@MarkMichell

Mark Michell

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Hey Mark love your stuff Im a guitar player learning bass and I wanted to ask your advice on songwriting how do you break away from boring bass lines like just playing like following the root how do you break away from that?

I have kind of a specific process I use when writing to get the most potential out of my part, but that's really just to get a good starting point. From there, knowing music theory (just enough to know what works and what doesn't is all you'd ideally need) will help. There is a lot of value in knowing modal scales, it will allow you to be able to find a common denominator in a chord progression and basically from there have a scale that will work. You'll then have 7 notes that WORK instead of one root note and not knowing what else to do. From there, make use of them all and lock in with the drum part. After that, it's intuitive to what's best for the song.
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Liked by: Yaresh-Bartholomeus Soekhlal

What's your favorite color? And does it correlate to your favorite note/key?

Green, which correlates to the note 'B' for me. Favorite key is Ab, though.

Hey dude I got two questions. First I wanna say I loved your book it's a great help. Can you give advice for going speed ik it's start slow and build up but sometimes I feel I can play something really well at 100 but at 105 It's tensing up it confuse me. Also have you ever thought about doing a sol

Much appreciated! Key word to your question: "tensing up". If you feel tense when playing, you're doing it wrong. It will wear you out faster and slow you down. Play effortlessly with a lighter touch. If you need more volume, turn the amp up, don't play more aggressively. Playing aggressively for a note or two or phrase for dynamic purposes is one thing, but to fully up your volume because you need more is a no no. Let the amp do the work!
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Liked by: Robert Percy Yaresh-Bartholomeus Soekhlal Ryan Derish

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Can you do the double thumb pluck thing that Victor Wooten does?

Ha, not really yet. It's been my most recent "new technique" to tackle, and I've made some progress, but nothing that I'd want to leave the wood shed. I've gotten double-popping down solid though!

My friend is looking for a bass amp to play small gigs with, looking to spend under 800. What kind of brands do you suggest he look at?

Anything that is a 1x15 or a 2x10 will be perfectly suitable. Check out the Gallien-Krueger MB115 or MB210, they're great and well below $800. I also used an Ampeg BA115 (1x15) for like 8 years for tons of small gigs. Those are even cheaper now, like $300ish depending on where.

Do you ever practiced unplugged?

Yeah...when I have a battery that drains constantly when I play plugged in, I find myself dry-playing pretty often, haha.

In your opinion, can Perfect Pitch be taught? You always see those adverts in the music magazines with a large CD set claiming they can teach it. As one who already has it, what are your thoughts?

Hard to say, and I honestly have no idea. It's something I definitely developed, it started with "in-the-ballpark" relative pitch, where I'd always be a note or two away, and slowly it became more accurate. I'm sure with research behind a focused learning plan, it can be taught to a degree. I suppose it's like being a wine connoisseur...you can't taste all the subtle differences the first day you ever try wine, but over the years and being exposed to it more, you begin to develop an understanding and sense for different types. Best analogy I can really think of.
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Liked by: Yaresh-Bartholomeus Soekhlal Robert Percy

I noticed you posted you play a Warwick bass now, what happened with Spector?

I've moved on to endorsing Warwick, it's been a dream company of mine for years now and I felt it was the right time to pursue it and make the change. I love Spector tons but Warwick has always been my favorite bass company.
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Liked by: Robert Percy

Hey man, I saw you guys in Syracuse on the Intronaut tour. Great job! I thought of this since I remember Chris' guitar cut out at one point, have you guys ever had overall negative experiences at certain venues, whether it be with sound issues, lack of organization on the venue's end, etc.?

Hey, cool, thanks. And of course, it happens every now and then on any level of touring for any band. Shows and events are put on and run by people, so it's inevitable. Sound issues not so much for us since we have our own sound engineer we travel with, but any issues from the venue itself are out of our control. Just make the best of it and have fun!

did you ever have to choose between having an active social life and practicing? a lot of my family members and friends give me shit for practicing all the time.

It's all time management. If managed correctly, you should have time for everything you want to do. I used to use something called the "1-6-8 Rule", where you add up the amount of time each day you spend doing ANYTHING (work, leisure, TV, Facebook, texting, shower, sleeping. Literally everything). Multiply that by 7 (for 7 days a week), then subtract that number from 168 (total number of hours in a week). You might be surprised at the results...say you subtracted 150 from 168 and came out with 18. Basically saying, in your week somewhere, you have 18 free hours of time scattered around. That's almost another part-time job. More often than not, it will reveal that you indeed have time! And who cares what anyone says, its your life, do what you want!
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Liked by: Yaresh-Bartholomeus Soekhlal Dylan Taylor Robert Percy

Is there a possibility of you using a fretless bass in Scale the Summit in the future? Would love to hear some on an album, it would totally fit your sound!

I used to own one, and the idea has been tossed around, so never say never! After touring with Joe Lester and hearing his infectious fretless lines night after night, I was definitely inspired to pick one up ASAP!
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Liked by: Robert Percy

Thoughts on The Enemy Inside?

Sounds about like all of the other "Roadrunner Era" singles from the last 3-4 albums, which is kind of the point of a single. Some cool, quick instrumental bits in there. Looking forward to the rest of the record.

What exactly brought your attention to bass playing? Was it a special song that you heard when you were young or it has to do with musical upbringing in your family or stuff like that?

I was, by default, going to be a musician, simply due to the fact that everyone in my family played music. So naturally, when I listened to music (as a musician), I had learned to "listen" and analyze music instead of just "hearing it". Over the years, I listened to a lot of Motown, funk, R&B, oldies, classics, etc -- and one song that I credit for starting it all was "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5. The bassline happened to catch my attention on the radio one day, and I couldn't help but notice how the bass glued the whole song together. It drove the song more than any other instrument in the mix, and I immediately realized that I wanted to be a part of that.

What was the process of getting into Scale the Summit? As far as auditioning and whatnot.

I got to know them from networking back in the MySpace days. Later on, my other band Tetrafusion toured through their city and got to meet them, continued keeping in touch over the years, etc. Chris had asked Evan Brewer if he knew of any bassists qualified to fill the position, and he recommended me to Chris. Evan then, out of no where one day, asked me if I'd be interested in the spot, and a few minutes later I got a call from the band unofficially offering me the spot. I then went down and jammed about 6 songs with them, and that was that.
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Liked by: Thomas An Mark Faerman Robert Percy

hey Mark, loving the new bass work on "the Migration" -- what are some of your influences for your bass lines? Really like the way the 6-string is utilized.

I strive to write bass parts that standalone as melodic figures, and a lot of the time, bass parts that add to the composition instead of exist because they have to. I have a certain process I kind of go through for this when writing. As far as actual players, way too many to name here, but nothing out of the ordinary. The usual greats in the genre.

Who is your favorite band?

I consider "favorites" as more of an "all-time" thing rather than an "at the current moment" thing, so based on that, it is and will always be Dream Theater. They are a huge part of what inspired me to do what I do. Metallica is a very, very close second.
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Liked by: Robert Percy

did you ever have to balance practicing and having a job?

For a bit, but then I worked hard to make them the same thing, that way I could just focus on them as one entity.

How did you discover you had perfect pitch/synesthesia?

I just noticed that certain notes had certain "identities". An 'E' sounded different from an 'A'. Can't really explain it, but figuring things out by ear was just much easier, I noticed. It wasn't "lights off then lights on", it was a slow development.

Does having synesthesia have any influence on your daily life? Like as with people talking? Or does it only occur in applications of music?

Lol, no, nothing like that. Just when it's strictly music-related.

What's it like having perfect pitch? Is it ever a burden?

It's more helpful than burdening, but occasionally it can become distracting when it shouldn't be. For instance, if I'm jamming with someone at a lesson or something and they're a bit out of tune, instead of ignoring it it becomes immediately all I can hear and think about until I ask them to check the tuning. Really obvious when vocalists are out of tune as well.

What do you mean by "tone match"? If I may ask? As in using the same EQ and engineering on the bass or? And so it is slightly Distorted? Awesome! No wonder it sounds epic!

"Tone matching" is a feature I'm assuming is in most audio/recording interfaces now, it just copies the signal from the "specimen" track and matches the EQ and tonal properties identically, although still likely having subtle differences since the gear/amp might be different. I wasn't trying to "mimic" the Horizons EP tone necessarily, just have a similar tone, so it's a quick step to achieve that.

What type of synesthesia do you have? And how does it affect you in relation to all things musical?

I'm nothing remotely like a "savant" or anything with some ultra rare outlook on it, I just happen to relate notes to colors and think of songs that way too. I have perfect pitch, so when I hear a note, I know what the note is based on a color I see in conjunction with the fact that I just somehow "know" the note. If I have a setlist for a gig and one of the songs is in the key of E minor, for example, I'll think of that as a "blue" song or something. Just how it is.

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