Playing bass is "like a vacation"?!?!

PaulMacCnj · #1 03-29-2007, 10:37 PM

This evening I attended a local middle school play. My niece was in the show and it was a lot of fun. There was a band playing along and it included someone playing electric bass guitar. During the Intermission, I walked up front and striked up a conversation with the bassist. After I complimented the guy on his playing and tone, he went on to say that he normally plays "treble" instruments and he just started playing bass. Then he says, "Playing bass is so easy! It's like being on vacation compared to other instruments!"

"Oh, brother!", I thought and really lost a lot of respect for the guy. The conversation ended promptly.

Any simular stories from other TB'ers?

Paul Mac

Grueber · #2 03-29-2007, 10:40 PM

was he in middle school or older?

PaulMacCnj · #3 03-29-2007, 10:44 PM

He is the music teacher for the middle school. Probably in his 50's.

Paul Mac

Grueber · #4 03-29-2007, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulMacCnj

He is the music teacher for the middle school. Probably in his 50's.

Paul Mac

that's no good then, he gonna be teaching the kids "bass is the one that plays a whole note every measure"

JimmyM · #5 03-30-2007, 12:10 AM

Maybe it's easy for him. Some people consider it easier than other instruments. My feeling is that it may start out being easier than other instruments, but gets harder the more you get involved with it.

Otso · #6 03-30-2007, 04:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Maybe it's easy for him. Some people consider it easier than other instruments. My feeling is that it may start out being easier than other instruments, but gets harder the more you get involved with it.

+1 I also play the violin, in the beginning it absolutely sucks. It's really difficult, but once you start to get your intonation and bowing a bit under control, it no longer seems that difficult. On the electric bass, when I started (not that long ago though) I could pick it up and play some simple tunes, even though my technique sucked. If I hadn't paid attention to my technique it would still suck as much as then and my (still very undeveloped) playing would be severely limited to just really simple basslines. All instruments take practice to really play well. The piano is a good example, anyone can play a simple tune on it, yet to really be able to play the piano, it takes years of practice. Many people relate electric bass to only playing two or three notes during a song. There's so much more to it, and I don't mean tapping and all that, but just playing good grooves fingerstyle, developing phrasing, everything. It might seem easy in the beginning, but then you'll discover that there's so much more to electric bass. When I started electric bass, I had a bit of the "on a vacation frome the violin" attitude, but then I realized that there's a lot more to electric bass than I was aware of... Now I'm hooked.

kobass · #7 03-30-2007, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulMacCnj

He is the music teacher for the middle school. Probably in his 50's.

Paul Mac

You should have kicked his @#$!

dTune · #8 03-30-2007, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Maybe it's easy for him. Some people consider it easier than other instruments. My feeling is that it may start out being easier than other instruments, but gets harder the more you get involved with it.

It's probably the people who have played a lot of other instruments that think bass is easy. They've already got the time in their heads, so it makes it easier. But then again, bass can be played "easy", and it will work, or it can be played the "hard" way, and for that to work, it will require more than taking a vacation from some other instrument.

**Rune Bivrin** · #9 03-30-2007, 07:22 AM

I think every instrument is exactly equally difficult. Whatever instrument, there will always a playing level that is your current limit. Simpler stuff is easy, trickier stuff is almost impossible.

Doesn't matter if it's bass, guitar, trumpet or kazoo.

However, some instruments will seem easier simply because those who play them are less often asked to perform at virtuoso level. And bass is among those instruments.

Beyond that, the comparison is stupid. Would anyone argue that Jaco was a lesser musician than Charlie Parker? Or Yngwie Malmsteen? Or Niccolò Paganini? For me, all of them perform(ed) at levels far beyond my reach, and so for me those are all hard instruments.

Dr. Cheese · #10 03-30-2007, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rune Bivrin

I think every instrument is exactly equally difficult. Whatever instrument, there will always a playing level that is your current limit. Simpler stuff is easy, trickier stuff is almost impossible.

Doesn't matter if it's bass, guitar, trumpet or kazoo.

However, some instruments will seem easier simply because those who play them are less often asked to perform at virtuoso level. And bass is among those instruments.

Beyond that, the comparison is stupid. Would anyone argue that Jaco was a lesser musician than Charlie Parker? Or Yngwie Malmsteen? Or Niccolò Paganini? For me, all of them perform(ed) at levels far beyond my reach, and so for me those are all hard instruments.

+1,000,000!!! That nails it right on the head!

SBassman · #11 03-30-2007, 11:01 AM

There's a word for a *teacher* like that, but I can't utter it here.

Matt Till · #12 03-30-2007, 11:42 AM

Question: Has anyone ever had a good high school music teacher, ever? I doubt it.

WHY WHY WHY do you guys get so worked up when someone bashes the bass? If I got mad everytime I heard someone say something stupid, my life would be an endless pile of rage.

Christopher · #13 03-30-2007, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otso

All instruments take practice to really play well. The piano is a good example, anyone can play a simple tune on it, yet to really be able to play the piano, it takes years of practice. Many people relate electric bass to only playing two or three notes during a song. There's so much more to it, and I don't mean tapping and all that, but just playing good grooves fingerstyle, developing phrasing, everything. It might seem easy in the beginning, but then you'll discover that there's so much more to electric bass.

+1. Anyone who thinks any musical instrument is easy, or easier than others, is simply a lazy musician.

James Hart · #14 03-30-2007, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Question: Has anyone ever had a good high school music teacher, ever? I doubt it.

I did.... Actually my grade school (I went to a K-8 school then HS) and High School music teachers were pretty good Jazz musicians. I learned quite a bit from each.

cowsgomoo · #15 03-30-2007, 12:09 PM

well I found bass to easier to get something that sounded like music out of than any other instrument... that's why I decided to play bass... and playing bass always felt like 'a vacation' and very easy & natural and fun and fitted me like a glove right from the beginning...

that's not denigrating or disrespecting the instrument (I love and respect the instrument, and its role), just I relate to it in a similar way to the guy the OP was complaining about

chris_nairn · #16 03-30-2007, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Question: Has anyone ever had a good high school music teacher, ever? I doubt it.

My music theory teacher in high school was awsome. He was a very good musician and he was a very good teacher.

FoHBass · #17 03-30-2007, 02:35 PM

My younger brother had a good band teacher in HS, but he didn't start teaching there until the year after I graduated. The guy I had sucked, and had a general dislike for the string instruments, often continuing to tell the 1st guitar (the best guitarist in the school) to turn down until his volume was all the way down. It got to where whenever this started to happen, the guitarist would cut the amp off and sit there with a guitar magazine over his charts and read. To the teacher, that was the perfect volume for the guitar. Same with bass. His take on bass in a jazz band was, "There are 12 people in this ensemble. Everyone in the band contributes 1/12. Except the bass. You're only worth 1/24."

I guess I was lucky the choir teacher (bassist for his Southern gospel church) taught me how to play. I learned to play with soul very early on.

JimmyM · #18 03-30-2007, 02:44 PM

I would have immediately walked out, dropped his class, and badmouthed him to anyone who would listen.

SBassman · #19 03-30-2007, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Till

WHY WHY WHY do you guys get so worked up when someone bashes the bass?

Some of us are goinng crazy about, just noting the stupidity.

Also, it sounds double stoopid when it comes from people like:

- Teachers
- Bass players on TB

When we had this in a recent thread, and we had TBers going along with it, it was just too stoopid.

funkalicious101 · #20 03-30-2007, 03:47 PM

i hear that from time to time aswell.

i just tell them they arent playing it right