I have been on my musical 6 string journey now for almost 4 years practicing scales, strumming, finger exercises etc. religiously every morning and at night. I play for fun after my wife goes to bed.
I have made great strides (IMHO) and know I will never be great but I am very pleased at where I am right now. The past 6 months I feel I have gotten over a hump and am starting to āplay guitarā!
I have a bass guitar that I bought in 1974 and pulled it out the other week and wow, I really like it! However I feel guilty.
My question to those of you that play more than one instrument. Will playing bass mess up the progress Iāve made on the six string?
I have had no goal other than play as much music as possible and find my happy place. Playing the bass is making me happy and what I have learned on the 6 string has definitely made the bass feel like fun. Iām 71 and my fear is that spending too much time with the bass I will forget what Iāve learned on the regular guitar. Can a person serve two masters?
Playing a bass definitely wonāt mess up your guitar journey. (Congratulations on that by the way)
One cool thing about some of the bass sequences is they are playing the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes which happen to be whatās known as the chord tones. Learning chord tones and the patterns to find them is a big thing.
I had similar questions to you and got a lot of helpful comments. Hereās the thread.
I havenāt started bass yet but may have to soon. I have an injury in the wrist that isnāt going to heal quickly but I can play finger style so Iām thinking again of the bass.
I not only donāt think playing bass messes up playing guitar, I think they are synergistic. I play both, as well as acoustic and keyboards. You probably develop a deeper musical insight by playing more than one instrument, and in any case, most of the biomechanical aspects, such as independent finger control, are universal.
I occasionally play a bit of bass to accompany guitar. After playing the bass, with its huge (for me, whoās too proud to get a short scale bass ) fret spacing, the guitar feels really comfortable.
One thing I find harder with bass is transcribing - I sometimes find it difficult to work out exactly which bass note is being played (even after cranking up the bass with EQ). I guess itās just a bit harder to resolve notes down there.
One benefit I already find playing bass is helping with my finger dexterity. The bass requires that extra stretch which is good.
Transcribing is not as difficult as I expected. I am familiar with bass and treble clefs and Iām not struggling too much in that area. Actually I enjoy it, good brain exercise.
I actually wanted to play a little bass so I can lay down some tracks while recording. I think this will help me with my rhythm and timing.
My bass is a 1974 Univox hollow body short scale. It feels really comfortable. Sheās been waiting a long time to come out and play and I can feel sheās happy!
Iāll check out the online classes that are recommended.
The Guitar Music Theory podcast episode #134 had what I consider something of a mini master class in response to a question about playing bass. The relevant material starts about 2/3 of the way through the episode. Iāve had in the back of my mind to revisit that material to help me with developing bass lines for my own material. What started as a quick answer turned into a much more complete review of the bassās role in music.
Hi Roch
I think if you feel drawn to bass guitar you should absolutely go for it. I have just ordered a bass. The instrument has always fascinated me and I find myself paying a lot of attention to it when listening to music. I donāt expect it to cause any problems I am really looking forward to applying my very hard earned fretboard knowledge. Maybe playing along to tracks that have the bass removed. and like yourself compining the 2 on recordings
Will, Iāve been playing the bass lines on a lot of Beatles stuff, Get Back, Tax Man and Lady Madonna. It flows very well and where I struggled with the rhythm and tempo playing guitar I seem to be in the groove with the bass. Of course Iām not playing 16 notes like Paul, but even playing 1/4 notes it sounds good to my ears. Iām going to follow the muse and see where it takes me! Thanks
Just adding to the chorus that learning to play bass will only enhance your guitar playing.
Iāve never known learning any instrument to negatively impact playing another - the best guitarist I know personally also plays drums and piano. Iāve even seen learning completely unrelated instruments have a positive, synergistic effect - a teenager who played flute in school started learning guitar, and somehow it made his flute playing better.
Hi, I started with acoustic guitar, then added the electric guitar. Then I had a lot of fun playing the ukulele with some people around here, which lead to the banjolele, with a sound similar to a banjo, but you can play it with the finger positions of the ukulele, and every now and then, I get out my banjo and practice a bit. Why limit the fun? It also adds to my knowledge of music. I still come back to the guitar often enough.
Iāve not heard of the banjolele. I picked up playing Irish music fairly easily on a tenor banjo (using āIrishā tuning) because of my past experience with an acoustic guitar. Now that Iāve got back into the guitar again I am exploring āChicagoā tuning on the banjo, which is the same as the top 4 strings on a guitar. Iām trying to relearn some of the old tunes but in a new tuning.
Skills are interchangeable. You will find things clicking on guitar from learning something on bass. If you have the time go for it. If you struggle to find practice time maybe not?
Chicago tuning sounds interesting. Iāll read up on it. I also thought about restringing my banjo so I could play it like the ukulele but decided against it, and my banjo has 5 strings, so I got me a banjolele, which is a ukulele with a banjo body, but smaller than a banjo. It is fun. One of the ukulele people picked it, whereas I use a special clawhammer type of strumming. It takes time to practice. but I do it when I get around to it, and as I am retired, I should have enough time.
I was originally a bass player but have been focused on guitar primarily for the past few years. Iād love to play bass more but I just donāt know where to find the time. I do think a lot of the skills transfer across, though. Learning things like triads and scale shapes on guitar have helped unlock the fretboard of the bass, too.
) fret spacing, the guitar feels really comfortable.