Beginner Who Ultimately Wants To Play Bass

Welcome to GuitarNoise Slowfingers. I like that name. :D

I think that you should get a bass guitar and take some lessons if possible.

Guitar and Bass are similar. The bottom 4 strings are the same tuning, but they are not played the same way. First, you rarely play chords on a bass (you can).

Bass concentrates on the root and 5th of the particular chord especially. Bassists tend to know music and theory well. You need to learn scales. And of course the technique is different. Most bass players play with their thumb, index, and middle fingers, where guitarists usually use a pick.

Keep playing guitar, but get a bass and try to take some lessons from a good teacher.

I can tell you this. You will never be out of work as a bass player. There are tons of guitarists and drummers, but bass players are rare.

Let us know what you do.

But I would imagine that all of the good bass players out there started out as pretty decent guitarists who just changed roles later.
No way. Guitar is in no way required to be a bassist. A bass isn't an extension to the guitar, it's its own instrument. It does happen to be similar, but playing the guitar won't make you anything like a decent bassist. It still takes practice on the bass, no matter how good you may be at the guitar. Just like trumpet doesn't teach you to play the Tuba. First some adjustment to get the hang of the bass shape, then learning to play fingerstyle, learning to mute, and learning to hold down a bassline. There's no reason not to play guitar too if you want, but get a bass if it's bass you're after.

But I would imagine that all of the good bass players out there started out as pretty decent guitarists who just changed roles later.
Just like trumpet doesn't teach you to play the Tuba.

Hmm. Odd you should put it that way. Playing trombone made me a pretty good baritone and tuba player, and I can get around on the trumpet if I have to. I know that there are big differences between the two, but the way you get around on each seems similar enough that you can get the foundation on either. I know just playing guitar will not mean I can pick up a bass and be good. It is more of an introduction to playing stringed instruments more than anything else.

I do appreciate your input, and will keep in mind the ultimate goal and work toward getting the right instrument to get there as soon as I can.

I think it's a pretty good analogy. I play brass, so I can judge all right. You'll get a head start, sure, but it's not like the guitar is the way to get started on bass. I was taking issue with the line I quoted in my last post. You seemed to be saying that the way to be a good bassist was to play the guitar first. I said it's not. Guitar will give you a little head start, but it's not going to make you a better bassist than someone who started on bass.

Ok. You are probably right on this. Maybe I am just trying to justify the way I chose to go. Besides, it is not like I can sit around the campfire with the wife and kids and play bass and have them enjoy it. I would get a big kick out of it myself, but they would have no idea what I am playing.

I guess another thing I look at, though, is the guys who successfully transition from piano to guitar or vice versa. Do all players who are good at one do well at the other? No. Many probably do not even try, but there are a good number who do both very well (Eddie Van Halen pops into my dead right off). I would think that guitar to bass would be an easier move than guitar to piano.

I started the bass straight from piano, and I know of others who switched from cello or trombone.

Here are some thoughts on the subject:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=155

Have fun!

-Laz

you know who did do that though....paul mccartney. he can play most of the instruments you' guys are talking about and REALLY WELL TOO! except brass i don't know if he can play that instrument family. but for those of you who don't know paul mccartney was the bassist for the beatles...and he can play piano and guitar really well just as well as bass...i think he started out with the paino..well that's my 2 cents

...I guess another thing I look at, though, is the guys who successfully transition from piano to guitar or vice versa. Do all players who are good at one do well at the other? No. Many probably do not even try, but there are a good number who do both very well (Eddie Van Halen pops into my dead right off). I would think that guitar to bass would be an easier move than guitar to piano.

Hey, SF! Sorry to get in here so late; good thread, great responses. Here's mine:

Eddie, as far as I know, started on piano and transitioned into guitar at a certain point. Thing is, he's not known as a piano player (stating the obvious here) even though he started on it. I think what happens is a person winds up on the instrument they really love. Like for me, I 'actually' started music on the harmonica, but I was pretty young and forgot all about it until my teenage years. Bass interested me, and though I technically started on harmonica, it didn't enter the picture at all.

Back to Eddie: I've only seen him playing keys on one video and, I'm no pianist, but it doesn't look like he actually has very good technique when he's playing. I'm just comparing the movement of his hands and fingers to what I've seen of concert pianists and whatnot. He looks a little stiff a little too careful maybe. So if he is known for being a rock guitarist who plays keyboards, then fine, but I see it as sort of a building up of his musical worth (probably not by himself and certainly unnecessarily because of his talents) - in regards to the stigma of guitarists being 'untrained, unschooled, rudimentary wildmen.'

Which ain't bad in itself, lol.

But it seems to want to portray a certain musical depth and training where everyone goes "Whoaaaa, man...he knows classical stuff..." and everyone's duly impressed. :wink:

I think that keyboards and guitars share a certain thing that few other instruments have, which makes them sort of standouts as far as instruments are concerned. They are pretty much the only instruments that are both melody and chord/accompaniment instruments. And by guitar I'm including all the other plucked string, fretted or unfretted instruments like lutes and bouzoukis and balalaikas and ukes and etc, and by keyboards I'm also including all of the same type. No other instruments in the orchestra (or other places) are capable of playing both roles so well. There's a little in violins perhaps, but it's double and triple stops mostly - the real power and strength of the bowed instruments being the single line type things.

So yes, there is a certain similarity between the two, but there is a similarity amongst the instruments you play - trombone, baritone and tuba - maybe not so much in the fingering techniques, but in the actual 'role' of the instruments. You also play trumpet, but...I think you even said it previous to that, about your liking the supportive, backing type roles even in non musical things.

But you're thinking about your guitar playing as it relates to bass (eventually), and my opinion is, yes, one is a good starting point to the other because they are so similar as far as strings and tuning and whatnot. And you're right about the bass not really being a 'sit around and strum' instrument, but the similarity is enough so that many bassists also play guitar to some degree. It's like a vibes player playing piano. It's like a family instrument though not the person's true and first love.

I'd stick with guitar for the time being and have fun with it and maybe take a few lessons, but I kinda thing that as soon as you get your first bass guitar, the regular guitar will only come out of the case around campfires perhaps. It really seems like you're a bassist. I mean, I know a couple of good bass players who 'can' play guitar, but they normally don't. It's not so much which instrument you start on, like I said - you'll wind up playing the one you love most. It just happens that way.

Take care.

Interesting thoughts on Eddie Van Halen. I thought he had been a pianist first, but it sounds like you are saying he was never much of one. I could have sworn he had won some classical piano competitions back in the day. Maybe he abandoned the more proper style because it is just not cool to do so while playing rock? I have no idea, really, but I did think that he was at one time a highly touted pianist.

I must've mistyped it (or spaced out) but I've also heard that EVH started o piano.

But you're probably right on the winning of competitions; I never really researched EVH that far in. He probably did win them, but perhaps the point still is, he gravitated toward the guitar because he loved it more.

Like you might, since you like the bass type instruments. :)

I must've mistyped it (or spaced out) but I've also heard that EVH started o piano.

But you're probably right on the winning of competitions; I never really researched EVH that far in. He probably did win them, but perhaps the point still is, he gravitated toward the guitar because he loved it more.

Like you might, since you like the bass type instruments. :)

Probably right there, and aren't we glad he did?

Yes, exactly, and the thing is, if he *never* played keyboards before, during or after, it wouldn't really matter woiuld it?

For me, it started out on harmonica like I said (around 7-8 years old), then that was forgotten until the teens when I started fooling around on a soprano ukulele.

Four strings, tuned different though :)

Then I wanted to play bass and started fooling around on the bottom four strings of an old acoustic guitar my dad had, and then, finally, I got a Silvertone Violin bass.

But...that guitar was still there, so I sorta learned both at the same time, and then home recording got real interesting (using two cassette recorders and an old reel to reel - oh and Atlas mics!), and the guitar and bass playing grew even more with the crude overdubbing.

That's the way it started for me and since then I've always played both guitar and bass pretty much evenly. I mean, I've played in bands as the bassist and other bands as guitarist and though it would seem easy to switch, for me at least, it's a mental thing that has to change when I'm playing one or the other. When I play bass, I assume the role of the bassist and listen to other parts of the drummer's kit, and soft of mentally and emotionally 'become' the bassist. Same with guitar - I've never played both instruments in the same band for that reason. If I did, I'd either sound like a guitarist 'sitting in' on bass, or a bassist 'doubling on' guitar and I always wanted to sound true to the instrument/role I was taking.

So...what's your plan? Me? I'd suggest learning both side by side, but maybe - and that's just a maybe - take lessons on one instrument and leave the other to be the 'fun' instrument. In my case the guitar was the studied instrument and the bass was actually the one I felt closest to.

Funny, after all these years I finally decided that I'm a bass player more than anything - as far as sitting back and thinking "Which one do I REALLY enjoy playing the most?"

It might be the same with you.

Take care.