Sean Byrd: Actually, the first instrument I learned to play was the piano. I started taking piano lessons when I was 8 years old, along with my elementary school music class. It was my introduction to reading and understanding music.

I have always been around music and musicians. My parents play instruments. Well, My dad still plays trumpet and my mom plays a little piano and played the clarinet when she was a child.

I also heard a lot of music at church. So, I was really introduced to the musical sounds of many instruments from day 1. Although I learned piano first, I really only knew how to read the music. I would try to pick out songs and chords or melodies but I wasn’t getting too far, as soon as I wanted to.

At 11, I started playing the alto saxophone in my middle school band. This was the first instrument in which I was experiencing fast success in comparison to many failed attempts such as the drums and my slow piano progress.

GospelbassLines: So when did you pick up the bass?

Sean Byrd: I didn’t start playing the bass until I was in high school. I had actually even worked on the guitar before the bass. Let’s just say that I was interested in many instruments but I was waiting for the one that would really capture me. I was content with the saxophone. I did well playing it but apparently it wasn’t the instrument that was going to convince me to pursue music as a career because it was just a hobby for me for years.

GospelbassLines: So what lead up to playing the bass?

Sean Byrd: One day while playing at my grandparent’s house with my little cousins, we were looking under a bed upstairs in a guest room or decoration room, as my grandmother would call it, and I found a dusty case and opened it up. It was an old bass guitar that belonged to one of my uncles. He bought it when he was stationed in Germany. He never got around to learning how to play it so he left it at my grandparent’s house. This discovery changed my musical life and not only so but changed my life entirely. I called him while he was stationed in Hawaii and asked him if I could take it home and learn how to play it. He agreed and the rest is history.

GospelbassLines: How did it change your life?

Sean Byrd: I lived and slept with that bass. It consumed countless hours of my day. All I did was practice the bass. It was extremely difficult at first. I couldn’t even play one string without making the other ones ring. I didn’t know how to use my hands to play it at all. I started watching the bass player at my church, Donnie Riles, while I was in the choir pretending to sing. [laughs] I tried every week to memorize what his fingers looked like when he would play. Eventually I started figuring out the notes and started seeing repeated patterns on the fret board. It was a slow but progressive process.

GospelbassLines: What was the pivotal point from the early frustration?

Sean Byrd: One Sunday evening, my grandmother, MeMe is how everyone referred to her, told me to pray and ask God to show me how to play and to anoint me to play. I did just what she said. She was not only my grandmother but she was my pastor.

She would sing songs for me when she came to our house so I could try to hear and follow. The problem I had was that I was used to playing the sax so I would start trying to play the melody. I had to learn how to hear the harmony and chord progression and also hear the rhythms. It was very challenging for me at that time. I was about 14 or 15 years old at the time. I started to practice a lot more and pray even more. About 6 months later I was filling in during church services. I wasn’t doing anything fancy, just getting by, but I was learning a lot real fast. God truly blessed me. I believe it was due to prayer and dedication that he not gifted me because that comes before birth but he anointed me to understand music.

GospelbassLines: Do you have any advice for our readers that will assist them in hearing, the harmony and chord progressions you referred to?

Sean Byrd: Memorizing note relationship is good and it’s not very difficult. If you take a major scale for example, and listen to how all 7 notes (notes 1 and 8 are the same note 1 octave apart) sound in relation to the tonic or root, you will start to memorize intervals. Try this in the key of C. C=1, D=2, E=3 etc. Memorizing common progressions is also good for example, 2- 5-1; 6-2-5-1; 3-6-2-5-1; 7-3-6-2-5-1. If you notice, the distance from each note to the next is what we call in theory, a 4th.

GospelbassLines: I’ve heard a bass player who you’ve influenced say, Learn your pentatonic scales. Once a person learns the pentatonic scales, how does that knowledge transfer to playing gospel/worship music?

Sean Byrd: Understanding the concept of the pentatonic (5 tone) scale gives you a basic foundation for improvising. In a major key, the pentatonic would be 1-2-3-5-6. You will notice that playing the same notes but starting on the 6, will give you the relative minor pentatonic. Ex. C major and A minor.

GospelbassLines: You mentioned Donnie Riles has been influential in your bass playing. Are there any other musicians who influence your style? how?

Sean Byrd: There are too many musicians to name. Everything that produces sound can be and inspiration and stimulate you to try and duplicate it or respond to it through your instrument. Ex. Guitarist can imitate motorcycle sounds and chainsaw sounds with distortion pedals. LOL! I think that’s cool.

GospelbassLines: If you were stranded on a desert Island, and you could only take one song, what would it be and why?

Sean Byrd: I would probably write it on my way to the island. It would go like this I know I’m not about to be stranded on this island I know I’m not about to be stranded on this I just got stranded on an island. LOL! Why I want my last song to be the truth! LOL!

GospelbassLines: Who is in heavy rotation in your CD player right now?

 Sean Byrd: I love praise and worship music. I also like good instrumental music. I really dig XM Radio. I can’t name any specific favorites.

 GospelbassLines: What gear do you own? Basses, Amps, Strings etc.

 Sean Byrd: I am somewhat of a collector. I have a Ken Smith custom bass, a KSD, a Washburn and others. I am currently using 2 4×10 Eden cabs. I have a SWR head. Im using Smith strings on my Smith basses.

 GospelbassLines: What would you consider to be some of the most important technical aspect to playing the bass? Reasons?

 Sean Byrd: Break bad habits early. Practicing with a metronome is good. Proper fingering and finger placement is important. Learning the fret board is also important.

 GospelbassLines: You took theory in college?

 Sean Byrd: When I was in college music theory came easy to me. Learning other instruments made so much sense. I could start to see how they were all related. I thank God and give him all the glory. Yes I would practice for hours and hours but I truly believe that if you pray and believe, God will do more than you ever expected.

 GospelbassLines: What has been most beneficial to your growth as a musician?

 Sean Byrd: Prayer and worship has been the most beneficial factor in my growth to this point. I’ve gotten back to praying and worshiping God more so that I can continue to grow in him. In return, he always increases my understanding of himself and the things he has created, like music.

 GospelbassLines: Do you have any technical factors you can add to that? (to the previous question)

 Sean Byrd: Be persistent in practice. Be disciplined and play with faith. If you believe you are able, you will be.

 GospelbassLines: Also add anything else you would like to see on the interview. Plug your album, any groups you are in… if you wanna talk about people you have played on the same stage with, go right ahead.

 Sean Byrd: Thanks again for doing this.

 Sean is a very talented professional musician, music director, educator, producer and minster of the Gospel. His ability to play multiple instruments is phenominal, yet he remains humble and given to the Lord. You can find out more about Sean Byrd at http://www.myspace.com/seanbyrdmusic

Gospel Bass Lines: Do you play yourself? If so, what has been the most influential aspect of developing your playing style?

Tim Cloonan: I do play, but not bass. I’m a guitar player (uh oh!) but ultimately decided to build basses because there is a huge number of extremely talented bass players in my area and no one around who could really help them out. Guitar techs generally do a very poor job of setting up and properly maintaining basses, so it seemed like a good gap to fill.

As a player, I started at a very early age and ended up getting a degree from Temple University in Jazz Performance for guitar. For me, the most influential aspect of developing my own style was listening to music. Plain and simple. After awhile I outgrew a need to categorize and judge players, I realized everyone had different strengths and weaknesses and I appreciate what the greats bring to the game.

Gospel Bass Lines: Do you have any advise you can offer bass players starting out?

Tim Cloonan: There are two things which stand out to me as being important. The first thing is something a professor in college explained to me: never forget that being a musician is physical. Your fingers will hurt, and your dexterity and coordination will be challenged. Playing music isnﾒt entirely a head game, you need to build a physical tolerance to what ever instrument you play and understand it takes time to build things up. The second thing (perhaps the most important) is that playing music is supposed to be fun!

Gospel Bass Lines: From the inception of CallowHill^TM you decided to design with the Bassist coming out of the Black gospel tradition. You stated on your site, that if this tradition were a town, then you arent even on the same planet. What are some characteristics that define the players coming out of the Black Gospel Tradition, for you?

Tim Cloonan: From my perspective, the principal characteristic (which isn’t exclusive to players coming out of this tradition but is often lacking in players coming from other backgrounds) is aural tradition. In other words, the musicians learn the way any musician should learn, by using their ears. Players who learn other forms, be it Rock, Jazz, Blues, whatever, often get lessons and practice but never really PLAY. Most of the players I know coming out of the Black Gospel bag learned in much the same way, but then had to get their chops busted and think on the fly in front of an audience a couple times a week at a very early age. If you’re in this situation and the organist decides to throw some curve balls, the bass player has to be on their game and adapt. Having played with more bass players form the aforementioned tradition, I’ve tried numerous times to derail them on gigs and sessions just to be a wiseguy and have had very limited success!

Gospel Bass Lines: You spent over ten years repairing basses for players coming out of the Black Gospel genre, what were some of the issues that the players would ask you for assistance in correcting?

Tim Cloonan: The main thing is WEIGHT. As a repair tech there really is never anything I can do about it, but most guys who have to perform for 4+ hours at a time don’t like it when they have a neck-heavy cinder block tied around their neck the whole time. The other issue is getting a full spectrum sound with the controls set flat. Many Gospel players go through a phase where they like to boost the lows and highs and cut all the mids. Eventually, they realize that particular eq curve has no definition to the audience’s ears and straighten the curve. When that happens, the question that comes up is, “What pickups and preamps will provide a great full sound with minimal tweaking, and without background noise?” The other thing is setting the basses up so they play easily without excessive fret buzz.

Gospel Bass Lines: You’ve worked with a very talented array of musicians, in developing your instruments. What’s the most common thing this all-star cast of musicians like about CallowHill^TM basses?

Tim Cloonan: The thing that most players of my instruments tend to like is light weight, no deadspots, versatility, ease of playability, a very thick, raw tonality, and super definition in the low B strings (or Bb in Maurice’s case) The other feature they like is reliability. If the battery dies you just pull up on the passive tone knob and the bass is still going strong, and all of the wiring is executed with solid silver Teflon coated audiophile grade wire so there’s never any risk of a bad solder joint. I guess overall they like that I confronted and solved every complaint they ever had, and improved everything they always loved to begin with.

Gospel Bass Lines: What is meant by “no deadspots”?

Tim Cloonan: Deadspots are areas on the neck (sometimes referred to as wolf-tones) which sound quieter in comparison to other notes . Also, you can have notes which are extremely lively and more sensitive to touch. Session players focus on this and most players prefer instruments with minimal deadspots because itﾒs easier to record.

Gospel Bass Lines: Back to the talented musicians. I have heard up and coming bassist ask, “what does it take to get endorsed, by a Bass company” Being a builder of quality instruments, can you offer any insight as to what you look for in Musicians to work with?

Tim Cloonan: Personally, I can’t stand endorsements. I work extremely long hours, and the components in my instruments are more expensive than many of my competitors so my “profit margin” is tiny. Many of us in the bass building trade joke that we make under $10.00 an hour – but for many of us this is true. My standpoint is that if a player wants an instrument they will endorse it by BUYING it. The musicians who helped me develop my line were picked by me, and they don’t function as endorsers in the traditional sense, but rather they are my R&D department. They request models, we design them together, I build them, and they take them out and test them in multiple environments in an effort to determine if they make the cut. If I’m given a green light, it becomes available to the public as an offering from the company.

In a nutshell, my take on endorsements is that large companies NEED endorsers to lend credibility to poorly constructed mass production instruments so that kids can go the local Guitar Center and purchase said instruments with their parent’s money! I’m not a large company, and have no wish to become one.

Gospel Bass Lines: What aspects led to the selection of your R&D players?

Tim Cloonan: For me, it was about stepping back and asking myself who has a unique voice and who has something to contribute to take things a step further. I looked at their style, touch, and taste in gear and then went from there.

Gospel Bass Lines: Many of the visitors to Gospelbasslines.com, are starting out and looking to identify their sound. I get questions about amps and basses, my response is usually don’t go broke, trying to get gear, you can’t afford. Do you have any advise to assist players who have budget instruments and equipment to help them find good tone with what they have, or in making the decision of what to purchase?

Tim Cloonan: I think most players put way too much emphasis on gear and image. A majority of the players I deal with who play high end basses (regardless of what kind of music they play) want people to “oooh” and “aaah” when they bust their instruments out of the case. Come play time, most of them simply can’t hang. It sounds brutal, but I see it all the time. When a heavy hitter like Derrick Hodge picks up something I do he’s tuned into what makes it good and appreciates all the detail work and care that goes into the construction, but if I were to hand him a $75.00 Walmart special bass he’d make it sound just as good. Players get “brandalized” all the time. They see a player they like using a particular brand, and they develop an odd allegiance to that brand. The players that sound the best will do so on anything because they took the time to develop a touch on their instrument. They understand that differences in pressure on each hand will yield different tonal results, they know how to shape lines dynamically, they know where in front of the bridge to play with their right hand, and they do all these things and more intuitively because they took the time to figure it out. My advice on buying gear is to try stuff out, buy what you like and understand that a $3000.00 bass isn’t necessarily 10x better than a $300.00 one. Develop a touch, learn the strong points and weak points of what you have, and make it work.

Gospel Bass Lines: That’s great insight.

Gospel Bass Lines: For those who want to get the process started of getting a CallowHill ^TMbass, how can they get more information about which style of Bass best fits the needs of the type of Gospel Music they primarily play?

Tim Cloonan: It’s pretty easy, they can email me through the website or just call. I’m not a custom shop in that the models I offer were painstakingly developed and are what they are for a reason. I make what I make, but I do offer a lot of options and I’m happy to discuss ideas with players. If I’m not willing to incorporate certain features or if my pricing isn’t quite right, I’m always happy to recommend other builders for players to check out as well.

You can find Callowhill Guitars online at http://www.callowhill.net.