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playing bass... standing up??!?!?!!??!?????!!!??
- Thread starter lo-end
- Start date
)This was a really good read, I know he's a guitarist but look how high Adam D from Killswitch Engage wears his guitar and he is a nutcase on stage
I always stand up because sitting down I have to bend my wrists, standing up the bass is lower and in a better place for my arms.
I gotta say, when people wear their guitars real low, it reminds me of kids that sag their pants with their underwear hanging out.
Well I can play bass very well sitting down, but I have little to no experience playing standing up. I do it for a few minutes every day, but Im always so uncomfortable that I just go back to sitting down again. I cant seem to play as well as I can sitting down, and I see all kinds of live concerts on tv with bass players standing up and playing fast, so why cant I do it?
I have my strap relitively(sp) low, by the way, but not that low. my bass is just below my stomach. I also want to know if there are any secrets to moving around a lot when you play, because right now I am limited to standing still and straining my wrist to hit notes.
Any tips? Or is it just good old fashioned practice that I need?? I know you guys know about this problem... you must have had it some time...
I didn't red this whole thread but my advice is to set your strap so the bass is in the same place sitting or standing.. As a spectator ... for me anyway I think that musicians who look comfortable and like they are enjoying themselves look the coolest.. You don't have to be hopping around like Verdine White.. That will come in time.. You need to just relax and be comfortable.. I will notice a bassplayer who is in the pocket and barely moving but looking like he is having a blast than one who is hoping around but is playing poorly. In the end as musicians it is the music that will be the final arbiter in the eyes (ears) of any audience.. ..
It seems that 12 years later, there's still no shortage of people who are ready, willing & able to tell you what to do.
I on the other hand can not sit and play bass at all. I always stand up when i play. Thats because i stand up on stage when i play. Why practice on something you never do live?
I was on page 3 before I saw that the thread was 12 years old. Damn! It was started less than a month after 9/11. My son is only 9. Two-thirds of my basses are newer than this thread.
Anyhoo, a bass is played with the neck held more vertically than a guitar is. Maybe if you play with a pick, AND have a short scale bass (or freakishly long arms), then you could hold a bass somewhat like the guitards do. But if you play a long scale, with the fingers, then a low, horizontal bass is just unnatural and awkward. I guess you could play open-E eight notes that way, but I'd develop carpal tunnel in 3 bars if I ever tried to actually use the fretboard on a bass held like that. Forget it.
I've never understood the "strap the same sitting or standing" advice. I never play when sitting because it's not only impossible to get the neck angle right when sitting, but the whole bass shifts several inches rightward, so it can accommodate my right thigh. It's all wrong. I'd never perform that way, so why practice that way?
Anyhoo, a bass is played with the neck held more vertically than a guitar is. Maybe if you play with a pick, AND have a short scale bass (or freakishly long arms), then you could hold a bass somewhat like the guitards do. But if you play a long scale, with the fingers, then a low, horizontal bass is just unnatural and awkward. I guess you could play open-E eight notes that way, but I'd develop carpal tunnel in 3 bars if I ever tried to actually use the fretboard on a bass held like that. Forget it.
I've never understood the "strap the same sitting or standing" advice. I never play when sitting because it's not only impossible to get the neck angle right when sitting, but the whole bass shifts several inches rightward, so it can accommodate my right thigh. It's all wrong. I'd never perform that way, so why practice that way?
Sat the strap length the same if you are standing or seated. You are worry too much about looking cool than playing well. You can have the strap to your ankles but if you can't play well the looking cool factor flies right out of the equation and you become a person with a piece of wood hanging around their neck.
Strap height is survival of the fittest.
1) If you're too concerned with aesthetics then eventually your weird, ungainly slung bass that requires gorilla arms to reach will turn on you and cause some injuries that will stop your playing for a little while (where you'll hopefully learn your lesson) or permanently (to save others from having to see you).
2) If you're so concerned with how you look that you miss notes, can't play low on the neck or on the D and G, slam the bass on the floor when bobbing up and down, then eventually your bands going to get sick of you sounding like last weeks ass, warmed over in a dirty microwave, and send you packing.
I am a reformed #1, by the way, and keep my bass at sternum level. The first drummer in the band we had wanted me kicked out because I started wearing my bass higher, which is funny because we ended up kicking him out because he was a horrible person and mediocre drummer.
1) If you're too concerned with aesthetics then eventually your weird, ungainly slung bass that requires gorilla arms to reach will turn on you and cause some injuries that will stop your playing for a little while (where you'll hopefully learn your lesson) or permanently (to save others from having to see you).
2) If you're so concerned with how you look that you miss notes, can't play low on the neck or on the D and G, slam the bass on the floor when bobbing up and down, then eventually your bands going to get sick of you sounding like last weeks ass, warmed over in a dirty microwave, and send you packing.
I am a reformed #1, by the way, and keep my bass at sternum level. The first drummer in the band we had wanted me kicked out because I started wearing my bass higher, which is funny because we ended up kicking him out because he was a horrible person and mediocre drummer.
