Now I realize that these are just words, so before anyone can call me on that, I'll admit it myself. I'm sure some will still roll their eyes at this thread anyway. With that said.. is "bass guitarist" a generally accepted term for musicians that play the bass guitar? I did a search on Yahoo for "bass guitarist" and got a ton of entries. The term has never really sounded right to me. I've never referred to myself as a bass guitarist, always as a bass player or a bassist. There's just something about it that I can't quite pinpoint. Maybe it's the "guitarist" part of it, that implies that the instrument is just a low-tuned, large guitar (which I suppose it is, at least in the most general sense), but I'm not sure it describes our function within a band quite right, either. When I see the word guitarist, a vision of someone with a small 6 string guitar playing chords and leads pops into my head. What does everyone think?
Well, wouldn't 'bassist' imply that you play (at least) upright as well? Bass guitarist is more specific, if you only play bass guitar, then you're a bass guitarist.
Does "bassist" really imply that, though? A bass viol is a bass... a bass guitar is a bass.. an electric upright is also. So isn't one who plays any of these instruments a bassist?
I've been playing all my life (37 years so far), upright and electric. I quit the Symphony 20 yearsa ago, so does that make me now an "Electric" bassist? It's the same thing when someone asks me "do you play anything else besides bass"? Well, I've studied music years ago, and it's mandatory in Germany to study also piano. Besides this irrelevancy, I always respond in kind "no, I play bass".
Neither...I 'spank the plank'. . Oooh wait a minute!, the bass playing smilie is called 'bassist' so i've decided i'm one of those now. To be honest it's never really bothered me, although i'd probably opt for bass player. I doesn't really matter, as it's plain for all to see that we Low End Groove Meisters are far more cool than the rest of the rabble.
I generally say that I'm a Bass Guitarist, I just feel that bassist has more conatations to upright bass, which I have next to no experience on! So Bass Guitarist for me (even though that smilie is called 'bassist' ) Andy
Actually, that smilie is called 'guitarist.gif' the vB code to use it is : bassist : but the image itself is a guitarist!
Any minute now, someone is going to jump in and type: "Do a search , this topic has been covered before!!! ". Now, that being said, I consider myself a "Barse-ist"!
Logically, Bassist or bass player for generalization.(for upright or electric) then if you wan't to specify further, do so. I guess. anyway, enough already.
I am a Bassist. As one who plays piano or cello is a pianist or cellist. For no reason other than it makes me sound like I'm a better player than I am. Fo'