Bass player mental health?

[purpleflyhunter]

I didn't read all the posts but what jumped to me was the pain issue.

If I'm having pain when I play I'm doing something wrong. Straining? Poor breathing? Improper technique (looking at you guitar players)? Strap not positioned correctly? Not keeping hydrated?

Something is not right. I'd get that sorted before any "coolness" factors come into play. If we play and/or practice enough with pain, it'll "F" us up bad for a lifetime.

Take care of yourselves!

 

[bikeplate]

Nope.

 

[john nelson]

I used to be in the PA business. If the PA was great, the band was great. If the lighting was really good, usually the band got credit for being good too.

 

[txss]

We get no love.
We could be naked and on fire and no one would notice.

Until we stop playing , then everybody notices.

I started playing guitar about 15 years ago and I found out I wasn't that good but it made me a much better bass player. And I also learned that the bass is the most important instrument on stage. The guitar can drop out, no big deal, keyboardist, singer even the drummer can drop his sticks and not a big deal. But when the bass player stops playing everybody notices. Some of the best bass players are those you can't hear until they stop playing. We are the invisible glue that binds the whole thing together. With out a bottom it all falls apart. Knowing that is the real power. JMO

 

[Charlie 50Watts]

An audience receives a musician as who's making the music if he sings (or leads). So if a bassist lead sings a song or two, or at least do harmony vocals, and go ahead and stand side by side with the lead (not off to the side)...that comes across.

But a bassist who never sings, and stands off to a side, can look like a technician running a piece of equipment.

The problem stems from the bass not being a standout sound of its own. Lead guitar is. Lead vocal is. But bass just sort of underpins and blends in....so there a guy is playing his heart out but he's not lead, he's a wing man.

But I don't see a problem with that. In my partying days I was always the wing man in the car. Driving would have just been a pain to have to be responsible for, as I was quite busy and content to be handling jokes, music and lookout duty (T&A sightings) (Ah, riding around drinking in a car with a good stereo. Those were the days.)

Yea...sing a little, design a bass break into a song or two so you get featured even if just in brief, and don't stand so far away from center, that's the best suggestion I've got. (Unless you want to really get into the role and be doing 'extra stuff' over there (you know, dream up some amusing stage antics...if you're creative, that thought alone should set you off making lists of possibilities...

 

[BigBasserino]

Sooooo, odd question from a troll who never really posts: I've played guitar longer than bass (please no hate), but I've since discovered that I'm totally a natural at bass and often like playing it more. I can't hit my guitar hard enough to work out my aggression, after all.

HOWEVER, all bass player jokes aside, let's be honest: few people go to gigs to see any bass player, except maybe if your Victor Wooten calibre. Honestly, it's messing with my mental health. If I let myself think about it too much, I think of myself as just being the "extra guy" that nobody pays much attention to or cares about. Couple that with chronic pain issues that worse on bass than guitar, I think often about stopping the whole bass thing. Of course, over 75% of my gigs are on bass, so it's a Catch-22.

Anybody else have similar issues? How do you get over it? Should I go all Stuart Smalley & tell myself "I'm good enough, I'm slappy enough, and goshdarnit, people like me."

I'm the guy who is notoriously a jerk because he sees the areas that need work everybody else chooses to turn a blind eye to. You can always take my approach and be a hermit who makes his own solo-crabcore-music. Or you can just....be liked because you are a participant. Like a buddy who I know. Sure, it's not super-entertaining, but you'll always be loved because the songs sound near-right and you're looking to hang out. Or hey, if you have endless oodles of time, you can do both.

I tried doing both...nope, wasn't fun. I like music like I like life, fast, hard, relentless. Buy the ticket, take the ride.

 

[GreyEagle]

Frank Tuesday summed it up for me. "If you're playing/making music for the adulation of strangers, go back to guitar." You generally don't play bass for the glory. There are stellar bassists, but the majority of their admirers are other bassists (and some drummers). But a good bassline drives people whether they're aware of it or not.

 

[rtslinger]

Yeah it is a thankless job sometimes, but you will be pleasantly surprise to see how many people notice if you drop out of the mix. The guitarist can be strumming a few chords to a song, but it is the bassist who sets the groove to get them out on the dance floor. If you're creative with your lines and stage presence people will notice, if you just laid down the bottom and stick to the pocket they most likely won't. Either way you and the drummer are holding the whole thing together.

 

[Charlie 50Watts]

Yeah it is a thankless job sometimes, but you will be pleasantly surprise to see how many people notice if you drop out of the mix. The guitarist can be strumming a few chords to a song, but it is the bassist who sets the groove to get them out on the dance floor. If you creative with your lines and stage presence people will notice, if you just laid down the bottom and stick to the pocket they most likely won't. Either way you and the drummer are holding the whole thing together.

LOL "lay down the bottom and stick to the pocket"
Bass player lingo! Cool
I love language.

Maybe we should have a thread just for lingo.
I knew a bassist, we called "Bash". He used to turn groovy phrases.
Although no one could figure where he got 'em from.
He just made it up as he went. Good ole Bash.
Good ole Rock n Roll chicken slippers Bash.

 

[Charlie 50Watts]

I got an old friend who's happy I bought a bass. He fronts a band. He and I used to be the right and left hand of such. It's been some years, and he and I no longer hang out, but suddenly I have all day so I bought all the instruments a rock band had, and a recorder, so I can finish songs and just play all the parts myself.

I'm older so I'm not thinking "band", but...maybe I'll do something on the internet now rather than lugging equipment and dealing with tone deaf drunks as an audience. It's just not the same being an oldster (I'm 58). IMO, you kind of have to think you're going somewhere, to put up with all that.

But yea, the friend seemed happy I bought a bass, because he's always had a problem finding a good bass player. They're not a plentiful breed. Sometimes he'll find someone willing, but the guy just hasn't got the spark, so Dean has to write his lines for him and the guy plays them mechanically. Awful.

He tells me a guitarist makes a great bass player, when he can turn one. But he won't be turning me. I'd have to buy a stack (right now I just play through a Marshall guitar head for recording, it's enough for my purpose here) and it's all I can do presently, under the weight of putting together a $4,000 pedal board and having to replace the CRUMMY "Epiphone" Les Paul I stuck myself with (I'm looking at PRS's now). Anyway, a good bass player is hard to find. Certainly one who wears rock n roll chicken slippers. I wonder whatever happened to that guy...