Do you consider your self "good"?

[bassbully43]

well..........i cant pop and slap well...i never tap...but i put good cuz i can grove hold the pocket and play good old school bass...like
Duck Dunn, Oakley and alot of plain old bass players...if i wanted to slap and pop or tap i would of stuck to guitar...i like the bottom and holding a groove.

 

[smperry]

I don't consider myself a "good" bassist. I get by, and I'm improving though.

Marshall

 

[The Golden Boy]

"vaguely competent"

"mediocre at best"

"stunningly adequate"

I'm decent at what I do. Out of my element I would probably suck hard.

I'm a much better bass player than a guitarist. And I'm really, really fortunate that I've been able to work with a lot of really great musicians.

 

[Matt Call]

I was totally the 100th person to answer the poll.

Anyway, I can write stuff pretty easily; and play well in a band setting.

When it comes to solo stuff, I'm OK at best. I've been recording some stuff and it just feels bland to me. There isn't a ton of variety... I'm kind of disappointed.

I really haven't done any theory, and need too. I'm always told that I have the skills, just not the classical training.

 

[whitedk57]

I have been playing almost a year now, and I would consider myself "not good". I once saw a post by somebody that said that it's accepted knowledge that you won't be good for the 1st two years. So maybe next year I can say that I don't suck. Maybe 10 years will bring the "good".

 

[Thor]

After 35 years of bass playing I have come to realize there are things I will never know. Fortunately, the minute I start thinking I am good as a musician, I see somebody that reminds me that there are still quantum leaps to be made.

This weekend it was a pianist named Peter Serkin. In the past it has been a John McLaughlin or a Muddy Waters or a Yo-Yo Ma. Then I am reminded the suck nob is still stuck around 8.

I will be doing well if I can get it down to 7 before I die.

 

[Thunderbird91]

Then I am reminded the suck nob is still stuck around 8.

I must be at 11 atleast if you are only an 8

 

[lbanks]

Well as a bassist do you think you are good? ?

Not really. I just do what I can.

 

[Jazzin']

I think it's important to think you are good (for confidence's sake), but at the same time realize that good isn't good enough, and that there's an infinite amount of room for improvement.

 

[Thunderbird91]

I think it's important to think you are good (for confidence's sake), but at the same time realize that good isn't good enough, and that there's an infinite amount of room for improvement.

Amen!

 

[Funk On Crack]

I'm ok, used to be a lot better. Now that all my gear is working i'm sure i'll get back to where I was. Bass is just too fun to give up on, I think i'll be learning new things for ever!

Of course my good is probably nothing like anyone elses. I like to think that things like picking basslines from a song and being able to play them straight away is "good", so i'll never get a big head or anything, I just keep it to myself and i'm happy once i've accomplished something!

 

[McHack]

This is a funky question... because by what standard would you decide whether someone is good, or not. Must everyone who's good be able to play YYZ? or, be able to adhoc solo at the drop of a hat? Must you beable to slap a bass so hard, that the players mom has a hand print on her face?

I'm good at keeping time, staying in key, & can throw in some shizzle to most of what I play. Most folks I've played with call me good & havent found much I cant handle, but I think I have alot to learn.

 

[ElBajista]

I consider myself "decent."

I can sight-read sheet music and form basslines based on the chords set in front of me fairly quickly, and I can get pretty diverse tones simply from changing my technique in mid-song. I'm a low-level-decency slapper, but I'm able to keep a groove. You could say that I do the bass player's job well, in keeping the groove, knowing when and when not to play, and writing tasteful but moving lines when necessary.

That said, I'm not happy with my current abilities, which I actually consider a good thing. Not only as musicians, but as individual people, we must always strive for improvement. [/Philosophy]



-David

 

[Floating teetH]

yeah, i'm pretty much the goodest/

i can play, i just get distracted

 

[GSPLBASSDC]

When I think of bassist's, I think in terms of "awesome", "good", "can hold his/her own", and "more practice, less gigging needed"....

my opinion of myself fits somewhere between the last two....

 

[Mike N]

I'm ok in a cover band situation. I can cop tunes from a cd, but don't understand what I'm playing or how the note selections work together.

I have no improvising skills, no soloing skills, can't read music and know little theory. Basically I suck.

 

[Brad Johnson]

This is a funky question... because by what standard would you decide whether someone is good, or not. Must everyone who's good be able to play YYZ? or, be able to adhoc solo at the drop of a hat? Must you beable to slap a bass so hard, that the players mom has a hand print on her face?

I'm good at keeping time, staying in key, & can throw in some shizzle to most of what I play. Most folks I've played with call me good & havent found much I cant handle, but I think I have alot to learn.

IMO soloing, slapping, tapping, etc. aren't prerequisites for being considered "good". Hardly... in fact you could gain facility in all three and still suck if you don't have the basics down... keeping time and playing in context are critical as far as being considered "good" IMO. If you can do that you're way ahead of the game. With that foundation you have something to build on. OTOH if the only thing you've done is shed on "Classical Thump" but one note out of place completely throws you off...

not good.

In my case, I consider myself good primarily because I feel like I've reached a level of comfort I couldn't have if I wasn't good enough to get through the gigs I have to do. That doesn't mean I've stopped learning.... far from it. It means I'm not up there sweating bullets praying that on the downbeat everyone doesn't figure out I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing. For example I did a quartet gig Friday night with some top notch local players. This was a new pairing yet, with no rehearsals and typically no idea what we were going to play until the leader gave us a musical clue, we pulled it off very well IMO. Tons of on the spot arranging, morphing one song into another and another and another and then bringing it home. Several different muscial styles. Excellent dynamics. We had the people in the club exhausted when we were done. That gig was all about listening to the each other and instantly reacting. That requires a level of proficiency you don't get by obsessing on one technique or such thing.

It's also a heck of a lot of fun playing when the audience is really into it.

If I'm doing covers or standards, I really don't care what key we play in. Transposing is non-issue for me... it comes from years of playing behind vocalists and also learning the song, not the key. Learn the song and the key rarely matters.