How you felt when you switched from guitar to bass

Professor Jones · #1 10-24-2009, 09:02 AM

Here's how it went for me :

- found it hard to keep the unplayed strings quiet

- felt discomfort in my left arm because of the longer neck (I still tire pretty fast when playing on the first frets)

- I found it very hard to play with good rhythm. It seemed like the level of tolerance for timing errors was lower, even small mistakes felt huge and unpleasant to the ear

- I discovered the pleasure of grooving (I sometime feel like I'm in trance !)

Share your experience !

taygunov · #2 10-24-2009, 09:10 AM

Not everyone here is a "failed guitarist" ya know....I for one, started on the bass. I bought a guitar to mess around with it, but sold it back. It didn't interest me and I never played it.

and who said you can't groove or have rhythm with a guitar?

Professor Jones · #3 10-24-2009, 09:14 AM

Failed guitarist ? First, there's nothing wrong with trying things and switching, if it allows you to find what you really like. Second, you can enjoy playing guitar and bass. Finally, I don't see the point of your reply since you're not concerned by the question.

Mudcat35 · #4 10-24-2009, 09:15 AM

I felt like I was "home". I always played guitar rhythmically and with the drummer, so moving to bass was a natural fit. That was 26 years ago.

Flaked Beans · #5 10-24-2009, 09:16 AM

I switched from double bass to electric bass . it was very easy, very nice and easy.

But I enjoy playing my doublebasses even more

**JoshB** · #6 10-24-2009, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Professor Jones

Failed guitarist ? First, there's nothing wrong with trying things and switching, if it allows you to find what you really like. Second, you can enjoy playing guitar and bass. Finally, I don't see the point of your reply since you're not concerned by the question.

Your title suggests that we all tried guitar and switched to bass. I see where he's coming from, and you shouldn't get offended about it. Nobody said there was anything wrong with switching.

I for one started out playing viola before picking up the bass in high school. It just felt more natural to me than anything else I had tried, so I stuck with it, loved it, and kept going.

Professor Jones · #7 10-24-2009, 09:25 AM

Of course not everyone started on guitar, it seems very obvious to me so I don't see how the title can be misunderstood.

And I don't like the expression failed guitarist : you can switch because you don't feel like the instrument is suitable for your musical personality, without necessarily "failing". Using that expression suggests that switching is linked to failing.

Kenny Allyn · #8 10-24-2009, 09:25 AM

Keeping strings damped was not much of an issue as my main guitar was a Tele played with a fingers plus pick style.

I think most players get some discomfort playing near the nut Etta James classic “Tell Mama” in the key of F still makes me cringe.

Timing (with a good drummer) was never much of an issue, but boy howdy can you ever hear mistakes! I remember once early on I stopped mid-song cause I was lost Uh! , guitar players can do that we can’t.

And yes bass is MY instrument, I took to the groove thing right away!

... The whole "failed guitarist" thing was not an issue, bass was just a new venture that stuck.

FL Knifemaker · #9 10-24-2009, 09:25 AM

My IQ instantly jumped 30 points

nortonrider · #10 10-24-2009, 09:30 AM

I have big ol' Fred Flintstone like fingers, so the tight finger placement on a guitar has always sucked big time for me.
The first time I picked up a Bass and felt the string spacing, I was like "That's What I'm talking about!"

eastcoasteddie · #11 10-24-2009, 09:40 AM

I wouldn't say that I was a failed guitarist. I was more of a guitarist that lost interest in guitar. I never liked doing solos (thought of them as "wanking") and I found that I really really loved the sound that my guitar amp made when I put a cardboard box in front of the speaker to muffle it while turning the bass EQ up to 11 and tuning to D.

I think it was inevitable.

When I switched to bass, I took to it quite easily. It felt more natural to me; like I should have done that a long time ago.

Jared Lash · #12 10-24-2009, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flaked Beans

I switched from double bass to electric bass . it was very easy, very nice and easy.

Me too. Well technically I went from piano to upright to electric. It was an easy switch though for quite a few years I played WAY too hard on the electric. Now my technique is a lot more refined and economical on the electric but the last time I played upright it was frustrating to see how much my chops had faded over the years.

The thing about playing piano as a kid is that (at least for me) it was like rote learning. I just learned the pieces I was taught. Upright in jazz band let me learn to walk through changes and occasionally improvise but when I moved to the electric (I think I was 14) I realized that I could play whatever I wanted. Strange realization, but to me that's when music really took off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mudcat35

I felt like I was "home". I always played guitar rhythmically and with the drummer, so moving to bass was a natural fit. That was 26 years ago.

With guitar players who switched to bass I can tell the guys that switched out of necessity (band needed a bass player etc) and guys who found their home on bass rather than guitar. There are guys who play bass like a guitarist and there are guys that play guitar like a bassist. I really think we are wired for particular instruments.

billoetjen · #13 10-24-2009, 09:54 AM

I felt like I was "home".

+1

The guitar (acoustic only) was always a struggle for me. I learned to move from chord to chord smoothly and strum and finger and flatpick well enough. BUT, my fingers have the wrong bumps in the wrong places so no matter how much I tried, I couldn't barre on the acoustic. Could on electric, but I refused to play electric. On acoustic there was always one string muted wrong or buzzing....

When I first seriously tried the bass I felt I was "home" immediately. It's been that way ever since. The muting and damping, etc. came quite naturally. You just have to accept a few fundamental differences between the two instruments (and here is where I expect to get flamed).....
1) never play a chord (except fifths and only rarely)
2) avoid open strings when possible
3) mute more than you play

Stick to those three like the greatest lover you ever had, and you will avoid the blurry, indistinct tone that has crept insidiously into our art.

But now I must get back to practice...

Shaky · #14 10-24-2009, 09:56 AM

I have played around with many different instruments and still do. I can't say I am great at any of them, but when I started playing bass it just felt right and my confidence grew. I feel like bass is as others have said "home" and the other instruments are weekend getaways.

yellofury · #15 10-24-2009, 09:57 AM

I was reluctantly voted to be a bassist by my band mates
ala Paul McCartney

I had no interest in playing the bass
I wanted to play rhythm guitar but my equipment was crap
so I begrudgingly borrowed my friend's P-Bass and starting to play the bass (like a guitar at first)

Once I started to use my fingers to play obviously that was a new set of calluses I had to develop which was fun but after a while I really dug the bass and the fact that I locked in with another bandmate (drummer) was also cool.

Now I honestly love playing the bass
I still drift to my guitars but at this point in time
I own more basses than guitars

sears · #16 10-24-2009, 09:59 AM

I switched from violin to electric bass and upright bass. No problems. Never done any arco. Years later, I picked up guitar and that was very different.

BarkSlayer · #17 10-24-2009, 10:03 AM

When I was 12 years old (in 1968) I wanted to play bass in the worst way, but I got a 6-string for Christmas and that's the way I went until last December. I was pretty much a failed guitarist. I wanted desperately to be a great player, but I just didn't want to do any of the things necessary to become one. Since switching to bass, I play a lot more and enjoy it more than I imagined. Looking back, I should have traded that first 6-string for the bass I wanted all along.

Jason P Bass · #18 10-24-2009, 10:05 AM

I played cello, then upright, then electric bass.

Then I was tired of being in bands with criminally inept guitarists, so I switched to guitar, learned all the guitar parts (way easier than playing bass, btw) and started giving informal guitar lessons.

So, "How did I feel when I switched from guitar to bass?"

Frustrated that I'm still playing bass in bands where I'm a better guitar player than the lead guitarist. I'm DYING to find a functional band with a guitar player who knows what "playing in key" means.

I'm really #$@%ing tired of giving guitar lessons.

walpow · #19 10-24-2009, 10:07 AM

I stopped thinking so much. When I play guitar, I play with my head: I'm always worried about what I'm doing. When I'm playing bass, if things are right, I play with my body/heart/soul.

Hoover · #20 10-24-2009, 11:05 AM

I first switched from guitar to bass about a year after I started playing guitar, then spent ~5 years vacillating between the two, and finally made the full time switch to bass (as my "main instrument" -- I still dabble on guitar) in 1980...so I don't really remember any of the specifics about "how it felt"

...other than I remember thinking "it feels good."

These days when I do play guitar I am conspicuously aware of how awkward it is for me to intuitively know how a guitar should function in a band. The role of a bass player is so deeply ingrained that to take on any other role requires a good deal of focussed effort.