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Have you ever received negative comments because you play bass?

#22
BAG said:
The same thing happened to me (except slap...... still can't do that at all) but it was after 30 years of guitar. How I wish i'd gotten into bass earlier........ and my guitars got completely neglected for the last two years. The only time I pick them up is when trying to show a guitarist how a section actually goes....opposed to what they think it does.
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I bust out the guitar one or two times a week to practice some scales and soloing so I don't lose my touch and for band rehearsals (I'm the rhythm guitar/bass player in my band, so both instruments get some love). Aside from that, I play mostly bass on my free time
 
#23
A fair number of people, if you play them a bass line without any accompaniment, don't get it. Bass is a little unique among instruments in that most of what you do is context based, supporting rather than defining the song (there are plenty of exceptions, but in general this is how bass works, right?). So I've had people not get it.

But I've never had anybody say anything negative about it, or my decision to switch from being mainly a violinist to a bassist. This possibly may be a statement on my abilities as a bassist...or a violinist, I'm not really sure and kind of don't want to know.
 
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#25
just ask them how they think The Who would have sounded without John E, or Pink Floyd with out Waters ..I shudder to think of Money played on the E string of a guitar instead....
where is Little Green Bag without the groove?... would we have J. Tull's A New Day Yesterday or Living in the Past, Zappa's Don't Eat the Yellow Snow or Zepp's What is and Should Never Be, and don't get me started on B. Marley etc etc...


..oh I have just barely scratched the surface.....fire off a few songs like this list or your own, and tell them to take a hike....ask them if Yo Yo Ma is unskilled, after all there are only 4 strings on a Cello, can't be that hard what he does, right?



look 'em square in the eye and say "Hey, Bulldog?..., are you some kind of "Joker"?..."I Wish" you weren't, but "You can call me Al", and since "Charlie Don't Surf", I'm gonna play my bass into my "Golden Years", out back, in my "Brick House" , yeah that's right.... a house that won't catch "Fire"...so go take a "Walk on the Wild Side"
 
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#27
Actually, yes...and it was coupled with my disability. I was telling a guy I knew in High School that I just got done with band rehearsal. He said "Bull$%*!, you don't play no instrument. How the hell you gonna play something with f^&*ed up hands like that?" I said, "I do.I've been playing bass for years." His response was "Well, that makes sense...bass ain't do nuthin' anyways."

This was in Jacksonville, FL. I'm sure you're all shocked. lol
 
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#30
A while back, I worked for guitar player BL who kept telling me I played too much and didn't let the notes ring enough.

Now, I work with (note change in wording!) a different guitar player BL who appreciates what I do, gives me some feature spots in our show, and compliments me on the mic.

Life is good. Ya just gotta find the niche where you fit.
 
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#38
Negative comments, not from some teenage metal moron, but from your music director?! And your parents?! Wow, tough world you've been born into sounds like.

I've only gotten negative comments from my music teacher for playing poorly; which is really getting yelled at for not playing enough bass.
 
#39
vegas532 said:
Actually, yes...and it was coupled with my disability. I was telling a guy I knew in High School that I just got done with band rehearsal. He said "Bull$%*!, you don't play no instrument. How the hell you gonna play something with f^&*ed up hands like that?" I said, "I do.I've been playing bass for years." His response was "Well, that makes sense...bass ain't do nuthin' anyways."

This was in Jacksonville, FL. I'm sure you're all shocked. lol
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Long ago, when we were visiting my sister in law in Jacksonville, FL, I was struck by how many trailer homes we saw with 20 year old cars sitting on cinder blocks in their front yards and a pickup in the driveway. It really is a different world down there.
 
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#40
Yes. I too am a guitar convert. But comments I get are mostly jokingly or in jest from friends. Any serious comments about bass said with negative intentions (eg. bass is easy, play a real instrument, buy a guitar instead when bass shopping) are from people who don't understand or value the bass's role in music.

They just don't know that despite the instruments looking similar, what makes a guitarist important is not what makes a bassist important.
 
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