Experience question for all bassists here

Beauford33 · Post by **Beauford33** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 12:14 am

because jazzers like to think they are better then everyone else, so they need to be different.

btw, Im a jazzer-in-training

jellyfish · Post by **jellyfish** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 6:09 pm

jellyfish wrote:I have a question for all you bass players. If you dont play in a band, What do you do with your bass? Just play riffs?

I am not being sarcastic either. For example, If Im at a party & there is a guitar there I can play, people sing & have a good time. Whereas, if i was a Bass player that wouldnt be possible.

Help me out here folks.

Come on Guys. Im curious

MahlerGrooves · Post by **MahlerGrooves** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:50 am

I honestly do not agree with the premise that people can not have a good time listening to someone who is good jam on a bass. There are a lot of nice things you can do with the first 4 strings of a guitar, and a bass will just displace them by one octave.

Plus, bass is sexier!

i like tictacs · Post by **i like tictacs** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:54 am

jellyfish wrote:I have a question for all you bass players. If you dont play in a band, What do you do with your bass? Just play riffs?

I am not being sarcastic either. For example, If Im at a party & there is a guitar there I can play, people sing & have a good time. Whereas, if i was a Bass player that wouldnt be possible.

Help me out here folks.

Sure you can play riffs...i do that all the time. but i have been getting into alot of solo stuff, you know, two hand tapping, more complex melodies, or i'll just set a loop on the boss rc20 pedal i have and just solo over it. i've been doing alot of wankery lately too. playing along with recordings, etc. bass is much less of a show off-y instrument unless you are sitting around with other bassists, as far as i'm concerned. only a bassist can sit and be entertained for hours by basslines

jellyfish · Post by **jellyfish** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:25 am

i like tictacs wrote:
jellyfish wrote:I have a question for all you bass players. If you dont play in a band, What do you do with your bass? Just play riffs?

I am not being sarcastic either. For example, If Im at a party & there is a guitar there I can play, people sing & have a good time. Whereas, if i was a Bass player that wouldnt be possible.

Help me out here folks.
Sure you can play riffs...i do that all the time. but i have been getting into alot of solo stuff, you know, two hand tapping, more complex melodies, or i'll just set a loop on the boss rc20 pedal i have and just solo over it. i've been doing alot of wankery lately too. playing along with recordings, etc. bass is much less of a show off-y instrument unless you are sitting around with other bassists, as far as i'm concerned. only a bassist can sit and be entertained for hours by basslines

That's cool. Just curious.

tietjen2k · Post by **tietjen2k** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 6:21 pm

2 years for me.

learn your theory. This does not just mean some scales and the notes on the fretboard. You can get good without it, but down the road youre going to look back and say "if only I studied theory way back then." I guanetree it.

Learn chord spelling, the circle of fifths, reading/writting, ear training (singing and hearing intervals), scales (as formulas, not numbers), and learn all about the hardware of amps and basses.

Thats all if youre serious about your instrument. Also...gonna take this one from victor: listen to as wide of a variety of music as possible. Especially the genres of music you don't like, because thats where you tend to learn the most.

tietjen2k · Post by **tietjen2k** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 6:28 pm

jellyfish wrote:I have a question for all you bass players. If you dont play in a band, What do you do with your bass? Just play riffs?

I am not being sarcastic either. For example, If Im at a party & there is a guitar there I can play, people sing & have a good time. Whereas, if i was a Bass player that wouldnt be possible.

Help me out here folks.

The fact is, any good musician can entertain a crowd solo. Some instruments take more skill than others.

Using a loop pedal we can make rhythmatic drum parts by thumbing and popping muted patterns. Over that we can add a few melody bassed lines. From there you can solo over that and sing, and the people tend to love it.

Theres a great number of songs that you can play on bass and sing, without doing a lot of flashy stuff. A lot of funk such as the brothers johnson can be bass alone, also a lot of victor wootens songs can be sung while played.

The fact of the matter is, anything is possible with any instrument. Guitar is just very easy to pull it off.

BassPlayer09 · Post by **BassPlayer09** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 9:39 am

Do any of you guys know how to play guitar? Just wondering. I play guitar and bass, and i go through phases where im crazy about one or the other. But i think i enjoy bass more, so im trying to learn theory and notes and stuff. So, anyways just curious

i like tictacs · Post by **i like tictacs** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 11:50 am

Same here.

MahlerGrooves · Post by **MahlerGrooves** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 9:52 pm

I play guitar as an escape from my bass every once in a while.

i like tictacs · Post by **i like tictacs** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 10:03 pm

Sometimes you just get inspired to play one or the other. like you heard a beautiful bassline or guitar riff or something. I suck hard at guitar. But I try.

BassPlayer09 · Post by **BassPlayer09** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:43 pm

yep, same here too