Female bassists and your thoughts...

[plong123]

I know she was mentioned already, but since she is super rad, here's another shout out for the amazing Sean Yseult.



Also, here's a super cool video about her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_buvM6SrY0

[ForSix]

It's a shame you people have all been fed this "there's no difference between boys and girls" crap from your teachers since you were in kindergarten.

Females play differently than males, and if you disagree, you are intentionally ignoring the evidence presented to you by your ears.

Putting a woman in a band changes the personal interaction of that band.

Now if you are looking for a band that wants to embody a lie that there is no difference between men and women, then go right on ahead and do it. Put please be honest about it.

[VanillaThundah]

Originally Posted by Zekkis09

"a girl in the band just wouldn't look right"

Yeah those guys wouldnt be worth playing with anyhow lol. The only time I could see a reasonable rejection based on gender would be in the case of vocals, since most females occupy a specific range of vocals and that may or may not work with the vibe the band wants to go with. To be fair though, there are plenty of times where male vocals would not work in different bands either. I'm sorry but a bass' tone is based on the individual, not their gender.

[T-bolt]

What about reverse sexism? I've seen quite a few Craigslist postings for bassists & keyboardist (positions I'd apply for) where they're ONLY looking for females. It's perfectly fine if they required female vocals as well, or an "all-girl" band I guess, but otherwise smacks of being image-obsessed.

[Wally Malone]

And you can listen to a recording and tell the gender of the bass player?

That's all,

Wally

Originally Posted by ForSix

It's a shame you people have all been fed this "there's no difference between boys and girls" crap from your teachers since you were in kindergarten.

Females play differently than males, and if you disagree, you are intentionally ignoring the evidence presented to you by your ears.

Putting a woman in a band changes the personal interaction of that band.

Now if you are looking for a band that wants to embody a lie that there is no difference between men and women, then go right on ahead and do it. Put please be honest about it.

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by T-bolt

What about reverse sexism? I've seen quite a few Craigslist postings for bassists & keyboardist (positions I'd apply for) where they're ONLY looking for females. It's perfectly fine if they required female vocals as well, or an "all-girl" band I guess, but otherwise smacks of being image-obsessed.

I figure, there are so many bands, that if all players with a particular look or whatever got snapped up, there would still be a surplus of bands.

[SquierJazz72]

And you can listen to a recording and tell the gender of the bass player?

Exactly what I was going to ask too.

[mellowinman]

Originally Posted by ForSix

It's a shame you people have all been fed this "there's no difference between boys and girls" crap from your teachers since you were in kindergarten.

Females play differently than males, and if you disagree, you are intentionally ignoring the evidence presented to you by your ears.

Putting a woman in a band changes the personal interaction of that band.

Now if you are looking for a band that wants to embody a lie that there is no difference between men and women, then go right on ahead and do it. Put please be honest about it.

That is easily the most wrong thing I've ever read on this forum.

How sad for you that you believe a word of it.

[Roy Vogt]

Originally Posted by Wally Malone

And you can listen to a recording and tell the gender of the bass player?

That's all,

Wally

Interesting point. Here are two recordings from the 60s. One is Joe Osborne and one is Carol Kaye. They are both using Fender basses with picks. Which is which? (No fair going to Allmusic to find out!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN3GbF9Bx6E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTfwcLdP5Xk
and two more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MyPSFnyaTQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC9yD8YqXYI
and finally two really obvious ones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiTcmahEjiY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_a46WJ1viA
Interesting that at the time these two players were covering 80%+ of all LA Studio dates.
I will wait and see who can hear the estrogen or testosterone and then let you all know who's on what.

[Spaldo]

Originally Posted by ForSix

It's a shame you people have all been fed this "there's no difference between boys and girls" crap from your teachers since you were in kindergarten.

Females play differently than males, and if you disagree, you are intentionally ignoring the evidence presented to you by your ears.

Putting a woman in a band changes the personal interaction of that band.

Now if you are looking for a band that wants to embody a lie that there is no difference between men and women, then go right on ahead and do it. Put please be honest about it.

I agree. This is completely wrong. I play in a 5 piece band with 4 girls and they groove just as hard as fellas. If not harder. And I know my funk

[ForSix]

Originally Posted by Wally Malone

And you can listen to a recording and tell the gender of the bass player?

That's all,

Wally

Arte you telling me that you can't tell the difference between Esperanza Spaulding and Jaco Pastorius?

Or Diana Krall and McCoy Tyner?

[ForSix]

Really people, you can agree with me. I won't tell your teachers.

[Lady Kayri]

Sure there is a difference in style - but it is because they are different people, not due to sex. I can certainly tell the difference between the playing styles of John Deacon and Jaco, but they are both men. I can tell the difference between Tal and Carole Kaye, too. The point isn't that one female player doesn't sound like one male player - everyone has their own playing style, at least after you have played enough to develop your own style. The point is that women are not inherently worse players than men, and to refuse to hire the better bass player just because the better player is a woman (or the reverse for that matter) is pretty ... Closed minded, all other factors being equal.

[Gord_oh]

just sharing.

[bass81800]

Originally Posted by ForSix

Females play differently than males, and if you disagree, you are intentionally ignoring the evidence presented to you by your ears.

Put please be honest about it.

Honestly, I pretty much ignore comments like the above.

This reminds of one of the funniest things anyone ever said to me as a musician, though maybe not funny at the time, I have told this one to many people, and it still makes me LOL. At a rehearsal, and this guy looks at me, small white woman, and says:

You....? Play funk?

Well....yes, I do.

I play that funky music.

[WoundFlat]

One of the biggest draws of a female in a band is the more unique sound on vocals, especially when mixed with male vocals. My band is looking for just such a scenario to open up vocal possibilities.

A few other female bassists
Miki Furukawa of Supercar (Japan)
Trish Doan of Kittie

And ForSix, keep on trollin'...

[Roy Vogt]

Originally Posted by ForSix

Really people, you can agree with me. I won't tell your teachers.

I am their teachers....
Take my blindfold test, please. I'd love to see if you can hear the difference between Carol and Joe. (It's just up the page at post #109)

[backup]

the thing is, most people rather ignore differences than tolerate diversity. and whenever someone points out the latter he is regarded as sexist/racist/etc.

while skill, ability and taste are mostly gender neutral, outside the music ime females are more emotional, criticism is often taken personally, sometimes unwillingly so. they also tend to care less about money and principiles, are friendlier and tend to trust strangers more. they like to be friends with the band or one of the members rather than colleagues.
many males share these traits too though. to me, it's a little hard to work with emotional people (no matter what gender) because i'm impolite and militant.
the band in my signature is 50% female. and they are of the best musicians of their age i've met. that leads us to the next topic, even more argued about: age.

[AuntieBeeb]

Originally Posted by pushbuttonfour

well, it seems like everyone here is all for having girls in a band, no matter what the situation. I agree mostly, but I do feel it is another factor that has to be considered. For example, at least in the singer position, it seems ;like male singers appeal to both sexes, while often times female singers will only attract more female fans than male ones. But in terms of bass playing, I don't think it makes to much of a difference.

Funny you should say that, as our female singer seems to get a lot of positive feedback from both sexes! And, incidentally, a lot of my favourite modern artists have female singers. (Or are female singers.)

I know this is scant recompense for being turned down after an audition, but if a band was prepared to give such backward excuses as "a girl just wouldn't look right in the band," then you probably wouldn't have enjoyed playing with people like that. Whilst I've not been on the receiving end of anything like that myself, I've looked through plenty of adverts that insist bass-playing applicants "must have the right look" and decided they weren't worth replying to for the same reason.

[Trayster2]

Originally Posted by Mr L

My only problem with the female musicians I know is their tendency to be way to self conscious. Not saying this is the same with all girls but just the handful I know.

In rock/metal stage presence is important and that can require looking stupid at times. Lots of girls are afraid to put themselves out there and not care what people think.

I know a few guys like this as well but mostly I see it in the girls I play with.

This is definitely a fair assessment. I see it everyday in the workplace as well, and never recognized it until I read one of Suze Orman's books. In the teaching profession, we as women are way too quick to point out our shortcomings while I lot of the guys I work with do the opposite and point out their strong points. Its something we women have to work on without coming across as "a bitch on a power trip."