"Girl Bass Player Club" here!

[Tricia]

Originally Posted by Gibenbackerbass

Not sure if you ever heard of her and her two-piece band. Amazing - love it!

Give a listen....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAhQ2F56Gn0

Awesome!!

[Euphony]

I really wonder why guys always post in threads for female bass players on this site?

My bass is a red Ibanez Soundgear. No pictures at the moment.

I think it is important for female bassists to speak up, because otherwise everyone will assume we're guys online. We have to represent ourselves, but that doesn't mean being female has to be the focus of everything we post about.

(... and IMO, people who complain about "political correctness" just want an excuse to continue to post things that offend others.)

[lady_bassist]

Originally Posted by Jazzerbone

Awesome thread!

I'm not a girl, and I'll stay out of the way after this, but I play Yamaha TRBJP (6 string) and its pretty heavy. I was having major shoulder problems with this thing (pinched nerves and what not) until I got the 4 inch wide leather strap they sell on this website. A little expensive but has been worth every penny for me. Now I can do several hour long gigs standing.

Rock on girls!

You're right about the strap thing. I have a very wide, leather padded strap and it does help. But the TRBs are pretty heavy beasts, and they are not balanced ideally IMO...you have to keep holding the neck up because it weighs down your arm. I'm thinking of a way to balance the bass. I'll let you know what technical invention I come up with
I am pretty new to TalkBass, I haven't posted much, but I'm glad to see some women players here and be part of this thread.

[JAGGL3S]

Anddddddddddddddddd immaa bout to find me a wife

[rosanne]

My two favorite basses are both G&L's. The L2000 is under 9 lb.s, the L1000 is about 9.5. The heavier one is my very favorite, but I find myself playing the L2000 more often because of the weight. I use a padded leather strap to ease the burden on my shoulder.

L2000 is black burst, black headstock, ebony fingerboard. L1000 is black, maple headstock, rosewood finger board. Sorry no pics. Too poor to own a digital camera or a cell phone that takes pix. (But not too poor to have good gear!)

[Tricia]

Originally Posted by cheezewiz

Welcome Tricia. I must point out however, you have the same first name as my ex wife. Please change it. Immediately.

lol! You can call me something else. I like nicknames.

[Tricia]

Originally Posted by lowendfriend

Try the Planet Wave Dare Strap (Dare is the guy who patented it).

Available on Amazon. Works great! I'm 59 and have a Warwick Corvette $$ 5-er that is around 9.5 lbs. On a single strap I got everything from pain to numb. Dare strap lets me play over an hour and a half without any issues.

Thanks! I'll check that out!

[Tricia]

Originally Posted by Euphony

I really wonder why guys always post in threads for female bass players on this site?

Well, if people are polite, it will be fine. I should start a new thread called "A place for men to comment on the girl bass player club" . LOL!

I'm glad women can find each other. This site is huge!

I've been checking if someone is male or female before replying.

We can also start more threads if this gets too long.
Sounds silly, but I'll want to ask a bunch of girl questions eventually, like band names, stage clothes, makeup, ...you know, silly girl stuff.
We might as well have fun! Lord knows the men here are!!!

[TobyBass55]

Hi all, I'm also a female bass player.........guess I'm too old to think of myself as a girl though (lol) ........ and probably too new at the bass to consider myself a bass player either (6months) for that matter!

Originally Posted by Tricia

well I'm looking forward to hear what we girls have in common. I bet we share similar issues, like small hands, weak pinky fingers, etc.
Today I've got sore fingertips from playing hard at rehearsal.

Anyway I also look forward to to hearing from some of the other ladies here. And Tricia, I definitely related to your comment about small hands/weak pinky fingers. Whenever I have to use my pinky finger on the E string I'm thinking, "That string is practically as wide as my finger..... this is never going to work!" Realistically, my pinky is double the size of the string........but still!!

Thanks for starting up the thread.

Katie

[Tricia]

Originally Posted by TobyBass55

Hi all, I'm also a female bass player.........guess I'm too old to think of myself as a girl though (lol) ........ and probably too new at the bass to consider myself a bass player either (6months) for that matter!



Anyway I also look forward to to hearing from some of the other ladies here. And Tricia, I definitely related to your comment about small hands/weak pinky fingers. Whenever I have to use my pinky finger on the E string I'm thinking, "That string is practically as wide as my finger..... this is never going to work!" Realistically, my pinky is double the size of the string........but still!!

Thanks for starting up the thread.

Katie

Welcome Katie! are you older than me? I'm 44. I think we're always girls!

Our bodies age, but our minds don't seem to. and I'm new to bass too! 5 months for me!
We can do it! We will be able to share stories of our progress!
congrats! and post anything, pictures, video links, etc.

[Rebecca]

Originally Posted by Tricia

Sounds silly, but I'll want to ask a bunch of girl questions eventually, like band names, stage clothes, makeup, ...you know, silly girl stuff.
We might as well have fun! Lord knows the men here are!!!

Not silly - as you've seen, there's tons of threads talking about all of those topics, only, since the population here is largely male, that's the perspective you get. I looked through several pages of huge thread on "what's your stage look", to get ideas. It was fun thread to read, but since I didn't see a single post by a woman, not much there to glean inspiration from other than the universally applicable jeans and t-shirt.

I've seen other threads here starting "female bass players' clubs", but they don't seem to stay active enough to be obvious. Doesn't hurt to try again, though. There's clubs for just about everything else related to playing.

Though it is noticeable (to me, anyway) that men do jump into these threads, more than, for example, non-Warwick players jumping into the 'wick club thread just to give a thumbs up. Not a big deal, but it still surprises me how gender is note-worthy in rock-related music in a way it never was in classical-related music (back when I did that). I'm sure it's mostly because of the number imbalance, but that also surprises me. Maybe it's just my own cluelessness and age bias, but I've grown up to think of rock (and related genres) as being somewhat progressive or revolutionary, and yet, there are some aspects that seem quite behind the curve. For example, I often hear very nice and encouraging comments about lady bass players that I heard 25 years ago about lady computer programmers. Nice and encouraging and well-meant from people who are nice and obviously welcoming a change, but still it sounds very antiquated - like this little corner of the world is in some time-warp that the rest of the world has long since passed. I have no beef against the comments or commentors, it's just an interesting signpost.

In any case, can't hurt to represent.

[Euphony]

Originally Posted by Tricia

Sounds silly, but I'll want to ask a bunch of girl questions eventually, like band names, stage clothes, makeup, ...you know, silly girl stuff.
We might as well have fun! Lord knows the men here are!!!

Stage presence is important for any musician, guy or gal

Personally, I like Tal Wilkenfeld's style. Just simplicity, letting the playing speak for itself. And she's about my age. I dig the cute T-shirts and jeans look.

But I can see why other girls/ladies would want to dress up a bit. I'm a long time away from being good enough to play in a band, but I think my style would depend on the type of music the band plays. I'm not really the type to dress very fancy or show off a lot of skin. If I'm with an alternative indie band, then I might wear a skirt or vintage-inspired clothing that I've been getting into. And cute headbands (my hair is a lot like Zooey Deschanel's in 500 Days of Summer). In a rock band I might dress a little differently. I have to say that I really envy Melissa Auf der Maur's hair. Curly red hair is gorgeous.

Maybe we can post some fashion pics that inspire us?

I like stylish and comfortable without being too revealing or overly "sexy."

Tal, simple and sweet:



I think this is the bassist from the Subways. More of a cute indie alternative look. And I love her hair.





I'm not sure who she is, but butch is cool:



Emma Anzai and a rock look:





Paz, more folk-rock pretty:

[TobyBass55]

Originally Posted by Tricia

Welcome Katie! are you older than me? I'm 44. I think we're always girls!

Our bodies age, but our minds don't seem to.

Thanks Tricia, I'm only about 10 years older than you. The 55 in my screenname refers to my YOB (although this year it happens to be my age too!) And 'being one of the girls" is a good thing. Just haven't thought of myself that way in a while!

I'm looking forward to sharing stories of my progress with the others too.
One thing I have been working on is taking a song and figuring out a bassline for it. (keep in mind I'm very much a beginner) I have a song book with the melody written out with the lyrics and the chord progression. So I was just trying to play roots singing along to it. Then I figured I'd get a recording of the song and try playing along to that. Well........ turns out the song is really in a different key, but it was a very useful learning excerize transposing it especially since the key it is actually in was pretty strange (C sharp minor). Yeah, I should just have to shift frets, but a different fingering turns out to have worked better. Also, I haven't really had to think about minor keys that much until I thought through this. So it turned out to be useful for me.
Katie

[Tricia]

YES! Ladies, this is what I'm talkin' about! Awesome ideas! I love the pictures! Hairdos and fashion ideas are always good!

Katie! 55? Still a baby!

sounds like you are a songwriter?

I will start out telling my music story, and you girls can tell your too.

I'm 44. I sang in the shower most of my life, sang a few times for my church (when I used to go).

I started writing songs 2 yrs ago on piano and guitar. (very rough chord playing).


I started a girl band 3 months ago to get my songs out. I played bass out of necessity, and because I had a borrowed one lying around. I take youtube lessons.

I love the bass! Our band does all original rock.

Our first songs have the simplest bass lines, but now I'm getting creative.

I am willing to try things, and I am not awesome on bass, but it's a blast.


I routinely record my newest bass lines with a webcam. We can share videos here too. Maybe get advice from each other.

Keep on posting ladies!

Time to grab the bass now..... work is done for today!

[LarkinLondon]

Originally Posted by Euphony

Stage presence is important for any

Can I get her number?
Anyone?

[Daveomd]

Originally Posted by LarkinLondon

Can I get her number?
Anyone?

867-5309

[QuelOround]

I'll join... I also experience the typical problems... small hands heavy bass. This new Wide strap helps alot though and with stretching my fingers don't have the reach my male counterparts do but its not as hard as it used to be.

[Euphony]

Originally Posted by QuelOround

I'll join... I also experience the typical problems... small hands heavy bass. This new Wide strap helps alot though and with stretching my fingers don't have the reach my male counterparts do but its not as hard as it used to be.

I also have very small hands and a 34 scale bass. A wider strap really helps?

[Euphony]

Originally Posted by LarkinLondon

Can I get her number?
Anyone?

Well, she's with the Sick Puppies. And yes, she is very cute.

[Tricia]

Originally Posted by QuelOround

I'll join... I also experience the typical problems... small hands heavy bass. This new Wide strap helps alot though and with stretching my fingers don't have the reach my male counterparts do but its not as hard as it used to be.

Good to meet you, and cool photo!