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Can a bass player

#21
By saying bassplayer you have to seperate the individual and the bassplayer. If I take myself as an example, bassplayer is just a side of me and when people look at me as a bassplayer what they see(and in some way can criticized) is my way of playing, interacting with other musicians (playing or not), how I handle practice(late, not late)......... If you can look at yourself and prefer how you do thing's than other's than yes. By this you're not saying the others are not as good as you but that you like yourself better. Just think of people that like to be alone, are they saying by this that the others are not worthy of them??
 
#22
I'm no pro, dont even have aspirations of fame, and have "modest chops". But I am " my favorite" player, not from a place of "I'm the best", but from a place of building. Like a solider, I resepct those who came before me, and I learn something everytime a see another bassist play. It all helps me build chops, and that's all I want to do. Not to impress my friends - I aiont got any ;), but simply for the challenge and joy of buidling something. I dont have favorites, but if you were really sensitive, you could hear my influences in my style, something like Geezer Butler meets Victor Wooten, with a bunch of raw funk ( thats ME!) thrown in.

Thats MY favorite style. :) and it IS a moving target. I am my own favorite, its the only one I feed daily. But I would never simply answer the question that way, the listener/reader would miss all the nuance, and therefore miss the TRUTH, and my utter resepct for ALL players, especially those who've come before me and whom I've learned from and borrowed from.

Like the OP of this thread.

This weekend I caught Oscar Alston and the Stone City Band ( my first real funk show!), and I learned something from Oscar. ( a GREAT showman!) I Always try and learn something. My goal is to be one of the best bassists in Buffalo in a few more years. From a place of quiet confidence and humility, not from a zero sum, "I gots it you dont place. " Will I ever be "the best"? Clearly, that's a theoretical impossibility, but as a heuristic( learning tool), or goal, it means I have to "feed" my favorite player as much as that SOB can eat. Daily. As an amatuer, it aint that easy. But it requries the ambivalence of no ego, and utter belief/conviction in what you're doing. Akin to martial arts, the art BECOMES your ego in those moments. ( ego in a fight will kill ya. if u enrage my opponent by jabbing his ego, his rage will cuase him to lose it for a second. thats all u need.).

In that context, I dont think you can have any favorties. Except the one the Creator gave YOU. ANd resepct for all the others around you.

Aw man, I just read the replies, I hope I havent done a bad semantic interpretation here. I am alone- again. :)
 
#23
yes, that makes sense, i linked feeling that one is the best with being one's favorite...but you're right in that the 2 aren't necessarily mutually inclusive in that one might feel he/she is the best, but still find another to be the favorite just as easily as one could feel player x is the 'best' but player y the 'favorite'...distinction noted

JAUQO III-X said:
There really is a difference in being proud that you may feel that you are the best vs you being your favorite bassist.

I was in a music store a few years ago with Bernard Purdie and we were in the drum department and there was a drummer there(he didn't know who Bernard was)and me and him started a conversation and during this conversation I asked him who was his favorite drummer, he ran of a few names and then he included himself(and yes the tone was of strong arrogance) , so I waited for the right moment and asked him would he mind if I checked him out on a kit.

When he got on the kit he was just terrible. Timing was horrible, etc. and I think he really didn't have a clue that he was so bad.
Click to expand...
 
#24
JAUQO III-X said:
I think that may be a strong possibility.
Click to expand...

I've always felt that one of the 'curses' of being a creative person is that you start off being creative because you want to achieve a sense that you are creative - that same feeling you get when you see something someone else did that inspires you. But as you learn to be that sort of creative person you don't really get that feeling because the more you learn, the more you can appreciate - the more you can appreciate, the more you see around you that inspires you - you are back at square one being inspired by others and striving to get there yourself.

It's a never ending system IF you continue to look at other's work and become inspired.

But any bass playing is better than no bass playing - so if one has decided they are what they are and need no further inspiration - sure... why not? There's no right or wrong attached - it just is what it is. But it feels to me like a losing proposition - to sacrifice inspiration for self-satisfaction.
 
#27
Jonyak said:
if one thinks they are the best at something then what would be the reason to get any better??
Click to expand...

to preface, i don't feel anything even remotely of the such about my playing:D...

but, i'm sure many feel this way and still strive to get better for many reasons...some will exhibit perfectionist traits, and will often be one's best fan and worst critic--the pursuit of perfection...some will possess a burning drive or ambition that knows no end...others will possess a drive to 'hold the title' so to speak

however, i do hold to my opinion that the result of this type of 'arrogance' or self-righteousness can and has catalyzed lasting positives...the history of Borromini vs Bernini, rival sculptor/architects who both probably had the notion he was the best as well as his favorite--some enduring and redeeming work came from these men, as well as some quite entertaining stories such as bernini sculpting figures looking away or shielding their eyes from the 'horror' of a nearby facade designed by borromini--funny stuff, and maybe even more 'tongue-in-cheek' than simple rivalry
 
#28
I'm my own favorite. I'm far from the world's greatest, but I am my own personal favorite. I recommend me for all the gigs I know of where someone needs a bassist. When someone says to me, "I can't decide between you and someone else," I tell them to pick me every time.
 
#30
See the thing is, is there separation between "Favorite" from "Best"? Just because some one is my fav bass player, I dont necessarily think that means that I think they are the "best". I also think that you can get to a level to include yourself in (one Im far from lol). Andrew Gouche' is one of the two bass pioneers in gospel. He and Joel Smith started it all. I'd think he would be validated in saying that he favorited his playing on particular gospel works than others without it coming off as arrogant. Partly because there was noone before him in that role.
 
#31
JAUQO III-X said:
How does one really have the ability to think such a thing about them self with out putting ego in the way? and believing the hype that they may have about themselves, created by them.
Click to expand...

that's a slippery slope, but i think that, as touched upon by a couple of posters, if one's ego is healthy enough to provide the motivation, but disciplined enough that one isn't blinded as to one's faults, it's a traversible slope

i think a bit of ego is ok, it's when it goes unchecked that creates ugliness

as for me, i'd have to seriously thin my music collection and recollection before i was a contender:D
 
#32
i would say i am my favorite. i'm probably my biggest fan, and my biggest critic. whenever i hear myself recorded, i oscillate between 'holy a$$ that was sweet' and 'o dear me...what was i thinking?/were my hands broken?' A lot of my musician friends have the same attitude towards their playing. It's great to enjoy what you do, but we all know that we could always be better. I would say i am my favorite because i play whatever i want to play whenever i feel like it. My style is my own because I like it. If I get tired by the way I play, I'll play in another idiom.
I love hearing bass players that are better than me, since it gives me new ideas and rhythms and sounds that I can try to work into my own sonic library. I try to emulate and learn from better players, since I would like to get better all the time. I'll never be able to slap like Victor Wooten, or freak out like Jaco, or shred quite like Geddy, but I can learn from them and improve myself to make a better me.
As long as I like my playing, and my bandmates/friends/audiences like it, I'll be my own favorite.
 
#33
paganjack said:
I would say i am my favorite. I'm probably my biggest fan, and my biggest critic. Whenever i hear myself recorded, i oscillate between 'holy a$$ that was sweet' and 'o dear me...what was i thinking?/were my hands broken?' A lot of my musician friends have the same attitude towards their playing. It's great to enjoy what you do, but we all know that we could always be better. I would say i am my favorite because i play whatever i want to play whenever i feel like it. My style is my own because I like it. If I get tired by the way I play, I'll play in another idiom.
I love hearing bass players that are better than me, since it gives me new ideas and rhythms and sounds that I can try to work into my own sonic library. I try to emulate and learn from better players, since I would like to get better all the time. I'll never be able to slap like Victor Wooten, or freak out like Jaco, or shred quite like Geddy, but I can learn from them and improve myself to make a better me.
As long as I like my playing, and my bandmates/friends/audiences like it, I'll be my own favorite.
Click to expand...

Well said, +1
 

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