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Hey guys, whats up? I was just curious if there are any bass players out there. I know 80s Metal is, but he hasn't been around in a while. The reason I ask is because I am considering picking up the instrument. I've been playing guitar for about five or six years and my skills are decent, but I at least have some left hand technique down. My real interestin the bass is learning how to play like some of my favorites such as Victor Wooten and Les Claypool. Obviously that would take a lot of practice though! But I was just curious if anyone has any advice. Is it a hard switch from guitar to bass? (and thats electric, not upright, just in case anyone was wandering) How about the right hand techniques. Are they very hard to learn?I appreciate your help!
I have played both electric guitar and bass, I find that after learning the guitar it is easier to pick up on the bass rather than a bass player trying to play the guitar.
If you are left handed, I would stick with left handed insturments.
Odd, I'm a bass player who also plays guitar, and learning guitar came much more naturally for me than bass seems to come for my guitar player friends.
Anyway, I've found that if you're good at guitar or bass, you can be passable at the other without too much trouble. I would wager a guess that if you focus, you could be a pretty skilled bassist in a year or two. The issue that you may run into is that there's a big difference between being a skilled bass player and a GOOD bass player. A lot of guitar players who pick up bass have a tendency to get really bored really quickly and start overplaying. Obviously, it's a great thing to have a bass player who is capable of playing very fast, difficult riffs, but in a band setting, I'll take a rhythmically solid bassist over one who is playing tons of notes but can't lock in with the drummer. As a bass player, in the vast majority of bands, your job is to hold down the rhythm and the chord progression, and then add whatever serves the song, whether it's blindingly fast slapping or sustained root notes.
I wouldnt consider myself a bassist, but I can play bass. I've been playing guitar for about 6 years and i have played bass for a few local metal bands when they were in need of one. Pretty much for me, i just picked up the bass and automatically knew how to play it. Once you know guitar, it's very easy to get the basics for bass down, but if you want to get into that crazy les claypool stuff, you're going to have to learn just about every bass technique there is lol. slapping, bass tapping, ect.. And those will definately take some practice. good luck to you!
I've played guitar for almost 30 years and bass on and off for about 15, mostly back when Maiden was big. I can pick out most of Steve Harris' lines with my fingers but sometimes have to use a pick. Just can't get the Gallop that he has with fingers!
As I've gotten older I enjoy playing a lot of blues and country on the bass but metal on the guitar.
I've found that it just takes a little adjustment switching between the instruments just because of the extra finger span required on bass but beyond that never had any trouble.
Just take your time and start out with easy stuff to get your fingers stretched out.
Just for the record I play a 1983 candy apple red Ibanez X series played through a Hot Head and a Marshall Mini lead 12, and a new Fender Squier bass.
I was thinking of building a bass or buying a cheap bass and refinishing it then learning to play it... but I am not so sure.. I invested so much into guitars already...
I missed responding to your earlier post showing your guitar. It looks outstanding. Take good care of it!!
arnold
Hey, I play cello, does that count? ;-))
If you play guitar, I doubt there would be much difficulty in learning bass, just reading a different clef (if you need to read) and making some different sounds.
Have fun!
arnold