why bass?

My primary instrument is guitar but I've picked up some bass skills over the last year in part because it adds some flexibility to how we do things in the band. The bass player can occasionally play keyboards or his 12 string acoustic and I can switch over to bass.

I also found that learning the bass was helpful in learning to think about the music differently. I think learning bass has also helped me improve as a guitar player. I think more about chord construction and arpeggio patterns because of the bass, for example.

I also found that learning the bass was helpful in learning to think about the music differently. I think learning bass has also helped me improve as a guitar player. I think more about chord construction and arpeggio patterns because of the bass, for example.

Only been playing bass for a week, but I agree with those comments.

Personally, I see bass as an extension of guitar, only with fat strings. It's probably closer to rhythm guitar than lead, but there are exceptions.
It can be easy to play or incredibly complex, just like guitar. You can play it warm and jazzy, bright and funky, or overdriven and heavy. You can focus on thumping the root notes (the guitarist equivalent to simple strumming), or you can go wild with improvisation.

And bass moves your pants in a way that guitar can't. 8)

Dunno. Not terribly helpful I know, but honest - I love playing both :)

The only thing I'd add to Slejhammer's comment is that in many ways it's closer to drumming -- you've got to lock in with the drummer much more so than when you play rhythm guitar.

I actually started on bass and then shortly thereafter 'included' guitar - so for me it's almost exactly 50/50. Recently (past couple of years) I've been thinking of myself as more of a bass player who also plays guitar though the fact is, I've had way more gigs and training with the guitar. I think maybe it's because I never formally studied the bass and all its extensions - like upright for instance - that I love playing it. It's my first instrument (by just a hair, like the first twin that is born), but though I take it seriously, I was never 'serious' with it. Like it's my older friend who comes over once in a while and it's fun just having a talk with.

Musically, I love it because, and I discovered this years ago, my playing one big, fat, low, thundering note is equal to or greater than a guitarist playing a big distorted, 6-string, loud chord. It's like he's playing all these notes and filling up a certain spectrum of the sound, and I come along and hit one note and fill up a similarly wide (but different) spectrum of the sound. One note against six, and I think the bass wins every time. ;)

But other than that, it's like the other guys say; there's this whole (under)world of rhythm and notes and sounds that the other musicians can't enter. And it's not only the bass guitar itself - it's the function of it with the drums, and that whole bottom end give and take - but also the range of it; that down-lowness of it. I think if I were to really get into it, or if someone were to, it could be this whole other world - like not only playing the bass guitar, but the 'cello, the bass viol, synth-bass pedals or keyboard, tuba, bassoon, even the gamelan big-gong (gong ageng) - just all the low pitched instruments. Like the first Missing Persons videos - "Where's the bassist? Oh, it's the keys-guy!" And then they got Patrick.

So it's this whole other thing that's so wide open and so fun to exist in - other than just loving to play the instrument I mean :)

Take care

I would strongly recommend you try listening to the songs Greener with Scenery and I caught Fire, both by the Used... They have amazing bass I think... I dunno about greener with scenery being amazing, but it's catchy. I caught fire is just awesome, I think. Listen to the bass when he starts actually singing... I love how it compliments the singing... it's spectacular. Sounds kinda techno funnyish, rofl... Yeah, well I guess that's why I wanna play bass. comments?

edit: Listen to the bass on a lot of the used songs, Say Days ago, is another very awesome bass, wait until he sings to hear it good...

altho my first guitar was a 12 string i have always been a big bass fan.
my first electric purchase was a bass guitar and even tho i suck at it i still love it.
now that i am finally getting around to setting up and recording some stuff it really adds so much to the mix to be able to lay down your own bass line.

altho my first guitar was a 12 string i have always been a big bass fan.
my first electric purchase was a bass guitar and even tho i suck at it i still love it.
now that i am finally getting around to setting up and recording some stuff it really adds so much to the mix to be able to lay down your own bass line.
Do you have anything recorded that I could take a listen to?

I play bass because my band director handed me one in the middle of my freshman year, and told me to learn it for jazz band. Fortunately, I turned out to like it a lot.

I play both guitar and bass, and when I play bass, I just feel like I can put more emotion behind the notes, because the bass is the soul of the band. It's also really fun to play thumb style jazz once in a while. When I play guitar, its just not the same, because there are alot of really great guitar players out there, so I think that a good bassist can make a band sound sooo much better.

kjlower039~
sorry i missed this thread, i don't really have anything i want anyone to hear right now. my music is more of a hobby than anything else. although i've been playing acoustic 6 and 12 string guitar a long time i only recently started putting any real practice into electric and bass. i have a nice little recording rig but my situation doesn't let me leave it set up and i don't get back to it often enough to do much yet.

I'm in a similar situation as TLefty. I have all the equipment to do the stuff, but (for me) I don't have the time to do a whole lot due to long work hours. I got hooked on bass a couple of years ago and these days, I probably spend 60% of time on guitar, 35% on bass, and 5% on keyboards. I'd like to even those percentages out and add some drums/drum machine and recording. I have all the equipment, just not doing it. These are my basses :

Silvertone Apocolypse
Eastwood Rocket
That is my Ashdown Electric Blue 180 w/15" speaker behind the Peavey Fury IV (quilted top) bass at the bottom.

One of the reasons I chose to play bass instead of guitar is that I feel that 6 strings and 4 fingers is not a good match; with 4 strings and 4 fingers, I like the odds better. :wink:

When I look at all of the different chord shapes that guitarists use, I marvel at the skill and ability to remember all of that stuff.

Lastly, I find it more interesting to follow a nifty bassline than trying to figure out what each guitar is doing in a multi-piece tune.

I'm mostly a guitarist, the reasons I picked up a bass are:

1) I like music, and I like new things. So a new instrument is always good in my book.
2) I'm lazy. If you can already play some guitar learning is bass is considerably easier then learning to play the bagpipes.
3) The bass has a different role and function is music. This forces me to concentrate more on aspects of music I didn't knew a whole lot about. As Musenfreund says it gave me a better sense of the precise harmonic structure whereas I was more faking my way along before.
4) Playing in my one-man-basement-band it's always good to learn more instruments for my recordings.
5) It gives me +10 CoolPoints with the girls as everyone already plays guitar.
6) Playing multiple instruments allows me to play the 'I'm a creative, artistic, sensitive genius' which allows me to show up late at college.

So I picked up a Dean Edge, a uber-basic bass with no less then one pickup, and a V-amp pro, the 19"version of behringer's bass modeler. Heck, reason 5&6 are worth the $200 I spend. ;)