**edited, and worded better, to be a little nicer** I think If you can't understand the concept that some people simply feel that they aren't influenced by others and don't incorporate anyone elses ideas or try to emulate them, or even let their playing change a simgle thing about their own, then you should just leave this thread and leave it for the people who it was put out to, the people who feel the same.
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Who has NOBODY as an influence?
- Thread starter NickInMesa
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bamba22
Commercial User
Actually i agree with that, if you HATE how something someone else plays sounds, then you'll make sure your stuff sounds nothing like it, though thats not exactly what people mean when they ask, they mean in a positive way.
10/10 for understanding the question.
An influence is I guess is who people strongly feel spoke to them with their playing/style. I wanted to play bass because I just WANTED to play music, none of my friends at the time played instruments, no one bought me a bass and said here ya go! Its not like there was one just available for me to mess around on, there we're no TV adds or online forums, I just simply wanted to play music. I could have picked any instrument. Guitar, drums, violin, keyboard, it doesn't matter because i would be writing the same post on talkviolin.com (patent pending) or any other music forum expressing my OWN individuality in what I do.
I LIKE certain bassists, and certain bands, but I've had my own playing style since i was 15 and i didn't have a very broad taste in music. When covering songs I don't use the artists tecniques (unless an absolute must as a musical feature) I use my own sounds, and my own playing style.
Maybe in the future another musicians style will REALLY speak out to me, and change the way I play, and then I will call them an influence, but for the time being, I simply don't have one.
btw. Who influenced you buy a car and to start driving? probably no one, because its just something most people feel they need, and its practical. My bass is my car.
10/10 for understanding the question.
An influence is I guess is who people strongly feel spoke to them with their playing/style. I wanted to play bass because I just WANTED to play music, none of my friends at the time played instruments, no one bought me a bass and said here ya go! Its not like there was one just available for me to mess around on, there we're no TV adds or online forums, I just simply wanted to play music. I could have picked any instrument. Guitar, drums, violin, keyboard, it doesn't matter because i would be writing the same post on talkviolin.com (patent pending) or any other music forum expressing my OWN individuality in what I do.
I LIKE certain bassists, and certain bands, but I've had my own playing style since i was 15 and i didn't have a very broad taste in music. When covering songs I don't use the artists tecniques (unless an absolute must as a musical feature) I use my own sounds, and my own playing style.
Maybe in the future another musicians style will REALLY speak out to me, and change the way I play, and then I will call them an influence, but for the time being, I simply don't have one.
btw. Who influenced you buy a car and to start driving? probably no one, because its just something most people feel they need, and its practical. My bass is my car.
I certainly have some influences, but in an interview, Tomas Haake of Meshuggah claimed he deliberately avoids listening to music to avoid being influenced. Sounded pretty bizarre to me. Maybe that's why their stuff is so unique.
Other people driving cars. You CANNOT help but be influenced by your surroundings, regardless of how much you feel you are not. That's simple human nature. Assuming you're human, you have influences for everything you do/say, like it or not.
On the bass front, if you heard a song and liked it, it is in your memory that you liked it and it is a positive influence. You will automatically hear a song with a similar sound and start playing it like you heard it. Regardless of whether you knew the guy's name who played bass on the recording, it's in there.
devnulljp
Supporting Member
I started playing bass over a year ago. I've never wanted to sound like Jaco, J.J. or Marcus. All the local guys here go crazy over Dwayne Wright or Reggie Young. I appreciate the music and tone these trailblazers brought to the table, but I don't wanna copy or sound anything like those guys. Victor Wooten is a monster on the strings, but I don't have wet dreams over bass players. I was recently doing some bass work with a ridiculously talented bassist and he asked what bass player's technique or sound am I after; After thinking hard for several minutes, I answered, "nobody".
I will probably steal licks, runs and scales from many bassist. But that's about where it will stand for me. Maybe its because bass is not the first instrument i've played...... (Keys, sax, guitar and drums)
I will probably steal licks, runs and scales from many bassist. But that's about where it will stand for me. Maybe its because bass is not the first instrument i've played...... (Keys, sax, guitar and drums)
I was asked a few times by guys doing a pre-interview over the phone who my influences were and I always said "NOBODY".
Usually it gets them wondering and asking me who I like as a bass player, which I can tell right away, but I will never say they are my influence.
I love the style of a few people but only because they play the opposite of the way I play, or that they are guys you never notice.
What if my influence is ME?
I had to edit and add this:
I am influenced by nobody IN PARTICULAR. I listen to a variety of music, and I am not trying to EMULATE anybody. The dude who plays JUST like someone, sounding JUST THE SAME, owning the SAME GEAR, after having memorized all the tunes from recording? Not going to be me.
So before flaming me, maybe you should read carefully.
being influenced by "nobody" is entirely different from being influences by nobody in particular", right?
Being influenced by nobody in particular is quite common , but being influenced by nobody seems impossible I recon.
So, are you influenced by only yourself or nobody in particular? They aren't the same thing. Sorry, but this whole idea just shows ignorance. Being influenced by someone doesn't mean you are trying to sound like them. Every good musician has influences. What inspires a person to pick up an instrument in the first place? I think it goes without saying if someone truly had no influences they would be a crappy player.
The chicken or the egg?
I suppose the guy that built his instrument...or the sound of the whooly Mammoths mating outside his cave.
This junk has been around forever. The chicken/egg is pretty different from 2010 now ain't it? Meshuggah NEVER heard of Metallica did they? Dude who started this silly thread said everyone compared him to Steve Harris, but he was doing it before he heard Steve. Then later he says he LOVES Steve Harris. It's OKAY to admit your influences. Sharing music is what it's about. There's always some jackazz bandmember saying he sounds like NOBODY. Then he even looks like other trendy bands. Just do your own thing man. Steve Harris is obviously influenced by Sabbath, Priest, UFO, Tull, Deep Purple, Zeppelin, etc, etc, but you will never get Maiden confused with any of them.
lol, i'd like to think it was the sound of the chicken laying the egg, that startled the mammoths mating outside his cave.
Come on though, I could lay down a track and you could all "guess my influences" but I've a strong feeling I wouldn't of even heard of most of the people or any of their work at all.
I would actually like to go back on something. Someone did influence me during my time learning how to play bass. He told me that you don't play bass, you romance it. Thats stuck with me since I started. The person themselves is a terrible musician, I mean... wow. So I wouldn't consider them an influence in that sense.
The question should be "who's musical stylings are you most influenced by" and/or "Who/what inspired you to play bass"
Come on though, I could lay down a track and you could all "guess my influences" but I've a strong feeling I wouldn't of even heard of most of the people or any of their work at all.
I would actually like to go back on something. Someone did influence me during my time learning how to play bass. He told me that you don't play bass, you romance it. Thats stuck with me since I started. The person themselves is a terrible musician, I mean... wow. So I wouldn't consider them an influence in that sense.
The question should be "who's musical stylings are you most influenced by" and/or "Who/what inspired you to play bass"
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