Bass Playing Skills

Re: Bass Playing Skills

iarwain <iarwain_8@hotmail,com > wrote:
> There was a post on alt.guitar recently. It said basically that
> whenever they got people together to jam, they could always find some
> available guitarist or else someone who couldn't play bass very well,
> and it always worked out. They were very much implying that playing
> bass was easy, and if the bass player wasn't very good it didn't
> really matter.
>
> The reason I bring this up is I know three guitarists who were talking
> about getting together to jam. I said "well, one of you should play
> bass then".
> Here's my feeling: if you have three musicians, I don't think you
> should just take the worst of the three and put them on bass. In
> fact, maybe the best musician should play the bass. It depends on how
> good all of the musicians are. Playing bass well requires you to be
> able to play single note lines proficiently, so you don't want to put
> a guitarist who usually just dunks chords on there.
>
> On the other hand, if you're just happy with the bass playing the root
> of the chord all the way through the songs, maybe you can get by with
> putting the worst musician on bass.

To me, there's a difference between jamming and playing out.

If a bunch of folks are getting together to jam, I *might* take the
worst of the lot and put him on bass and tell him to play roots. It
would really depend on the specifics of the people involved.

For a gig, no way! In that situation, I prefer to play with people who
are multi-instrumentalists; I find that people like that generally have
a better appreciation of how their instrument fits into the overall
picture (yes, even the drummer!).

The most fun I ever had at a gig was with a group that was formed
specifically for a particular occasion. The drummer also played guitar
(primarily acoustic), and the other two guys (including me) were
primarily guitarists at roughly the same level but could play bass as
well. We wound up learning two sets of songs, one set with me on guitar
and one with me on bass. In the process of learning the songs, we
swapped ideas as to what the guitar and bass parts should be, and we
rehearsed all the songs with each of us playing both guitar and bass
parts. Ultimately, we could play all the songs regardless of who played
what instruments, and we decided to break up the set according to what
person was singing (in my case, I could play guitar more easily when
singing on some songs and bass more easily on others). Also, there were
a couple of songs in there for each of us where we had a favorite guitar
lick. We would have gotten the guy on drums to play guitar on some
songs, but neither of us could play drums very well.

The point is, there was never a question of either of us not being able
to play any of the parts properly.

Generally speaking, in a band situation I'd never rank any one
instrument above or below others in terms of difficulty. As
JoeSpareBedroom said, even rhythm guitar isn't intrinsically easier than
the other instruments; there are plenty of songs that challenge that
part as well (though I prefer just one guitar in my own efforts and
generally do a hybrid lead/rhythm thing).

Re: Bass Playing Skills

iarwain <iarwain_8@hotmail,com > wrote:

> There was a post on alt.guitar recently. It said basically that
> whenever they got people together to jam, they could always find some
> available guitarist or else someone who couldn't play bass very well,
> and it always worked out. They were very much implying that playing
> bass was easy, and if the bass player wasn't very good it didn't
> really matter.

Whenever people get together to 'jam' the most important thing is a
congenial atmosphere and plenty of 'beer'.

Things like ability to play any of the instruments, knowing tunes in
common etc. are often secondary.

You can always find someone to bang inexpertly on a drum - if there are
drums without drummers - or plonk on a bass - if there's a a bass and no
bass player - or blow down a horn. It doesn't really matter if they
have little skill - it's a jam!

This isn't to say playing drums is easy, or bass is easy, or any
instrument is inherently easy - just that if people are having fun
jamming people are having fun jamming!!

Of course, if you ask those same people whether other jams where an
actual guitarist played guitar, or an actual bassist played bass or an
actual drummer played drums were *better*, I think they'll agree that
they were.

--- Derek

--
Derek Tearne - derek@url.co.nz
Many Hands - Trans Cultural Music from Aotearoa/New Zealand
http :// www .manyhands.co.nz/

Re: Bass Playing Skills

On May 14, 4:47 pm, iarwain <iarwai...@hotmail,com > wrote:

> On the other hand, if you're just happy with the bass playing the root
> of the chord all the way through the songs, maybe you can get by with
> putting the worst musician on bass.

A lot of new music is mostly playing the root but it is very
percussive, certainly not easy.
The bass player is the least noticed player in a band.
If he does a good job nobody notices him.
A friend asked me to give her bass lessons.
She wanted to play a guitar but she said bass is easier.
My reply was no instrument is easier to play than another.
It all takes hard work, concentration, dedication and time.

Pt

Re: Bass Playing Skills



Pt wrote:

> The bass player is the least noticed player in a band.
> If he does a good job nobody notices him.

That is unless he STOPS playing!

> A friend asked me to give her bass lessons.
> She wanted to play a guitar but she said bass is easier.

Sure. Every drunk knows that drums can be played expertly by anyone
who has consumed enough beers and a bass ain't far behind. All guitar
players know that playing bass is something they can easily do if for
some reason they forgot their guitar.

> My reply was no instrument is easier to play than another.
> It all takes hard work, concentration, dedication and time.

Obviously some instruments are harder to get started on than others
but all are difficult to master. That's because of the way humans are.
You can take the simplest thing like banging on a cowbell and over
time and experience it gets developed into amazing sublety and
complexity because, well, humans tend to be inventive. They will take
things no matter how simple and then start pushing them toward the
limits of what humans can do. Hence in time all instruments grow to
something difficult to master.

Re: Bass Playing Skills

iarwain wrote:
> There was a post on alt.guitar recently. It said basically that
> whenever they got people together to jam, they could always find some
> available guitarist or else someone who couldn't play bass very well,
> and it always worked out. They were very much implying that playing
> bass was easy, and if the bass player wasn't very good it didn't
> really matter.
>
> The reason I bring this up is I know three guitarists who were talking
> about getting together to jam. I said "well, one of you should play
> bass then".
> Here's my feeling: if you have three musicians, I don't think you
> should just take the worst of the three and put them on bass. In
> fact, maybe the best musician should play the bass. It depends on how
> good all of the musicians are. Playing bass well requires you to be
> able to play single note lines proficiently, so you don't want to put
> a guitarist who usually just dunks chords on there.
>
> On the other hand, if you're just happy with the bass playing the root
> of the chord all the way through the songs, maybe you can get by with
> putting the worst musician on bass.

Normally, I would say the one who *Wants* to play bass should play bass,
but I think you need to keep the best guitarist off the instrument.
Unless you like massive overplaying and lead bass in your jam.

Monkey Pi

--

|o| o , o ,' o , |o|
|O| <%'. `' === <\ |O|
(0) / | ( )`-' | / | (0)
p-----MonkeyMonkeyMonkey-----q

Re: Bass Playing Skills

On May 14, 5:47 pm, iarwain <iarwai...@hotmail,com > wrote:
> There was a post on alt.guitar recently.  It said basically that
> whenever they got people together to jam, they could always find some
> available guitarist or else someone who couldn't play bass very well,
> and it always worked out.  They were very much implying that playing
> bass was easy, and if the bass player wasn't very good it didn't
> really matter.
>
> The reason I bring this up is I know three guitarists who were talking
> about getting together to jam.  I said "well, one of you should play
> bass then".
> Here's my feeling:  if you have three musicians, I don't think you
> should just take the worst of the three and put them on bass.  In
> fact, maybe the best musician should play the bass.  It depends on how
> good all of the musicians are.  Playing bass well requires you to be
> able to play single note lines proficiently, so you don't want to put
> a guitarist who usually just dunks chords on there.
>
> On the other hand, if you're just happy with the bass playing the root
> of the chord all the way through the songs, maybe you can get by with
> putting the worst musician on bass.

I've often thought that it takes a little more skill to be a decent
guitar player than it is to be a decent bass player (decent as in
"could hold your own in a bar band"). You have to learn chords to play
guitar. It's a whole 'nother layer that basic rock bassists don't have
to deal with. You also break more strings and have to tune up more
often on guitar, or so I've found. There's also more to buy in the way
of gear for guitarists, don't you think? Many bassists just have a
good bass, a good amp, and a cord. I started on guitar and added bass
two years later, so this is just from my experience. But it takes just
as much or more effort/talent/time to become a GREAT bassist as it
does to become a GREAT guitarist. The bass guitar, in all but a few of
its applications, is limited in what it can play. To be creative,
expressive, or just to be anything more than a drone in the background
filling in certain frequencies, is more difficult on bass, because you
ride the line between rhythm and melody. You have to keep being part
of the rhythm section, while trying to add to the general mood or
effect of the song as well. If you want to do that. Some bassists
don't. Some even think it's wrong.

So if you want to be the canvas for someone else's art, it's easier to
get there on bass than guitar. If you want to be part of the art
yourself, it's just as hard or harder to do it with four thick strings
that don't bend very easily, tuned to frequencies that aren't easy to
hear. It's fascinating to watch how different bassists choose to have
that impact on the song that transcends mere accompaniment. Jack Bruce
and Felix Pappalardi did it with over-the-top tones. Chris Squire does
it with bi-amping and playing that was almost as complex as the guitar
lines. Billy Sheehan does it with tapping and speed solos and a band
based around it (and went too far, in my opinion--there's no bottom to
his tone). Bill Wyman and Phil Lesh are more like "stealth" bassists,
playing way more than they seem to be on first listen. That's REALLY
hard. John Paul Jones mixed (and sometimes doubled) his bass lines
with left-hand organ, with eerie results.

It's easier to learn a walking bass line than it is to learn how to
play the intro to Johnny B Goode. But is that all you want to do?