Why so few female bassists?

::::BASSIST:::: · #1 02-09-2007, 12:13 PM

Why so few female bassists?

I think bassists are like 90% male.

VanillaO · #2 02-09-2007, 12:56 PM

cuz men are better obviously....

You should check out the bass babes thread in the lobby

Spoiled Grape · #3 02-09-2007, 01:11 PM

Bass babes thread.

It might have to do with just natural male ego. While almost every abled body male I knew in highschool played an instrument or joined a band, only about two of them still play for enjoyment.

There were only about five girls I knew in highschool who played music, but all of them still play.

Maybe????

need4mospd · #4 02-09-2007, 01:18 PM

I think there are more male musicians in general. That and the fretspacing of most basses isn't friendly to the smaller average sized hand of a woman. Pretty logical to me.

slackdaddy · #5 02-09-2007, 01:24 PM

There are plenty of female bassist. Just off the top of my head I can think of:

Carol Kaye - Arguably the most recorded bassist of all time
Debra Killings
Rhonda Smith
Divinity
Kim Deal
Michael Steele
Shonna Tucker
Janice Johnson
Paz Lenchantin
Sara Lee
Josephine Wiggs
...many more

Perhaps men tend to focus on male bassists more?

Pbassred · #6 02-09-2007, 01:46 PM

There are loads of woman bass players - world wide.
compared to guitarists the ratio is maybe 6-1. How many bass players in your town? - not many. How many bass players that like the same music as you? not many. how many bass players that are:-
female,
in your town,
like the same music,
available.
The odds are getting longer.

There might be a possiblity of reverse sexism as well. Guys would take a bass player based on merit. being hot chick is a bonus. (I know a very good and hot drummer girl in this position) whereas there are "girl bands" that would never take a male player bacause it would spoil the marketing.

So they exist. Its just that there is more demand.

I'm a bass player. I'm 100% male.

anechoic · #7 02-09-2007, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slackdaddy

There are plenty of female bassist. Just off the top of my head I can think of:

Carol Kaye - Arguably the most recorded bassist of all time
Debra Killings
Rhonda Smith
Divinity
Kim Deal
Michael Steele
Shonna Tucker
Janice Johnson
Paz Lenchantin
Sara Lee
Josephine Wiggs
...many more

Kim Gordon
Kira Roessler
Laura Ballance
Johnette Napolitano
Aimee Mann (back in Til Tuesday, anyway)
Sean Yseult
Leah Randi
D'arcy Wretzky
Melissa Auf der Maur
Tina Weymouth
Naomi Yang

...and that's just in the alt-rock category. I know there's others I'm forgetting right now.

::::BASSIST:::: · #8 02-09-2007, 04:02 PM

Seems to me every guy and his dog play guitar or have at some point. I find women tend to sing and/or play the piano more than anything.

But still the number of male musicians far outweighs the female. I wish there were more. They often, but not always, bring a nice balance to a band. really helps balance out the testosterone. My old bands' singer was a great person and we all enjoyed being around her.

JAUQO III-X · #9 02-09-2007, 04:41 PM

http://www.bassgirls.com/

SBassman · #10 02-09-2007, 04:42 PM

There may be plenty of female bass players out there, but the ratio of men to women is still something like 10 to 1.

Bassist4Life · #11 02-09-2007, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VanillaO

You should check out the bass babes thread in the lobby

So that is where that thread went! I remember that one.

There are tons of women bassists. Where did you get your 90% men statistic?

Joe

vindy500 · #12 02-09-2007, 04:53 PM

theres probally more than you think, this place is just such a sausage fest as soon as a girl come on everyone starts hitting on her (i.e you guys with disenchant) its no suprise not many post here

sick-jimmychick · #13 02-09-2007, 05:40 PM

Im a female bassist, and i tend to get the "Wow! A female bass player...and shes actually pretty talented" comment alot..which is kinda annoying coz it seems like just coz im a female it means i cant be good at something unless i look like a barbie doll and dress really trashy and all that stuff!
But one of the reasons i actually chose to play bass is because i saw so many guys playing and hardly any females, so wanted to find out for myself why, still havent figured it out though!

cowsgomoo · #14 02-09-2007, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VEGANBASS

Why so few female bassists?

I think bassists are like 90% male.

because most people join bands to get chicks?

how should we know???? your question would be better directed to female non-bass players... "why don't you play the bass?"

ask them and tell us what they say

flawop · #15 02-09-2007, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vindy500

theres probally more than you think, this place is just such a sausage fest as soon as a girl come on everyone starts hitting on her (i.e you guys with disenchant) its no suprise not many post here

ya it's pretty gross... look at almost any thread on here where a girl has posted her picture or whatever... and she's hit on like non-stop. honestly, who is loser enough to hit on chicks you don't know online? well actually i could name people from here.

aaaaaand, i think because bass is easy to learn, especially playing roots, that a lot of bands use sex to get attention. so they get a hot girl bassist. that doesn't mean that the girls can't play, but sometimes...

so it's a gimmick, buuut.... people also try to get really hot guys into their band for the same reason.

that really has nothing to do with why there's less female bassists... i just felt like bringing that up. i donnnno why. it's just something i've kinda noticed and it definitely goes on.

freakonaleash · #16 02-09-2007, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flawop

aaaaaand, i think because bass is easy to learn, especially playing roots, that a lot of bands use sex to get attention. so they get a hot girl bassist. that doesn't mean that the girls can't play, but sometimes...

Kittie comes to mind here.

From my experience though, the majority of underground bands don't rely on gimmicks. And I don't see a problem in any individual, male or female, dressing in exactly what they want, and for whatever reason. I get different moods over what to wear and depending on venue etc when I play and don't care what assumptions people make.

Toasted · #17 02-09-2007, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vindy500

theres probally more than you think, this place is just such a sausage fest as soon as a girl come on everyone starts hitting on her (i.e you guys with disenchant) its no suprise not many post here

Same with Steph Dawe, same with Treena Foster, same with that girl from Wigan, UK.

Supertanker · #18 02-09-2007, 07:08 PM

I think that guitars in general and the bass in particular are phallic symbols (as Prince so clearly demonstrated at the Super Bowl).
Not that it's intentional; it just worked out that way.

So, playing the bass is a very manly thing to do, and generally it's quite the aphrodisiac for the ladies, both visually and sonically.

Hence women are attracted to bass players, but generally don't want to be bass players. As always there are exceptions, but the amount of female bass players are probably a fraction of a percentage when compared to the number male bass players.

::::BASSIST:::: · #19 02-09-2007, 07:14 PM

Lots of generalizations here which may or may not be true.

One thing for sure... what could be better than a female bassist?

I mean its a woman

(drool)and its a bass

(drool) .

**BluesyCat** · #20 02-09-2007, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VEGANBASS

Why so few female bassists?

I think bassists are like 90% male.

Because no one thinks to put a bass into our hands when we're young, instead we get an acoustic guitar or electric. The bass was my decision after several years of playing guitar. I saw some other girl learning to play and it drove me mad. My first thought was I can do that and I can do it better...