guitar and bass

Hello!

A friend of mine asked me if I could play bass in his band, and I'm acctually thinking of it.. I suppose it could be good to master more instruments than just guitar to be a even better guitarist.

Here is some of the biggest differences with a bass:

Seems to be a longer distance between the frets (should improve my stretch, the space between the strings are wider (could improve my speed on the guitar), the strings are thicker (makes my fingertips hardened, and I could perhaps improve my picking hand's speed, if I use a pick).

Am I right, or will I instead lose some of my guitarskill, if I won't be able to practice as much as I used to. Does anyone of you have some experience in this issue?

See you around, everyone!

I had no problem with it.....depends what u play in ur band. If the bass is one of the lead instruments then things get difficult. other than that i found that bass was alot easier to play than electric. oh yeah i would play without a pick....fingerpicking gets worked and sounds better

Some of the best bassists in the world use a pick. I think Les Claypool does, if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure Geddy Lee (Rush) does, too.

You'll have to remember that bass and guitar, although they look similar, are two very different instruments. You can't really pull the same tricks both ways. Your job will be to set the groove, not to display speed or anything. Even virtuoso-type bassists (e.g. Geddy Lee, Raskolnikov ;)) will always keep the rhythm pounding while doing some crazy stuff.

Personally, I prefer my bass to be more John-Paul Jonesian; nice, tight groove, and knowing exactly when to break it out with some ear-pleasing fills and runs. But no root-note sleepy-time bass. Even Adam Clayton (U2) fits that description. I've yet to find a bassist that will do all that, though.

Originally posted by iamthe_eggman
Some of the best bassists in the world use a pick. I think Les Claypool does, if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure Geddy Lee (Rush) does, too.

Les NEVER plays with a pick and I'm pretty sure Geddy rarely uses one. Then again, I'm not very into Rush, so I could be completely wrong on that.

When I want a "pick" tone (rarely), my logic is this: "I can't drop my thumb."

Playing finger style is just so much fatter and warmer sounding.


Anyway, bass skills reenforce guitar skills. Guitar skills reenforce bass skills. You can only win by doing this.

Originally posted by Raskolnikov
Les NEVER plays with a pick and I'm pretty sure Geddy rarely uses one. Then again, I'm not very into Rush, so I could be completely wrong on that.

When I want a "pick" tone (rarely), my logic is this: "I can't drop my thumb."

Playing finger style is just so much fatter and warmer sounding.


Anyway, bass skills reenforce guitar skills. Guitar skills reenforce bass skills. You can only win by doing this.

Hmm... I remember in some old thread around here, someone mentioned one world-renowned bassist who uses a pick....

It's in some thread where Lordathestrings recounts a festival/concert where he was shouting at some bassist to "ditch the pick", or something like that.

I do agree with the nicer tone from fingers; in fact, I never use a pick when playing bass. But, for certain applications, and a certain tone, picks do come in handy. (ha, ha! you get it? HANDY!!!! BRAHH HA HA HA HA!!!! HA H... hmmm... yes.)

A pick will give you a more mid-range rhythmic sound. If you use your fingers, you'll get a fatter and boomer sound. I think the pick sounds better in rock situations, and the fingers in more of a jazz or jam situation. So when I play, if the guitar is distorted I'll use a pick, if the guitar is clean I'll use my fingers. To switch all you do is tuck the pick into the palm of your hand with your thumb. Not hard to do. In the end it just goes by the sound you want.

The best thing that will come from playing bass is you'll get a chance to look at music in a different perspective. By playing many different instruments, you get to see how they work and how to make them work with other instruments. See you can't really write a piano piece if you don't play piano. Yeah you may be able to throw something together but it's not until you sit down and play that you actually see how the instrument works.

I don't think your guitar playing will get much better from playing bass. You'll probably learn to pay more attention to a groove rather than strumming and palm muting chords, but it won't better your technique on the guitar. It will enlighten you, and maybe when you write your own songs you'll better know how to write bass lines with guitar parts. They are two different instruments which focus in different areas of music. That's where you'll benefit.

I would listen to some good bassists from the style of music your going to be playing before you try out. Maybe even learn some of the tunes (better yet the ones you know on the guitar already). That way you see how to put things together and you don't go in playing bass as a guitarist. Instead with some knowledge of bass playing.

One more thing, listen to the drummer when you play. If you sync in with him, your band will sound alot better.

I want to say something significant about playing bass but I've got nothing. I started out on bass (I just realized I've been saying the opposite of late, getting the two lengths that I've been playing mixed up, bass and guitar) but it was jazz bass. I played the electric bass way up high, using what I believe to be proper plucking techniques - guitar high enough that you can use the extreme sides of your two plucking fingers so it just kind of thuds out the notes like a percussion instrument. Take a look at a guy playing the double bass and how his plucking fingers hits the strings, that's how a bass is meant to be played. If you play bass as low as the average player plays it you're not going to get any aspect of bass playing right in my opinion. Tone, speed and accuracy.

'Bass player drives the bus' ... tempo wise. It's really another percussion instrument which is why the drummer/bass player groove has to be the tightest part of a band. Everything else is bonus. (Can you imagine if dance music were performed live and the drums and bass were off?)

If you're gonna argue the bass tempo bit consider a walking bebop bass line. In rock I guess it's more drummer. ONE two THree four. Cymbol crash. lol.

I've been playing bass a year more than I have been playing guitar and I'm a better guitarist than I am a bassist.

Hey!

Thanx alot for your posts, I understand now that this will be "wider" than I first thought.

Anyway, we're supposed to play thrash (Megadeth, Death - something like that. I have serious problems hearing basslines, and I sat down yesterday and listened to "Peace Sells" with Megadeth which has a bass intro, which I suppose isn't to hard to play. So I picked up my guitar and tryied to play it one octave lower, but I didn't got it.

So, if I can't hear the basslines, I will have to write my stuff without knowing how it's supposed to sound, and I suppose I will play a guitar anyway, allthough I play bass! Understood what I meant? =D

Anyway, after reading your answers I understand it will be important that I teamwork with my drummer. Pick or not? I suppose I will use both as someone suggested.

Keep responding guys!!!!

Thanks again

Are there bass tabs out there? I'm sure there are. Generally you can just hit the bottom note of the chord the guitar plays but if it's riff based it may take a while to pick it up by ear (the more you do this the better you'll get at it of course).

Originally posted by noticingthemistake
A pick will give you a more mid-range rhythmic sound. If you use your fingers, you'll get a fatter and boomer sound.

Not exactly true.

I can just as much mids out of my strings with my fingers (by slapping, using more attack or letting my fingernails get a bite on the strings) as I could by using a pick, but also a bit more lows than you could get with a pick.

So it's not quite the same tone as using a pick, but it's close, and I think a little better.

Originally posted by basics
Are there bass tabs out there? I'm sure there are. Generally you can just hit the bottom note of the chord the guitar plays but if it's riff based it may take a while to pick it up by ear (the more you do this the better you'll get at it of course).

Not true. Of course this is how a guitarist would look at the instrument. Always playing the lowest note will make the bass part very dull, the guitar part and bass part should (not all the time) work like counterpoint. It's good to play other notes than the root or lowest note because chord changes on the guitar usually skip in larger intervals. Moving in smaller intervals makes for a more melodic sound, and bass sounds it's best when it's melodic sounding.

The basic idea on bass when working with chords on the guitar is to look at the notes that make up a chord. Take an A minor chord, a bassist will think A minor is made up of the notes A, C, and E. So it's cool to play any of those three notes when the guitar plays a A minor chord. When it comes to connecting two chords, like E7 to A minor. To make the bass movement more melodic, the bass may play G# to A. When the guitar plays E7 to Am. So the chord progession becomes E7/G# to Am.

Rask- it's not the same sound though. I agree you can get a nice rich tone with alittle bite in the mids by doing what you said. I was just comparing pick to fingers. The finger nail technique was something I didn't consider at the time but is very close to a pick sound. Slapping, to me, is a whole another sound to itself.

Originally posted by noticingthemistake
Always playing the lowest note will make the bass part very dull. ... and bass sounds it's best when it's melodic sounding.

That's no absolute, man. In my opinion you're wrong but to each his own. My advice to play the root of each chord was beginners advice and the word 'generally' was written for a purpose. You don't mean melodic, you mean flowing, and of course you can fill in the chords with triad crap and all this. The majority of bass work is boring though, and it's supposed to be. Some styles are more prone to independent bass work but the majority of the time in rock you're stuck plucking out the root or mimicking the guitar riff.

I couldn't imagine being a rock bass player.

Geddy Lee most definatly does not use a pick

Originally posted by basics
The majority of bass work is boring though,

True...

Originally posted by basics
and it's supposed to be.

Not true.

I agree with Rask, most of it is boring because the majority of bass players do exactly what you said. The bass guitar is another instrument, and if you treat it as so it can add something to the music rather than playing exactly what the guitar plays. There are alot of creative bassists out there who add something rather than mimic it. Rock music, you don't need to go much farther than John Paul Jones. In 80's rock where the guitar is the driving force, listen to some Mr. Big bass lines. And yes, bass lines should be more melodic. Moving through inversions and non-harmonic tones rather than the root all the time. The bass can be a very innovative instrument in any genre if you treat it right.

I'm braindead and shouldn't be writting a response because of it but... no. I think all that I'm arguing though is the fact that you're telling ME what is and what shouldn't be and I just don't appreciate it coming as an absolute. The capped 'me' just represents my ego. I've put my time in on bass and sure you've got your opinion and I mine and blah blah blah. Bass. Depending on the style it either sucks or it doesn't. Sure a bass can play some pretty independent stuff given the circustances. OK.

In a lot of circumstances it's supposed to be boring though, like a tuba in my opinion. Filling in the bottom end just because it has to be filled.

Just like sometimes you want a straight half-time 1,3 beat to emphasize the riff and your goddamn drummer won't do it because he's always soloing but it doesn't fit the tune. He won't get it until I play it to a fruityloops drum line I made up and he GETS the bigger picture. Composers and useless filler instruments.

Originally posted by basics
Just like sometimes you want a straight half-time 1,3 beat to emphasize the riff and your goddamn drummer won't do it because he's always soloing but it doesn't fit the tune. He won't get it until I play it to a fruityloops drum line I made up and he GETS the bigger picture. Composers and useless filler instruments.

Right now, I've got a drummer that I know is a wicked drummer (from previous jams), but we're doing some covers, and he won't break loose. I love drums that are more than just your old hi-hat 1-2-3-4, bass on 2, snare on 4 boring junk. I wish he would do more rolls; huge, epic rolls, like Neil Peart on the toms. Well, I'm working on it. Hopefully he'll learn to break it out before the show!

Dewd All I'm saying is you can be creative with the bass. Where's all this 'absolute' crap coming from?? I never said anything about this is what every bass player should do, I'm just saying there are some players out there that do make bass lines "less boring". Maybe in your opinion bass is boring, but then again your also saying play the root and mimic the guitar part. Need I say more.

You're right, you can be creative with the bass.