What about bass ?

My brother plays bass, and every once in a while I play around with it.
The frets are a lot farther apart, so if you're used to playing a guitar, you need to stretch more with a bass. The strings a lot thicker, so I found fretting to be pretty tough on the fingers (but I suppose you could play some bass to build up finger strength, and switch to guitar and it will be very easy to fret the strings).
Plus a lot of bass players don't play with picks- they use their fingers. And I don't think you play chords on bass.

Plus a lot of bass players don't play with picks- they use their fingers. And I don't think you play chords on bass.

Alot of punk and other genre's bass players use picks and chords actually.

Bass isn't physically much harder than guitar (it takes a while to get used to it just like it did when you started playing guitar) but the playing style is a whole other can of worms...

Good fun and it's never bad to know more instruments...

Bass is incredibly hard to play well.

I listen to Geddy Lee (Rush) running about the neck, I've seen him do it live, and I can't do it like that with either pick or fingers. My son can play a bit of bass and watching him play "Another one bites the dust" is quite something.

Best,

A :-)

I've been playing guitar for 21 years and bass off and on for 14. Guitar is not easy and neither is the bass. It all depends on your dedication to the instrument. Playing a bass can definitely help your guitar playing ability. The strings go from fat and wide spaced to thinner and close spaced. If you can do hammer ons and pull-offs on a bass, then they get real easy on a six string. I enjoy playing both instruments, but then again I also mess around on the keyboard and drums. I think it is great to focus on one instrument as a main instrument and have fun learning others. Learning more than one instument, IMO, will help your music theory, even without really focusing on that aspect. Learning a little theory behind each instrument helps even more. All I can say is to have fun with music and if you really want to get serious on any instrument, that practice and being a sponge is the best way to learn and get better. Being a sponge in this case meaning, open your ears, mind, and heart. Then, take what you hear, know, and feel and apply it. Good Luck!

They are completely different. Me, a guitarist, says bass is harder, but my friend, a bassist, says guitar is harder, and the frets don't give you enough room. It really depends on what you think.

They're just differnent.

As far as the basics go, I think anyone can learn a 3 chord song in the bass in about 20 seconds, and the same is not true of guitar, so maybe at the very very beginning bass has an ease advantage. Later on though, bass requires a different understanding of harmony and rhythm, you listen to different things musically etc.

Generally, I think the highest level of guitar playing is playing interesting leads, while the highest level of playing bass is beautifully accompanying that playing. It's a totally different road getting to those things. Which you're interested in doing should determine your path, because those initial things like string and fret spacing won't mean a thing to you after a year of playing.

I was at an open-mic the other night, and this bass player was wild- I think he was just taking his palm and slapping all the strings. My brother says the only chords you play are 2-string. He also says to play with your fingers so you non-picking fingers can dampen the non-playing strings. I guess he doesn't like distortion :? .

Bass strings go E,A,D, and G, but guitar has a B and E string,too. This "difference" causes me to misinterpret the 1st (G) string as the 1st E string on a guitar, and messes me up when I'm playing around/ improvising in scales.