Hey, I'm new here

[patate_hurlante]

I'm 37, from Italy.
I love music.
I have taken some piano lessons as a kid and played keyboards in a few metal bands when I was 18-20.

Then, a lot of real life.

Based on the observation that

1. most songs have bass lines but not all songs have keyboards, and that
2. keyboards while big and hulking to carry around aren't phallic enough,

lately I have picked up bass with a teacher.

I hope I get to the point where I play well enough before my beer belly make it impossible for my plucking hand to reach the strings.

Love: Paul Denman, Steve Harris, Tony Levin, Lemmy, McCartney, Sting, Myung (IMHO criminally underrated as a "foundations" player), John Giblin, Gary Peacock depending on the company he keeps.

I love Rush, but I prefer Geddy at his more restrained (The Pass, Leave That Thing Alone...), sometimes I just find his playing a bit too busy

At the moment I am listening to the eponymous debut by Beth Hart, it's a bit like Tori Amos without the excesses

 

[DJ Bebop]

Welcome

 

[DJ Bebop]

My first encounter with Beth Hart was this cut back in the day. Powerful heady stuff…

 

[patate_hurlante]

My first encounter with Beth Hart was this cut back in the day. Powerful heady stuff…

Beth Hart is great, but I was actually listening to Beth Waters.



I don't know what happened, Freudian slip or something, I guess

(Is that a fretless bass?)

 

[DJ Bebop]

Beth Hart is great, but I was actually listening to Beth Waters.
I don't know what happened, Freudian slip or something, I guess

(Is that a fretless bass?)

Fretted P bass in the Beth Hart thing.

I thought it was odd the comparison of Beth Hart to Tori Amos in you OP. Didn’t make sense

 

[ahbradot]

Welcome to talkbass!
Your knowledge of keyboards and piano will help you tremendously with your bass playing journey.

 

[patate_hurlante]

Welcome to talkbass!
Your knowledge of keyboards and piano will help you tremendously with your bass playing journey.

I myself am confident I will be able to bring all the bad habits over to the new instrument.
Maybe I'll even form new ones

Seriously speaking, I've always had the most fun with my left hand... but I think there's no two instruments that are more different.

Bass (either electric or uprights) is a very "physical" instrument where the way a single note, or a train of 4-on-the-floor root notes, is sounded, really makes or breaks the song, much like singing.

On piano you have a complicated system of levers physically insulating you from the strings, and let's face it, flashiness is prized more than a solid groove.

I do remember one thing from my (pfff) classical training, however, and it's from Schumann: "amateurs should focus on playing simple pieces with 'noble' intention and sound", which i think is 18th century speak for "take a simple line and make it groove"

 

[Low Main]

You're living in the global epicenter of great bass players.

Dario Deidda, Federico Malaman, Rossana Nicolosi, Antonella Mazza and many many others.

Even some not born in Italy - Richard Sinclair, et al.

 

[patate_hurlante]

Dario Deidda, Federico Malaman, Rossana Nicolosi, Antonella Mazza and many many others.

...I'm ashamed to say I haven't heard of either :-(

I'll have some catching up to do!

From the "home team" I'm very partial to Gigi Cappellotto, Bob Callero, Roberto Drovandi (*) and the late Aldo Stellita, one of those "technically average" players who could quietly carry a whole band on their shoulders



(*) He didn't write the line in the link, but boy does he play the hell out of it.

 

[Lefty Joe]

I hope I get to the point where I play well enough before my beer belly make it impossible for my plucking hand to reach the strings.

Love: Paul Denman, Steve Harris, Tony Levin, Lemmy, McCartney, Sting, Myung (IMHO criminally underrated as a "foundations" player), John Giblin, Gary Peacock depending on the company he keeps

From the available evidence, there is no such thing as a belly too big for bass-playing ...

As for foundation bass players, do check out Bob Marley's live album Babylon By Bus. You may not particularly care for reggae, but Aston Barrett's minimalism is a master-class in how to get more from less -- perhaps an antidote to Geddy.