bass and babies

[bolophonic]

My wife and I just had our first baby last night. We are thrilled, of course. One of the things I have been doing as the due date approached has been to start building a less aggressive sounding bass than my current Precisions, in order to have something to practice with while simultaneously soothing my new son with some musical entertainment. I have dozens of musicians as friends, many of whom are raising children within their musical environment. None of them seem to be bass players, though.

So I wonder if anyone on TB has set out specifically to use their basses to entertain their children and to comment on how that went over. Music has played a giant role in my life and I am excited to expose my son to every type of music possible as he grows up. My next-door neighbor told me that when his son was a baby, the only thing that guaranteed to stop him from fussing was to play an acoustic guitar for him and to prop his feet up onto the body while he played. I love that idea!

[Ayce]

Congratulations on the new arrival.
My 2 yo likes to play with the volume control on my loaner while I'm trying to practice, and my 6 yo likes to hit the strings.
When our first was born, I tried to soothe her with some quiet playing, nothing specific, just noddling around. She just looked amazed and was quite while I played. Didn't like it when I stopped, though, unless she went to sleep.

[()smoke()]

congratulations! I played my fretless a lot when our oldest boy was in his mother's belly, and toward the end of the pregnancy, he would respond very strongly to the sound with movement. other music didn't get the same level of response as bass

both our boys love to come dance, bang on the strings, and twist the knobs of my gear when I play--and I let them, it's a time when I'm happiest...my bass is even named after our oldest son, because he named my last bass himself during a very trying time with a severe illness and the name holds a lot of meaning to me

[bassmonkeee]

Congrats on the new son! When my son arrived in January, I sent off one of my Bongos to have it refinished in Daphne blue (had he been a girl it would have been done in coral pink ). I also had his name and birth date put on the back of the headstock.





He really likes to sit on my lap while I play. And, now that he is standing, he'll go up and smack the bass when it's on a stand (while Daddy holds the bass securely). And, he'll bounce when I play or bang wooden toys together, too. The iPad has been great for him to make some music, too.


Of course, he also thinks the bass tastes delicious.

[Jazz Ad]

Just like cats, babies seem to enjoy bass and hate guitar.
These low frequencies must be comforting.

[Fassa Albrecht]

^^that picture of the baby eating the bass is amazing. So cute!

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by Fassa Albrecht

^^that picture of the baby eating the bass is amazing. So cute!

+1 Probably the cutest bass + baby pic Ive ever seen!

[Jazz Ad]

Can I play cute baby bass pic?


Jazz jr was a few week old on this pic. He's now going on 12.

[Fassa Albrecht]

Awwwwwwwwwww!

[Swampman Cory]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

+1 Probably the cutest bass + baby pic Ive ever seen!

Now we're on +2. That is the cutest picture.

[canadian_man_44]

Jazz Jr. Awesome baby name. I wonder if my wife will let me name our next child Precision? Worth a try I guess. LOL

[bassplayerbob]

Here's my little girl at 6 months, on Fathers Day. My wife did these:


Then at 9 months:


and at 4 yrs old with her own bass!!
Fathers Day 2011

[nickrs540]

I thought this was going to be a thread about babies playing bass.........This is far less entertaining.

[Papa Dangerous]

This is way I want a child!

[bassman314]

This makes me excited for the future :-)

I'm engaged (11 months to go!)

Great pics, folks!

[natw42]

Love the bass and baby pics! My son is 1.5 yrs old now and one of his favorite activity is detuning my bass and playing with my fx pedals' knobs while I'm playing. In fact, he gets cranky if I don't have the tuners within his reach. A tad distracting, but awful cute.

He has some pretty good slapping chops (read: smacks the strings with reckless abandon) and loves banging on my keyboards as well.

Don't have a bass/baby pic handy but this one is him helping me play g****r when he was about 6-7 months.

edit: should probably post something relevant to the OP instead of just braggin on my kid I don't think you have to worry about the tone of your bass so much as the volume you are playing at. When my son was born I would play chordal/tapped arrangements of lullabies. Great way to work on your chops and listening skills and as a bonus hopefully it will put your baby to sleep. Good luck and enjoy!

[pacojas]

Originally Posted by Fassa Albrecht

^^that picture of the baby eating the bass is amazing. So cute!

+1

dude,... that shot deserves an "18X24 blow-up to poster in a frame" treatment!!!!

(do it,... your kid will thank you later)

[Datsgor]

Originally Posted by bassmonkeee

Of course, he also thinks the bass tastes delicious.

I have never seen anything so cute in the Human Being genre of pictures.

[bassmonkeee]

Aw, shucks, everyone. Thanks for the kind comments--luckily for everyone involved, he favors his mom. I was certainly ecstatic that my wife was there with the camera when he did that. I think the vibration of the neck was helping sooth his teething. He would alternately put the neck in his mouth, and lay his cheek on the neck and smile at me.

This is the shot immediately after the NOM shot:




On a related note, if you have an iPad and a baby, I highly recommend both Smule's Magic Piano and Uzu. He loves to tap away like he's Thelonious Monk on the piano (Morphwiz is also a lot of fun). And, Uzu gets the same reactions with a purely visual response.

[bassmonkeee]

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that bassplayerbob has his meal ticket if his daughter keeps up with a musical instrument. She's a cutie!