawness of just a regular, passive, you know, sound, passive electronics, I should say. Bass, and that would be sort of your classic Fender P bass model. And that for me is always a great place to start because it really sort of relies on-- again, I equate this instrument with space, power, and finding the balance within a song. Some of the songs require more kind of relentlessness and a lot more technique. These are great for that. But at the same time, if you get something that's active electronics, and the sound would then cut in a different way, but then also there's a certain amount of physicality involved. So you're moving a lot more. And there's a bit of precision in your technique that's involved with that. That's also important to Metallica too a song like, for instance, "Master of Puppets," you know, you've got-- [MUSIC PLAYING] That's a lot of movement, but it's necessary...
About the Instructor
With 28 albums, 8 Grammy Awards, and a home in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Metallica have been creating iconic music together for over 40 years. Now, they’re teaching what it takes to build and sustain success as a group. Get an exclusive look into their process for songwriting, building an album, and performing, and how they took charge of their creative destiny so you can do the same.
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Metallica
8x Grammy Award–winning rock band Metallica teaches you the keys to communicating, collaborating, and successfully creating as a group.
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