You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish...

You can tune a guitar, but you can't tuna fish...
Unless it has strings and tuning pets and a sound whole where the air bladder was

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Are Bass Players Frustrated Guitarists?

No. We're frustrated Drummers!

Seriously, lots of guitar players assume that the bass is just a big guitar that's easier to play. After all, most basses have four stings instead of the guitars six, and are mostly played one note at a time instead of strummed while several fingers hold strings to form chords.

And guitars live up in the high-registers, which is where screaming leads are played. Everybody notices the guitar god, while the bass player stands in the shadows next to the drummer.

Drummers sometimes get to play a solo, which lets the rest of the band go backstage for a smoke or a snort or whatever they need to keep them going. After that, the typical drummer fades back into the background, while the guitars retake their rightful place in the sun.

Of course, there's always the exceptions -- Neil Pert with Rush, Victor Wooten with the Flecktones, and others, but mostly the pattern holds.

Are bass players frustrated guitarists who're just not good enough? Here's a good way to test. Pick a simple bass line, say "Black Magic Woman" by Santana. Ask a guitar player to take your bass and play a few measures. Instead of the syncopated, soulful rhythm that drives that song, he'll be playing it like it's part of a lead riff--a bunch of notes, which sound like they should be moving to a bunch more notes.

Guitar players do RIFFS. Bass players do LINES.

For an example, listen to the bass part in Eric Clapton's "Cocaine". I bet it's not what you thought it was.

I play bass because I love rhythm. Lots of amazing bass players can play incredible leads and melodies, but they're always keeping the rhythm. Bass and Drums are married--Ideally, one doesn't follow the other--they're so much in the groove that the rhythm follows them.

Without a strong rhythm section, without bass and drums working flawlessly together, the best guitar player in the world can't make the band not sound like shit. I guess he could do a solo--if he's Steve Morse or Eddie Van Halen, but sooner or later he's gonna need his engine to make music.

So that's why I'm a bass player (and sometime drummer). Also, the Bass is MUCH more manly, and with drums, you get to HIT THINGS!!

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