bass-boring?

[Matt Till]

But, an important fact that people are missing out on, if the bass seems boring to you... don't do it. If you see no validity in an instrument, don't play it. Blackie Lawless once called the bass a "tool of ignorance." So my guess is he stopped playing bass. I don't know, Wasp kinda sucks. If bass isn't your cup of cheese, go try and be the next big guitar god. Wanna hit things? Take up the drums. Want to steal the spotlight from everyone in the band with little to no effort? Take up singing. Bass isn't the only fish in the pond.

Don't consider this a betrayal bass brothers, look at it this way. I don't want to give up bass and take the recorder as my primary instrument. I have my reasons. It seems more annoying than boring. I personally seem some slight validity in all instruments, and I think it would be fun to be more of a multi instrumentalist. I play bass, guitar, keyboard, drums, and probably some other stuff but I still consider myself a bassist.

 

[ZenG]

As Keith Richards once said:- "Change the bass player------change the engine"........referring to the idea that every bass player plays differently...

If you think all bass players sound and play the same then you are possibly watching too many bedroom-recorded YouTube clips of players soloing with no music backup.

Just hammering out bass lines with no intent or direction could get pretty boring.

I have far more fun experimenting with notes and riffs as they APPLY to a particular song or work.

Take any song you like ...play it "stock"....or......change the bass notes,runs ,line,accents and rhythm around to see how many different ways you can do that and still get the song to "work".

Just meaninglessly banging off notes on the bass serves no purpose other than finger practise maybe.......

 

[KaseOfBass]

There are bassists that do look really bored on stage, and play little more than the root. F**k them. They're a waste of everyone's time and why there are "fire your bass player" memes.

Also, a reason why I play like a f**king madman.

 

[ImNotJoel]

To answer the ops questions. The fun factor, personally I love the low sound and I love making the music move. I feel with bass there's so much domain to explore and even if you're are playing some simple boring eight note chord progression after fifteen years I still can improve on it. Bass is the bridge between melody and percussion and it demands perfect time.

With drum machines and samples you think bass would be sequenced more since it can be made in perfect time. Yet people still seem to prefer a human bass player and that's because machines can't creat the same groove, dynamic, and soul. Seriously if you ever have a boring say AC DC gig if you have an interface play some eights to a metronome and record. Look at the grid see were your notes land now it may be a microscopic difference behind or in front of the beat. Try and get that perfect and apologize to your dry wall because it will look like Swiss cheese.

On a more technical note building chops on bass is rewarding and there's just something about nailing a bass sweep, fast run, sixteenth walk, or just a nice slap and pop pattern is just so much more gratifying than shredding on guitar. With guitar shredding and the sound of a flurry of notes being so over done and it being a lead instrument makes it so easy to just throw in. A technical bass line requires a lot of thoughtfulness, you still have to keep perfect time and if done with reckless abandon the band falls apart. But the sound of it is impeccable when done right. If you saw a bass vs guitar dual who is going to stand out the amazing guitarist or bassist? Yes the bassist.

Ok the OPs question on dealing with guitarist $#!+. Don't, for one never play music with d bags and the best part of playing bass is gigs come a lot easier especially if you're decent. So don't waste your time life's too short. That goes for every instrument.

 

[Jon Moody]

I might start playing bass, but it seems like it would be boring. It seems like all you guys play the same things over and over, and you don't get an recognition anyways like the guitarists or singers.

What's that phrase? "There are no small parts, only small actors."

What is the fun factor about bass that keeps you guys going and putting up with all the **** that guitarists give?

Depositing all the money from the amount of gigs I get and rubbing it in guitarists faces IS pretty fun...

 

[gjohnson441496]

I might start playing bass, but it seems like it would be boring. It seems like all you guys play the same things over and over, and you don't get an recognition anyways like the guitarists or singers. What is the fun factor about bass that keeps you guys going and putting up with all the **** that guitarists give?

I wouldn't call:

Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney, James Jamerson, Jaco Pastorious, Geezer Butler, Dug Pinnick, Victor Wooten, Marcus Miller, Flea, Carol Kaye, Gene Simmons, Les Claypool, Lemmy, and so on, and so forth, etc... BORING!