Bass players are versatile....guitar players are not.

Axtman · #1 07-28-2010, 01:51 PM

I have noticed over the years of playing with different bands that many guitar players only know how to play in one style and one style only. While many bass players can play in several different styles and types of music.

Case in point. I was playing with a rock lead guitar player the other day. In one of the songs he basically had to play an acoustic guitar and arpeggio the chord changes. This sounds pretty simple but he could not do it.

Also I worked with a guitar player that could only play "ca chunk ca chunk ca chunk ca" type rhythms and could not get out of that rut.

Chasarms · #2 07-28-2010, 01:54 PM

I think you need to meet a few more guitar players before making such an overstatement.

I've run across plenty that are very versatile as well as plenty of bassists who are not.

Axtman · #3 07-28-2010, 01:55 PM

Granted that I am painting with a rather broad brush, but that has just been my experience. (Of course I know more than 2 guitar players that I previously mentioned.)

guroove · #4 07-28-2010, 01:59 PM

I think this tends to be true in some ways because a lot of what makes a good bass line for one type of music translates to other styles. I've found a lot of similarities from playing blues, country, and rhumba flamenco.

TheVoiceless · #5 07-28-2010, 02:00 PM

You know I was thinking the same thing the other day. I tried to make sense of it a couple of ways. IMO: bass is bass in most genres. The notes are all the same, its just how you play them. And the tone doesn't really change that much between genre. Where I can see going from genre to genre on a guitar can be tricky. New chords, different tones, different picking styles.

I also think its the nature of the instrument. Bass players want to learn as many styles as they can so they can get gigs doing anything they want. Bass players are very inter-changeable, most times, without going too noticed.

Where I think that most guitar players for better or worse have a distinct idea of what they want to play. And guitar can take a long time to master so, a jazz guy can still be learning stuff and not be getting bored of the same style. I also think its a bigger change to swap guitar players in a group compared to a bass player.

It also comes down to the fact that most guitar players walk around with blinders on and don't really care about anything else then what they are working on.

EdHunter · #6 07-28-2010, 02:03 PM

I know the muscial world extends beyond my guitarist and myself, but he'll be into Chopin, Wagner, Stravinsky and Dimmu Borgir, Soilwork and Lab of God, but nothing in between. On the other hand, I love Dvorjak, Wagner, Elgar, Slayer, Sepultura and almost everything in between.

May just demonstrate OP's point a little.

Rockingbird · #7 07-28-2010, 02:04 PM

Alex Skolnick would like a word with you, OP

Against Will · #8 07-29-2010, 09:33 AM

I've only played in rock bands. I'm definitely not versatile.

A440Hz · #9 07-29-2010, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdHunter

I know the muscial world extends beyond my guitarist and myself, but he'll be into Chopin, Wagner, Stravinsky and Dimmu Borgir, Soilwork and Lab of God, but nothing in between. On the other hand, I love Dvorjak, Wagner, Elgar, Slayer, Sepultura and almost everything in between.

May just demonstrate OP's point a little.

Lab of God-- those are the darkest physics professors evah. I mean, none more black.

Sammy_L_D · #10 07-29-2010, 01:04 PM

Your wrong, Axtman. Simple as that.

ggunn · #11 07-29-2010, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axtman

I have noticed over the years of playing with different bands that many guitar players only know how to play in one style and one style only. While many bass players can play in several different styles and types of music.

Oh, please; this again? We bass players are soooo superior in every way to those stinky "guitards"....

Stereotype not, lest ye be stereotyped.

coolrunner989 · #12 07-29-2010, 01:11 PM

It's not wrong to say that "many" guitar players only know one style. To say that "all" of them aren't versatile would obviously be wrong.

IME it's true. If you take into account that the vast majority of musicians are weekend warriors or bedroom soloists then it definitely makes sense. Most people don't have enough time to devote to guitar to master many different styles, and bass is very translatable from genre to genre.

ggunn · #13 07-29-2010, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolrunner989

It's not wrong to say that "many" guitar players only know one style. To say that "all" of them aren't versatile would obviously be wrong.

IME it's true. If you take into account that the vast majority of musicians are weekend warriors or bedroom soloists then it definitely makes sense. Most people don't have enough time to devote to guitar to master many different styles, and bass is very translatable from genre to genre.

So, are you saying that bass is easier than guitar?

sarcastro83 · #14 07-29-2010, 01:13 PM

Seriously? How many more of these "let's all give ourselves a nice, comforting pat on the back" smugfests are gonna be posted on TB before we bass-dweebs run out of ways to convince ourselves that we're the cocks-of-the-musical-walk?

Man alive...

chuck3 · #15 07-29-2010, 01:15 PM

I join with those who say you're wrong, axtman. You're just hanging out with the wrong guitarists!

MatticusMania · #16 07-29-2010, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuck3

I join with those who say you're wrong, axtman. You're just hanging out with the wrong guitarists!

I stand on this side of the line. Our guitarist is quite versatile, as Im sure are many others.

totallyfrozen · #17 07-30-2010, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chasarms

I think you need to meet a few more guitar players before making such an overstatement.

I've run across plenty that are very versatile as well as plenty of bassists who are not.

+1

TB needs to add a "+1" button so that I can just add a +1 without having to quote a post.

totallyfrozen · #18 07-30-2010, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EdHunter

I know the muscial world extends beyond my guitarist and myself, but he'll be into Chopin, Wagner, Stravinsky and Dimmu Borgir, Soilwork and Lab of God, but nothing in between. On the other hand, I love Dvorjak, Wagner, Elgar, Slayer, Sepultura and almost everything in between.

May just demonstrate OP's point a little.

I YouTubed all of those groups and didn't seen any notable differences between your music and his music. I didn't get your point at all.

I will say that Dimmu Borgir is ridiculously corny in my opinion. I can't even imagine who'd be into that group...I imagine skinny little pale-faced dweebs who wear baggy black clothes and look like Edward Scissor hands hanging out at the Ren Faire trying to look cool while they're too scared to talk to the girls...am I close?