How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

[crusty philtrum]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

I'm a guitar player who enjoys playing bass sometimes and I've even done a coupe of fill-in stints in gigging bands. I know i play bass like a guitar player.

And so i should. Because that's what i am. I like it, it's honest.

My purpose for picking up the bass now is for recording, and being both guitarist and bass player on a track is ... well, i think it's kinda cool, because no matter what your natural feel, rhythmic quirks and stumbles, inadequacies, fluctuations, etc., the two parts will work perfectly with each other, they'll always have a lot of common ground despite the player being much more familiar with one instrument than the other.

But that's just how it seems to be for me; I'm glad the world, and music, has proper bass-playing bass players and their musical ways.

[everdrone]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

I think only certain musicians care if you use a pick or your fingers. for the most part. unless super technical stuff or audiophile crowd.

slapbass??? I am not wanting to play funk or "Korn"

in the end, it will be about the notes and the rhythym, and not so much about posturing and snobbery

[rashayritto]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

i just ask myself "what would Al Cisneros do?" Hasn't failed me once

[MkIII Renegade]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

I play all instruments in most of my home recordings, so I can cover bass fairly well. I used to think I could play bass very well, until I started paying attention to master class bass players...trust me, mimicking guitar lines on bass is nowhere NEAR being a complete bass player!!! I became much more interested in bass after I finally bought a high quality 5 string with active pickups, a major plus for bass. I need to eventually get a bass amp of comparable quality to my guitar amps, but it's hard to commit the funds to something I play only in the studio...

[SongsForTheDeaf]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

wow premier guitar.. stupid. I'm a guitar player mainly and play bass similar to how I play guitar and I find it sounds good >:O

[Bass_Medic_05]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

I read that when it came out very interesting indeed, bass is a completely different animal then a guitar, sometime less is more. I always liked Bad Company's bass player when it came to the theory Boz Burrell. Or the bass player for the Eagle's Timothy B. Schmit, or even Elton John's bass player Dee Murray

[dd12939]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

I read that when it came out very interesting indeed, bass is a completely different animal then a guitar, sometime less is more. I always liked Bad Company's bass player when it came to the theory Boz Burrell. Or the bass player for the Eagle's Timothy B. Schmit, or even Elton John's bass player Dee Murray

I love Dee Murray's old basslines!

[JB6464]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

Eric Czar is the Bass player that rocks my world.
Every time I hear him when he use to play with Joe Bonamassa the hair on my arms would stand up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltxduNzo4Q4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGLB6R8EWsE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXH_N3JjsNw

[Securb]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

Guitar players playing the bass like guitar players is a myth. Guitar players make great bassists.

[One Bad Monkey]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

Guitar players playing the bass like guitar players is a myth. Guitar players make great bassists.

No one's arguing that guitarists can't make great bassists (I know a couple locally that kill on both), but when a guitarist picks up a bass and says "It's only the bottom four strings of my guitar, so how hard can it be?" they are going to fail at being a convincing bassist.

Same mechanics? Yes.
Same role/function in a musical group? No, and that's more important.

[Evan Skopp]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

I love Dee Murray's old basslines!

+ 1K

He was a great bass player. I especially love "Susie (Dramas)" and remember when it first came out thinking it was one of the coolest songs I'd ever heard. (Totally unrelated, today is the birthday of Caleb Quaye, Elton John's first guitarist and Seymour Duncan artist, who--I believe--played on Honky Chateau).

Here's Dee Murray recorded live with Elton and Nigel Olsson. In the three-piece format (sans guitar), Dee takes up a much bigger part of the sonic mix and verges on playing "lead bass." Here's an example of a bass player playing like a guitar player (kind of) and it sounding supremely amazing. I try to remember to listen to this record every November 17th.



It's a long piece, over 18 minutes, but I urge you to give it a spin.

[marcboomer]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

Right on! Love him too. R.I.P. Just saw the new Elton John come out. It's a three piece format again.

[Securb]

Re: How NOT to Play Bass like a Guitar Player Playing Bass

+ 1K one of the coolest songs I'd ever heard.

I dated a dark eyed girl that lived off of a dead end street next to the Neponset River in Boston with quite a funky family. Suffice to say this song would be blaring out of my 73 Dodge Dart more often than not as I headed down RT 93 to go see her.