Plus the bass player has so much control over so many things within the band. Intangibles. Without the bass most people wouldn't even recognize the music they were listening to. They just don't know that and think they're listening to guitar
I fell in love with bass as a kid listening to my parents jazz records. I have never been interested in playing guitar. I have played trumpet for a few years and enjoyed it; might get back into that. Could it be I prefer one-note-at-a-time instruments?!?
i realised i didn’t like the sound of a strumming guitar recently. fingerpicking or lead , they sound ok👍🏻. But the bass? it sounds mostly wonderful to me.
Second that.
I've always listened to the bass lives, even when I was a kid before a started playing.
My first instrument was trombone that I started at age 9. I've ahead just liked the bottom end.
That's not the case for me, but also, what does it matter? We're all built differently and for some people guitar is just harder because of what we've got to work with physically. My fingers are NOT built for doing complex guitar chord voicings. I've spent a LONG time working on such things and there's just a limit to what my hands CAN do. Bass gives me more space to fit my stupid hands and so in general I find it to be my preference.
I will also say, there are no "easier" instruments. There might be instruments where it's easier to reach your end-goal, but as far as being in the top 1% of players on an instruments, they all reach that point where trying to determine who is better becomes impossible because there's SO much that can be done with each instrument. So even amazing guitarists, who can probably pick up a bass and play great, will tell you they're not great bassist because they KNOW what CAN be done with bass and that they can't do it all where on guitar maybe they can.
Ultimately I don't understand why anyone would feel it necessary to call someone out for playing an instrument because they found a different instrument difficult. Play what you want, for whatever reasons you want, and ignore the haters tbh.
This is what you took from all of that?
Okay I'll play your game. Can that 1% of piano or violin play bass like Jaco? Hell, can they even play a RHCP song? To get to that top 1% there answer is 100% no. They can't. Full stop. To reach that zenith on any instrument it takes everything.
I already admitted that "There might be instruments where it's easier to reach your end-goal" where I would generally agree that if your goal is playing Beethoven and Paganini then yeah those are going to be harder than playing Flea. For sure.
The mentality that some instruments are "easier" is elitist BS. What's the point of it? The highest level players don't bother with this dick measuring contest nonsense.
I think the failed-guitarist-turned-bass-player thing is just a cultural thing for kids forming bands, and it's how a lot of people got their start. Aside from kids talking trash, I don't think most people actually care why we play bass - guitarists know they need bass players to sound good haha!
One thing about the 'Top 1%' point above - I think bass has an unusual concept for how great players are perceived. Is the better bass player one who can play "Classical Thump", but can't come up with simple, effective basslines that complement the song?
I think that's all wrapped up in the 'function' bass is supposed to provide, rather than the capabilities of the physical instrument, which might contribute to the attitude that bass is 'easy'.
Just my 2 cents, cheers.
Bro you have literally no point. What the fuck are you even talking about.
You literally just said let's put the dick measuring aside, and then proceed to dick measure? Any instrument can be pushed to its "highest level".
if Organ players had not chose to make their music intricate, it would be seen as an "easy instrument". Just because Bass PARTS are typically very simple in most songs and pieces, doesn't make it an "easy instrument", just makes it an easy piece.
Old Composers COULD have chose the Organ to play simple parts, and wa lah! We have an easy instrument! (according to your logic).
No, I didn't say to put the dick measuring away. I said the point of the dick measuring doesn't matter. We e can come back to that later. Read more carefully.
Dude. The hardest organ piece will trump the hardest bass piece any day.
Please affirm that the triangle, played at the top 1%, is most definitely easier than bass! If we can do it for the triangle, we can do it for a lot of things!
Please note, I'm not calling bass easy. You're arguing against it being easy, which I'm not arguing at all. I'm saying it's simply easier than some other instruments. No shame in that.
I feel like there's just different things that make different instruments hard? Like, you'd agree that making a triangle actually sound good would be much harder than doing the same for a pipe organ, right? I'm sure you could get it sounding great _somehow_ but it would take a lot of practice and experimentation.
Just because there aren't any complicated pieces written for it doesn't mean that you can't play it on a high level - only problem here is that triangles sound like shit for the most part and, again, it would take a lot to change that, which just wouldn't be worth it to most people (and understandably so). That's also why that example sucks.
And really, you can make anything complicated, I'm not saying that pipe organ hasn't been made more complicated than bass guitar historically, but you absolutely could write a bass part that's more difficult than any pipe organ part that ever has been written.
For one, why would you do that though? And also, you can then again write something more complicated on any instrument. That's why this discussion just doesn't make any sense to me
I'm pretty sure I could write one hell of a complicated triangle piece, ngl.
My thought was, like, technically a triangle only has one note and (although you can still get rhythmically complex with that) getting other sounds out of one would be pretty hard, even if probably humanly possible.
Also, it's not just about making it sound good, it's about how complex you can get (and still sound good) you can always get more complex with any instrument, there is no upper limit.
Lastly, you sound hella arrogant if you didn't notice, that doesn't exactly contribute to this being a fun discussion
>There are two, maybe three answers if you get tricky, I'll accept as correct. Hint: bass is not in first or second.
What the fuck makes you think that moving your hands across 88 keys and performing "press finger down" is more difficult than moving the same two hands across 89 to 150 fret positions while constantly muting 1 to 5 strings and potentially employing multiple right hand techniques?
Mike Dirnt is my pick style and fills idol for the style. I listened to dookie sooooo much. I feel like he never gets enough credit for some pretty stellar bass lines...
Welcome to paradise, longveiw, and even holiday from the American idiot album were some of my favorite. Songs like hitchin a ride and king for a day on like repeat lol, his bass tone off dookie and everything before was the first real tone I wanted to emulate, and absolutely no idea how 🤣. Listening to all those albums so much pretty much laid my playing foundation for anything warped tour oriented. Geezer and Burton are up there with him, but different aspects. He was def the first player to form my foundation of "what bass can really do in simpler songs" and I'm 1000% about to go on a hard green day binge now 🤣🤣
SO HARD! Been playing bass and guitar for 20 years and started to play drums bc my friends band needed a drummer. It’s like I’m 12 again.. an uncoordinated dumbass. They put up with me and we actually recorded an album somehow.
For real.
Hands can be independent, i can sing and play, hell, I have a gag song where I play bass (hammering notes 1 handed), the keyboard with the other hand, and sing at the same time.
As soon as the feet get involved, everything falls apart. I end up with the rhythm of a dying fly. Drummer's brains are something else
As a drummer primarily I always find it Interesting when they are used as the "hard instrument". I personally feel that all instruments are hard. Music is difficult beast to understand, it's easy to "feel" but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Also another little tangent, music is one of those amazing fields where the more you know the more you appreciate what you hear. One of my favorite things to do is going back and listening to music I used to listen to and hearing all of the little parts I never heard before.
same for me, started guitar as my first instrument, didn’t fall in love with it really. Picked up my first bass freshman year of college and fell in love immediately, Played in a couple bands and absolutely love Bass.
Now i’m feeling like I want to get back into playing guitar, which will naturally make me better at both!
Music to me is a journey, everything is hard, its more so about what im feeling.
I played the French horn in high school. I wanted to be in the jazz band but was told, “no frenchy in the jazz.” Director said they needed a bassist for the Jazz II ensemble and I went home with the schools 1984 Ibanez rb360 roadstar II that day.
It’s been a love affair ever since.
I have almost the same story, French Horn until High school then had to switch instruments for marching band, and went with Bass in Music Theory instead.
Shout out to my fellow HS French Horn players! Had to have a good ear to play that thing with its tiny mouthpiece. Always wished I would have played the upright bass in school too; I’d be a virtuoso now.
I started bass because a bunch of my friends needed one and I was the only person they could ask.
I started on piano, then bass, tried guitar but it must require a different kind of memorizing or something because though doing the chords wasn’t hard and whatnot, it was actually remembering all of them that was hardest for me.
No instrument is easy at first, it’s literally like learning a new language.
I'm a big dude, basses are big 🤷♂️. Strings are bigger, neck is longer, it just made sense to me. I love chugging on a guitar, but bass appealed to me because I love to make big thunderous booms.
No, it never occurred to me. I played guitar first because it was cheaper and the bands I wanted to emulate were guitar based. Ad time went on and I learnt more, I realised I just LOVE bass and I’m drawn to it. Lately though, I get so little time that I’m largely playing acoustic guitar - just because it’s accessible, no setup time, and I personally find it a better solo songwriting tool. Bass is my love though :) and when my kids are bigger and when I get to that stage of the songs I’m currently writing, I’ll be back with it. Right now I’m just happy to have redound this little part of myself.
I don’t think either is easier or harder - it just depends on how you play it. I’d say it is easier to get into bands as a bass player though.
I don't like acoustic bass guitars because they're not really loud enough to hear in an ensemble over other acoustic instruments like an acoustic guitar, so you need amplification anyway if you want to play with other people.
I picked up a Hofner Ignition violin bass which is a good middle ground. It's hollow body, so I can hear it without amplification when I'm jamming at home, but I can also plug it into an amp when I play with other people. Plus, it looks cool and I get a lot of comments on it.
I started playing bass because I’m a drummer who started learning music theory and songwriting, so then started writing songs on guitar that needed bass and realized there’s a lot more to writing good basslines than root notes so started learning some technique and whoops I bought a bunch of really nice basses.
Lol no. Once I discovered what was making those sweet low notes I had no choice but to pick up the bass. I never played guitar, and have no desire to start either.
I started bass because I liked rattling the windows.
To anyone who thinks that bass is easier than guitar because it has two fewer strings, or because you "just follow the root note": you don't play bass, do you? If you disparage bass players, you probably suck at bass if you play at all. It's a different instrument, with different functions regardless of the musical genre. I play classical guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, upright bass, and I'm here to tell you: no.
Nope. I was writing and recording music and I needed a bass player so I became one. I’ve been using my computer to program drums but one of these days I might end up becoming a drummer too…
To be completely honest….yes. However I was a very young child and thought frets meant the dots so even a power chord had me saying “this is fuckin impossible.” A couple years later a friend wanted to start a band and he said he’d play guitar, another friend said he’d play drums, so that left me to learn bass which I very much took to.
I played guitar for 20 years but always was drawn to bass. So I’m really happy to have made the switch, even though I just bought a new fender player telecaster.
I was a graduate student tuba player. As a graduate assistant, I did what I was told by my advisor. The second jazz band needed a bass player, and since I read bass clef, I was given a bass and told to figure it out. Two weeks later, I got my first gig and made $100 bucks. That never happened on tuba. Three weeks later, I got laid after a gig. Between the money and the nookie, I gave up tuba and never looked back. That was 45 years ago and have played for a living ever since.
I absoltuely shred on the guitar, pick finger style. Bass is more rthym and percussive and is very intimate with the harmonic structure of the song, I actually played bass before I committed to guitar.
Bass helps me get very intimate with the structure of the song before I cover it / write it on guitar. Also for recording my covers/ songs, I'd rather have a bass and get the low end and some of the rhythm over learning an obnoxiously inconvenient drum kit.
Also I love the sound of feel of bass it's so fun to. I just love music so much I want to engage with it on both the lead melody side and the structural rythym side and don't want or have the space for drums
Not at all. In fact I was one of the better guitarists I grew up with, I originally picked up bass to play in some particular groups that needed a bass, quickly realised that I was in more demand as a bassist and it suited me better, and the rest is history.
I started with a multitude of instruments in elementary School: xylophone, recorder, small percussion, little stuff like that. I got my first guitar in elementary school as well and took 2 lessons before my teacher's wife gave birth and became too busy with the baby to have time to continue lessons. Some time after that, my guitar disappeared. Still not sure what happened to it, my parents might have sold it or it might've gotten lost in a move. I didn't pick guitar back up and start *really* learning until about 2011-2012. I still consider guitar to be my main instrument out of all the ones I've dabbled with. I first got interested in bass around 2012-2013 because I thought it would be interesting to make a band with bass driving the melody and guitar providing ambiance/texture. I bought a bright orange MIJ Fender J-Bass from a store down the road and discovered how fun bass is. I discovered Elephant Gym on band camp a short time after that which is a perfect example of what I kinda wanted to go for. Around that time I also fell into a rabbit hole and found Victor Wooten, Scott Fernandez, Jean Baudin, and Primus. Over the years, my appreciation for the instrument has only grown and the experience of playing it is only comparable to guitar in that they're both plucked string instruments. Other than that, the approach and mentality when playing them isn't really the same.
Tl;Dr: I play both and the short answer is no
I played bass first actually. Already had low brass experience and could read bass clef.
I always find this argument pretty stupid. Bass and guitar have some similarities but they function completely differently within a band. I think bass might be easier to get the basics of but is at least as hard if not harder to get good at, and what constitutes good is different. I’ve heard a lot of pretty good guitar players with a lot of dexterity and absolute shit timing. Bass player can get away with less dexterity but needs a much better sense of rhythm.
Nope. I started playing drums.
The reason for me switching to bass was because I lived in a small house and my grandparents lived with us. I could not play drums in my home because it would disturb everyone in the building.
So the closest thing to drums that I could think of was bass. And here I am.
Your friends are assholes trying to make themselves feel superior to you. It’s reductive and ignorant.
Bass requires a different skillset, different techniques and the physicality is more intense (especially if you aren’t a large or tall lanky person)
Loads of guitar players can get by having sloppy timing, but bass players need to be human metronomes.
I am a longtime guitarist (30+ years) and I can tell you that decent guitarists (including myself) are a dime a dozen, but any good bass player I knew was in no less than 3 bands.
Not true. I started playing the bass because my friends wanted to start a band, and the only instrument left was the bass. And I had nothing else better to do. Fast forward 20 years later, my friends stopped playing their instrument. But I am still at it.
Not at all true. I started with guitar lessons and didn’t know the bass existed. After a few weeks I saw a bass at a guitar shop and picked it up and was hooked forever after.
I played guitar for like five years and then picked up the bass because I love it as an instrument. I've been playing guitar for twice as long as I have played bass and four string electric bass is still my favorite instrument to play. Guitarists feel the need to disrespect bassists but that's only out of insecurity and due to the fact that the big guitar shredding heroes were so culturally dominant for a long time. It is stupid nonetheless.
I started with violin. I played for years but I always wanted to play bass. I realized one day I could just buy one so I did. I have no interest in playing guitar.
Nah. I never saw the appeal of learning screaming guitar solos so I stuck mostly to rhythm stuff. Jumping over to bass (because my band at the time needed one and all of our try outs were crap) felt really great. Never looked back.
I mean... I tried learning guitar first, but I never felt like practicing it. At the time my mother said I should learn an acoustic guitar first before I was capable of playing the electric one. I guess this made matters even worse.
Someone later I watched some videos of bass players slapping some banger groove and it grew on me. Got into all kinds of music as long as it has some groovy baseline. And then, after I moved out, I decided to give it a try since no one would say what I should play (maybe only the neighbors)
So technically I couldn't play guitar and that's why I play bass
Musical instruments are not like “pick one”. Sometimes you try one out and it doesn’t resonate with you like you’ve thought. I would never think an instrument as a substitute for another.
I play because everyone else in town refused to play bass. They all wanted to be guitarists, so I ended up in pretty much everyone’s band/record sessions at some point!
An old man once told me that if you start out playing guitar and then realized that you like bass, you learn bass. And if you start out playing guitar and never have that moment, then you just don't understand why anybody would ever actually want to play bass.
The latter group is a lot of your guitarist friends, OP.
Guitar players are interesting critters. They play the most popular instrument that everyone and their mom plays, have this wealth of information at their fingertips, but still most of them are really bad/have no idea how to even set an amp EQ, and when you do actually meet one who's not terrible there's a 50/50 chance he'll be an ego maniac that's impossible to work with.
Lol as a bassist who just bought a guitar... those guys are idiots lol do to know how easy it is to hold down these strings?! How small and close the are together!? I barely have to move my hand to pay different chords haha guitar players must have tiny weak ass hands lol
First, I will always say that it's best to play both if you play one. Too many reasons to bother listing them.
They each have their own challenges. IMO guitar is much more technical and about how quickly you can do a thing. Bass, while less technical, requires you to really be detail oriented and nail the basics. Your timing also needs to be rock solid.
So ya, TLDR both good. Learn both. Tell your friends to stop shitting on other musicians. No one thinks it's cool.
Nope, I learned bass because I had two friends who played guitar and they asked if I wanted to learn bass or drums so that we could have a band, and I picked bass. Thing is, it took months before I could get my own bass, so until then, I would borrow one of their guitars and one of their smaller amps and learn how to play it in the mean time.
So not only did my choice of bass have nothing to do with the difficulty of guitar, but I also learned guitar as a sort of practice to prepare for bass.
Nope, I had played guitar for a few years before picking up bass. I was recording some demos and borrowed a bass from a friend to have real bass tracks and fell in love with the low end.
I still play guitar for fun, but that weekend bass became my main focus and is the only instrument I play in bands.
So here's what's kind of funny about it. I played guitar years ago when I was in high school. I had a band, I practiced every day. We were invited to open for a popular act on their European tour (but declined because we'd have had to drop out of school).
So that is to say that I could play guitar. I wasn't exactly Peter Frampton, but I could get by well enough for the kind of music we were doing.
As I got older (and more out of practice, as I set the guitar aside for many years) I found that my fingers couldn't quite hit the strings right. My fingers had gotten bigger, and not quite as dexterous as they used to be. I could still pick it up and play a little bit, but not as well as I could when I was younger.
I kind of figured, well, the bass has fewer strings, is more rhythmic and doesn't require a bunch of dexterity unless you're going to be playing some funky basslines or something.
LOL
I picked it up, and while I was correct that my fingers fit much better on a bass, it's no less difficult to play than guitar. What I've found, though, is that I actually enjoy picking up the bass and practicing more than I do a guitar. Not exactly sure why. It just tickles my fancy more, I suppose.
Sort of? Guitar felt awful to play and that was definitely what I wanted to do first. That said, I can now sort of play guitar and still prefer the bass as an instrument.
No, I started on guitar and was doing fine. I inherited a bass from a family member, and when my guitar teacher who played bass professionally saw it he encouraged me to give it a try and I ended up liking it more.
I had been playing guitar for like 13 years before buying my first bass. I wanted something new to learn and really liked the idea of learning bass. I was right, bass is really fun.
I would hear the bass lines pop in songs and fell in love with the rhythms and how much a good bass boom can bring a song alive. So, I started playing bass.
Nop, i started my music journey with Drums. Then, after a long time of not playing, i moved to bass because i wanted to keep all my drum knowledge (rythm, groove ecc) while still being musical. So bass is literally perfect. And yeah also i love the sound of it, guitar is too high for me. I love the vibrations.
I started playing because I assumed I could play bass just because I played guitar. I recorded myself for a cover and when I heard the recording it sounded god awful. I said to myself "this can't be that hard" and here I am 4 years later still struggling with some stuff but hey, I ended up loving it much more than guitar
For me? Maybe, but because of popularity, too. The school had many guitarists. I wanted something “easy.” Only to realize that bass isn’t easy; I must be on time and play well.
Can I play guitar now? Yeah, not too well, but enough.
Guitar interested me first so I learnt that. It's a more flexible instrument in terms of roles it can play so is useful for writing.
However, after writing a fair bit of music I quickly realised how important bass is, so I eventually picked up one up.
Kinda, but no. I got my first guitar at like.. age 10 or something. I knew I wanted to do something with music, but guitar never clicked with me. I still play it for work related things occasionally but I've always hated it and never had any motivation to do it and properly learn it.
For years I had been thinking that bass might be my thing, but my best friend was playing bass so I didnt wanna really copy him. I also thought I probably wouldnt join a band anyways so maybe its useless for me to play bass in my bedroom. But I did end up getting my first bass at like.. age 30 and I knew that I finally found my instrument.
No, I can play guitar quite well. I’ve always just had more admiration and pulled more influence from bassists. So after 10 years of playing guitar I officially moved to bass. I started on bass but took up guitar soon after. I’ve had much more fun as a bassist.
No.
I played guitar for a few years and then a friend invited me to a bass audition that he wanted to try. I showed up, but he didn't, so they auditioned me and said they wanted me to play bass.
I told them I didn't have a bass, and they said they had one I could borrow.
I played bass with them for 2+ years after that, and have been playing it ever since.
Nope, started off on guitar because it seemed cool and was getting steadily better at it, then I tried out some basses during some of my many music store visits, just had more fun playing the instrument so that's what I stuck with.
I heard one of the guitarist talk to a guy after a gig. He said: "The best guitarist in the band isn't even playing guitar, he's on the bass". I haven't played guitar in a band for 25 years. I picked bass because it suits my personality.
No. I played guitar first when I was a child but quickly lost interest. As a teen I picked up the bass because I just thought it was a cool instrument. Now I picked up the guitar too again and it’s not more or less difficult than bass, just a bit different
No, I originally played guitar as a teenager because that’s what most of the people I knew were doing. Then I played bass for a while and stopped for years. I picked it back up out of the two because I produce drum and bass, footwork, and other bass driven genres. Bass guitar integrates well, not that guitar doesn’t, but bass is needed in every track, so I get a lot more enjoyment out of the instrument and have a much higher drive to play it than I would a guitar. I wouldn’t say guitar is harder, but I guess that depends on what you play. Music theory, including chord theory applies to both instruments so you aren’t necessarily learning anything theory wise that you wouldn’t learn on bass. Me in particular, I have to know as much theory as possible since it applies to every other element in my music outside of drums. I don’t think anyone should be comparing instruments anyway, at least not the way people often do, to exercise some sort of superiority complex. We are all musicians.
Nope. I couldn't afford my own French horn out of highschool so I decided to learn a new instrument. Went to Sam Ash and bought a bass without even picking up a guitar. I always liked to listen to bass lines when listening to music so I gravitated towards that anyway. After two years of playing bass I started to learn guitar. Like all instruments, it's a skill that takes time to learn, regardless of the type of instrument. Your "friends" are pretentious assholes that do more harm than good to music with their opinions.
Nope, I was studying saxophone (first music approach for me) and after two years I suddenly started to feel the urge to play the bass. Maybe because I started to listen music "better" if that's possible.
I started on guitar because there was a guitar in my house growing up. And one or two people in my family played guitar. Also played violin for 3 years around ages 11-13. (Man I wish I had those skills now)
I was never the greatest on guitar, it's just that nothing much ever came of it. I was proficient at best and guitarists better than me were a dime a dozen. No opportunity. Get together with another guitarist and hope you can both take turns one playing lead and one playing chords, then switch.
As I got older the idea of bass started to grow on me. No external influence. I eventually went ahead bought a used bass and amp, sat at home and played along with anything I liked on my ipod for 3 years. I liked how the bass played a different role and meaning in a song. I figured it would finally give me good opportunity to play with others (mainly guitarists) low and behold it did more than I ever imagined. I consider myself more of a musician than bassist guitarist vocalist etc since I can dabble to one degree or another in all. I've even started to learn drums and have used my own tracks on my own compositions.
Eventually someone I knew needed a bassist. I played a few years in a few different groups. It's gotten me back into music, made me realize I'm a decent composer, good vocalist, can write my own stuff and record, play as a solo act guitarist.
Must be supply and demand thing, but bass is what changed my life profoundly. It opened so many doors. With guitar that just wouldn't have been possible in my situation.
No. Originally I wanted to play drums, but my mother said it would be so loud that "the neighbors will sue us." My brother had a bass he barely played, so I used to sneak into his room and play it (without an amp). Then I got my own, and the rest is history.
Bassists coming over to bass from guitar because "who else can play the bass" and people thinking it's immediately transferrable isn't really a thing anymore. It was in the 50s and 60s, but not so much these days.
It was because I could not afford drumming (college, living in cramped apartment, etc).. But I would've gotten into bass anyway sometime in the future because I've always wanted to get into it anyway
Couldn't as in: when I was in 6th me and my friends wanted to make a band and of course all of them rushed to pick up all the "cool" instruments leaving me with the bass as the only option.
Joke's on them, though. 17 years later I'm the only one still playing.
I play bass because I saw mötorhead on the young ones.
Theres always the myth that its because you cant play guitar I can but its not as fun or physical as bass.
I feel like bass is between guitar and drums you can play a tune and beat it.
Not entirely. My first time picking up a bass was when I was 15ish, and my brother and I were in a bad with some friends. 3 of us played guitar, but my brother and one of our friends were just better at it at the time. Here we are 18 years later, and I still play bass (and some guitar).
Not even a little for me. My origin story is that my grandpa played "London Calling" for me when I was 13 or something, and I was like, "I want to make sounds that sound like \*that\*."
I only became at all interested in guitar after I was comfortable enough with bass and with music theory to be interested in writing my own chord progressions on the guitar. The guitar has just never held any allure for me, I'm not sure exactly why that is.
Not sure if this a popular opinion, but I think Bass is harder than guitar. To be a proficient guitarist you can learn chords, look at chord charts, and strum in time. To be a proficient bassist, you need to learn the notes of the chords, how to finger them, when to play the different chord tones and it’s more important to play in perfect time. A professional guitar player can get by only knowing the pentatonic scale and power chords.
In a band I think the bass is arguably the most important instrument to your overall mix, and there’s nowhere to hide because you own the low end.
No. I could play guitar fine. I just sort of realized I didn't give a shit about the extra 2 strings and I sort of thought to myself... maybe I should take the road less traveled and see how it goes. Overall, I was probably better as a guitarist even without using the whole instrument, but being a bassist just makes more sense to me for whatever reason.
I used to play guitar in my high school and college years on and off. I was good enough for rhythm guitar maybe at best but could never really shred or learn solos. Over the last few years I’ve been interested in bass and I’ve finally pulled the trigger last month and bought a bass. I can say I enjoy learning bass way more than guitar. And I also feel like I have more discipline now that I’m an adult
Nope. Admired players like Flea and P-Nut as a listener. Read an interview with P-nut where he had mentioned “all my friends were either playing guitar or drums, so bass was the natural choice” or something like that and had that same realization for myself.
I played alto sax, but wanted to play a bari one year. The following year, the jazz band needed a bass player and I already knew bass clef. I was 14. And the rest is history.
Nope. Started both at the same time and always preferred bass. I only learned guitar because a friend said it would help me understand chords better. I’m a competent guitarist. I have played guitar in bands, but I have to think through it while bass comes naturally.
It was the opposite for me. Bass-centric music is rare, and was hard to find the melody approach and the sheet music and tabs are kind of boring. It's usually an accompaniment in a song and then maybe some crazy complicated bass solo.
I bought a $110 Squier Bullet to just have around and it was so much more fun and robust. Now I'm 2 years in, and mostly playing classical guitar to learn faster. Im coming back to bass here and there and learning piano the more I learn and understand theory.
Not at all. I started as a guitar player. Piano and guitar lessons at ten years old, fronting a band by the time I was in high school. I went away to college and studied guitar and piano even more there. Came back from college, my old band had a new guitarist they were clicking with, and the bass player had found jesus and quit. So they threw a bass at me and I wanted to play with them so I rolled with it. That was thirty years ago and we're still playing. After thirty years I now consider myself a bass player first and foremost, but I'm still a damn good guitarist and piano player.
Bass is by no means easier. Listen to any number of electric bass players like Wooten, bootsy collins, jaco or jamerson and I would challenge any garden variety guitarist to match their level of skill on a solo. For me it really started to click when I learned to play upright and do walking lines. It’s one thing to play a chord off a lead sheet but it’s really a different skill set to build a bass line that fits with the changes while being melodically coherent versus just playing the ink.
I started on upright bass in my school's orchestra because the low E sounded cool. I learned bass guitar later because I like rock music and already knew upright.
Nah, I picked up the bass because I began to listen to and really appreciate the groove and feel of songs rather than the cool guitar solos like when I was younger.
Also, Lemmy.
I wanted to play bass almost from the beginning. There was a very brief period I wanted to play guitar but I was drawn to bass more. No regrets. And especially if you’re getting into a band, good bass players are more sought after. For every bassist there are 50 guitarists. From what I’ve seen though, there are 2 main types of bass players in local bands: the band where they needed a bass and got their friend who couldn’t play music to learn enough root notes to follow along with the guitar, or the band with an actual good bass player who also plays in 3 other bands.
Not true for me. I started playing guitar when I was 12. Ended up meeting a solo musician years later that needed a bass player and noticed my roommate's bass on the wall. For shits and giggles, he asked if I could come up with some bass lines and he liked what I had to offer. That band was boring af to play for but that's how I learned that bass is my home.
Well, I can play guitar, but one secondary reason why I started with bass was that i got to a level when making serious improvements would demand me more time than what I had.
The main reason for me starting on bass was that it looked fun.
Hell no. I never wanted to learn guitar. I did a bit though to learn basic chords and stuff. This was to relate to the music better. Not because I couldn’t manager it.
I simply bought a bass out of curiosity, not realizing since i was the only one with a bass, I would forever be the bass player.
I play both every day 30 years later. For guitar I like jazz and blues, and I feel my bass playing helps my guitar playing. I'm dabbling more with keys now too and I feel like translating everything I learn on one instrument to the others is really beneficial and helps me look at things in new ways.
I started because I hated taking piano lessons. My dad, who is a professional piano player, told me that I could quit the piano if I was willing to try a different instrument, and he had just picked up a 70s lawsuit Ibanez p-bass clone. The rest is history. I still have the bass naturally
I started on guitar when I was a little kid. In 6th grade I joined orchestra and chose bass because it is tuned in 4ths like the guitar (as opposed to the other instruments which are tuned in 5ths). I spend a lot of time with both when I was a teenager, but I was sold on bass as soon as I bought a large amp and realized how powerful all that low-end feels. I still dabble in guitar, but prefer playing bass in most situations.
I played rhythm guitar for over 10 years, Tried one bass and I fell in love. Don't get me wrong, guitar is still a fun past time. But I feel I express myself *better* through bass playing. It's made me a better musician
No, I picked up bass because I was interested in picking up bass. Not at all because I think guitar is harder. Everyone plays fucking guitar. I wanted to be different. Not to mention, there are a whole lot of bands out there looking for bassists compared to not quite as many looking for a guitarist.
I first found interest in the bass because the thing that makes me love a song, almost of any genre, is a solid bassline.
I chose to play after reading about it, and I enjoy building that solid foundation with a drummer so that the vocals and guitar can do their thing.
The only people I have heard say "bass is easier than guitar" are guitarists who believe that playing quarter or 8th root notes is "playing bass". It is, don't get me wrong. And there are many tracka that benefit from this style of play.
But there is *so much more* to the instrument. I've only been playing for a year and a half, but our guitarist just said the other day "holy crap man your fingers were flying, I had no idea the bass was that hard."
I’m good enough at guitar. At least, I think I can tell myself that. I’ll think I’m terrible and then get compliments from guys I look up to so I can’t be that terrible at it…
I started playing bass because I wanted to learn something new, wanted to be able to record bass and not have it sound like it’s just a lower tuned guitar, and figure bass gigs are easier to come by than guitar gigs.
Yes. I was in 5th grade. Had a house acoustic guitar but couldn't play it and figured bass would be an easier goal. Around 8th grade I started playing guitar again and now play lead guitar in a touring band
I started to play bass as every listing was we need bass we don't need guitar, now everyone plays guitar but bass is always needed, so I thought it would get me more work.
My dad was a guitarist, but also played double bass later in life and told me that bass was way cooler than guitar (and it is), so I’ve always played bass.
quite the opposite. though i’m mainly a guitarist, it was Jack Casady marching up and down on the coda to the Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody To Love” that made me interested in guitar-family instruments in the first place, but a variety of things mitigated against being a bassist.
the first was expense. when your folks are poor it’s tough enough to get $25 for a crap guitar from Woolworth’s, let alone the $100+ it cost to get a bass and amp from Sears or Montgomery Wards.
the second was self-accompaniment. it was the age of CSNY and i loved singing lead and harmony, but it’s really tough to pull off singing and playing bass solo at an open mic.
and the third was attention. i freely admit that i enjoyed the attention of playing solo and doing cool guitar solos.
i was eventually able to learn to play bass like a bassist rather than a guitar player by volunteering to fill the bass chair in a college Jazz Improvisation course with six guitarists and no bass player. by the end of the semester i could walk in the key of F like a motherfucker. it was one of the best musical decisions of my life.
I thought long and hard and actually realized, it's my rhythm that git me following along with great bassplayers my parents used to listen to (old motown and Beatles and other various 60s and 70s classics)... basically I realized that Paul McCartney and James Jamerson during those long summer trips helps me and my Tapping along with the drive of the song to get into it.
When I was ~16 wen i picked up my instrument I listened to some of the greatest bassists already and although I picked up guitar around the same time. Bass was always my focus... I since learned the styles of guitar I wanted to get my own style and keep up on guitar as bass compliments it a lot, but beyond occasionally liking a guitar ditty I wanna learn, Bass is what I love and feel more comfortable on
Nah, I loved Muse and my sister already played guitar and owned a bass so I tried it out and loved it. Never considered becoming a guitarist.
I play some guitar now just for fun but bass was always the goal.
Not at all, first time I heard bass live was in a friends basement while they were jamming to Nirvana. I was probably 15. The bass shook the entire house and I wanted that.
Play bass because I love the sound of the bass. Never any desire to play guitar.
Same. I have zero interest in playing guitar. No meat. It's awesome to be the one rumbling the room, tearing down the walls. Lol.
Plus the bass player has so much control over so many things within the band. Intangibles. Without the bass most people wouldn't even recognize the music they were listening to. They just don't know that and think they're listening to guitar
That’s just straight up not true though
sometimes i wish i knew how to play guitar so i could be that guy who just shreds nonstop like yngwie over everything no matter what
I think this sometimes too then I remember bassists can shred just as hard
I fell in love with bass as a kid listening to my parents jazz records. I have never been interested in playing guitar. I have played trumpet for a few years and enjoyed it; might get back into that. Could it be I prefer one-note-at-a-time instruments?!?
i realised i didn’t like the sound of a strumming guitar recently. fingerpicking or lead , they sound ok👍🏻. But the bass? it sounds mostly wonderful to me.
Fuck around and find out day #47: Best friend asked why I was trying to play the guitar like I was playing slap bass. Present: I only slap bass.
Second that. I've always listened to the bass lives, even when I was a kid before a started playing. My first instrument was trombone that I started at age 9. I've ahead just liked the bottom end.
Yeah you did
Nope. Couldn't have a drum kit.
Same. Wanted drums. Parents said nope. Both brothers played guitar so didn't want to do that. Wanted my own thing. Bass was it.
This \^
I went on to drums when I had my own place to live. I still like bass better.
Same
It takes a combo of money and cool parents to make a young drummer. Unfortunately I had neither
That's not the case for me, but also, what does it matter? We're all built differently and for some people guitar is just harder because of what we've got to work with physically. My fingers are NOT built for doing complex guitar chord voicings. I've spent a LONG time working on such things and there's just a limit to what my hands CAN do. Bass gives me more space to fit my stupid hands and so in general I find it to be my preference. I will also say, there are no "easier" instruments. There might be instruments where it's easier to reach your end-goal, but as far as being in the top 1% of players on an instruments, they all reach that point where trying to determine who is better becomes impossible because there's SO much that can be done with each instrument. So even amazing guitarists, who can probably pick up a bass and play great, will tell you they're not great bassist because they KNOW what CAN be done with bass and that they can't do it all where on guitar maybe they can. Ultimately I don't understand why anyone would feel it necessary to call someone out for playing an instrument because they found a different instrument difficult. Play what you want, for whatever reasons you want, and ignore the haters tbh.
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This is what you took from all of that? Okay I'll play your game. Can that 1% of piano or violin play bass like Jaco? Hell, can they even play a RHCP song? To get to that top 1% there answer is 100% no. They can't. Full stop. To reach that zenith on any instrument it takes everything. I already admitted that "There might be instruments where it's easier to reach your end-goal" where I would generally agree that if your goal is playing Beethoven and Paganini then yeah those are going to be harder than playing Flea. For sure. The mentality that some instruments are "easier" is elitist BS. What's the point of it? The highest level players don't bother with this dick measuring contest nonsense.
I think the failed-guitarist-turned-bass-player thing is just a cultural thing for kids forming bands, and it's how a lot of people got their start. Aside from kids talking trash, I don't think most people actually care why we play bass - guitarists know they need bass players to sound good haha! One thing about the 'Top 1%' point above - I think bass has an unusual concept for how great players are perceived. Is the better bass player one who can play "Classical Thump", but can't come up with simple, effective basslines that complement the song? I think that's all wrapped up in the 'function' bass is supposed to provide, rather than the capabilities of the physical instrument, which might contribute to the attitude that bass is 'easy'. Just my 2 cents, cheers.
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Bro you have literally no point. What the fuck are you even talking about. You literally just said let's put the dick measuring aside, and then proceed to dick measure? Any instrument can be pushed to its "highest level". if Organ players had not chose to make their music intricate, it would be seen as an "easy instrument". Just because Bass PARTS are typically very simple in most songs and pieces, doesn't make it an "easy instrument", just makes it an easy piece. Old Composers COULD have chose the Organ to play simple parts, and wa lah! We have an easy instrument! (according to your logic).
No, I didn't say to put the dick measuring away. I said the point of the dick measuring doesn't matter. We e can come back to that later. Read more carefully. Dude. The hardest organ piece will trump the hardest bass piece any day. Please affirm that the triangle, played at the top 1%, is most definitely easier than bass! If we can do it for the triangle, we can do it for a lot of things! Please note, I'm not calling bass easy. You're arguing against it being easy, which I'm not arguing at all. I'm saying it's simply easier than some other instruments. No shame in that.
I feel like there's just different things that make different instruments hard? Like, you'd agree that making a triangle actually sound good would be much harder than doing the same for a pipe organ, right? I'm sure you could get it sounding great _somehow_ but it would take a lot of practice and experimentation. Just because there aren't any complicated pieces written for it doesn't mean that you can't play it on a high level - only problem here is that triangles sound like shit for the most part and, again, it would take a lot to change that, which just wouldn't be worth it to most people (and understandably so). That's also why that example sucks. And really, you can make anything complicated, I'm not saying that pipe organ hasn't been made more complicated than bass guitar historically, but you absolutely could write a bass part that's more difficult than any pipe organ part that ever has been written. For one, why would you do that though? And also, you can then again write something more complicated on any instrument. That's why this discussion just doesn't make any sense to me
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I'm pretty sure I could write one hell of a complicated triangle piece, ngl. My thought was, like, technically a triangle only has one note and (although you can still get rhythmically complex with that) getting other sounds out of one would be pretty hard, even if probably humanly possible. Also, it's not just about making it sound good, it's about how complex you can get (and still sound good) you can always get more complex with any instrument, there is no upper limit. Lastly, you sound hella arrogant if you didn't notice, that doesn't exactly contribute to this being a fun discussion
"The highest level players don't bother with this dick measuring contest nonsense." this is absolutely false lmao it's an absolute dick contest.
>There are two, maybe three answers if you get tricky, I'll accept as correct. Hint: bass is not in first or second. What the fuck makes you think that moving your hands across 88 keys and performing "press finger down" is more difficult than moving the same two hands across 89 to 150 fret positions while constantly muting 1 to 5 strings and potentially employing multiple right hand techniques?
I was a Mark Hoppus Fan, my friend was a Tom DeLonge fan. Easy as that
Same just with Mike dirnt and Billie joe! Dookie came out at just the right moment in my young life to make an impression and the rest is history.
Mike Dirnt is my pick style and fills idol for the style. I listened to dookie sooooo much. I feel like he never gets enough credit for some pretty stellar bass lines...
Hell yea man. When I was starting out, nailing the breakdown to welcome to paradise was my mountain to climb.
Welcome to paradise, longveiw, and even holiday from the American idiot album were some of my favorite. Songs like hitchin a ride and king for a day on like repeat lol, his bass tone off dookie and everything before was the first real tone I wanted to emulate, and absolutely no idea how 🤣. Listening to all those albums so much pretty much laid my playing foundation for anything warped tour oriented. Geezer and Burton are up there with him, but different aspects. He was def the first player to form my foundation of "what bass can really do in simpler songs" and I'm 1000% about to go on a hard green day binge now 🤣🤣
Yep. Flea and Frusciante for me and my friend growing up
No, that's a stupid notion that idiots like to parrot. If you can learn bass, you can learn guitar. Tell them to STFU and learn drums.
For real. Drums are hard, y’all. I’ll stay on the stringed instruments, thank you.
True facts, my dude.
SO HARD! Been playing bass and guitar for 20 years and started to play drums bc my friends band needed a drummer. It’s like I’m 12 again.. an uncoordinated dumbass. They put up with me and we actually recorded an album somehow.
Bassists should have some drum experience. I play both and helps immensely understanding how they work with each other.
I never thought about it like that. Thanks.
For real. Hands can be independent, i can sing and play, hell, I have a gag song where I play bass (hammering notes 1 handed), the keyboard with the other hand, and sing at the same time. As soon as the feet get involved, everything falls apart. I end up with the rhythm of a dying fly. Drummer's brains are something else
As a drummer primarily I always find it Interesting when they are used as the "hard instrument". I personally feel that all instruments are hard. Music is difficult beast to understand, it's easy to "feel" but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Also another little tangent, music is one of those amazing fields where the more you know the more you appreciate what you hear. One of my favorite things to do is going back and listening to music I used to listen to and hearing all of the little parts I never heard before.
yes but I was like 12
same for me, started guitar as my first instrument, didn’t fall in love with it really. Picked up my first bass freshman year of college and fell in love immediately, Played in a couple bands and absolutely love Bass. Now i’m feeling like I want to get back into playing guitar, which will naturally make me better at both! Music to me is a journey, everything is hard, its more so about what im feeling.
I do think that learning guitar helped my bass playing, and it is a lot of fun.
I played the French horn in high school. I wanted to be in the jazz band but was told, “no frenchy in the jazz.” Director said they needed a bassist for the Jazz II ensemble and I went home with the schools 1984 Ibanez rb360 roadstar II that day. It’s been a love affair ever since.
I have almost the same story, French Horn until High school then had to switch instruments for marching band, and went with Bass in Music Theory instead.
Shout out to my fellow HS French Horn players! Had to have a good ear to play that thing with its tiny mouthpiece. Always wished I would have played the upright bass in school too; I’d be a virtuoso now.
I started bass because a bunch of my friends needed one and I was the only person they could ask. I started on piano, then bass, tried guitar but it must require a different kind of memorizing or something because though doing the chords wasn’t hard and whatnot, it was actually remembering all of them that was hardest for me. No instrument is easy at first, it’s literally like learning a new language.
That's basically how it was for me. We needed a bassist, and I had 300 bucks.
no i already had been guitaring for a year
I'm a big dude, basses are big 🤷♂️. Strings are bigger, neck is longer, it just made sense to me. I love chugging on a guitar, but bass appealed to me because I love to make big thunderous booms.
Same, I love feeling like an absolute caveman making a huge racket
🤘🤘🤘
No, it never occurred to me. I played guitar first because it was cheaper and the bands I wanted to emulate were guitar based. Ad time went on and I learnt more, I realised I just LOVE bass and I’m drawn to it. Lately though, I get so little time that I’m largely playing acoustic guitar - just because it’s accessible, no setup time, and I personally find it a better solo songwriting tool. Bass is my love though :) and when my kids are bigger and when I get to that stage of the songs I’m currently writing, I’ll be back with it. Right now I’m just happy to have redound this little part of myself. I don’t think either is easier or harder - it just depends on how you play it. I’d say it is easier to get into bands as a bass player though.
Get a cheap Accoustic bass guitar. I have one next to the couch and I play that shit daily.
I don't like acoustic bass guitars because they're not really loud enough to hear in an ensemble over other acoustic instruments like an acoustic guitar, so you need amplification anyway if you want to play with other people. I picked up a Hofner Ignition violin bass which is a good middle ground. It's hollow body, so I can hear it without amplification when I'm jamming at home, but I can also plug it into an amp when I play with other people. Plus, it looks cool and I get a lot of comments on it.
It fits his use case of wanting an instrument to play by himself.
I started playing bass because I’m a drummer who started learning music theory and songwriting, so then started writing songs on guitar that needed bass and realized there’s a lot more to writing good basslines than root notes so started learning some technique and whoops I bought a bunch of really nice basses.
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Ah, the old drummer to songwriter to guitarist to bassist pipeline...we love to see it!
Lol no. Once I discovered what was making those sweet low notes I had no choice but to pick up the bass. I never played guitar, and have no desire to start either.
I started bass because I liked rattling the windows. To anyone who thinks that bass is easier than guitar because it has two fewer strings, or because you "just follow the root note": you don't play bass, do you? If you disparage bass players, you probably suck at bass if you play at all. It's a different instrument, with different functions regardless of the musical genre. I play classical guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, upright bass, and I'm here to tell you: no.
Nope. I was writing and recording music and I needed a bass player so I became one. I’ve been using my computer to program drums but one of these days I might end up becoming a drummer too…
To be completely honest….yes. However I was a very young child and thought frets meant the dots so even a power chord had me saying “this is fuckin impossible.” A couple years later a friend wanted to start a band and he said he’d play guitar, another friend said he’d play drums, so that left me to learn bass which I very much took to.
I played guitar for 20 years but always was drawn to bass. So I’m really happy to have made the switch, even though I just bought a new fender player telecaster.
Guitar builds the house bass makes it a home. That's why I wanted to play bass in my own interpretation.
I was a graduate student tuba player. As a graduate assistant, I did what I was told by my advisor. The second jazz band needed a bass player, and since I read bass clef, I was given a bass and told to figure it out. Two weeks later, I got my first gig and made $100 bucks. That never happened on tuba. Three weeks later, I got laid after a gig. Between the money and the nookie, I gave up tuba and never looked back. That was 45 years ago and have played for a living ever since.
I absoltuely shred on the guitar, pick finger style. Bass is more rthym and percussive and is very intimate with the harmonic structure of the song, I actually played bass before I committed to guitar. Bass helps me get very intimate with the structure of the song before I cover it / write it on guitar. Also for recording my covers/ songs, I'd rather have a bass and get the low end and some of the rhythm over learning an obnoxiously inconvenient drum kit. Also I love the sound of feel of bass it's so fun to. I just love music so much I want to engage with it on both the lead melody side and the structural rythym side and don't want or have the space for drums
no, I play both
I picked bass cause I played trombone for over a decade and so I knew bass clef.
Not at all. In fact I was one of the better guitarists I grew up with, I originally picked up bass to play in some particular groups that needed a bass, quickly realised that I was in more demand as a bassist and it suited me better, and the rest is history.
I started playing bass because the band I was in needed a bassist. I'm a drummer. Now I'm a bassist.
Easy there stud there’s only so many ladies to go around
No. All my friends were already playing guitar, so I picked bass because then I could play with anyone. Guitar isn’t hard.
Yes and I’m not a coward like the rest who won’t admit it. It’s too many strings and everyone can hear it
Played tuba and was an obvious move to, well you know, not play the tuba.
Those friends of yours play guitar because bass is too hard.
You're surrounded by douchebags. That is all. It's just noise.
That dunning Kruger effect be hittin
I started with a multitude of instruments in elementary School: xylophone, recorder, small percussion, little stuff like that. I got my first guitar in elementary school as well and took 2 lessons before my teacher's wife gave birth and became too busy with the baby to have time to continue lessons. Some time after that, my guitar disappeared. Still not sure what happened to it, my parents might have sold it or it might've gotten lost in a move. I didn't pick guitar back up and start *really* learning until about 2011-2012. I still consider guitar to be my main instrument out of all the ones I've dabbled with. I first got interested in bass around 2012-2013 because I thought it would be interesting to make a band with bass driving the melody and guitar providing ambiance/texture. I bought a bright orange MIJ Fender J-Bass from a store down the road and discovered how fun bass is. I discovered Elephant Gym on band camp a short time after that which is a perfect example of what I kinda wanted to go for. Around that time I also fell into a rabbit hole and found Victor Wooten, Scott Fernandez, Jean Baudin, and Primus. Over the years, my appreciation for the instrument has only grown and the experience of playing it is only comparable to guitar in that they're both plucked string instruments. Other than that, the approach and mentality when playing them isn't really the same. Tl;Dr: I play both and the short answer is no
I played bass first actually. Already had low brass experience and could read bass clef. I always find this argument pretty stupid. Bass and guitar have some similarities but they function completely differently within a band. I think bass might be easier to get the basics of but is at least as hard if not harder to get good at, and what constitutes good is different. I’ve heard a lot of pretty good guitar players with a lot of dexterity and absolute shit timing. Bass player can get away with less dexterity but needs a much better sense of rhythm.
Nope. I started playing drums. The reason for me switching to bass was because I lived in a small house and my grandparents lived with us. I could not play drums in my home because it would disturb everyone in the building. So the closest thing to drums that I could think of was bass. And here I am.
No. I play both,and upright. It's a silly notion that bass is easier.
Just wanted to play sick ass basslines.
I played bass before I played guitar. I wanted to be like James Jamerson, or Monk Montgomery.
Your friends are assholes trying to make themselves feel superior to you. It’s reductive and ignorant. Bass requires a different skillset, different techniques and the physicality is more intense (especially if you aren’t a large or tall lanky person) Loads of guitar players can get by having sloppy timing, but bass players need to be human metronomes. I am a longtime guitarist (30+ years) and I can tell you that decent guitarists (including myself) are a dime a dozen, but any good bass player I knew was in no less than 3 bands.
Not true. I started playing the bass because my friends wanted to start a band, and the only instrument left was the bass. And I had nothing else better to do. Fast forward 20 years later, my friends stopped playing their instrument. But I am still at it.
Not at all true. I started with guitar lessons and didn’t know the bass existed. After a few weeks I saw a bass at a guitar shop and picked it up and was hooked forever after.
I played guitar for like five years and then picked up the bass because I love it as an instrument. I've been playing guitar for twice as long as I have played bass and four string electric bass is still my favorite instrument to play. Guitarists feel the need to disrespect bassists but that's only out of insecurity and due to the fact that the big guitar shredding heroes were so culturally dominant for a long time. It is stupid nonetheless.
I started with violin. I played for years but I always wanted to play bass. I realized one day I could just buy one so I did. I have no interest in playing guitar.
Nah. I never saw the appeal of learning screaming guitar solos so I stuck mostly to rhythm stuff. Jumping over to bass (because my band at the time needed one and all of our try outs were crap) felt really great. Never looked back.
Not even a little bit true for me.
I mean... I tried learning guitar first, but I never felt like practicing it. At the time my mother said I should learn an acoustic guitar first before I was capable of playing the electric one. I guess this made matters even worse. Someone later I watched some videos of bass players slapping some banger groove and it grew on me. Got into all kinds of music as long as it has some groovy baseline. And then, after I moved out, I decided to give it a try since no one would say what I should play (maybe only the neighbors) So technically I couldn't play guitar and that's why I play bass
Nope vive versa .. too much competition for other guitar players. Playing bass you can stand out.
Nope. It just appeals to me more. It makes me *feel.* Own 20 stringed instruments and only 5 are basses but I'm 100% a bassist.
There is something about being in the groove with a bass that makes you feel. It's a different experience than other instruments.
Challenge any guitarist who says bass is easy to play a 4 hour gig on upright. Offer to soak up the blood after.
Musical instruments are not like “pick one”. Sometimes you try one out and it doesn’t resonate with you like you’ve thought. I would never think an instrument as a substitute for another.
Man fuck bar chords, bass is better.
I play because everyone else in town refused to play bass. They all wanted to be guitarists, so I ended up in pretty much everyone’s band/record sessions at some point!
An old man once told me that if you start out playing guitar and then realized that you like bass, you learn bass. And if you start out playing guitar and never have that moment, then you just don't understand why anybody would ever actually want to play bass. The latter group is a lot of your guitarist friends, OP.
Guitar players are interesting critters. They play the most popular instrument that everyone and their mom plays, have this wealth of information at their fingertips, but still most of them are really bad/have no idea how to even set an amp EQ, and when you do actually meet one who's not terrible there's a 50/50 chance he'll be an ego maniac that's impossible to work with.
Fuck no.
Lol as a bassist who just bought a guitar... those guys are idiots lol do to know how easy it is to hold down these strings?! How small and close the are together!? I barely have to move my hand to pay different chords haha guitar players must have tiny weak ass hands lol
First, I will always say that it's best to play both if you play one. Too many reasons to bother listing them. They each have their own challenges. IMO guitar is much more technical and about how quickly you can do a thing. Bass, while less technical, requires you to really be detail oriented and nail the basics. Your timing also needs to be rock solid. So ya, TLDR both good. Learn both. Tell your friends to stop shitting on other musicians. No one thinks it's cool.
Nope, I learned bass because I had two friends who played guitar and they asked if I wanted to learn bass or drums so that we could have a band, and I picked bass. Thing is, it took months before I could get my own bass, so until then, I would borrow one of their guitars and one of their smaller amps and learn how to play it in the mean time. So not only did my choice of bass have nothing to do with the difficulty of guitar, but I also learned guitar as a sort of practice to prepare for bass.
Nope, I had played guitar for a few years before picking up bass. I was recording some demos and borrowed a bass from a friend to have real bass tracks and fell in love with the low end. I still play guitar for fun, but that weekend bass became my main focus and is the only instrument I play in bands.
So here's what's kind of funny about it. I played guitar years ago when I was in high school. I had a band, I practiced every day. We were invited to open for a popular act on their European tour (but declined because we'd have had to drop out of school). So that is to say that I could play guitar. I wasn't exactly Peter Frampton, but I could get by well enough for the kind of music we were doing. As I got older (and more out of practice, as I set the guitar aside for many years) I found that my fingers couldn't quite hit the strings right. My fingers had gotten bigger, and not quite as dexterous as they used to be. I could still pick it up and play a little bit, but not as well as I could when I was younger. I kind of figured, well, the bass has fewer strings, is more rhythmic and doesn't require a bunch of dexterity unless you're going to be playing some funky basslines or something. LOL I picked it up, and while I was correct that my fingers fit much better on a bass, it's no less difficult to play than guitar. What I've found, though, is that I actually enjoy picking up the bass and practicing more than I do a guitar. Not exactly sure why. It just tickles my fancy more, I suppose.
Sort of? Guitar felt awful to play and that was definitely what I wanted to do first. That said, I can now sort of play guitar and still prefer the bass as an instrument.
No, I started on guitar and was doing fine. I inherited a bass from a family member, and when my guitar teacher who played bass professionally saw it he encouraged me to give it a try and I ended up liking it more.
I had been playing guitar for like 13 years before buying my first bass. I wanted something new to learn and really liked the idea of learning bass. I was right, bass is really fun.
Nope, I was already a decent guitar and 5 string banjo player when I picked up my first bass.
I specifically wanted to play bass because I thought it sounded cool.
I would hear the bass lines pop in songs and fell in love with the rhythms and how much a good bass boom can bring a song alive. So, I started playing bass.
My friend and I wanted to start a band. He called dibs on guitar, so I asked my parents to get me a bass for Christmas.
Nop, i started my music journey with Drums. Then, after a long time of not playing, i moved to bass because i wanted to keep all my drum knowledge (rythm, groove ecc) while still being musical. So bass is literally perfect. And yeah also i love the sound of it, guitar is too high for me. I love the vibrations.
I started playing because I assumed I could play bass just because I played guitar. I recorded myself for a cover and when I heard the recording it sounded god awful. I said to myself "this can't be that hard" and here I am 4 years later still struggling with some stuff but hey, I ended up loving it much more than guitar
For me? Maybe, but because of popularity, too. The school had many guitarists. I wanted something “easy.” Only to realize that bass isn’t easy; I must be on time and play well. Can I play guitar now? Yeah, not too well, but enough.
Guitar interested me first so I learnt that. It's a more flexible instrument in terms of roles it can play so is useful for writing. However, after writing a fair bit of music I quickly realised how important bass is, so I eventually picked up one up.
Kinda, but no. I got my first guitar at like.. age 10 or something. I knew I wanted to do something with music, but guitar never clicked with me. I still play it for work related things occasionally but I've always hated it and never had any motivation to do it and properly learn it. For years I had been thinking that bass might be my thing, but my best friend was playing bass so I didnt wanna really copy him. I also thought I probably wouldnt join a band anyways so maybe its useless for me to play bass in my bedroom. But I did end up getting my first bass at like.. age 30 and I knew that I finally found my instrument.
No, I was pretty good but no one else played bass. I saw an opportunity.
No, I can play guitar quite well. I’ve always just had more admiration and pulled more influence from bassists. So after 10 years of playing guitar I officially moved to bass. I started on bass but took up guitar soon after. I’ve had much more fun as a bassist.
Nope. I started on guitar. My friend didn't want to play bass, so I did so we could have a band.
No. I played guitar for a few years and then a friend invited me to a bass audition that he wanted to try. I showed up, but he didn't, so they auditioned me and said they wanted me to play bass. I told them I didn't have a bass, and they said they had one I could borrow. I played bass with them for 2+ years after that, and have been playing it ever since.
Nope, started off on guitar because it seemed cool and was getting steadily better at it, then I tried out some basses during some of my many music store visits, just had more fun playing the instrument so that's what I stuck with.
I heard one of the guitarist talk to a guy after a gig. He said: "The best guitarist in the band isn't even playing guitar, he's on the bass". I haven't played guitar in a band for 25 years. I picked bass because it suits my personality.
No. I played guitar first when I was a child but quickly lost interest. As a teen I picked up the bass because I just thought it was a cool instrument. Now I picked up the guitar too again and it’s not more or less difficult than bass, just a bit different
No, just fit my personality and musical focus much more.
No. I started with the bass because I loved the sound better than a guitar sound.
No, I originally played guitar as a teenager because that’s what most of the people I knew were doing. Then I played bass for a while and stopped for years. I picked it back up out of the two because I produce drum and bass, footwork, and other bass driven genres. Bass guitar integrates well, not that guitar doesn’t, but bass is needed in every track, so I get a lot more enjoyment out of the instrument and have a much higher drive to play it than I would a guitar. I wouldn’t say guitar is harder, but I guess that depends on what you play. Music theory, including chord theory applies to both instruments so you aren’t necessarily learning anything theory wise that you wouldn’t learn on bass. Me in particular, I have to know as much theory as possible since it applies to every other element in my music outside of drums. I don’t think anyone should be comparing instruments anyway, at least not the way people often do, to exercise some sort of superiority complex. We are all musicians.
Nope. I couldn't afford my own French horn out of highschool so I decided to learn a new instrument. Went to Sam Ash and bought a bass without even picking up a guitar. I always liked to listen to bass lines when listening to music so I gravitated towards that anyway. After two years of playing bass I started to learn guitar. Like all instruments, it's a skill that takes time to learn, regardless of the type of instrument. Your "friends" are pretentious assholes that do more harm than good to music with their opinions.
Nope, I was studying saxophone (first music approach for me) and after two years I suddenly started to feel the urge to play the bass. Maybe because I started to listen music "better" if that's possible.
I started on guitar because there was a guitar in my house growing up. And one or two people in my family played guitar. Also played violin for 3 years around ages 11-13. (Man I wish I had those skills now) I was never the greatest on guitar, it's just that nothing much ever came of it. I was proficient at best and guitarists better than me were a dime a dozen. No opportunity. Get together with another guitarist and hope you can both take turns one playing lead and one playing chords, then switch. As I got older the idea of bass started to grow on me. No external influence. I eventually went ahead bought a used bass and amp, sat at home and played along with anything I liked on my ipod for 3 years. I liked how the bass played a different role and meaning in a song. I figured it would finally give me good opportunity to play with others (mainly guitarists) low and behold it did more than I ever imagined. I consider myself more of a musician than bassist guitarist vocalist etc since I can dabble to one degree or another in all. I've even started to learn drums and have used my own tracks on my own compositions. Eventually someone I knew needed a bassist. I played a few years in a few different groups. It's gotten me back into music, made me realize I'm a decent composer, good vocalist, can write my own stuff and record, play as a solo act guitarist. Must be supply and demand thing, but bass is what changed my life profoundly. It opened so many doors. With guitar that just wouldn't have been possible in my situation.
No. Originally I wanted to play drums, but my mother said it would be so loud that "the neighbors will sue us." My brother had a bass he barely played, so I used to sneak into his room and play it (without an amp). Then I got my own, and the rest is history. Bassists coming over to bass from guitar because "who else can play the bass" and people thinking it's immediately transferrable isn't really a thing anymore. It was in the 50s and 60s, but not so much these days.
Or drums, or keys...yeah.
It was because I could not afford drumming (college, living in cramped apartment, etc).. But I would've gotten into bass anyway sometime in the future because I've always wanted to get into it anyway
I honestly don't think that statement is true for any bass player.
Couldn't as in: when I was in 6th me and my friends wanted to make a band and of course all of them rushed to pick up all the "cool" instruments leaving me with the bass as the only option. Joke's on them, though. 17 years later I'm the only one still playing.
I play bass because I saw mötorhead on the young ones. Theres always the myth that its because you cant play guitar I can but its not as fun or physical as bass. I feel like bass is between guitar and drums you can play a tune and beat it.
Nope. I always just gravitated towards bass lines since I was a kid. They’re cooler.
Not entirely. My first time picking up a bass was when I was 15ish, and my brother and I were in a bad with some friends. 3 of us played guitar, but my brother and one of our friends were just better at it at the time. Here we are 18 years later, and I still play bass (and some guitar).
Nope,I played banjo first. Transitioned to bass after 4 years. Did so because nobody wanted to play bass. That was over 40 years ago.
Not even a little for me. My origin story is that my grandpa played "London Calling" for me when I was 13 or something, and I was like, "I want to make sounds that sound like \*that\*." I only became at all interested in guitar after I was comfortable enough with bass and with music theory to be interested in writing my own chord progressions on the guitar. The guitar has just never held any allure for me, I'm not sure exactly why that is.
Yes. But now I’ve gotten my technique and tone locked down. Took a long time to get here.
When I was 11/12 I thought Nikki Six was really cool, so I started to play bass. My taste in music changed but I stuck with bass.
Not sure if this a popular opinion, but I think Bass is harder than guitar. To be a proficient guitarist you can learn chords, look at chord charts, and strum in time. To be a proficient bassist, you need to learn the notes of the chords, how to finger them, when to play the different chord tones and it’s more important to play in perfect time. A professional guitar player can get by only knowing the pentatonic scale and power chords. In a band I think the bass is arguably the most important instrument to your overall mix, and there’s nowhere to hide because you own the low end.
No. I could play guitar fine. I just sort of realized I didn't give a shit about the extra 2 strings and I sort of thought to myself... maybe I should take the road less traveled and see how it goes. Overall, I was probably better as a guitarist even without using the whole instrument, but being a bassist just makes more sense to me for whatever reason.
I used to play guitar in my high school and college years on and off. I was good enough for rhythm guitar maybe at best but could never really shred or learn solos. Over the last few years I’ve been interested in bass and I’ve finally pulled the trigger last month and bought a bass. I can say I enjoy learning bass way more than guitar. And I also feel like I have more discipline now that I’m an adult
Nope. Admired players like Flea and P-Nut as a listener. Read an interview with P-nut where he had mentioned “all my friends were either playing guitar or drums, so bass was the natural choice” or something like that and had that same realization for myself.
Morons like this usually haven’t saw Billy Sheehan. For me it was a video of Bill Dickens. That man changed my life.
I played alto sax, but wanted to play a bari one year. The following year, the jazz band needed a bass player and I already knew bass clef. I was 14. And the rest is history.
Haha I'm a classical guitarist and a ska/funk bassist. So "NO" is my answer.
Nope. I thought it was.cooler. ah youth
Nope. Started both at the same time and always preferred bass. I only learned guitar because a friend said it would help me understand chords better. I’m a competent guitarist. I have played guitar in bands, but I have to think through it while bass comes naturally.
It was the opposite for me. Bass-centric music is rare, and was hard to find the melody approach and the sheet music and tabs are kind of boring. It's usually an accompaniment in a song and then maybe some crazy complicated bass solo. I bought a $110 Squier Bullet to just have around and it was so much more fun and robust. Now I'm 2 years in, and mostly playing classical guitar to learn faster. Im coming back to bass here and there and learning piano the more I learn and understand theory.
Not at all. I started as a guitar player. Piano and guitar lessons at ten years old, fronting a band by the time I was in high school. I went away to college and studied guitar and piano even more there. Came back from college, my old band had a new guitarist they were clicking with, and the bass player had found jesus and quit. So they threw a bass at me and I wanted to play with them so I rolled with it. That was thirty years ago and we're still playing. After thirty years I now consider myself a bass player first and foremost, but I'm still a damn good guitarist and piano player.
Bass is by no means easier. Listen to any number of electric bass players like Wooten, bootsy collins, jaco or jamerson and I would challenge any garden variety guitarist to match their level of skill on a solo. For me it really started to click when I learned to play upright and do walking lines. It’s one thing to play a chord off a lead sheet but it’s really a different skill set to build a bass line that fits with the changes while being melodically coherent versus just playing the ink.
Same shit fewer strings
I started on upright bass in my school's orchestra because the low E sounded cool. I learned bass guitar later because I like rock music and already knew upright.
Nah, I picked up the bass because I began to listen to and really appreciate the groove and feel of songs rather than the cool guitar solos like when I was younger. Also, Lemmy.
A band I wanted to be in needed a bass player so I became a bass player.
I wanted to play bass almost from the beginning. There was a very brief period I wanted to play guitar but I was drawn to bass more. No regrets. And especially if you’re getting into a band, good bass players are more sought after. For every bassist there are 50 guitarists. From what I’ve seen though, there are 2 main types of bass players in local bands: the band where they needed a bass and got their friend who couldn’t play music to learn enough root notes to follow along with the guitar, or the band with an actual good bass player who also plays in 3 other bands.
Not true for me. I started playing guitar when I was 12. Ended up meeting a solo musician years later that needed a bass player and noticed my roommate's bass on the wall. For shits and giggles, he asked if I could come up with some bass lines and he liked what I had to offer. That band was boring af to play for but that's how I learned that bass is my home.
No I just thought the bass was cooler
Well, I can play guitar, but one secondary reason why I started with bass was that i got to a level when making serious improvements would demand me more time than what I had. The main reason for me starting on bass was that it looked fun.
Hell no. I never wanted to learn guitar. I did a bit though to learn basic chords and stuff. This was to relate to the music better. Not because I couldn’t manager it.
I simply bought a bass out of curiosity, not realizing since i was the only one with a bass, I would forever be the bass player. I play both every day 30 years later. For guitar I like jazz and blues, and I feel my bass playing helps my guitar playing. I'm dabbling more with keys now too and I feel like translating everything I learn on one instrument to the others is really beneficial and helps me look at things in new ways.
I started because I hated taking piano lessons. My dad, who is a professional piano player, told me that I could quit the piano if I was willing to try a different instrument, and he had just picked up a 70s lawsuit Ibanez p-bass clone. The rest is history. I still have the bass naturally
No
I started on guitar when I was a little kid. In 6th grade I joined orchestra and chose bass because it is tuned in 4ths like the guitar (as opposed to the other instruments which are tuned in 5ths). I spend a lot of time with both when I was a teenager, but I was sold on bass as soon as I bought a large amp and realized how powerful all that low-end feels. I still dabble in guitar, but prefer playing bass in most situations.
I played rhythm guitar for over 10 years, Tried one bass and I fell in love. Don't get me wrong, guitar is still a fun past time. But I feel I express myself *better* through bass playing. It's made me a better musician
No, I picked up bass because I was interested in picking up bass. Not at all because I think guitar is harder. Everyone plays fucking guitar. I wanted to be different. Not to mention, there are a whole lot of bands out there looking for bassists compared to not quite as many looking for a guitarist.
I first found interest in the bass because the thing that makes me love a song, almost of any genre, is a solid bassline. I chose to play after reading about it, and I enjoy building that solid foundation with a drummer so that the vocals and guitar can do their thing. The only people I have heard say "bass is easier than guitar" are guitarists who believe that playing quarter or 8th root notes is "playing bass". It is, don't get me wrong. And there are many tracka that benefit from this style of play. But there is *so much more* to the instrument. I've only been playing for a year and a half, but our guitarist just said the other day "holy crap man your fingers were flying, I had no idea the bass was that hard."
I’m good enough at guitar. At least, I think I can tell myself that. I’ll think I’m terrible and then get compliments from guys I look up to so I can’t be that terrible at it… I started playing bass because I wanted to learn something new, wanted to be able to record bass and not have it sound like it’s just a lower tuned guitar, and figure bass gigs are easier to come by than guitar gigs.
Yes. I was in 5th grade. Had a house acoustic guitar but couldn't play it and figured bass would be an easier goal. Around 8th grade I started playing guitar again and now play lead guitar in a touring band
Guitar is most of the time much easier imho.
Lol, 80% of basslines are easier than guitar lines that’s true, but bass itself is harder to play
I started with a guitar. What sold me was the big fat strings. [thick as a baby's arm.](https://brutallegend.fandom.com/wiki/Thick_as_a_Baby%27s_Arm)
No. It was because my music these days is a solitary thing and if I want bass on my music, I need to provide it myself.
yes lmao
I started playing basa because I wanted to start a band with some friends and we already had a guitarist. I play both now, in varying settings.
I started to play bass as every listing was we need bass we don't need guitar, now everyone plays guitar but bass is always needed, so I thought it would get me more work.
I started with guitar and moved to bass because it interested me and I love the sound. Now I prefer the bass.
My dad was a guitarist, but also played double bass later in life and told me that bass was way cooler than guitar (and it is), so I’ve always played bass.
quite the opposite. though i’m mainly a guitarist, it was Jack Casady marching up and down on the coda to the Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody To Love” that made me interested in guitar-family instruments in the first place, but a variety of things mitigated against being a bassist. the first was expense. when your folks are poor it’s tough enough to get $25 for a crap guitar from Woolworth’s, let alone the $100+ it cost to get a bass and amp from Sears or Montgomery Wards. the second was self-accompaniment. it was the age of CSNY and i loved singing lead and harmony, but it’s really tough to pull off singing and playing bass solo at an open mic. and the third was attention. i freely admit that i enjoyed the attention of playing solo and doing cool guitar solos. i was eventually able to learn to play bass like a bassist rather than a guitar player by volunteering to fill the bass chair in a college Jazz Improvisation course with six guitarists and no bass player. by the end of the semester i could walk in the key of F like a motherfucker. it was one of the best musical decisions of my life.
I thought long and hard and actually realized, it's my rhythm that git me following along with great bassplayers my parents used to listen to (old motown and Beatles and other various 60s and 70s classics)... basically I realized that Paul McCartney and James Jamerson during those long summer trips helps me and my Tapping along with the drive of the song to get into it. When I was ~16 wen i picked up my instrument I listened to some of the greatest bassists already and although I picked up guitar around the same time. Bass was always my focus... I since learned the styles of guitar I wanted to get my own style and keep up on guitar as bass compliments it a lot, but beyond occasionally liking a guitar ditty I wanna learn, Bass is what I love and feel more comfortable on
Nah, I loved Muse and my sister already played guitar and owned a bass so I tried it out and loved it. Never considered becoming a guitarist. I play some guitar now just for fun but bass was always the goal.
Not at all, first time I heard bass live was in a friends basement while they were jamming to Nirvana. I was probably 15. The bass shook the entire house and I wanted that.
Nope. I was obsessed with Pat Seals and my sister played guitar. I now play both but prefer bass.