These "bass easier than guitar" questions...

Suckbird · #1 03-24-2006, 06:57 AM

There have been a few threads about this subject, i know...

Anyway, as there's no limitation on how good you can become on a instrument then the only way you could possibly compare the instruments is how difficult they are to play...

So i guess the answer should be, bass is harder than guitar simply because it's harder to play...

now somebody might say that guitar is harder because you do chords and stuff... play the same chords on a bass and see what's easier... how comes nobody shreds like michael angelo, is michael angelo more skilled than any bass player on this earth... maybe he is but he cant play the same stuff that he plays on a guitar on a bass, even if he would've practiced on a bass then he wouldn't be able too...

in most cases bass players doesn't need to be as skilled as the guitar player, if you start out playing in a AC/DC coverband then you might think that you really dont need to shred like billy sheehan to be a good bass player(which is true) so they naturally dont practice much at all... while the guitar player wants to become yngwie malmsteen and sits at home playing countless of hours each day...

Double bass is harder than the electric bass, and this doesn't mean that what a newbie on a double bass plays is harder than what billy sheehan plays on the electric...

the fact that the average guitarist is more skilled than the average bassist or the fact that a lot of successful bassplayers didn't do anything else than the root note does not make the instrument easier... it's as hard as you make it... and as i said before, there's no limitation on how good you can get so therefore i dont think anyone could possibly master any instrument...

If you would take a guitar player and a bass player and make a disciplined 8hours a day routine and make them follow it and then wait for like 5years... the guitarist would be able to do alot of stuff the bassists can't but that doesn't make the guitarist more skilled than the bass player...

just my thought, pretty pointless though...

DumbChild · #2 03-24-2006, 07:07 AM

not pointless mate. Some good views on things there. I agree with u on most things. The debate of wether guitar is harder or better to learn then bass will go on forever nevertheless. I belive its personal prefrence over anything else. I love the bass, i dont care if i sit there fretting one note, i love doing it!

Crazyeelboy · #3 03-24-2006, 07:16 AM

Guitar/Bass : Apples/Oranges. Neither is harder nor easier than the other - they do different things and fit different purposes.

mothmonsterman · #4 03-24-2006, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazyeelboy

Guitar/Bass : Apples/Oranges. Neither is harder nor easier than the other - they do different things and fit different purposes.

just to add drims=bannanas

BassChuck · #5 03-24-2006, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazyeelboy

Guitar/Bass : Apples/Oranges. Neither is harder nor easier than the other - they do different things and fit different purposes.

+1

I'm proud to be a BG player. I take as much pride in comments like: "you're really in the pocket", "nice groove" as the guitar player does for 'nice solo'. Thats where the work shows off.

My only complaint/wish is that there be more literature for solo BG. And... having said that, my complements to Ed Friedland and Mike Dimin for the books they've done.

Skel · #6 03-24-2006, 08:12 AM

Oh, I saw a thread a few days back where the guy says something like "Go ahead and kid yourself if you want, but guitar is harder, etc". No way. If you take the same person, with the same musical ability, and they decide to choose bass or guitar, it will be exactly equal in difficulty. Neither one will be "harder". And you have to realize - the natural born musician doesn't look at things in terms of "hard" - they look at things in terms of "how good does that sound?", or "what needs to happen for this to sound good?" - no matter what the instrument. I also think a good musician is not afraid to love the way they sound or play - why not, they've worked at it so hard - they deserve it and appreciate it.

narcopolo · #7 03-24-2006, 12:27 PM

i view it like this - a band can have a very sloppy guitarist and still be good.
that can't happen with a bass player.

Lowner · #8 03-25-2006, 09:47 AM

I just posted my experience in that other thread that is going but I will answer this one too.

I think that whether bass or guitar is easier will be based off of your own experinces. there really is no simple yes or or answer to this question. For me it is easier to play bass. I went into more detail in th other thread as to why.

Schwaa · #9 03-25-2006, 10:22 AM

Yeah, I hear this alot too where lifetime skiers say its way easier to learn to snowboard.

They're completely different, and if you grew up on skis you already know snow conditions, ect...

But the are alot of 'scrapers' out there too, that's easy. Anyone can jump on a snowboard and 'slide' down the mountian, laughably they think they are snowboarding. But to be really good you have to carve, get up on the edge and ride a rail, and there is deffinately a smaller number of people who ride this way than those who slide.

Same is true for bass and guitar. Alot of people can play a root note. Alot of people can play chords. But can you really play?
That's the hard part of anything, becoming profiecient at what you are doing regardless of what it is. It takes practice, desire, ect...

WalterBush · #10 03-25-2006, 10:42 AM

I think that a musician who wants to evolve is constantly pushing themselves, both on their chosen instrument, and in how they compose music, whether songs or individual parts.

By this standard, music never stops being "hard", whether you play guitar, bass, bassoon, piano, recorder, pennywhistle, sing, whatever.

By the same token, if you like the way you play, and don't ever want to change, then your instrument is going to be easy to play, regardless of what that instrument is, because it doesn't take much work to stay where you are.

lemur821 · #11 03-25-2006, 01:06 PM

The thing we have to keep in mind is that there's no good reason to compare the instruments to decide which is more anything. The only thing that matters is the sound they make. Any other comparison is just a pointless contest.

FaithNoMan · #12 03-25-2006, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemur821

The thing we have to keep in mind is that there's no good reason to compare the instruments to decide which is more anything. The only thing that matters is the sound they make. Any other comparison is just a pointless contest.

+1

duo8675309 · #13 03-26-2006, 08:09 AM

Ok, whats with people trying to justify bass being harder by saying to pick up a bass and play chords on it. Thats like saying to pick up a baseball bat and play tennis with it. Can it be done? Sure! Is it practical? No. They are two completely different things that serve completely different purposes. Sure, they have a few things in common, but playing baseball is completely different than playing tennis.

***and just so no one gets confused, by chords i mean playing actual chords (3 notes at a time) for the whole song. Not playing two notes at a time here and there, which is perfectly fine and pretty fun.

Turock · #14 03-26-2006, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skel

If you take the same person, with the same musical ability, and they decide to choose bass or guitar, it will be exactly equal in difficulty. Neither one will be "harder".

So, you believe that an electric bass is "exactly equal in difficulty" as a double bass?

morf · #15 03-26-2006, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turock

So, you believe that an electric bass is "exactly equal in difficulty" as a double bass?

If you play the exact same line on it, of course.

Turock · #16 03-26-2006, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morf

If you play the exact same line on it, of course.

Evidently you have never played double bass.

full_bleed · #17 03-26-2006, 10:01 AM

I'm not going to be liked for this statement but... I personally think guitar is harder than bass. Not so much in the technical sense as in the writing aspect. We bassist don't have nearly as much focus on us as guitar players do. I know alot of bassists that if asked couldn't come up with a good guitar riff let alone a whole song. I do however no many guitarists that are able to write all the guitar parts as well as a baseline that differs from root notes. It seems to me that your average guitar players are generally better at songwriting than even your slightly above average bassist. Go ahead now. Stone me

morf · #18 03-26-2006, 10:01 AM

Actually, I happen to have tried one. If you play the same line on the same strings, and have as much experience on bass than on double bass, you'll play it just the same.

thefruitfarmer · #19 03-26-2006, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morf

Actually, I happen to have tried one. If you play the same line on the same strings, and have as much experience on bass than on double bass, you'll play it just the same.

Bet it takes beginner longer to get a decent sound from a DB than a BG though....

I mean, without the frets it has to be more practice.

I could get a nice enough sound out of a bass guitar pretty much as soon as I picked one up but the DB requires a specific technique.

Schwaa · #20 03-26-2006, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duo8675309

Ok, whats with people trying to justify bass being harder by saying to pick up a bass and play chords on it. Thats like saying to pick up a baseball bat and play tennis with it. Can it be done? Sure! Is it practical? No. They are two completely different things that serve completely different purposes. Sure, they have a few things in common, but playing baseball is completely different than playing tennis.

***and just so no one gets confused, by chords i mean playing actual chords (3 notes at a time) for the whole song. Not playing two notes at a time here and there, which is perfectly fine and pretty fun.

I read an interview with Stu Hamm over 10 years ago that encourage playing chords.