Do you play more than just a bass?

[devnulljp]

Now, Chapman Stick, that's a different beast, methinks. It's one of those instruments who I think are really too complicated for me... Do you think playing both guitar and bass is of help here?
It had always thought some keys experience would help, just because the training to play different lines with each hand...
(FWIW, I played piano in my youth but finally hated my piano teacher...)

Yeah, the right hand thing is hard, and I find the tuning hard to wrap my head around.
I kinda think piano and drumming would probably help with the physical part of it. I've only had it a year or so, and no way I'd try to play it out. Contrast that with transition to upright bass from electric took me 2 weeks and I was subbing with a jazz band. The notes are all in the same relative place, it's just a matter of getting over the physical aspects of the instrument and developing a technique where you don't hurt yourself. Half of the stick is tuned in fifths, backwards, which turns my brain inside out.

 

[smogg]

Yes, I play more than "just" bass. I also play a pretty mean radio.

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

I play guitar, bass, and a little bit of keyboards.

When I was a kid, I played Viola in school and I can fake my way through some harmonica blues.

I used to play drums, but I can't, anymore. I've been trying to give away my electronic kit forever.

 

[BrassedOn]

Electric bass is my main, now. Started off on trombone in middle school, then a bit of tuba, then Euphonium through college and my first FT pro gig. Added bass bone. I majored Music Ed. So every semester learned the basics of the winds, brass, percussion, strings. Cello bass was the best, oboe bassoon the worst. Also played orchestral trombone, pit work, then mainly jazz bone. Tuba was my first "bass" instrument, classic jazz, Dixieland, ragtime. Doubling was my thing for doing shows. Then picked up electric bass years later, and upright, and now guitar (beginner), and recently drum set. (Pretty sure drumming is improving my bass playing, in terms of time, groove.) And now brass playing is in the past for me. Jazz and roots bass is the path.

Go to right now is guitar. Actually learning it and practicing the instrument daily. Whereas bass is learning tunes or building accuracy and stamina on upright. Bass really suits me, and it's the only one that pays.

 

[mike buzzetti]

Bass and Guitar , production mixing arranging etc. thats it.

 

[2cooltoolz]

I play guitar pretty well, but surprisingly, I find bass less aggravating to my arthritis. I enjoy bass more, anyway, especially in the band context.

I also took piano for a couple years as an adult, and have a couple pianos in the house, but almost never touch them.

 

[KidAmnesia]

I started my musical life with the cello as a kid, had an affair with trumpet as a teen, went back to cello, started playing guitar, found out my true love was bass, then some friends asked me to join their band as a guitar player, so electric guitar became my main instrument for a couple of years, experimented for a while with samplers and synths but I suck at anything with a keyboard so back to bass.

 

[mcrawfordmusic]

Bass is my first and main instrument, but I also play guitar and harmonica. I dabble with keys, uke and other random stringed things like mando and dobro.

 

[Whale guy]

Piano all of my life, trumpet most of life, and I'm greenest with the bass. Started it in 1980...geez, that's 42 years. How did that happen?

Bass is my main instrument.

 

[Plectrum72]

Ranked from can play an entire gig to can play one song on a gig.
#1 bass - 2nd instrument
#2 guitar - 3rd instrument
#3 drums - 4th instrument
#4 keys - 6th instrument
#5 saxophone - 1st instrument
#6 harmonica - 5th instrument

 

[rashrader]

I started on Piano when I was six and bought my first Bass at the age of fourteen. I played Bass exclusively until I was in my mid twenties when I bought my first guitar. Since that time, I've gone back and forth between the two, sometimes going years without playing Bass. These days, I'm really enjoying Modular Synthesis. I've got a few gaps in the rack because I have a few new modules on the way.

 

[Manticore]

I started on piano very early. I added saxophone for school bands and decided on bass on my own shortly thereafter. Bass is what I play daily. I play piano for myself when the mood strikes. I no longer play sax with any regularity.

 

[Davebass77]

Like many, I started at 10 with 3 years of piano lessons when I'd rather be outside playing with my friends. Still can read music, though slowly. I sang the rest of the time; church choir, onstage musicals, pick up bands. Decided to learn bass in my second band when we kept losing bass players for whatever reason (time, flake, drugs, booze, etc.) Singing and playing bass now for almost 40 years! Just realized that!

 

[bolophonic]

I took a bass sabbatical and attempted to reinvent myself as a percussionist for a few years. It was a blast and I feel like I was a pretty good asset for the band:

 

[smperry]

I've played bass the most by far, but I started on piano, and played saxophone (mostly alto, a bit of baritone) from 5th grade into college. Still own a keyboard and saxophone, in addition to the family upright piano. Oh, I used to play a bit of clarinet too, and own one (that I bought for our kid, who's landed on saxophone), but I'm not great on it.

 

[sylvanbass]

Piano, Drums, Mountain Dulcimer, Mandolin/Mandola, Mandocello, Banjo, Tenor Banjo, Autoharp, Guitar, Tenor Guitar, Ukulele, DB, and Bass.

First instrument was piano at 9yo, and then straight to electric bass at 12yo. I grew up in rural East TN, so had a lot of pickers in the fam. Taught myself most of the instruments, but banjo was the one that threw me for a loop. My right hand was kind of lost, and my great uncle, as in my Grandpa's brother, gave me some pointers on which finger to pluck with on certain chords, and with certain songs and tempos. He couldn't read at all, and I'm not talking about sheet music, but was helluva picker lol.

 

[AcadianBassman]

I started out on bass at fourteen. When I was seventeen, I was in a full-time band playing a wide swatch of Eastern Canada. While missing school for a week or two at a time I picked-up some guitar, basically teaching myself chords by following what the other guys played. I never did get to be much of a guitar player, never taking up that post in a band and usually only around a camp fire. But I'm still on the bass all this time later. Love playing, enjoy playing with other people and am finding new things to love about it every time I play.

 

[Artman]

I played guitar and bass for years. Now I play only bass guitar and sing.
Bass is more fun to me.

 

[scott sinner]

You could say I am actually primarily a singer. Have almost always been a singer in groups but changed instruments otherwise. Bass second, including upright. But I'm quite good at guitar, accordion, and keys, have gigged and recorded a lot on those too. Then there are some I'd not generally say I played, but you could find recording credits for, like banjo, mandolin, drums, uke, cello. Basically with those, I am not fluent enough to jam out on them, but give me a little time to prepare, and ample takes, I have enough transferrable knowledge I can do them justice.

But bass is my favorite. I just have sometimes wanted to play some pretty damn niche music. And I've had easier luck finding a bass player than someone that could, for example, play accordion for an accordion horror rock group.

 

[GreyBeard]

I was a trumpet major in college