And despite some opinions here, many bass players were once frustrated guitar players. The frustration comes from many directions. Some of us were in an area with too many guitarists and not enough bass players. Some of us couldn't really get the hang of the guitar. Some of us just plain sucked on guitar but wanted to play in and band. And some of us were called to the bass from the cradle.
Yes, I started out as a frustrated guitar player. Finally gave up on it. And in fact before guitar I actually started with piano lessons. Studied for years and still suck on keys. In fact nobody has EVER paid money to hear me play keys! But the musical knowledge you get studying piano is immense. Treble clef, bass clef, melody, harmony, rhythm, strings, percussion! its ALL in there and I'll get to why that is important.
But that was then and this is now. Yes it was true I went from failed guitar player to the joke where the kid blows off bass lessons because he has a gig! Yes there IS demand. And the fact I learned drums too didn't hurt!
But today I play bass, I play drums, I play guitar, I sing, I dance, I play my banjo, I play my blues harp, I write songs, and have a ball with it all!
So I hope I can give just a bit of advice. And the advice is this: Each instrument is different. And the important thing is that you have the given instrument in it's proper role. Just like I tell dancers: it doesn't matter what STEPS you do, just as long as every step has the right FEEL! So the role of a guitarist is related to harmony and melody for sure, but the key is the guitarist is there to grab and hold the AUDIENCE. So it tends to be about force of personality, about looks, about showing off, about getting attention, about melody. It's the JOB a guitarist does! (not talking about rhythm guitar which is sort of a hybrid half way between lead guitar and bass)
But the bass on the other hand is there to grab and hold the BAND. Bass is about harmony and rhythm. so the bass is closely related to the drums and there must be a meeting of the minds there, but it's also about harmony and the bass is a extremely powerful instrument that literally can make the guitar player do what you want him to do without him even knowing you are doing it! As others have already noted, this much power means it takes some skill to use it wisely. It takes significant music knowledge. And not just harmony either. The bass can make the dancers do whatever he/she wants as well. If the bass stops playing the music falls apart!
But control of the band isn't a show thing. That isn't the bass players job (unless they are singing and playing bass in which case because you are a vocalist you will have the job of grabbing the audience). But generally a bass player acts quietly in the background making things happen all over the band and leaves the leather pants to guitar players. It's very similar to drummers only they have a bit less control over the band than bass (more over dancers though).
The bottom line is that if you want to play bass, you have to develop a bass player's mentality. You make a little compartment in your head and you label it "this is what I do when I play bass" And you put all the things that make for a great bass player in there. things that make for a great guitar player go into a different compartment. It's almost like you are two completely different personalities. But that's is just part of instruments being different.
That's how I see it.
