Would you trade your bass competencies for something else?

[Medicine Man]

I play other instruments, but really enjoy bass the most and its what i prefer to play. People who hire me agree, it seems.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

At this point in my life, I'd trade my bass competencies to be a proficient coder.

Trust me, overrated. I'd give almost anything to be as good a cellist as I am a coder. Don't waste your creativity on software.

 

[Johnny StingRay]

Tied between cello and piano.

 

[micguy]

I'd go the other way - I might trade off some other things for better bass chops. Mine are pretty decent, but you can always do better.

 

[Jefenator]

Players of most other instruments get more students. But bass players get more gigs. So, no thanks - I’m fine where I am.

 

[NOVAX]

Negative. My adequacy is not of this earth. You can't touch this. Boom shockalocka!
High five! Fist bump!
Blow it up!

"The vision in my brain and the music in my veins and the dirty rhythm in my blood"

 

[Swamp_Ronin]

Pics or it didn't happen

well, here's some of my drawings. . I also did the bass chimp that's been reused all over then internet without giving me any credit

 

[Slevage]

What else is available?

 

[Element Zero]

Not needed. I’m just as good at everything else as I am bass.

 

[glocke1]

If you’re a really good bass player and could start over, would you rather be a really good drummer, guitar player, piano player, etc?

I’m a fairly good bass player, and sometimes think to myself “if I could trade in my years of bass playing for years of piano playing, and be as good at that as I am at this, that wouldn’t suck”.

not a trade I make every day of the week by any means. Anyone else run into these thoughts?

I truly love bass so I doubt I would play a different instrument.

If I could go back (knowing what I know now) I'd take up a serious study of double bass and piano and study with the best teachers I could. I'd also ditch associate less with the jammers and less focused musicians hat I latched onto. Nothing wrong them or that stuff, but lets face it, getting involved with some folks stunts your growth.

I've sort of gone back to that first point the past year by picking up and studying double bass in weekly lessons with a guy who basically started me over from scratch. It's actually pretty rewarding..its slow going because I am older, busy and get tired often, but I've made good progress the past year. It just sucks that doing something like two octave harmonic minors takes me about 4 weeks or more to become proficient in...but im in no hurry at this point

 

[bobba66]

I wish I could cure cancer. I would trade everything for that.

 

[3bc]

well, here's some of my drawings. . I also did the bass chimp that's been reused all over then internet without giving me any credit

View attachment 4192434 View attachment 4192437 View attachment 4192438
View attachment 4192440

Love these, especially that last one!

I've always been enamored with artists. Watching someone like jaco play, or a dave weckl, marcus miller, victor wooten, EVH, etc. It's obvious they have insane amounts of talent, dexterity, coordination, etc. that the average person doesn't have and would take a lifetime to develop. But the dexterity of an artist is so much less obvious. How is it that they're able to make an amazing picture where the average person cannot? A lot of it is vision and inspiration, but there's some muscle memory/dexterity there that is so intangible that it cannot even really be observed. Always fascinated me.

 

[Muttleybass]

I wouldn't give up the bass, but I wish I'd have learned keys as well. And I probably should have worked on my vocals more.

 

[Swamp_Ronin]

Love these, especially that last one!

I've always been enamored with artists. Watching someone like jaco play, or a dave weckl, marcus miller, victor wooten, EVH, etc. It's obvious they have insane amounts of talent, dexterity, coordination, etc. that the average person doesn't have and would take a lifetime to develop. But the dexterity of an artist is so much less obvious. How is it that they're able to make an amazing picture where the average person cannot? A lot of it is vision and inspiration, but there's some muscle memory/dexterity there that is so intangible that it cannot even really be observed. Always fascinated me.

It's pretty much just like music. It's hard, but you keep doing it and you get somewhere. Maybe not where you thought you'd get, but you get somewhere for sure.

 

[jaco944]

I would trade half of my bass ability to be able to sing like ‘80’s Steve Perry.

 

[Jefenator]

Also, all those other instruments are weird and trebly and obnoxious. Not really seeing any upside, there.

 

[Greg75]

My competency is not much compared to the many great players around here. I'd probably trade it to be able to sing well, but I'd definitely keep all my gear and still give in to GAS.

 

[Swamp_Ronin]

Coincidentally, someone just notified me that Bass Magazine Online has just posted my work (again) without crediting me. If anyone wants to tell them this isn’t cool, I’d appreciate it.

 

[Ostie]

So, who would you rather be: Victor Wooten, or Dave Grisman?

Gotta go with Dawg. So I guess I’m really a mandolin player who also plays bass. Even though I played bass for 30 years before I took up the mandolin.

 

[equill]

At this point in my life, I'd trade my bass competencies to be a proficient coder.

You'll probably hate me for this, but that's pretty much what I actually did: sidelined music for a couple of decades in favour of making a living in IT infrastructure, with increasing amounts of coding involved.