Bass Guitar

My History With Bass

In 2012, someone left their bass guitar at my house. It wasn't a grandiose bass guitar and it was rather peculiar to me because at the time I was only a guitarist and had never entertained the idea of playing bass. Through picking it up and playing with it, I learned the importance of bass to music.

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Bass is an underestimated instrument, in my opinion, because while non musicians usually don't pick out bass in a mix, bass has the capability of fundamentally driving the mood or the groove of a song. It is the cohesion of all the other instruments and sounds of a song that cannot and should not be overlooked.

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When you play a new note, the low rumbling tone of the strings can fundamentally change the meaning or the harmony of everything that happens above it. Bass guitar is the foundation of rhythm and harmony in most forms of music I listen to and that's what drew me in.

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My experience in playing bass is primarily centered around dance music which, in terms of the music I listen to, is derived heavily from funk. I've also played a lot of bass for metal and punk genres which uses a vastly different skillset. 

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When I was learning guitar and theory in college, most of the things I learned about guitar directly applied to bass but, I also learned how important and unique bass is in and of itself.

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In terms of harmony, most of music is analyzed from the perspective of what's going on in the bass. How does the bass relate to what else is happening in the music? As it turns out, the real question to be asking is: how does the rest of the music relate to what's happening in the bass?

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After playing bass for over 10 years I have found myself in love with the sound, function, and importance of the bass guitar and still play it in many of the projects I am involved with.