Bassists vs. All Other Instrumentalists

[Jake]

I am working on a compare and contrast essay for the college writing class I'm currently enrolled in. I was hope you nice folks at TBDB could give me some ideas.

What makes bassists different than all other instrumentalists?

What makes bassists superior to all other instrumentalists?

Any good musician jokes that would apply?

Thanks,
JN

 

[Metal Bassist]

The difference between musicians who play bass and other musicians who don't play bass is that musicians that play bass play bass.

 

[4stringreligion]

The difference between musicians who play bass and other musicians who don't play bass is that musicians that play bass play bass.

Ditto!!!

 

[iplaysixstrings]

any time your head starts to bob or your foot starts to tap or your booty starts to shake, thank the bass player

 

[One Drop]

I am working on a compare and contrast essay for the college writing class I'm currently enrolled in. I was hope you nice folks at TBDB could give me some ideas.

What makes bassists different than all other instrumentalists?

What makes bassists superior to all other instrumentalists?

Any good musician jokes that would apply?

Thanks,
JN

Well, have you established first that there is a difference?

How are you going to define superior?

I guess musician jokes could serve as an illustration of typical stereotypes related to various instrumentalists, but it might be a stretch.

I'd narrow your thesis first, and make it a more concrete one. Just me.

 

[Jake]

BTW, this essay is not meant to be factual or serious

 

[KNURRR]

"What makes bassists superior to all other instrumentalists?" ...the answer is "nothing" i guess

 

[Jerry Callo]

Movement in music is voice leading and that is directed by the bass.

A lot of bassplayers don't even know that though.

 

[bottybrian]

Like anything else, it's what you do with it. If you are just going to follow the chords it can be boring, but coming up with interesting melodies displaying good techniques is what makes a bassist stand out

 

[EricssonB]

If it's an essay comparing bassists to others-s, then make sure to include the word "guitard."

$0.02

 

[HolmeBass]

Okay I have a joke.

Two cowboys were out riding the range one day, when off in the distance they spotted a large war party of Indians. They turned tail to flee before they were spotted, but it was to late; the war party gave chase. The cowboys, outnumbered 25 to 1, rode into a series of canyons and arroyos to try and lose the Indians. The turned left into a dead-end canyon and hid behind a large boulder, but it was no use- the war party spotted them and turned into the canyon. The cowboys were trapped, looking down at the war party whooping war cries, beating war drums, and firing their guns into the air. One of the cowboys looks at the other and says, "I don't like the sound of those drums!" An Indian stands up and yells back, "He's not our regular drummer!"

 

[JBbottomfeeder]

Lets say the bassists has a skill level below "5" on a scale to ten.
Chances are that he/she will be giggin, whereas most other instruments cant get away with that.

In general, a good well rounded bass player (plays styles, good time, knows repertoire) is going to be working a lot more than most; simply because of the math.. 10x as many guitarists.... A lame drummer is way more apparent. Most keyboard players are not very diverse, stylistically, ... and well, really.... who cares about the horn players. ;-)

 

[GeneralElectric]

A lot of bass players are wimps who can't put their foot down

 

[Bongolation]

Over the long haul, I'd say that bassists have a substantially higher aggregate IQ than other instrument players.

I know, I know...it's hard to believe with the noisy gristleheads that seem to take up most of TB's bandwidth, but I really think it's true overall and nobody I know watches people harder than I do.

They have a lot of stuff that descends from that, like thinking more and saying less, more serious, less spontaneous, geekery of all varieties, alienation from the rest of the group, personal obsessions that drive everyone nuts, zero charisma, etc.

Exceptions everywhere, of course, but we're talking tendencies.

Hey, you ever do this?:

You look at bunches of those sad little promo pictures of unsigned, struggling bands and ask, "which member doesn't fit?"

Y'know, there's the one guy who really doesn't belong there? Everybody looks like they're in the band and reading the same script...except for...him. The guy who gets kicked out of the band if they ever get real management and a label's artist-development coach?

About 80% of the time it's the bass player.

No, I'm not kidding. Up to that point he's been invaluable because he's the only consistently reliable guy in the band, but when the band gets serious, it's not enough.

 

[Bongolation]

A lot of bass players are wimps who can't put their foot down

Then match this up with whatever passive-aggressive band-killers are already there and you have a fantastic, slow-motion trainwreck running.