Be reactive to the melody , not indifferent

We all have heard of portasound keyboards that auto plays music rhythms and bass when we press a chord. No matter what song we play with it, it still gives the same rhythm and bass , bar after bar.

Of course such music is boring. Yet lots of musicians play music this way. Almost like a mechanical portasound. No matter what song a worship leader sings, they would play a certain fixed rhythm.

A better way is to play your instruments with the melody and around the melody.What i mean is the backing music must react with the melody, not ignorant of the melody.

There are two types of musicians - the first group is totally indefferent of the melody. They play like robots, totally disregard the melody  We might as well replace them with drum machinese and sequences.

The second are the worst. They accent everything - every beat or even half-quarter beat and their playing leave much to be desired.

In this respect ,bass guitarists must always remember this age old principle - your bass notes move the opposite direction to the melody i.e. when the melody goes up, bass goes down and vice versa.

This way the music is less predictable and always fresh.