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Why Is Playing Bass So Damn Hard?!?
- Thread starter sulu
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Bass is relatively easy. Straight 4ths make it a very easy instrument to play. Just learn the theory behind it all.
Start playing Cello or Bassoon, then get back to me.
being a oboe player as well as a bass player i will surely vote that bass is harder than oboe...mostly because of multiple techniques and such
Sulu, your post is unique. Most guitarists believe bass is easy.
And these discussions have gone on before, but again, usually from trying to refute the "bass is easy" myth.
Actually, the bass is structurally simple, and the concept is fairly simple. But it ain't easy to make it sound good. Good luck; keep practicing. It's worth the effort to be a bass player.
And these discussions have gone on before, but again, usually from trying to refute the "bass is easy" myth.
Actually, the bass is structurally simple, and the concept is fairly simple. But it ain't easy to make it sound good. Good luck; keep practicing. It's worth the effort to be a bass player.
Obviously.
I twas just cracking jokes at a person who couldn't crack bass.
No harm done.
I did. I can play quite well the simple bass to "The Ballad Of John And Yoko." Sounds very good. I also can do a fairly good version of The Jam's "A Town Called Malice." I had that down in a matter of an hour.
But "Glass Onion"..... My fingers are playing the right notes, but Paul plays these hidden grace notes that for the life of me I just can't work into the song. Plus the actual sound of the bass in that song is nowhere close to what I am getting. There's a "clicking" to his notes and then a big slinky boom on others. I've loved that sound my whole life. Will get it one day....I hope.
I know I've been cracking on you and everything,
but hey, it was all out of good fun,
to be a guitarist and make the jump below to bass, its a hard adjustment, theres so many minute things you have to accomplish to acheive a tone like those you hear in songs, the best thing I can advise you to is either lessons, or make you own tone, make YOUR tone special from others, I will assure you that is you find the right tone for your style, you'll turn heads.
No offense, but that probably sounded like crap too. Learning an instrument, any instrument, is a lifelong experience and you cannot condense that into a week-end. When I started, I recorded myself on a few songs that, at the time, I thought I "nailed"; listening to them now, a few years after the fact, I realize how crappy I sounded then.
Plenty of folks posting covers of songs on youtube that they "nail" perfectly... only thing is, it sound awful to everybody but themselves and, if they stick to their instrument of choice and look back in a few years, they'll think it sounded awful then too.
So, give yourself time; the road is long but rewarding.
My advice to the OP,
Bass is a very different instrument than the guitar. If your learning by ear and happen to be learning a song that you can actually hear the bass in the mix, I would suggest getting the chords down first and just play root quarter notes to get the feel for the changes and the rythmn. This will save you a bunch of grief. As you play the roots of the chords, you will eventually find the bass line and the transitional notes that bridge them together.
Good luck and welcome to the bottom end.
Bass is a very different instrument than the guitar. If your learning by ear and happen to be learning a song that you can actually hear the bass in the mix, I would suggest getting the chords down first and just play root quarter notes to get the feel for the changes and the rythmn. This will save you a bunch of grief. As you play the roots of the chords, you will eventually find the bass line and the transitional notes that bridge them together.
Good luck and welcome to the bottom end.
Look at the join date. This is an obvious case of trolling (IMHO)
On the other hand...if he´s only been playing bass for 11 days...mhmm...i still smell a trollI will never take lessons. Never did for guitar, never will for bass.
I will take advice and tips from others, but lessons are school work. Music should be in you, not from a rigid lesson plans.
What has thrown me is that literally overnight I picked up on guitar and piano. I figured for bass, success will be the same. I figured wrong.
Yeah, one day my fingers will be doing the right stuff, but that doesn't translate to particular tone. The bass tone one wants is far more difficult to get than a guitar sound. Do I need seven different basses? Do I need flatwounds for this tone, roundwounds for that, heavy gauge for this....?
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The fact that you posted this shows us that you don't. I can't speak for others, but I'm guessing that ZonGuy's post was in jest like mine.
bullshark is right. With all due respect, you probably sound like crap on both instruments, and just do not realize it. You can't nail a song in a few short days on guitar, with no prior experience, written by a person with far better instrumentation skills than you.
Looks like he joined when he got his bass?Look at the join date. This is an obvious case of trolling (IMHO)
You may be right.
All I know is that only a month after my first guitar I went in to a store to buy a second guitar, played around on some different ones and the salesman asked me if I was looking for studio or live work. With my current bass playing a garbageman would ask me when I am throwing the thing out.
I wouldn't rule out lessons altogether. While I agree with you about music being in you, lessons will show you different techniques and show you things in a different light to help you bring it out of you. I took a month of guitar lessons and have been playing for 20+ years and have never taken a bass lesson but if I had been taking lessons for as long as I have been a musician then I more than likely would be further along in my playing. I, like you, was born a natural musician but even a born athlete needs a good coach.
Dear Sulu, you may want to stop posting for a little while. It'd be cool just to read the forum and maybe get some lessons. Yes, do it. Won't hurt.
Excellent point. Well said.
Basically that's why I sought out this forum. Tips here and there are extremely helpful. My main point was simply that all that you hear (bass is easy, only four strings, Sid Vicious played bass because anyone could play bass) is far from accurate. I am finding bass far more challenging than guitar ever was. The pull-offs, hammer-ons, slapping...not hard. It's that sound, how to get that just right sound through playing style and equipment that is extremely daunting.
Glass Onion has some odd time signatures to it....
11 days? Play the bass of your choice and go after "your" sound. Assimilate, no need to copy.
11 days? Play the bass of your choice and go after "your" sound. Assimilate, no need to copy.
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