Bass player or Musician??

[bubinga5]

You can tell im bored on a sat in the UK!!!..the Jazz bass is away getting set up....Q...would most of you guys/girls call yourself a bass player or are you a musician. Do you think there is a difference between someone who plays someones songs (with there own cut, i may add) and someone who thinks about a bigger picture, they would like to create..

Myself, i play piano, harmonica and bass, and its such a buzz sitting there and (in my own little world self obsessed funk) and creating music, to which i hope to show to the public. I am big fan any bass player that writes from the bass, Meshell, Sting, cant think...


Any thoughts for the man with never ending saturday??

Give me back my Jazz fool...

[back as a wolf]

I am a musician who plays bass.

[fullrangebass]

I call myself an "instrument-ist" cause I play in a different way every time I pick up a different instrument. And I don't mean a guitar being different than a bass; I mean that my Randy Coven Fodera invites me to play wayyyyyyyy different compared with my Mike Porcaro owned Status Empathy or my "Uber Alles" Dingwall. This becomes very apparent when I'm noodling and I write something new

[bearfoot]

I think it's fair enough to say that all who play bass are musicians, all snobbery aside. I think a better question is: bass player or megalomaniac?

[VroomVroom]

I'll bite, with my personal definitions.

A bass player is someone who can manipulate the instrument to generate sounds...some interesting, others not so much.

A musician is someone who uses her/his instrument of choice to produce sounds that inspire listeners and/or fellow musicians.

At the risk of sounding too harsh, youtube and too many "instructional" videos are the easiest ways to listen to bass players. Great records and live performances are the vehicles of choice to hear musicians.

[Jeb]

Originally Posted by VroomVroom

A bass player is someone who can manipulate the instrument to generate sounds...some interesting, others not so much.

A musician is someone who uses her/his instrument of choice to produce sounds that inspire listeners and/or fellow musicians.

I've always considered myself a bass player. After reading Vroom's post I'm even more confident that- yes, I am a bass player.

[E2daGGurl]

Gosh, never thought about it. For years, I've been making a semi-joking distinctions between Musicians and musicians, though (I'm a musician, not a Musician).

Frankly, though, as a musician, I have to say - I'm really just a bass player - as in, a bass player whose entire theory of the instrument and love for it comes from the way bass plays out musically, in its context with other instruments. And it's the bass I love when I'm listening to most music.

I play piano, organ, tenor saxophone too - and pretty much anything else lying around left over, but I love my bass and I even like my own bass playing some of the time.

I'm also really keen on maintaining my membership in a group called "The Audience."

[Nyarlathotep]

"Channeler of Sonic Energy"

[funkalicious101]

Musician. Bass just happens to be the medium that works best for me.

[capnsandwich]

I'd say I'm a musician. I played my first song on piano at age 3, played guitar all through middle and high school, and now I'm a bassist and music director at my church. To me, anyone can pick up an instrument and learn it but it takes a musician to pick one up, or multiple ones, and write, make music with it that comes from their heart and soul. It's like an artist, but instead of painting on a canvas or sculpting something made of clay their building something with notes. With a musician there's creativity but with one who can just play they're usually just mimicking or copying someone else's creativity.

[Parabolic Box]

Oh my goodness... I'd hardly consider myself worthy of the title of bass player, must less musician.

[the_fonz]

I'm a musician
Because i could not think of going through life doing anything else.

[SnakeAnthony]

I generally say Bass Player first. Just because, yeah, I play guitar, and yeah, I play drums, and yeah, I play piano.

But not really. I am a Bass Player. Its the only thing I'm really confident about, beyond vocals. I just don't suck enough at everything else to fake it like I know what I'm doing.

[oldrocker]

I'm not a musician, I hope to be a bass player someday, I'm just the guy in the band who happens to own the bass.

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by bubinga5

Q...would most of you guys/girls call yourself a bass player or are you a musician.

This exact topic came up at least once before in the past few months...

I don't see how this could be anything other than a semantic debate: It's a subset vs. a superset. Because if a bass player isn't a musician, I don't know any other category in which he/she would belong.

It's a little like asking if you're a reporter or a journalist. Or asking if you're a dermatologist or a physician. Or if you're a schoolteacher or an educator...

MM

[ryco]

player. I like what the word connotes better

[John Wentzien]

I think there is a difference.
A "Bass Player " is a person that plays a bass because he/she WANTS TO..
A "Musician" plays because they HAVE TO whether they like it or not.

[Parabolic Box]

Originally Posted by oldrocker

I'm not a musician, I hope to be a bass player someday, I'm just the guy in the band who happens to own the bass.

This I can relate to. In our circle, I'm the guy with lots of free time who just happens to own a bass + amp.

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by bubinga5

Give me back my Jazz fool...

That should be someone's sig line!