Where have all the bassists gone??

[alvinthedrummer]

Just writing this out of frustration! It feels like the bass world is slowly dying...dunno what's wrong with today's kids. Alot seemed totally ignorant about the instrument and one kid even told me the reason he chose to learn guitar over bass is becos "there is no glam in bass"!!! Man....the bass guitar is so bloody important! Whenever I do a gig where I can't hear anyone else (bad sound engineer), I would rely on the bassist to tell me the progression of the music. Also, I can groove my best today , the guitarist can be chopping out but if my bassist is ill, the band would sound like a whole load of crap.

Another thing that pisses me off is how little they want to improve themselves! So many times I've heard kids saying..."oh, bassists only play notes, so easy, no need to take lessons"....man, no wonder there is such a huge lack of good bassists and most of all, such a small pool of bassists in general. I think, the current pool of bassists should start taking more obvious actions and try to keep the instrument alive....look at us drummers! Aren't you ashamed? Pick up your butt and start improving! Or should I say....start WANTING to improve! The ratio of bassist to drummers is like 1:2000....haha...something is seriously wrong@!

Hopefully after Bani's workshop today, some of the kids that attend may change the way they think of the bass guitar and help spread the word and excitement. Keep our fingers crossed....

 

[DullTheater]

i hear your frustration bro...
but in my case it the keyboardists...
where haf all the keyboardists gone to??

 

[marcdadrummer]

it's hard to find good bassist nowadays.... keyboardist, dunno story ah..

haha!

 

[lousybassist]

must be all still serving ns.. :smt070

 

[80s_people]

lets keep it this way, i want to remain in great demand. :lol:

 

[liqnitro]

I see a lot of great bassist very often...

 

[warwickw]

nowadays it's hard to find the time to commit to bassing, priorities change as we age.

I think there are many good bassists around, just that they dun play as often as before.

 

[RudimentalDrummer]

Very true Good Bassists are hard to get (but Alvin you got Andrew The Bassists mah ... and he is good)...

I wanted to start a Jazz Band - I can and already have a few Keyboardists (wanting to join the band), Lead-Guitarists, Vocals - of course I am the drummer lah - but I cannot kick-off the band - all bacause of one reson - - - I need a Bassists and a good one that can do "Walking" in Jazz....To me "I need the Bassists 1st in my Band actually" and I don't have one???

I need good Bassists - Where Are You ?????? :lol:

 

[stravinsky]

what do you mean "walking" in jazz?. cld you care to share a few examples. like songs that have walking basslines?

 

[exin]

Basically walking basslines ... it's a style of playing notes that feel as though you are walking through the whole song .. for the bassline, it's commonly found in jazz and blues music .. more in jazz though ..

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

welll, yeah can't find good bassists... i'mma geting an octave pedal and play bass role with my guitar.. yeah :twisted:

 

[melvin]

my 1st band i was in.. i was a drummer then became a bassist cause we cant find one. haha i know how u feel alvin.. well in the end i stuck to drums as im better at it haha

 

[Qkumba]

I once played the bassist cuz we really couldn't find any suitable bassist too.

how glad I was when finally a bassist that owned a bass and bass effects joined. lol..

what alvin said was some of the f*** up things people say about playing bass, but I personally think the worst one is "I play bass because the band doesn't need a guitarist". :x

 

[Z3r0_G]

people dun understand how 'powerful' bassists are.

it was once said "It's all screeching and noise until the bass player plugs in"

fellow bassists, you have to understand the role of the bass player. you don't just have to play 8th notes all your life. even then, thumping 8th notes along to some drums should be fun.

It isnt fun if you don't 'feel' the music. you must understand the direction of the music and what the music is trying to say. go look at the lyrics or something to identify what the song means. the way the music is played has some emotion in it. bring it out! add some life to the music you play rather than playing just for the sake of playing.

once you understand and feel the music, you will find yourself plucking, fretting and holding the notes differently. this changes everything and it will be a lot more fun.

if you don't understand how fun bass can be, don't limit yourself to this particular kind of music. listen to some jazz, blues, pop (yes, pop included), or even ballads (yea this too. there are some nice bass runs and fill-ins in some mariah carey or whitney houston song).

watch marcus miller slap his way through a song, watch wooten groove (please watch his solos too). if you think playing rock is boring watch billy sheehan for god's sake!

let's help the local music scene grow brothers and sisters. take out your old dusty bass from your closet and give the world some grooving!

 

[reyrey]

jamiroquai for kick ass bass lines

 

[Ken]

the biggest killers of bass players are the idiot kids who take the bass as a solo machine foremost rather than a rhythm backbone first and then make a mess of both.

Other kids will realise they are better off playing the guitar cos it got two more strings which are much thinner to solo with.

Get the basics right first!

 

[shinobi]

while i do agree that the bass has an important role for providing the rhythm backbone,

i also believe that bassists need to step it up abit and play not just the bass parts, but also the melody to the song. because no song is complete without both parts. the bass is a beautiful instrument with so many possibilities that many people don't bother to explore, satisfied with being merely a band member rather than a bass player

that it what jaco believed in

 

[Ken]

shinobi,

jaco could play as a band member first before he explored.

Thus my point to the younger players out there, get your basics right first and then experiment with your expressions.

Nuff said.

 

[RudimentalDrummer]

deleted repeated...

 

[stewartbass]

hi there alvin the drummer!
thank you for the shout out for us bass players here in singapore. it is true, we are a lost and almost forgotten people and most youngsters today are actually picking up the instrument for the wrong reasons BUT thats not at all bad.

the young ones they just wanna play...thats good as later on in life ..they might slow down and realize that word 'groove' and 'feel' and 'space'.