What made you take up the guitar..

Originally posted by Air
Who the hell wants to start to play bass? I've allways wondered that.
Must be the most boring intrument to learn, you cant do solos (and if u try it sounds like ****, like bill dickinson), u get the least attention, ur barely heard, and it is not far as expressive as a guitar...
(no offence to all the bass-players out there)

i took up bass between sax and guitar and i have to disagree. true, in an indie, pop or straight ahead rock band it's usually pretty limited. but in a funk - based outfit the bass is the main thing.players like Les Claypool, Victor Wooten, Jaco and Stanley Clarke do very interesting things with just 4 or 5 strings. you might be right about expressiveness though and not getting much attention unless youre blasting off megafast slapping

It's funny, because whats cool and fun to play on guitar (Blues, classic rock, metal, Be-Bop) is usually boring for Bass, and vice versa, what's cool and fun for bass (funk, disco, R&B, Modern Rock) is boring for guitar. I guess that's why Progressive Rock and Fusion were developed, to keep everybody happy.

There's something cool about playing bass and just locking in with a drummer to establish a tight groove that's different about playing guitar.

I first picked up a guitar when I inherited one when I was 6 years old.
Of course then the ladies was not exactly a factor in the decision
to start playing the guitar, they were more of a very pleasant
side-effect later on!
Electric guitar first seemed cool when I was 13 and heard
Metallicas "One" for the first time.
So later that day I went to "GFX Music" and bought myself
a Falcon Stratocaster and a Marshall 15w amp (I still use
the Marshall for practice, a quality amp).
I spend all my money, ca. $250, but it was definetely worth it.

AEROSMITH actully. I can play anything by them though, never even bother to learn but yep, they are the ones, especially Big Ones album (best of).

I agree with Chris Mood on the bordeom thing and I think the reason for that is that a song would just sound too 'busy' if both guitarists and bassists were playing complicated pieces at the same time...so just leave it to one...thats what I see atleast...I know in my band whenever I am doing a solo the bassist gets damn bored, as do I when he does a bass solo or slapping groove. I would just sound like too much was happening if it was any other way, I guess

Originally posted by Andrew Sa
I know in my band whenever I am doing a solo the bassist gets damn bored, as do I when he does a bass solo or slapping groove. I would just sound like too much was happening if it was any other way, I guess

If your bassists is getting bored while your doing a solo, Suggest him to lay down a nice groove, something he can get down to that's not too long and it's not hard for you to solo over. Like a 1 or 2 measure bassline. A nice bass groove and a guitar solo works very well together. And if you get a nice groove on bass it's hard to stop playing it cause bass grooves are a blast to play.

For a bass solo, it's probably best for the drums and bass to go at it alone. But if your wanting to throw in alittle guitar, do small things that go with what the bass is playing. Like a quick 2 note strum and the begining of a measure then quickly mute. And let the bass continue. The key to adding guitar while a bass solo is not to let the guitar ring out. You want to be the rhythm. Usually instead of distorted guitar, try playing clean with some flange or cool effect. Works great.

To keep things from getting to be too much, think of music as being in 3 parts.

Rhythm, melody, and harmony.

Solos are always the harmony part. If your doing duel guitar solos have one guitar play something melodic and then have the other guitar harmonize over that melody. Bass on rhythm, and if this is the case. Have him work around the root arpeggio, if he gets bored with just the root note.

If you have one guitar soloing, the other should be playing the rhythm. Now the bass can play something melodic, but nothing to crazy that it takes away from the guitar solo. Something like a walking bassline within the chord arpeggio. Arpeggios are the bassists best friend, they allow him/her to do something interesting without taking anything away from anything else.

You can rearrange these in anyway. But if you break it down into these three parts, it's easy to keep things from being too much and combats for attention.

Originally posted by chris mood
It's funny, because whats cool and fun to play on guitar (Blues, classic rock, metal, Be-Bop) is usually boring for Bass, and vice versa, what's cool and fun for bass (funk, disco, R&B, Modern Rock) is boring for guitar...

I recommend a fresh listen to Led Zeppelin's version of "The Lemmon Song". Both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones got to exercise their chops, and the result is one of the best electric Blues pieces ever recorded!

Originally posted by Andrew Sa
I know in my band whenever I am doing a solo the bassist gets damn bored, as do I when he does a bass solo or slapping groove.

If the bassist gets bored while you're soloing , I guess that means he doesn't like your style of soloing , and the same goes for you ... It's a matter of individual opinions & musical tastes , try playing with other bassists with more similar musical interests and tastes , and advise your bassist to do the same.

Right now I'm digging both guitar and bass alot.When I listen to some song,if I'm not improvising with my mouth(and on the air guitar),I'm da dumm da dumming on the bass,figuring out how the bass line would go and stuff.

richy blackmore..... rainbow

i did it for the chicks. and my friend was doing it, so i had to do it too.

i decided to stay because i love making music... and because of the chicks.

I took up guitar because it looked fun and cool. And it is and i'll never look back.

Why.. Jealousy! I'd loved the guitar and its sound since I was 5 or 6 and my brother had got me into some Rush, Floydd and Zep.
When I was about 15 my best mate got given a guitar and an amp for Christmas. At the same time I got given a really crap stereo that couldn't play CDs even though I'd tried to make the point that I really wanted a CD player. When my friend Dan phoned me and asked me what I'd got for Christmas I told him my crappy stereo was "a flying machine"
and then felt very silly when he later met it. Then I decided to learn how to play guitar and teach my rich-parented, good-looking friend a lesson by kicking his arse. I bought his guitar off him when he converted from being a metal head to being a raver.

Watched a live concert clip of a band called X-Japan. Thought one day I'll be on a stage one day striking cool poses for the camera :D