A 2016 study titled Exploring the Use of the Bass Guitar as a Clinical
Instrument Within Music-Centered Practice looked into the
effects of playing the bass guitar in a clinical setting, particularly in music
therapy.
This includes employing the following techniques to analyze the participants’ affect, mood, and participation—with the primary focus on the client’s experience in music:
●
Slapping
●
Popping
●
Double-stops
●
Bending notes
●
Glissandos
● Syncopated rhythms
The study underlines the appeal of the bass among some of the world’s renowned bassists. One commonality is “the ability to maintain connections with the drummer while interacting with the other melodic instruments in the ensemble,” and that they have been able to “find their own voice on the instrument, allowing their personalities and authentic selves to come through in their playing...moving the instrument beyond the conventional role of simply keeping time.”
The bass guitar as a clinical tool in music therapy
The clinical relevance of the bass guitar was described as follows,
“The bass is the glue – especially in a music therapy setting – that holds everything together. The bass establishes the tonal center. It can also take other sounds that might be piercing, brittle or thin on their own and provide a warm context against which those sounds acquire greater expressive potential. When bass tones are present, the music feels complete, whole and authentic.” (Aigen, 2013, p. 199)\
The study was conducted using 30- to 40-minute individualized music therapy sessions that aim to “better understand the musical interactions between therapist and client in sessions involving the bass” via clinical improvisation. The primary bass instrument used in the therapy is a Fender Blacktop Precision Bass played through an Ampeg BA-110 combo bass amplifier.
It concluded that “the presence of the bass contributes to both the development of roles the client and therapist take in the music and how the therapist can work within these roles to provide the client with the most meaningful experiences within improvisational music. The characteristics of the bass guitar that contributed most to the musical processes included the versatility of tone, the low register, rhythmic presence and role in contributing to a groove, attack and articulation, and variety in playing approaches.”
Learn bass guitar from the comfort of your own
home! Head on to Live Music Tutor’s bass
guitar page today and sign up or login anytime, anywhere.
Choose from our wide selection of talented and friendly guitar instructors and
schedule your lesson today. Use the code 10OFF
to get a 10% discount off your lesson.
