I am a teacher at a private school. The goal is to teach music to any and all age(s) interested in the subject, on modern instrumentation such as Vocals, Guitar, Bass, and Drums. I have, roughly, the same amount of guitar students (varying in ages) as I do on drum kit lessons (ages 7-15 on avg.) and I have ONE, yes, ONE brave soul willing to come forward and announce "I want to learn to play bass!" That person is in there 30's (hard to tell anymore) and also visually-impaired (which has likely been more of a help to them in learning literally by-ear and a fun challenge for me to accommodate the lack of visuals like markings, inlay-dots or counting frets as so many visual-learning guitar students tend to lean towards), but really, my chief complaint is that the attitude towards the necessity or wanting to learn the bass guitar is imo reaching an ever declining-low point (no pun) in today's populous of future-musical-greats! AND it's sad. Bass, was my first of the multiple instruments I play regularly and at a professional level. If drums are the foundation and corner-stone of a band, who's expression is defined through the harmonies and melody-derived 'moods' or 'color' tone combo of the vocalist(s) and guitar(s), the bass, then, is the SOUL; It is the glue that holds the latter together and gives it the shape and fulfillment; the warmth-of the Manor, that permeates and abounds within the castle's walls and foundations; it might be invisible at first glance, but it is the solace that is the space-between, amidst all the elegance and decor, the space that is necessity for creation as both atmosphere and provides the room to de-clutter and breathe!
Today, I will, on occasion, flip through channels and streams of new artist and listen to a variety of genre-upon-sub genre of music and I do admit a certain lack of soul in the tunes that I can, being fair, attribute to the absence of real or authentic (heck, even a synthetic-sample would suffice!) bass-guitar. Now, having been replaced by a button, a program, a tone only that can only be produced through large, powered sub-woofers the size of Escalade-tire rims and... Although the market is there and saturated with it, what happened to the bass as an art form of expression? When did expression of mood and opinion and situational conceptualization of the Universe get reduced to its core of septuple-low C, thus making the listener lose all control of involuntary bowel-stability? Parents both musical and/or non-musical alike, are now the parents that were the kids and teenagers in the generation that had gravitated towards bass-drops, electronica, hip-hop, rap and so on which virtually and physically changed the way bass was a necessity or even incorporated in the musical process of artistry.
Perhaps it saved the expense of having to buy a bass, a cab, pedals and dare I say...Learning how-to-play it all, so as to enter the Age of the Sampler and the new, one-second-youtube-how-to-play-bass hack of a finger smashing down on a LED-lit square every so often! Following suit with observing of taking anything worth doing to its quickest, simplest and least amount of care or effort-modus operandi that so many have seemed to adopted in many facets of everyday life.
Peeps, tell and show your kids or your friends with kids that today there is still bass and it is needed, but tomorrow is a new day and almost as such, there is less and less music that portrays artistry by the modern musical standards or ideas and principle's, chiefly as a 1-minute of fame quick release single to get that money, which is the most important part, as I determine of society on average, or we would otherwise see the trend in an independent, musical-savants wet dream while the music-industry-collapsing sounds-echo throughout the globe, but the SOUL of today, in music, is too, starting to disappear as M.J. Fox did in a photo in Back to the Future. Time to last resort and educate the youth of its usefulness and artistry and that bastardizing it doesn't have to be the American-standard for anything inherently "Good" as defined by its very nature!
Cheers and keep on creating;
It's about all we have left!
- ZS
Today, I will, on occasion, flip through channels and streams of new artist and listen to a variety of genre-upon-sub genre of music and I do admit a certain lack of soul in the tunes that I can, being fair, attribute to the absence of real or authentic (heck, even a synthetic-sample would suffice!) bass-guitar. Now, having been replaced by a button, a program, a tone only that can only be produced through large, powered sub-woofers the size of Escalade-tire rims and... Although the market is there and saturated with it, what happened to the bass as an art form of expression? When did expression of mood and opinion and situational conceptualization of the Universe get reduced to its core of septuple-low C, thus making the listener lose all control of involuntary bowel-stability? Parents both musical and/or non-musical alike, are now the parents that were the kids and teenagers in the generation that had gravitated towards bass-drops, electronica, hip-hop, rap and so on which virtually and physically changed the way bass was a necessity or even incorporated in the musical process of artistry.
Perhaps it saved the expense of having to buy a bass, a cab, pedals and dare I say...Learning how-to-play it all, so as to enter the Age of the Sampler and the new, one-second-youtube-how-to-play-bass hack of a finger smashing down on a LED-lit square every so often! Following suit with observing of taking anything worth doing to its quickest, simplest and least amount of care or effort-modus operandi that so many have seemed to adopted in many facets of everyday life.
Peeps, tell and show your kids or your friends with kids that today there is still bass and it is needed, but tomorrow is a new day and almost as such, there is less and less music that portrays artistry by the modern musical standards or ideas and principle's, chiefly as a 1-minute of fame quick release single to get that money, which is the most important part, as I determine of society on average, or we would otherwise see the trend in an independent, musical-savants wet dream while the music-industry-collapsing sounds-echo throughout the globe, but the SOUL of today, in music, is too, starting to disappear as M.J. Fox did in a photo in Back to the Future. Time to last resort and educate the youth of its usefulness and artistry and that bastardizing it doesn't have to be the American-standard for anything inherently "Good" as defined by its very nature!
Cheers and keep on creating;
It's about all we have left!
- ZS
