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Bass, "the easy way out?"

#21
Well, bass played well is no "easier" than guitar, but it's true that you probably can't sit around the tree and sing Christmas carols to just a bass, and when I used to tell people at parties that I play bass, I hated the look on their faces when I told them I couldn't accompany their singing the way they envisioned. Maybe you can get a baritone guitar or a six-string bass tuned an octave down and play chords on that. Or make friends witha guitarist and never go out alone.
 
#23
Watch this. Then have your dad tell me that bass is inferior. I agree they are not the same, but one is not more complex, or more important, or easier than the other. This clip shows Jaco discussing his techniques and therorys of bass guitar. Any instrument is as complex as you make it. I would bet most casual guitar players dont know anything about the scales he is talking about here.

 
#25
+1 to Scionreality and those that echoed his feelings. Music is expression, and you need to find the instrument that allows you to develop your inner voice.

Having said that, how do you know your "voice" is not guitar? I sure wish I'd taken interest in guitar a lot sooner than I did (after about 20 years of bass playing, which is my voice without question). First of all, now I can cheat and watch guitarist's hands to back up what I think I'm hearing at jams (sounds like G, looks like G must be... G!).

Most importantly though, I find it WAY easier to write songs on the guitar, which helps put me in the driver's seat, after years of being the navigator. Now, there are a few exceptions of people that write on bass, but I think it is rare for a reason. It is easier to hear harmonic movement in the higher register of the guitar. So, if you plan on writing, I'd highly recommend getting a little comfortable on a chord instrument, like piano or guitar. Of course, chords can be played on bass, but in the lower registers they sound muddy, which influences your writing (possibly in a direction that goes against your inner "voice"). You don't need to become an expert or even get good enough to play in front of people, in order to use the guitar as a writing tool. At least in the case of melody and chord accompaniment, you can hum melodies and strum whole note chords and find the tune and accompanying harmonic movement your are hearing in your head. If you only study and play bass, you may find yourself always playing other peoples songs. Don't get me wrong, I wrote plenty of "grooves" that became neat songs, but they weren't entirely mine.

One last bit of encouragement for you. Many guitarists I know can at least "fake it" a bit on bass, and others actually got very good after only a few weeks getting comfortable on bass. This shows that it can be fairly simple to move from guitar to bass if you are studying "music" on the instrument. I hope nobody misinterprets the idea I'm expressing. Bass is not easier than guitar. It's just that if you study all of music on guitar, you will have an understanding of bass note function as well as chord function and melody function. You can learn that on bass too, but again, chords on bass are effected by how lower notes resonate with each other. For example, intervals that have tension but are still listenable on guitar (like an augmented 5th), can sound downright awful on bass in the lower register. This leads most serious bassists to get a working understanding of harmony from piano, but guitar can also serve this purpose fairly well.


Anyway, good luck with your dad, and especially with finding your musical voice!
 
#27
Thanks for all the replys guys, i've already told him all this stuff and showed him, it doesn't change his mind. About all this stuff about learning guitar so i can write songs and stuff, i don't really need that. As someone said, i'm content in just playing a part in the band - my favourite part. I just told him that i don't need lessons (he didn't really want to pay for them anyway) and that if i wanted to, i could sit down and memorize all the chord positions, or get a guitar book or something, and teach myself, and any songs i want to learn i can get tabs off the internet, because from what i've heard, that's all they do in lessons anyway. You tell them a song you wanna play, and they teach you. The reason i can do this, is that i was playing piano for 5 years, quitting just last year to take bass more seriously. I know all the theory side of music, i just have to practise. So i guess there's no point taking lessons. If i want to, i can pick up a cheap guitar and teach myself. Sorry if i'm coming through a bit cocky, but i think it's true. Also, if i want a guitar, my dad isn't gonna pay for it, but he's got a friend that can get Gibsons, Fenders and Ibanezs, for heaps cheap. He just got a Gibson ES-175 ( i think) for AU$600. He gets the guitars made by Gibson will all the same parts, but at the Epiphone factory. Ibanezs are still made in the Ibanez factory, and Fenders are made in the Ibanez factory and re-badged Fender?? (According to him.) I put an SR700 bass on order coz it would still be made in the exact same Korean factory. In conclusion, i'll stick with bass, because i like the sound better, and don't need to learn theory etc.to write songs. Thanks again for all your input and sorry about the long post, Dan
 
#28
To the OP, you're at the point where you have to decide whether to put up with widespread preconceptions about the bass, or choose another instrument. Or, prove 'em wrong. Very few of my friends who played guitar in school, are still playing music at all.

Since you played piano, I strongly suggest developing and maintaining your ability to read music on the bass.
 
#30
mccartneyman said:
Well, bass played well is no "easier" than guitar, but it's true that you probably can't sit around the tree and sing Christmas carols to just a bass, and when I used to tell people at parties that I play bass, I hated the look on their faces when I told them I couldn't accompany their singing the way they envisioned. Maybe you can get a baritone guitar or a six-string bass tuned an octave down and play chords on that. Or make friends witha guitarist and never go out alone.
Click to expand...

Jet Harris was recording melodic hits on his Fender VI back when John F. Kennedy was still president of the United States.
 
#31
EAdanikDG said:
Thanks for all the replys guys, i've already told him all this stuff and showed him, it doesn't change his mind. About all this stuff about learning guitar so i can write songs and stuff, i don't really need that. As someone said, i'm content in just playing a part in the band - my favourite part. I just told him that i don't need lessons (he didn't really want to pay for them anyway) and that if i wanted to, i could sit down and memorize all the chord positions, or get a guitar book or something, and teach myself, and any songs i want to learn i can get tabs off the internet, because from what i've heard, that's all they do in lessons anyway. You tell them a song you wanna play, and they teach you. The reason i can do this, is that i was playing piano for 5 years, quitting just last year to take bass more seriously. I know all the theory side of music, i just have to practise. So i guess there's no point taking lessons. If i want to, i can pick up a cheap guitar and teach myself. Sorry if i'm coming through a bit cocky, but i think it's true. Also, if i want a guitar, my dad isn't gonna pay for it, but he's got a friend that can get Gibsons, Fenders and Ibanezs, for heaps cheap. He just got a Gibson ES-175 ( i think) for AU$600. He gets the guitars made by Gibson will all the same parts, but at the Epiphone factory. Ibanezs are still made in the Ibanez factory, and Fenders are made in the Ibanez factory and re-badged Fender?? (According to him.) I put an SR700 bass on order coz it would still be made in the exact same Korean factory. In conclusion, i'll stick with bass, because i like the sound better, and don't need to learn theory etc.to write songs. Thanks again for all your input and sorry about the long post, Dan
Click to expand...

If you are practicing make sure you learn the right technique. Try to have as much control over the strings as possible (mute all the strings you don't play) and try to keep your wrist comfortable while playing (and don't stress or play with too much hand tension).
 
#32
The one misconception that bassists have that peeves me is the fact that bass ISN'T easier to play than guitar. It is. Period. Why is that so hard to swallow. Yes, there are bassists that can outplay guitarists, Victor Wooten can certainly outplay Keith Richards and millions of other guitarists - but it takes waaay less knowlege, practice, and technical ability to play solid basslines than it does guitar. On countless occasions I've taught people to play songs on bass in one day. That's impossible on guitar. My non musician g-friend played Fight for Your Right at a gig once having previously had a bass in her hands for less than an hour in her lifetime. I can find simple enough songs to teach just about anyone new to bass an entire set in a week. That simply can't be done with guitar. If it could it would take much more work, and it would have to be a pretty gifted person.

The fact that you MUST know chords to play guitar makes this a no brainer. You must also have to have a pretty solid knowlege of scales and a fair amount of technical ability in order to play leads. Bass, you can simply play roots and fifths and do an excellent job of it. It doesn't take much technical ability to go a little past the roots and fifths and get creative, and to be a shredder on a bass takes just as much practice as to be a shredder on guitar. Plus you're in competition with thousands of other shredders on the guitar and will have to work a whole lot harder if you want to stand out. A lot easier to get noticed as a shredding bassist than shredding guitarist. Also a lot easier to get gigs as a bassist.

Why such ego issues with all this? I know we've been through this a thousands times but I still find it fun for some reason. Bass IS easier than guitar.
 
#33
I too think the World would be a much happier place if you acknoledged that bass is easier than guitar. It saves a lot of useless discussion.
You play to have fun. No need to pretend.

If you father wants to play guitar he can do it by himself instead of passing it to you.
You want to play bass, just do it. How is your father going to change anything to this?
 
#37
Joe Nerve said:
The one misconception that bassists have that peeves me is the fact that bass ISN'T easier to play than guitar. It is. Period. Why is that so hard to swallow. Yes, there are bassists that can outplay guitarists, Victor Wooten can certainly outplay Keith Richards and millions of other guitarists - but it takes waaay less knowlege, practice, and technical ability to play solid basslines than it does guitar. On countless occasions I've taught people to play songs on bass in one day. That's impossible on guitar. My non musician g-friend played Fight for Your Right at a gig once having previously had a bass in her hands for less than an hour in her lifetime. I can find simple enough songs to teach just about anyone new to bass an entire set in a week. That simply can't be done with guitar. If it could it would take much more work, and it would have to be a pretty gifted person.

The fact that you MUST know chords to play guitar makes this a no brainer. You must also have to have a pretty solid knowlege of scales and a fair amount of technical ability in order to play leads. Bass, you can simply play roots and fifths and do an excellent job of it. It doesn't take much technical ability to go a little past the roots and fifths and get creative, and to be a shredder on a bass takes just as much practice as to be a shredder on guitar. Plus you're in competition with thousands of other shredders on the guitar and will have to work a whole lot harder if you want to stand out. A lot easier to get noticed as a shredding bassist than shredding guitarist. Also a lot easier to get gigs as a bassist.

Why such ego issues with all this? I know we've been through this a thousands times but I still find it fun for some reason. Bass IS easier than guitar.
Click to expand...

Hey, I'm really pretty new to the instrument, but there's something a friend once said about a Bodhran (Irish hand drum used in all that step-dance music) that I think applies to the bass too: "It's an easy instrument to play badly and a hard instrument to play well."

What you're saying is totally true, that almost anyone with basic musical awareness and two hands can pick up a bass and figure out how to thump out root notes on it. It's also true that guitar (and piano, while we're at it) are more complex instruments and better able to stand on their own in performance. On the other hand, playing a bass line on a piano is a lot easier to do than playing one on a bass! So, finally, it's thirdly true that while the bass is easier to play simple stuff on, the greats of our instrument have shown that there is no upper limit to the complexity and musicality one can develop playing it.
 
#38
When I'm alone I play guitar or keys. Much easier to sound full and like the song I'm trying to play. When I play with others I play bass.

When jamming with others and the song takes a left turn I can look at fingers (gtr or keys) and follow a lot better. A real nice problem to have.

If you introduce your dad to (fill in the blank) and he doesn't care for them he will say "see that is why you shouldn't play bass". Your dad is right but you need make your own choices so go with your heart.

I wish I'd taken more of my dads advice.

My $.02 "DO BOTH".

JJ

YMMV
 
#39
There are some Bass-Centric answers above... many are just combative or self-serving

What are your goals?
What do you really want to do?

In a way your dad is right... bass is a support/foundation instrument.. not really an accompany type.. an average vocalist can follow my guitar playing .. a great singer can sing against anything.

That being said.. I have a TON easier time as I can read the hands of a drummer, guitarist and keyboardist --- while starting it's good to have a solid foundation.

That being said guitar bores the heck out of me --

I get tons more calls than the guitarist I hang out with --- he's ranked in top 10 by GuitarCenter King of Blues --- I'm just a passionate bassist..

IF trying to dominate the music world, dad is slightly off -- Steel Guitar, Dobro and Keyboards are the instruments that bring in the bank --- then bass.. good vocals always trump anyone in music.

Dad is right that guitar is easier to fake.. there's a huge gap between mid level bassists and virtuosos who can single handedly drive a tune.

IF he tells you to sing and play - listen to dad.

Tim


Reply... bass is more a drum (timpani) than a guitar-2 strings.. he may just perceive it as a cop out.
 
#40
Back in the '70's I started out on drums, my friends on bass and guitar. Since "all I had to do was play drums," I was drafted for vocal duty. I switched to bass because as I sat behind the drums, I realized I had a much better "ear" than the other two when it came to learning songs.

Drums gave me an appreciation of different rhythms and enable me to better groove with drummers while I play bass.

I play bass at jams with friends I've made through music/bands over the years. It's a great way to keep in touch with people you might otherwise never see.

Jazz Ad stated it best, "You play to have fun."
 

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