Foo - anybody play bass?

i am looking to get some info on bass. where i live there are a TON of people who play guiter and drums. no bass players though, and you need a bassist to have a band. my two best freind are in a band(they are breaking up) one of them plays guiter and the other plays drums. so i am going to learn bass, so we can play togather.

so if you play/have played/or know anything useful about playing bass. please reply. thanks alot.

i can play bass....drum

I'm a drummer, but I started on bass. Starting out its fairly easy...if you are just playing straight ahead rock with a pick... but if you want to get really good... it takes a long time. There is a reason there are so many more guitarists than bassists... Look for some music by Victor Wooten of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. He is in my opinion probably the best player alive.

i play bass. check out talkbass.com

good decision. sooo many guitar players. not enough bassists. you'll be in high demand. that said, do you play any instruments at all? it's easy to get started if you've played SOMETHING ... else, go to guitar center and get a book. lessons help in a big way. you're probably anxious to get started, but be patient. the time will come.

you can get the cheapest bass in the world. just make sure to plug it into an Ampeg SVT Tube Head and the SVT 8x10 speaker cabinet. anything sounds awesome thru that rig.

i'm not kiddin' either. i have a silvertone bass. cheapie. but it sounds monstrous thru an SVT. you will rule and your friends will love you.

good decision. sooo many guitar players. not enough bassists. you'll be in high demand. that said, do you play any instruments at all? it's easy to get started if you've played SOMETHING ... else, go to guitar center and get a book. lessons help in a big way. you're probably anxious to get started, but be patient. the time will come.

you can get the cheapest bass in the world. just make sure to plug it into an Ampeg SVT Tube Head and the SVT 8x10 speaker cabinet. anything sounds awesome thru that rig.

i'm not kiddin' either. i have a silvertone bass. cheapie. but it sounds monstrous thru an SVT. you will rule and your friends will love you.

i used to play acoustic. but i was bored out of my mind(and it was a long time ago) i mess around on my freind drum set a little. i can keep a steady beat i am just not that good with the foot and hands at the same time. i am going to take lessons. starting in two weeks. dude i just googled that svt stuff, wow, a little pricey. i got close to 2k for the head and around 1k for the speaker.

There's a simple, no brainer technique for playing bass that a beginner can use to fake it until they can actually play. It's a bit like strumming along on an acoustic - you have to know the chords to the song, but instead of strumming the whole chord, you just play the root and fifth note of whatever chord the song happens to be on. Let's say it's a simple song with the chords C, Am, F and G. While the song is on the C chord, you play the notes C and G...for example you could play C/ G G C/, and you cna play around with the rhythm. When the song is on Am, you play the notes A and E. To make it very easy, you only have to know where the root note of each chord is. The fifth note for the chord is always on the next higher string and two frets higher.

dude i just googled that svt stuff, wow, a little pricey.

yeah, sorry i got excited 'cuz i miss that sound! dang. they really sound good.

good decision. sooo many guitar players. not enough bassists.

The problem is that they guys who get all the attention from the girls are the guitar players. It's just a sad fact of life that Jack Johnson or John Mayer sounds better on an accoustic than a bass, especially if you don't have access to an amp at the moment.

Lessons would be a big help if you want to get into it. If you really want to become a good musician, you're going to want to learn how to read music. Short of lessons, you can get intro methods books for $10-15. Learning how to do scales well is probably the most important drill you can do in learning bass.

Anyway, I play guitar, but I've dabbled in bass. I would've always loved to get a band together with some friends to play in bars and stuff, but I just don't have the time to practice.

The problem is that they guys who get all the attention from the girls are the guitar players.

Yeah, but for the OP it's a choice between being a bass player in a band, or not being in a band at all. How does that comparison stack up?

Bass players thread

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=153866

Yeah, but for the OP it's a choice between being a bass player in a band, or not being in a band at all. How does that comparison stack up?

Oh, I am definitely not saying he shouldn't play bass. He'll just face the sinking, and probably false*, suspicion that girls like guitarists more than bassists. Still, just being seen with your bass suggests that you're in a band, which immediately piques interest.


* One of the few interesting (and pretty amusing) comments I've heard on a morning show was a claim that lead guitarists are hotter than lead singers. The contention was the guitarists are a dime a dozen, where as guys who can actually sing are more rare. Bands may have the luxury of picking a hot guitar player, but singers (and perhaps bassists, too), you take what you can get. :rolleyes:

By the way, George almost wasn't accepted into the Beatles, because the other guys (I think it was John, Paul, and Pete at the time) thought he looked too young and they wouldn't get as many girls. :lol:

By the way, George almost wasn't accepted into the Beatles, because the other guys (I think it was John, Paul, and Pete at the time) thought he looked too young and they wouldn't get as many girls. :lol:
And being a bass player was apparently not a hindrance for Paul.

And being a bass player was apparently not a hindrance for Paul.

Yes, but he started as a guitarist, and was pushed into playing bass due to George being a superior guitarist. Or so I've heard...