Do you also play the piano?

[rutrho]

Nope, don't play it. I have a couple uncles that tried to work with me on it when I was a kid and it never clicked...

Frankly it still doesn't... One of these days, heh.

 

[KenD]

I started on piano in elementary school and then switched to bass guitar in my teens. I have also taken a couple of years of formal instruction in jazz guitar in later years.

IMO basic familiarity with a multi-note instrument like piano or guitar is very useful in developing a working knowledge of chord and harmony theory. It really helps me to work out the lines I want to play in relation to the melody and the applicable chord in each measure.

 

[SunByrne]

Specifically, do you play it with the idea it will help you be a better musician and hence bassist.

Funny you should ask. My teacher (who also teaches guitar and piano) was the teacher for both me and my guitarist son. Well, my son just went off to college so I'm using what was his time slot to start learning piano, for exactly this reason. I've had like five lessons so I wouldn't say that I play piano just yet, but it's definitely the plan to get there, at least a little.

 

[Acoop]

Yes, of course. ... Every musician should play the piano, they're cheap and lots of free lessons on YouTube.. Plus, 1, because piano reads like a road map and 2, it's based on triads, as is the bass, and 3, for the ear training.
I also practice the Trumpet as a melody instrument. ...

 

[Matt Dean]

I took piano lessons as a child, never really go good at it, but I do play the synth in one band and feel comfortable nodding on a synth keyboard.

 

[Ric5]

I play a little piano

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and a little guitar

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and I like more bass

 

[DJ Bebop]

Dad was a piano player that's how I got started.

 

[bigjames]

I've been quite surprised how quickly treble clef is coming. I thought I'd have a real hard time, having only ever read bass clef.

If you can read one, the other should come fairly easily in my experience. I started on piano, then trumpet, then trombone and voice, then bass. I still stumble with odd clefs, like alto and tenor, but they are few and far between in my experience.

 

[Manticore]

I've been quite surprised how quickly treble clef is coming. I thought I'd have a real hard time, having only ever read bass clef.

Best wishes in your reading adventure.

I've been forever grateful to my parents for starting me so young. The cool part about learning to read on piano is the printed page is laid out exactly the same as the keyboard, so there are clear visual references.

 

[Holdsg]

yes.

one (patient) teacher from age eight to eighteen, provided me with solid classical chops and enough theory to be dangerous.

started in on jazz in Jr High and High School, separate jazz teacher when I started wanting to really learn how to swing

I never could again play classical as well once I started playing jazz, but I was having more fun.

Became a church pianist/organist at age 18, something I still do weekly at age 59.

Funny it was learning bass at around age 40 that got me interested in playing in bands and gigging.

Along came opportunities to play keys in bands, and then it was my dream to do John Paul Jones in a Led Zeppelin Tribute band. The best of both worlds, getting to play both in the same band.

So when people ask me which I like better, playing keys or bass, I say, it's not that simple. I love them both and both have enriched my life so much that I can't choose one over the other.

 

[mrcbass]

I voted yes, but needs an asterisk. I can roughly get around on a keyboard using block chords, mostly one handed. I've had some training (home schooled at 10 and then extensive focus in college including all the Bach stuff), but have never been proficient. I know a few guys who didn't graduate college with a music degree just because they couldn't pass the final semester of piano study - it was that intense.

I toy with my little electric thing once in a while, typically when working out vocal harmonies, and have tried to workup some basic parts for songs I do, but I'll never hit a stage as a keyboardist.

I believe that every musician should be able to get around on a keyboard even if it is rough. It is a great tool for working out basic theory concepts if nothing else.

 

[dkelley]

mum was professional pianist and piano teacher. It was my first instrument. I learned to read music before I learned to read words.

However I never was super comfortable on piano and didn't stick with it, so I'm kind of a crappy piano player now, although given time to mess around, I can definitely contribute on keys in rock/blues situations. But I lost any technical skill (which was very limited on the instrument even at my best) long long ago, and I can't read using two hands at all. I'm dramatically less crappy one hand at a time at reading music though, due to having lived on bass and violin reading single line music most of my life.

 

[lermgalieu]

I played piano long before I took up bass, so it isn't really for the purposes OP describes. I don't play it a lot anymore, and kind of stink, but I know my way around a keyboard, and can easily add it to my demos. I often think about music on a mental keyboard. I keep meaning to get back into it, but the closest I've come recently is (re)learning a Chopin piece.

 

[swarfrat]

No but it doesn't stop me from owning a couple keyboard controllers

 

[MichelD]

No, don't have one, never had one in the house and never had any music lessons for any instrument except clarinet for half of grade 12 when at the very end of my public school career for the very first time in my life we had a music teacher.

I can play triads in the key of C and fake out "Whole lotta shakin' going on," and "I shall be released." That is my piano repertoire.

 

[misterCRUSH]

Started on the family piano playing along to Bill Evans records when I was 4...took a few years of lessons. I don't 'play' much anymore, but use the piano at least a couple of times a week to figure out chords and lines in jazz recordings. It's a great help. I use it to teach theory to my students too.

 

[pfschim]

yes
like other have already described, Piano was my first instrument starting at 6. My family includes many generations of pro players, and both my parents were working musicians as well as music teachers. It was almost an automatic thing to both play and sing growing up in my house. Everyone started on piano around age 5 or 6, then you could choose another instrument after a few years. I picked bass but continued piano study until my late teens. I can, and have, gigged on keys, and have doubled up on keys for certain projects, but live performance on keys is not my strongest play. Been gigging and recording on bass for 55+ years, and still going strong.

I agree with pretty much all that has been said about how helpful piano/keyboard skills (and reading) can be for pretty much anything and everything related to being a working musician.

 

[Dega60]

Specifically, do you play it with the idea it will help you be a better musician and hence bassist.

if yes, what are your reasons?

If no, any particular reason why not?

I voted NO and really I don't . . . I can bang out a couple of chords (one hand only) when I need to if I'm writing a song and want a little fill in a backing track as a place holder. And even when I do that I use a little chart hanging on the wall above the keyboard. I have used the MIDI aspect of the keyboard to program some drums for my songs but that probably doesn't count either. I have always wanted to learn keys though but time and money (or lack thereof) has kept that at bay. My sister on the other hand is a master piano player!

 

[john_g]

Yes. I took up keys over 10 years ago, really just to help fill out the sound in my cover band without having to get a keys player. Didnt know what i was doing but with enough practice i could do whatever was needed. Then about 4 years ago I decided to get some lessons and took to it really quickly. I even started teaching piano to beginners and intermediates at a local music school too.

 

[H K]

Recently started actually. With some of the tools availible today I feel progress is very fast. Also helps that I already play a few instruments I guess.

I think, the best instrument to learn to be good at bass (Other than bass obviously), would probably be drums, no? To get the rythmitcal stuff in. IIRC Les Claypool is a drummer.