Doing it all wrong and not realling being a bassist anyway

[Ψ-LOG]

Hello folks,

It's not about me personally but after I a looot of Youtube comments on videos people uploaded showing their gear and what they do with it, I noticed one thing. There are a large number of people out there with a fascinating inability to accept someone doing stuff differently to how they heard it is supposed to be done so they can hide behind it and they cannot seem to shut the F up.

I'm especially talking about comments like...

"use a Jazz bass dumba$$. the reference"

or

"you don't play bass with a pick you r€tard"

or

"your slap sounds sloppy and sh!t"

I mean really, the list goes on and on and I wonder if you guys remember who said that you cannot play your instrument the way you want to as long as you're happy with it? It's really getting on me boobies to hear everyone going off about me for instance playing with a pick and I love doing it because I think it sounds better than using my fingers although I also prefer fingerstyle for slow mellow parts.

But frankly, I would use my eyeball if it gave me the sound I want!

However, I hoped we can all shout out to these people that limiting yourself isn't gonna get you very far and that limiting others makes you nothing but a pityful a-hole.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Nope. You're wrong. Picks are a sin and that slap sounds like poopie.



Haters gotta hate. If you let it get to you, they are winning. I play with a pick from time to time. My guitar player was shocked when I busted one out at practice this week. Like I wouldn't have a stash of picks at the jamspace... They do serve a purpose.

 

[FretNoMore]

The 'net is full of cowardly anonymous douchebags venting their frustrations by being rude and demeaning to other people - why give even the slightest thought to what they write?

Do what you want, play the way you like, and just ignore the trolls.

 

[jthisdell]

I play like me and have a hard time playing like anyone else. Luckily I do a fairly good cover of me. Any real player would not make such comments on another real player. Better to use that energy in a positive way.

Oh, and I work for an Ophthalmology Practice. Our Corneal Specialists advise against using your eyeballs, just for your own protection. That's not what they were made for.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

I personally don't play bass with a pick. I have never cared for the sound and consequently I'm not very good at it. But that doesn't mean you cant do it wrong if you want to.
Oh, and if you pick with your eyeball, you should use flats. Rounds are really harsh and it takes a lot of Visine to make it tolerable.

Really, phoukk 'em. They are of no consequence to you.

 

[tedious1]

Ashe Journal

From the article:
A **** is one who is obsessively sure of his own position at the cost of all other vantages. Burroughs describes **** as incapable of minding “their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a small pox virus has.” This is more than a offhanded analogy. For Burroughs, **** are, in actuality, virus occupied hosts—chronically infected by what he terms the Right virus. “The mark of a basic ****,” Burroughs reminds us, “is that he has to be right.”

The vaccine for this virus is to not reward the **** with the attention they are seeking. Like any immature person, if the behavior isn't rewarded, it soon stops. If you've raised a toddler, you are well acquainted with the syndrome.

 

[tedious1]

Oh, and if you pick with your eyeball, you should use flats. Rounds are really harsh and it takes a lot of Visine to make it tolerable.

Bah, you can get away with rounds so long as you use hard contact lenses. Although instead of eyeball, I probably would have gone with "sock covered member."

 

[fearceol]

It's really getting on me boobies to hear everyone going off about me for instance playing with a pick

I'd say it is your good self that has a problem, if you let something as trivial as this "get on your boobies".

 

[Ψ-LOG]

Well I say it's getting on me boobies, not that is driving me into major depression. I am annoyed by it, not hurt. I know who am I and what I do and I know I have every right to do it the way I do... I would just like to know where the idea that bass NEEDS to be fingered or effing slapped COMES FROM. And then I would like to kick that person in the butt^^

 

[SirMjac28]

If internet comments are irritating wait until you hear it in person from a family member.

 

[PullThePlug]

I go to the comments section on Youtube for a good laugh. Take it lightly, they had nothing better to do with their time than to post those comments. Keep thrashing on that bass!

 

[ZenG]

I say play however you like that suits you.....using whatever you like.

If you like picks...use a pick.

Many of the commenters on Youtube are simply nobodies hiding behind their anonymity when they post.

A vast percentage of them are full of b.s. and probably no good at playing anything.

 

[Grizz33]

I love the sound and the attack of a pick. I use one on stage exclusively. It works well with my band. I was playing a show once and the bass player from another band came up and asked why I use a pick, told me to be a man, blah blah blah. His band went on next. While he was on stage during his set I threw him a pick. I told him to play their next song with it. He complained in was one of their faster songs. I told him it's not nearly as fast as the songs that my band plays. He gave it shot....

He didn't last more than 6 seconds before he dropped the pick, played the wrong notes and threw the pick at my head and said, "YOU WIN!"

Do what you do. Screw the rest.

 

[Ψ-LOG]

Kinda brave of him to try during a live show

And then people, I don't need comforting. I know these people are dumb. I am talking about the phenomenon in general. Geez...

 

[PWRL]

Play how you want to play. Also, YouTube comments seem to be nothing more than a reminder of the need for the return of corporal punishment. Lots of those people need a good caning.

 

[Real Soon]

Youtube comments are mostly written by ppl who fit the old adage: "Those who can't, disparage from a safe distance"

 

[Real Soon]

Funny story about picks...many years ago, I lived in Cleveland, OH and was working at the Energizer R&D facility there as a temp laborer (read: full-time employee with zero benefits). A fellow temp came in for an adjacent dept, and was a bassist. I didn't play at the time but was learning production & sound engineering, so we chatted.

He told me that he played with a pick, which to me as a producer is just fine. That's a specific sound. But then he told me he had a pick with a rubber nose on it to simulate the sound of playing fingerstyle. Because he refused to learn how to just do it by putting the pick down.




If anyone warrants a bit of internet judgment about pick use, it's that guy.

 

[kleinenenten]

The internet is right on ALL accounts. The more oxymoronic/contradictory it is, the more correct the statement. Right?

 

[f'nar f'nar]

I don't see how any style can be classified as "wrong" as long as it sounds good!

I will say this, I saw a Fall Out Boy gig a few years back and the bassists style was very strange. He played with a pick but with massive amounts of right arm movement that basically looked like he was a strumming a guitar. It didn't sound sloppy but it LOOKED wrong... But **** me if the bass line to Dance Dance isn't super catchy!

 

[jthisdell]

If internet comments are irritating wait until you hear it in person from a family member.

I was learning something the other day, my wife said, that doesn't sound anything like that song. I said, that's because it!s the bass line, not the melody