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Does anyone think guitar is harder than bass?

#61
just pointing out that all your arguments are based on the music being played; even your challenge presupposes a "punk band". You pointed out yourself, you can have music where there is Jaco-esque soloing over a guitar comping. As someone has mentioned several times on this thread, it depends on the music. The fact that the large majority of pop and rock music favors relatively simple bass playing doesn't make the instrument any easier or harder, but it is easier to play those parts.

If tradition dictated that pop music be filled with violins just plucking open strings, would that make the violin an easier instrument to play than say a bass?

I'll say for the majority of pop and rock music, bass is easier to play. That doesn't bother my ego at all, nor does it hinder my enjoyment of playing those songs.
 
#66
Two things come to mind first there is a difference between playing and playing well, and second if most of the bass players you listen too only play little eighth notes as you call them, you might need to broaden your horizon's as far as the music you listen too. Check out some funk, jazz, or masterful rock bassists like Geddy or Chris Squier!!!
 
#67
This question really has no simple yes or no answer. The answer will based off of each pesron's own experience.

I am a decent guitar player. but i can't play a full barre chord because my fingers don't lay across all the strings like they should. i think its just how my fingers are shaped or something. i get by with power chords and open chords. but there are many songs I cant play. Give me a bass and i can play. I am no Jaco or Victor Wooton. But I can play. When I hold a bass it feels better in my left hand and fretting is easier for me than on a guitar. Also fretting with my pinky finger is much easier too. I also can lock into the drummer very well. I keep a guitar around to mess with sometimes when I get bored. but I do play bass most of the time.
 
#68
Joe Nerve said:

Answer this question; a rehash on something I already said in this thread: You have 2 days to teach a student who never touched a bass or a guitar to play 5 songs in a punk band and if he's solid enough to get the gig, you're going to get a $100,000 reward for the work you put in. Think about it and don't BS yourself or us! If you say you'd choose to teach them guitar, then sorry, but I think you're either a liar or insane. If you chose bass it's because it's an easier instrument to play. And deep down you know it. I dont care about asthetics, being a great player, having the bass player vibe, feel, whatever you want to throw into the mix to not admit this.
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Sorry, but YOU'RE ARGUMENT IS TOTALLY INVALID. We are not debating musical applications of the instruments. You're arguing that in today's pop culture, with punk and metal bands that have shredding lead guitarists and supporting bassists, it is easier for a person to rootnote on a bass than do a guitar solo with 32nd notes. Yes. It absolutely is. It is also easier to repeatedly strum a power chord on guitar than do a bass solo with 32nd notes. To reiterate, to make sure you understand: you are arguing the wrong thing!

To go against you're argument about teaching a player, I would choose to teach guitar. In a simple song, like Ironman, it would be much harder for a new player to play the bassline and make it sound decent, with no fretbuzz, than it would be to play the same thing on guitar, with distortion, to cancel out 99% of the errors the student would make.

Don't say "Well there's solos and chord changes and stuff that are hard..." because that does not debate the difficulty of playing the instrument, only the current musical application of them in todays pop culture.

And to argue about techniques like tremelo picking, and sweeppicking, which are the most advanced guitar techniques, which are generally not associated with bass (though they can definitely 100% be done on bass), there is all of the doublethumb-doublepop and open hammerpluck, which is the most advanced "bass" techniques, which could NEVER be done on a guitar.

I'm not trying to defend bass because I can't admit that guitar is more difficult. It just makes me angry when you badmouth bass when you are so, unbelievabley, almost laughably, wrong. Personally, I think they are equally difficult at the zenith of playing ability, since they are very different at that level.

Oh, and don't take it personal Joe, I don't mean to offend you, I just want to make sure you understand my point ;)
 
#69
This just ain't gonna stop, is it? :) Sorry, but I think YOU'RE the guy missing the point. Pound for pound, ounce for ounce, generally speaking, in order to be an acceptable player of either bass or guitar - bass is easier.

You say you can throw some distortion on a guitarist - you could do the same for a bass player. If you take the insruments in their most rudimentary forms, ie. a punk band - it's easier to teach someone the bass line to blitskrieg bop than have them learn the chords and be able to make the transitions. This is simple truth. You can argue it if you like, but you're wrong if you do.

If you take the instrument to mastery - you still have the same deal. Bass guys can get to the level of Sheehan and Jaco, but at the top of the guitar you have classical guitar, flamenco, shred, playing with feedback in creative ways. They're entirely different ways of playing. Yes, on bass there's slapping, popping, tapping picking - but it pales in comparison to what's open on the guitar.

I understand what you guys are saying and how you think it's not a relevent question. It would be much harder for a beginner to learn to play bass at the level I now play at than it would for him to learn a few simple songs on guitar. Agreed. But that ain't the question. In it's simplest, most general definition...

GUITAR IS EASIER THAN BASS! DAMITT!!!!

I don't think we're gonna change each others minds here, are we?
 
#70
Joe Nerve said:
If you take the instrument to mastery - you still have the same deal. Bass guys can get to the level of Sheehan and Jaco, but at the top of the guitar you have classical guitar, flamenco, shred, playing with feedback in creative ways. They're entirely different ways of playing. Yes, on bass there's slapping, popping, tapping picking - but it pales in comparison to what's open on the guitar.
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This is one of the only logical parts of your argument that I can tell. You are correct in the respect that the guitar is capable of a larger amount of sounds and tones, I'll give you that. But it still does not suggest that it is more difficult to recreate those sounds and techniques, even if there may be more of them.

What you say about the distortion is the second logical argument. If a guitar can have distortion, so can a bass. Totally true. But when you compare simple bass lines to chord changes, you're not talking about the same level of ability. It's like arguing that a baby lion cub cannot kill a "teenage" tiger. It's not a fair comparison. Comparing chord changes on a bass to those on a guitar is fair, and from my own experience, they are both difficult in different respects. On a bass, dealing with the fretbuzz and larger stretch of the fingers is more of a problem, whereas on a guitar the fingering becomes more difficult with the thinner string spacing.

Either way....agree to disagree? And let this thread die?
 
#71
I vote this for the "Dumbest thread of the year" award.

You like bass, great.

you like guitar, great.


It's easier to learn some songs on bass, and it's easier to learn some songs on guitar...and yes, there are more songs that the bass is easier on, but who really cares?

Isn't there something better to do in your life than argue whether one instrument is easier than the other?

One would expect this from egotistical "jocks", not people who make music..

...oh well, flame on..
 
#72
I look at as equal powers. Guitar ahs it's difficulties as does bass.

Guitar you have to keep up the chords and note speed as bass has to stay in-line with the drummer and make sure he doesn't get fret buzz. As most ahve said you're comparing apples to oranges. You cna't say one is more difficult than teh other it's just a form of redundancy.
 
#73
I think it's all a matter of perspective. Let me brake it down from my own personal perspective and point of view.

The Bass: I grew up all my life listening to reggea and was drawn to the bass. Physically, the bass is a lot heavier to me and the frets are pretty far apart and I've developed calloses <----wrong spelling, and it took me a while to stretch my fingers to be able to fret the notes, especially when getting into ska which plays very fast.

Your fingers have to be very nimble to hit notes in a rapid fire succession on huge frets and pressing down on cable like strings. You have to be in tune with the drummer, and listen to what the guitarists is doing so you can lay down the groove over the drums and still be in key with the guitarist.
Chords and arpeggios on the bass is murder because the spacing is so big.

The Guitar: It's so much lighter, it's such a breeze to press down on the strings and fret notes, and I can solo on this bad boy all night long. But I can't get chords down to save my life! Some of the chord positions are down right ridiculous to me. I love the guitar, it's a wonderful instrument, but the chords are kicking my tail.

So my answer is the only instrument that is easier depends on your personal perspective. To me, the bass just feels more natural and more feasable then the guitar. But that's my own personal opinion. I really wish I could play this thing, it's such a challenge. I have an MIM Fender Strat with two single coils one humbucker pick up config leaning against my closet door in a gig bag. It will be another decade until I can play VOODOO CHILD.......:crying:
 
#74
slipknotz said:
I look at as equal powers. Guitar ahs it's difficulties as does bass.

Guitar you have to keep up the chords and note speed as bass has to stay in-line with the drummer and make sure he doesn't get fret buzz. As most ahve said you're comparing apples to oranges. You cna't say one is more difficult than teh other it's just a form of redundancy.
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i agree...they are both different skills imo...
personally, i think bass is the easier instrument to get started on...looking at songs that most people start on, you've got songs like smoke of the water and iron man, i think bass is easier to learn because guitars have chords, and basses are just one note...of course you can expand from there, to which there are songs that are hard on bass, and there are songs that are hard on guitar, and thats when you can't compare them anymore.
 
#76
To respond to the actual questions by Mista Marko:

"Guitarists are playing solos that are way faster"

Does faster = better? Some bass players play things that are blindingly fast, ibut s faster somehow more MUSICAL? I dare say that one needs to be an educated enough LISTENER to understand if something is working or not, especially when something is fast.

As far as guitarists being more exposed, while a guitarist often has a backup band setting up things for them, bass players often play with little accompaniment. What's that old joke about the drums stopping? ;)

Is a guitar harder to play than bass? Harder in what way? This is the crux of the thread, and sadly, the questions was ill-asked. Is guitar harder to play in what fashion than bass? When doing legitimate research, one of the most important things to do is set up the research question the researcher intends to answer in a way that is measurable. This question is not measurable.

What makes bass so signifigant? Well, there are a lot of great songs that are anchored by the bass. If James Jamerson happened to have played accordion, how many of the old Motown songs would have had the same impact? Jack Bruce was certianly overshadowed by Eric Clapton, but the band they were in was called "Cream" because they took the cream of the crop to form a band whose bassslines (among other things) really drove the songs.

I could expound endlessly on this last point I'm making, but it all comes down to asking a question that can have measurable anwers.
 
#77
Joe Nerve, I respect what you do and you as an individual, as well as your opinion.

Soapbox on/

I disagree with you. Better yet, I'm disappointed. Don't stop reading me, though. Lemme work on ya.

There are two things, well, really three that go into musical instruments to produce "music" - the first two being theory and technique, and the third being an intangible, the soul or karma, if you will.

Each is inextricably married to the other.

Infinite variations in those three vital inputs produce the myriad of music we are innundated with by our society, as well as societies outside our own. That goes down to the most basic childhood explorations of the medium, where people like James Jamerson tied a string to a stick and stretched their minds.

That is what makes music the language we as a race understand above all others; it has, once the rules are learned, very few rules.

There exists a basic grammar and spelling, so to speak, but we get to try to communicate in what would be the equivalent of speaking backwards and upsidedown with each other if we as musicians are able to connect that way. I guess the same could be true of spoken language, using the example of twins whose unique relationship is so intertwined that they have a unique method of communication. I digress.

You're right about this - it's easier to teach a kid the bass part than the guitar part in many songs that we hear in car commercials, around our Christmas tree, in the elevator, in baseball parks, etc, etc, etc.

Therein lies the rabbit hole. Bass players' parts are generally written to be less complex for the sake of its particular role in western musical composition.

I think, without realizing it, you're really stimulating a general, overarching and unspoken idea in the minds of today's innovative bassists.

It is probably harder to make technically and musically complex bass sound correct or as it is supposed to be there than it is an equivalent guitar part. That's the crux of it. That's the key.

I blame that on the progression of popular music.

Slab bass guitar has been defined by the release of innumerable albums featuring it in a supporting role.

Innovators are trying their damndest to chip away that edifice to create a new path for bass in today's music, and the insidious, errant idea that bass is easier, MEANT to be easier, SUPPOSED to maintain simplistic lines and a supporting role, is an idea that it is our duty to fight or we are only limiting OURSELVES.

/Soapbox

That said, laugh at me as a "proud and defensive" bassist who won't "admit the truth to myself that guitar is a harder instrument to play," but what you're really doing is pointing the finger at me and calling me different for thinking our instrument is capable of more.

And that, Joe Nerve, is something that we, as musicians, should be above.
 
#78
dharma said:
Therein lies the rabbit hole. Bass players' parts are generally written to be less complex for the sake of its particular role in western musical composition.
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Bingo. Bass isn't any easier. The music is...in general.

There is no question the bass ranks are filled with frustrated guitarists who just wanted to be in the band. While guitar players far outnumber bass players, minimalist bass "holders" outnumber competent bass players by an even wider margin. Yeah, it's easy to get into a band on bass, but that's simply a function of its role. It is as difficult to master as any other instrument (I play several), whether it's the violin or the kazoo. But few people choose to do so--and they stand out when they do. :cool:

Afterthought: It occured to me just how narrowminded this whole argument is. All we're really talking about is I-IV-V rock here. ONE genre of many. The funk/R&B bass ranks aren't exactly burgeoning with frustrated guitarists. It's the music. Not the instrument.

I've never played guitar, by the way, and don't intend to start. :)
 
#80
thedonutman said:
+1, and im not even a brass player. i mean you can get quite a few octaves with all those keys on a clarinet. but you can do the same with 3 valves on a brass instrument.
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i had a hard enough time getting a decent note out of my sister's french horn, let alone different octaves.

bottom line, different people find different instruments natural to them while finding others more difficult. that's the fun of being a musician, finding the instrument for you.
 

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