social.noyu.me

the stereotype about bassists being stupid is completely unfair and not something i want to repeat because the nonexistence of iq is one of my most fundamental beliefs and principles, however, i will observe that 1% of my guitar neurons are enough to play bass and it's terrifying

ukulele basses are really really cool though, i love how it looks like a toy but sounds kinda like a contrabass, my inner jazz freak is going to kill me for my decision to never buy one

maybe i can trick myself into wanting a 7-string guitar instead

why does bass terrify me… yes it's monophonic, that's easier to grasp than a polyphonic instrument because it's like the human voice and one-dimensional, but it goes deeper than this… the ear is less sensitive to pitch and timing for bass… basslines are simpler than melodies…

the ear is also just less sensitive to bass frequencies period, i can play sloppily and not be irritated, it's like a nightmare for the me who wants to fight against the dying of the light

and yes i know about jaco pistorius and that the complexity of bass playing is found in a differing emphasis on which parts of playing are important, but… i don't trust myself with it

very important personal context is that i consider harmony and the language of chords to be my weakest point musically, it's not like these have no relevance to bass obviously, but picking up a monophonic instrument with an emphasis on finger technique currently would be suicide

@hikari the best thing about bass is you can make it super complex or really really simple and any point on that spectrum is equally valid and cool. This might be true for any instrument, but I feel it's more true for bass than for anything else.

Also combining it with singing is super impressive to me, like how Paul McCartney is able to do here: https://youtu.be/HwKUaYBUYNc?si=PoMJlv-wADcdDbkI&t=63

@hikari other options are what's called a baritone guitar, or a bassitar.

As for me, I've been restraining myself from buying a mandolin for over a year now

@shift_reset what actually is a baritone in this context compared to a 7-string, is that a 6-string (designed to be) tuned a whole lot lower?

@hikari Yeah, it's basically just a bigger guitar with a bigger scale length (length of neck / fret distance) and some extra reinforcement to let you tune lower. Like your lowest string could just be a B

A bassitar (or variations of that theme) is basically a normal guitar with (some) bass strings. (See e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmAMP7Knm8M)