Have other insturments hurt your technique?

bassman1185 · #1 02-13-2001, 03:01 PM

Have other instuments hurt your technique? I'm pretty sure that playing piano has hurt mine. I have a tendancy to push the strings down, instead of plucking them up. This is more evident when I'm playing really fast stuff, like punk.

Christopher · #2 02-13-2001, 06:07 PM

No. In fact, I attribute my injury-free existence to my habit of rotating through instruments. I don't play one thing long enough for it to hurt.

lowtones · #3 02-13-2001, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bassman1185
Have other instuments hurt your technique? I'm pretty sure that playing piano has hurt mine. I have a tendancy to push the strings down, instead of plucking them up. This is more evident when I'm playing really fast stuff, like punk.

That's weird. I played piano for 7 years before playing the bass and it's helped me SO much. All the theory and rhythm and stuff like that.

Dragonlord · #4 02-13-2001, 10:55 PM

Actually,bass is my first instrument (I don't think that messing around with the piano for a year in the tender age of 6 counts!) but I have a friend who used to play piano and now plays guitar,and he always tells me that there are some parts that other guitarists of his level can't play,but he can because of the strength of his fingers,from all these years of piano playing...and it sounds more logical to me.

NJXT · #5 02-14-2001, 03:15 AM

When I've playd too much guitar ( about 10 minutes

), I found the synchro between right and left hand a bit lost on bass.
Weird.

Marty Forrer · #6 02-14-2001, 03:29 AM

Playing upright is a real plus for playing electric. It strengthens your left hand and increases fluidity.

~Loxley~ · #7 02-15-2001, 09:51 AM

I play guitar, bass, drumz and some piano and I've got to say that none of them effect my playing on any of the others.

I don't know why...

~Lox~

Boplicity · #8 02-15-2001, 10:45 AM

My bass teacher left his double bass with me for safe keeping while he traveled a month. He gave me a few orientation classes before he left. I loved playing that bass. But best of all, I found it made my fingers so much stronger when I played my electric. (That is, after I recovered from the MONSTER blister I got from plucking the strings. Ouch!)

Ten years later and in another country now, I could positively KICK myself for not buying a double bass and going into that seriously. There I was with all the golden opportunity to have classes with him as he was the first chair double bassist in the state symphony orchestra. What a missed opportunity!

If I could cross train in a completely different instrument, ever since I was a little girl, I have loved the harp. (Not harmonica...I mean the symphonic instrument...what angels play.) My bass teacher tells me it is very difficult to play, but also that harpists are in great demand because there are so few of them. Another thing, harps are extremely expensive. Guess I'll live this life without ever playing a harp. Sigh!

jason oldsted

**rickbass** · #9 02-15-2001, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JasonOldsted
...but also that harpists are in great demand because there are so few of them. Another thing, harps are extremely expensive. Guess I'll live this life without ever playing a harp. Sigh!
jason oldsted

I don't know what your definition of "expensive" is Jason, but one of my Elderly Instruments catalogs has a 4', 34 string folk harp, "a good beginner instrument for the aspiring concert harpist" for $2200. They also have 31" tall, 25 string job for $675. So, you're still in "electric bass w/o amp land," price wise.

If you took up harp and kept up with bass, you'd REALLY be busy. I saw a guy over at another board yesterday who lives in S. Cal. and he said all he has to do is scream, "Bassist!," and people come flocking from all over to make offers. I was just offered some studio work doing CAR ADS

just because a guy walking past a music store looked in the window and saw me trying out a bass. He said they've been having a dickens of a time simply finding a bassist.

Oh, and the original question about technique - Playing piano helped and hurt my technique. It hurt, in the sense that with the piano, the attack on notes is pretty much predicated for you, compared to bass, as well as the accuracy of your notes (i.e. you can be on the correct fret and still hit a sour note). But it helped to give a graphic picture, mentally, of how chords are constructed and how the bass and melody relate to each other. For instance, "seeing" that a descending bass line can add drama to an ascending melody line.

phil_chew · #10 02-15-2001, 07:35 PM

I do find that playing the bass guitar has hurt my guitar playing. I now find the fret spaces too small and the strings too close together.

BigWig Will · #11 02-15-2001, 10:48 PM

Playing guitar is weird, I'm not used to the teeny weeny neck and the tiny strings so close together. It hasn't affected my bass playing in anyway, though I think it may have affected my guitar playing....but that sucked to begin with so.....

Paolo · #12 02-16-2001, 07:01 AM

Hi

I've play the trumper for 4 years then i've tried the bass. Now is 8 years that I play the bass.

Paolo

CS · #13 02-16-2001, 07:29 AM

I find that I need 5-10 mins warm up on any of my instruments. I still need to do this going from 10's to 13's on a guitar or 4 to 5 on bass. Because of this I rarely use two basses at a gig.

bassman1185 · #14 02-16-2001, 02:53 PM

Playing piano helped me immensly with all the theory. Just knowing the notes and being able to read music made it possible to actually play stuff in just a little while. it's the right hand stuff that screws me up.

SnoMan · #15 02-16-2001, 03:10 PM

I started playing tuba before bass. It taught me how to read music so that is really great. and thats about it

Shawn

**Blackbird** · #16 02-16-2001, 11:18 PM

Nope. I learned chords by playing guitar. If anything, it helped me.

Will C.

virtual.ray · #17 02-17-2001, 11:18 PM

I definetely notice a difference when I pick up an electric guitar after playing bass for an hour or so.My hands feel a lot stronger.

Paolo · #18 02-18-2001, 05:34 PM

My Friends Luchano play a lot of instruments (sax, trombone, piano, ...) but he play very bad. I think is better play 1 instrument than a lot.

Jay · #19 02-18-2001, 05:45 PM

Playing a rotary valved tuba has helped my plucking fingers because them damn keys are so hard to push down that when I go to bass, I have enormous strength, speed, and agility in my right fingers. Plus the fact that reading tuba music helped me later to read bass music really amounts to the tuba helping me out.