Playing bass and guitar

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

Sigghhh... if your bassist or really anybody is consistently playing wrong notes you fire them and get somebody else.

Who said that he's play consistently wrong notes? The key word in this is "If". The whole point was to stress the importance of the bass player having the technicality needed to play the music

[dg27]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

The beauty of music is in the space: with bass (and I think drums as well) this is especially important. Where you don't play is in some ways more important than where you do play.

Non-bass players (i.e., 3rd guitarists) can rarely grasp this concept.

[Mincer]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

The bass parts I write sound more like a cello than a bass, so I am certainly not a bass player. But no one looks at a band with a bad bass player and says "wow, that bassist is way off"...they just say " this band is terrible".

Every guitarist should learn a little bass (and piano, too). It helps understand music a little better, and makes our guitar playing better.

[toowrongfoo]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

On that note, every instrument should be respected. I'm probably a better guitarist than bassist, but even in my old curmudgeon years, I try to play bass with a respect of whatever tune I'm on.

bottom line: They are two entirely different instruments. You can solo or be the rhythm with each, but they are still really different.

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

On that note, every instrument should be respected. I'm probably a better guitarist than bassist, but even in my old curmudgeon years, I try to play bass with a respect of whatever tune I'm on.

bottom line: They are two entirely different instruments. You can solo or be the rhythm with each, but they are still really different.

I'm a much better bassist than a guitarist. I'm not a lead guitarist by any means, but I can do some wicked stuff on the bass.

[Mincer]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

I find it really hard to sing and play bass, however.

[The JEM Ghost]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

Seems some people in this thread don't have much respect towards a good bass player...Shame if you ask me... A good bass player CERTAINLY adds great value to any band!! Bass players and their role in a band are often underrated, and I repeat myself saying that's a shame.
Off course, a good base player does more than just pluck the base root!! Their are amazing bass players out there that deserve tons of respect (any good bass player deserves respect by the way!): Billy Sheehan, Stu Hamm (Satriani) and so many other great virtuoso bass players out there that I would certainly concider a welcome addition to any band!
Less known and from France, Patrice Guers:

A good bass player is NOT to be underestimated!!

[toowrongfoo]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

I find it really hard to sing and play bass, however.

It was easy for me. But I was young and full of piss and vinegar. Now, I can't hardly keep time

[Silence Kid]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

So I'm not sure what's up with "needing to think ahead to the next note" with bass, because I do that with lead guitar as well. Those two skills run very parallel to me.

It's sad to say but... I'm probably a much better bass player than a guitar player. I took formal lessons for a while, which may be part of it. When I played in a band, I loved the ability for subtle changes in the bass line to really push the same old song into whole new avenues; as bass player, you're basically in charge You can play by the numbers, or create something subversive that completely alters the character of what everyone else is doing. I might never have played the same bass line twice.

...But I pretty much play alone/at home now, so guitar it is, aside from recording parts for my own songs. It was never tough for me to switch between the two, I also almost never used a pick for bass. My stamina suffers greatly without practice though... Another reason I don't pick up the bass as much, as mentioned: it's harder to sing. In my last band I really envied our singer's ability to play bass at the same time.

[Securb]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

I was being a little facetious there... but it is true that bass, for the most part, is not as technically demanding as guitar.

It is even more so in some cases. The bass player needs to understand the scales and voicings that are played over the chords. Playing bass is not about playing the root all night and most bass players do play chords. Lemmy frowns on your post.

1)
2) I prefer guitar mostly because I want control of melody and harmony.

You really don't understand how a chord works do you? The bass is controlling the root of the harmony. A simple example is when Paul MacCartney would ride the root then switch to the third of the chord an octave below it would change the dynamics of the song and gave the Beatles that "Beatles" sound. You will hear Tom Peterson from Cheap Trick doing that a lot also. Two examples of guys you think are not doing a lot that are driving the tonal structure of the entire song.

[LLL]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

Well, of course guitar is superior to bass.

Cuz I mean, hey, six strings to four innit.

(At least that's what I tell my bass player friends)

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[Mincer]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

It was easy for me. But I was young and full of piss and vinegar. Now, I can't hardly keep time

It is the different rhythms in the melodies vs the bass lines that get me.

[beaubrummels]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

How do some get used to playing guitar and bass? i just bought a bass and wow its a hole new thing for me. more tension because of the scale and requires more finger muscle. how will light gauge strings sound on it, like less than 105?

It should be a whole new thing, because it's a different instrument. Many get fooled that because the strings are tuned to the same notes as the bottom 4 of a guitar that any guitar player is instantly able to play bass. Sure you can find notes from the chords, but the physical scale, hand techniques and how to work with it in the context of music - it's a different instrument.

Switching from one to the other will actually interfere with your playing, both ways. The heavy strings and large scale of a bass will wear your hand muscles differently and disrupt the sensitivity needed for proper guitar playing. Likewise, playing guitar will not prepare your hands for working a bass properly. I would recommend going through periods where you do one or the other, but not keep switching back and forth.

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As far as the rest of this thread, the guitar vs bass question makes me think of an analogy to people who get Photoshop and because they can find their way around it and make something visual think they are an artist; meanwhile someone who has studied art their whole life and have a degree in art knows that software is just a tool and none of the principles or techniques for creating art with it are embedded in the tool itself - how to make use of a tool while making art all that comes from the experience and training of the artist in that field, experience and training which you cannot get just picking it up and finding your way around it.

Instruments are the same way. If you are a guitar player and think because you are able to get notes out of a bass you are also a bass player, you are really just fooling yourself. Take some bass lessons from a competent, life-long bass player and learn how much you really don't know.

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

Instruments are the same way. If you are a guitar player and think because you are able to get notes out of a bass you are also a bass player, you are really just fooling yourself. Take some bass lessons from a competent, life-long bass player and learn how much you really don't know.

This is so true. I started off playing bass as a guitar player and to a point I still approach bass melodies and harmonies from that standpoint (I use a lot of fifths and octaves in my playing) but studying the works of other bass players, I learned the value of filling up an instrumental section where the guitars are playing the same riff, by adding fills higher up on the neck and also knowing how to accent the drums and the vocals at certain points or even how to lead into a chord change. Rock bass is not a simple "play the root note" thing.

[Silence Kid]

Re: Playing bass and guitar

I got my first bass when I was maybe fifteen? Got a certain amount of distance playing it like a guitar, but taking lessons from a pro really changed my world. If only I remembered more of that bass clef sight-reading, though...