Ted Johnson // Blog

After years of neglect I've been getting into playing bass again lately.

I've always thought of myself as a songwriter first, and a bassist second.  Since I haven't been in a band in many years, the bass hasn't been a part of my songwriting toolkit.  I've been composing almost exclusively on acoustic guitar--when I've made time to compose at all.  Now that I'm recording, and collaborating on Indaba, I'm finding that my approach to bass has changed.

A long time ago I developed a religious analogy for working on songs (never mind that I'm an atheist).  This is it in a nutshell:  Each song is a god. Musicians performing a song are conducting a sacrament, the purpose of which is to serve and glorify the particular song god.  If a musician tries to glorify himself (with extra volume, overplaying, or attention-hogging stage antics) then the song god suffers.

I never was a particularly flashy player, but looking back, I realize that my approach to composition used to be concerned with holding my interest as a bassist, and not always with what was right for the song. When a member of a band said "my part is boring to play" I'd say, "Suck it up for the good of the song." But...I always made my own part interesting, at least as a player.

I seem to have turned the tables on myself now. My newer songs--and the songs to which I'm contributing here on Indaba--aren't necessarily built from the bass up.  I'm often left with the feeling that the bass parts are unsatisfying to play.

Suck it up, Johnson, for the song gods.

In my profile, compare "King of Favors" arranged (yikes!) 17 years ago, to "Anarchist Heart" arranged last year.  Find the self-serving bassist.

I'd be interested to know what others have revealed as a result of changing their composition method or instrument.