Stick with this place long enough for a modest pile of musical thoughts to accrue and it will quickly become clear that few things will put a song over faster for me than an indelible bass line. It's a love that predates my conscious realization of it. I walked into the band hall at the beginning of eighth grade in 1998 in a desperate bid to avoid having P.E. as my elective; they asked me what I wanted to play, and, having not thought that far ahead, I blurted out tuba. Despite that answer being borne primarily of panic, band ultimately turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life, an indispensable component of my overall sense of self. It helped me cultivate the discipline to follow through on things I start. It eventually led to an appreciation not only for several different types of music, but also for how several individual parts come together to create something greater than their sum. And playing tuba specifically gave me an ear for—and love of—the rhythms that keep a song pushing forward underneath the melody.
I realize I'm giving myself nowhere to go but downhill by starting here, but "Help Is On the Way" has my all-time favorite bass part in a song.
category: music
subcats: funk, christian