New York’s Bluegrass Bassman
Photo by Justin Camerer
Although the bass is not the most glamorous of bluegrass instruments, it is certainly just as important as every other instrument in the band. It is the glue that holds the band together and without glue, you only have disparate pieces. About twenty years ago I was producing an instruction video for rhythm guitar players with Wyatt Rice, one of the best rhythm guitar players in bluegrass. On a segment of the video, Tony Rice was playing lead guitar with Wyatt backing him up. After the first take in the studio, Tony said, “I feel naked here without a bass.” That should tell you something about how Tony felt about the importance of the bass player.
Unfortunately, a lot of people learn the bass because they think that it is the easiest instrument. But there is a lot more to playing the bass than alternately thumping on the first and fifth scale degrees on the first and third beats of every measure. While it might not be too hard to become a mediocre bass player, it is very hard to become a great bass player—it takes every bit as much time and effort as it does to excel on any other instrument.
For those readers who are learning to play the bass and might be interested in learning more about the instrument, a great place to start is the book from Mel Bay Publications titled Dirt Simple: Upright Bass (reviewed in the September 2021 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited). If you find that you like working with the material in that book, you might enjoy continuing your bass education with the book’s author, Nate Sabat via private online lessons. Nate, the bass player in the band Mile Twelve, is an extremely knowledgeable bass player and patient teacher who has developed a thorough teaching method for bluegrass bass.
About Nate Sabat
Nate Sabat’s journey to becoming the bass player in Mile Twelve, one of the top young bands in bluegrass music today, has been a bit unconventional. The fact that he was born and raised in New York City, and not one of the southern states, is perhaps not that unusual in today’s bluegrass world. Ever since the folk boom of the early sixties there have been many well-known and influential bluegrass musicians that have called the Big Apple home. Where Nate’s story diverges from most others is that he did not begin by playing an instrument or singing roots music. His musical life began when he joined the Young People’s Chorus of New York City while in middle school.
The Young People’s Chorus of New York City is a multicultural youth chorus of international renown that has been providing children from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds a program of music education and choral performance for over thirty years. Nate said, “My mom, a singer by trade, was the one who helped me find them. I auditioned, got in, and started singing in their young men’s group when I was about twelve. By the time I finished middle school I’d gone from tenor one, the highest male voice part, to baritone, one of the lowest. Then, when we sang with the women’s chorus, I was singing the bass parts. Because of this, I started paying attention to the bass parts more closely when I was listening to bands.”
While still in junior high school, Nate started playing the electric bass on his own at home along with recordings. He said, “My dad had an electric bass and amp in the basement of our apartment building. I made a playlist on iTunes and started playing along with it.” When he was fifteen, then a student at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts studying voice, Nate started taking upright bass lessons from a jazz bassist named Scott Lee. Nate said, “He taught me proper technique and how to play with the bow. I think the bow really helped me cement my excitement about upright bass. I thought, ‘Oh, I can play this thing with a bow a get a sustained sound. It feels like I’m singing.’ In high school, playing bass and singing were both a daily routine for me.”
It was during the summer prior to his senior year in high school that Nate got introduced to bluegrass bass. Every summer, the Berklee College of Music in Boston hosts a five-week intensive summer program for music students over the age of fifteen. Nate enrolled in this program prior to his senior year in high school. Although he was there to focus on jazz, one elective caught his eye: the bluegrass ensemble led by the late Berklee professor, and bluegrass musician, John McGann. Nate said, “I first heard the Punch Brothers and Edgar Meyer during my junior year of high school. I instantly gravitated towards that progressive mindset. That strand of the acoustic music world was appealing to me. There are no boundaries. That kind of clicked. After I took the Berklee bluegrass ensemble course, I got into more traditional stuff too. But, had it not been for all the progressive music and that kind of mindset, I don’t know if I would have been interested in the traditional stuff. I needed that link. I could understand and relate to the Punch Brothers and their urban approach more than I could someone like the Stanley Brothers. I was just a city kid. I didn’t know anything about the mountains or the hollers.”
When it came time to choose a college, and an area of study, Nate opted to go to Berklee and study the bass. He said, “By that point I was more excited about playing the bass than singing. I still loved singing, but it wasn’t something I was as committed to practicing and developing.” Nate started studying at Berklee in 2012 and graduated in 2015. While he was studying at Berklee, he met the other original members of Mile Twelve, who were all living in Boston at the time.
Nate’s Thoughts About Bluegrass Bass
In 2019 Nate was teaching bass at Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Kamp and Nate had to submit written material to be included in the book that was given to students. Evidently, Kaufman was impressed with the material that Nate submitted because it inspired him to introduce Nate to Bill Bay of Mel Bay Publications. Bay was looking for a bass player to write a book that would be part of Mel Bay’s “Dirt Simple” series. Nate said, “Bill asked me to write a book for the absolute beginner.”
One of the many informative techniques about bass playing that Nate teaches in his book is how to create transitions when changing from one chord to another. He said, “The book presents the idea that roots and fifths are great if you are vamping on a chord. But if you are moving from chord-to-chord, that final note before the next chord should be approached different than the vamp notes. I go through a bunch of transitions in the book…different ways of going from chord-to-chord. You treat that moment as something special. Those transitions are essential to good bass playing.”
Since being a time keeper is the bass player’s main job, Nate recommends that bass players work with a metronome to improve timing. He said, “Working with a metronome is key. I recommend putting the metronome on about 80 beats-per-minute and start with a simple root-fifth pattern: play the open G string, then the open D string and mute both halfway through, so you can imagine the mandolin chop there with you. Also, make sure your notes are landing in the center of the metronome click. That is an easy way to get started.”
In addition to keeping time, another contribution that the bass player can make to the overall band sound is by helping lead the listener’s ear to the next chord change. Typically, this is done by the bass player introducing some kind of transitional movement, like a bass walk. In keeping with good taste, the bass player will usually not want to get too complicated when providing this transitional movement. When asked about keeping these movements tasteful, Nate said, “I was actually talking with a student this week about this concept of ‘walking to a chord’ versus ‘running to a chord.’ When ‘walking’ you keep the same rhythm that you are using when you are playing the root-fifth bassline. That ‘two-feel’ rhythm. When ‘running’ you introduce double the number of notes in the same amount of time. If you use the notes of a run, but walk instead of run—over a longer period of time—you’ll create a similar effect that won’t be distracting. That is one example of how to keep it tasteful.”
Bluegrass is a style of music that is known for its drive. Part of that driving groove can come from the lead instrumentalists, and/or the singer, placing their notes out ahead of the beat. Developing that feel or groove as a bass player can sometimes be tricky because in that situation it is the bass player’s job to keep the beat very steady by playing right in the center of the beat. Nate admits that getting this feel was a challenge for him. He said, “For the first couple of years of playing with Mile Twelve, my tendency was to rush, to also put my note ahead of the beat. Then, at Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival one year, I was listening to Barry Bales with the Earls of Leicester and I heard it. He was placing the beat way farther back than I usually did. So, I thought about leaning back on my notes. It took me a while to get there. It is one of the most challenging aspects of feeling the music. I feel that it goes unrecognized a lot of the time. Barry Bales is arguably one of the best bass players as far as timing. Hearing him on stage and recognizing that it was different from what I was doing caused me to adjust my playing. I started working with a metronome and worked to get my notes to land in the the center of the beat. I had to create this perception that, compared to other members of the band, I was going to drag, or play behind. For about six months I had that mindset and then eventually it became normal.”
When working with his students, Nate has found that three bass skills that most of them can use help on are: volume and tone, left hand position, and note choices. Regarding volume and tone, Nate said that many students attack the strings too far up the neck. He recommends that they place the right hand near the end of the fingerboard. He also recommends that they use “arm weight” and gravity to help their hand fall through the string. In terms of left hand positioning, he finds that many students use the “claw” and grab the neck like a baseball bat. Instead, he recommends they try keeping their thumb on the back of the neck and their fingers perpendicular to the fingerboard. Regarding note choice, Nate refers back to the material he provides in his book. He said, “If there is a chord change happening, try repeating the root of the first chord right before moving to the next. This will create tension that will be released when you hit the root of the next chord.”
When asked about bass players that he admires (in addition to Edgar Meyer and Barry Bales) Nate said that he likes Jake Tullock’s playing for his use of creative melodic motion and his use of arpeggios. He also points to Roy Huskey, Jr. as one of the best timekeepers and creators of a great overall feel in the music.
Learning Bass From Nate
Currently, Nate is teaching bass lessons over Zoom. Additionally, he has a Patreon page, which he describes as a low-cost instructional method. He said, “There are three different tiers: a bass line tier, a melody tier, and, for those bass players who are also vocalists, a playing and singing tier.” Most of the content on the Patreon page is in video format, with accompanying tablature and bass clef notation. He also provides written transcriptions of complete basslines, and is happy to “make one to order” for anyone who is interested.
If you are a bass player and want to take your playing to the next level, check out natesabat.com to see what Nate has to offer.
