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Some people have told me that Bass is easy !!!
- Thread starter Bongofour
- Start date
The bass guitar is fairly easy to learn the very basics of playing some notes, compared to a lot of other instruments, but no instrument is easy to master. Becoming a well rounded musician takes somewhere between many years and a lifetime to accomplish!
There is an element of truth to this....
most bass players are overly blowhardish to forget they really don't have to master chords or melodies to land a paying gig...
Time and time again I hear band leaders comment that their biggest issue with bass players is our willingness to lay back and play less.
It's never been easy for me... still isn't, that's for true!
Seriously though, next time someone says that to you, say; "Cool! I'm glad you think so, I've always wanted to see if I play YYZ(or name that tune) correctly. Now, YOU can show me"!!!
I can play Smoke on The Water on guitar, I guess that makes guitar easy too!
Seriously though, next time someone says that to you, say; "Cool! I'm glad you think so, I've always wanted to see if I play YYZ(or name that tune) correctly. Now, YOU can show me"!!!
I can play Smoke on The Water on guitar, I guess that makes guitar easy too!
- Sep 9, 2007
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Honestly, the mechanics of playing the bass are pretty simple in comparison to a lot of the other instruments out there.
Playing the bass and grooving with a drummer, providing the rhythmic and harmonic foundation for a song, moving the song along as on top or on the back of the beat, backing up the vocalist(s) and soloist(s) all at the same time... yeah, that's a little harder.
i can shove in a CD or open an old casette and almost instantly find the groove/jam along with it and a jam buddy says wow that's cool!,,the same one who accuses me of playing'lead bass',,pound on that root note',,or,,people seem to want you to have a music degree(seemingly)
so somewhere out there in the middle is where i want to be,i don't want to know it all because learning new licks is part of the fun,,but when people say'playing bass is easy' and they do
,it's either because they don't TRULY listen to the basslines in a song (non musicians)or want some freakin metronome basswork done while they shred,emphasis on freakin,,
it's easy to play after awhile but it's the hard copy that's tough,reading music, understanding how to put bass lines to work in a song,doing what you can to enhance the song,,
of course ya'll didn't say what kind of music they're playin',,down at the senior center open mic night it's 'one-TWO' one-TWO ,or,,ONE-two ONE-two,anything other than that or simple 1 2 3-4turn around and it's some of that 'rock and roll' witch Jerry Lee Lewis is about as rockin as they get and without JLee it don't light me up at allhahaha so if they're playing Bob Wills then yeah keep it dirt simple=peace man it's all good just keep rollin'
so somewhere out there in the middle is where i want to be,i don't want to know it all because learning new licks is part of the fun,,but when people say'playing bass is easy' and they do
,it's either because they don't TRULY listen to the basslines in a song (non musicians)or want some freakin metronome basswork done while they shred,emphasis on freakin,,it's easy to play after awhile but it's the hard copy that's tough,reading music, understanding how to put bass lines to work in a song,doing what you can to enhance the song,,
of course ya'll didn't say what kind of music they're playin',,down at the senior center open mic night it's 'one-TWO' one-TWO ,or,,ONE-two ONE-two,anything other than that or simple 1 2 3-4turn around and it's some of that 'rock and roll' witch Jerry Lee Lewis is about as rockin as they get and without JLee it don't light me up at allhahaha so if they're playing Bob Wills then yeah keep it dirt simple=peace man it's all good just keep rollin'
The thing that's neat about music is that it's all pretty subjective. Aside from injuring yourself (due to bad technique) there really is no wrong or right.
It's as hard or easy as you want to make it.
10 people can play the exact same notes and they will all sound completely different.
Sounds like your "musician" co workers aren't really musicians to begin with.
It's as hard or easy as you want to make it.
10 people can play the exact same notes and they will all sound completely different.
Sounds like your "musician" co workers aren't really musicians to begin with.
One thing I've discovered is that it is a lot easier for me to sing lead when I'm playing guitar as opposed to when I'm playing Bass. So I really appreciate Bass players who also sing lead well.
I always thought bass was very mentally challenging:
"How do I do more than just hold down the root - 5 and not end up completely screwing up the song?"
"What the #$@% is the drummer doing with his kick drum now? This wasn't what we rehearsed."
"Why the hell are all the covers that get picked boring as @#%$ for the bass? Better pack caffeine."
"How do I do more than just hold down the root - 5 and not end up completely screwing up the song?"
"What the #$@% is the drummer doing with his kick drum now? This wasn't what we rehearsed."
"Why the hell are all the covers that get picked boring as @#%$ for the bass? Better pack caffeine."
