Guitar or Bass

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I can't decide if I want to learn guitar or bass guitar. How do I decide?

Bass rules!

Really though, I don't know how you would decide other than going by what appeals to you the most. I was most attracted to the bass. There is also a much higher demand for bass players.

I play bass. Not very well, but I get by. I don't play in a band or anything... it's just for my own enjoyment.

Things I like about the Bass.

1: Bass lines are my favorite elements of music. A powerful bass line can make a whole song by itself. And the rhythmic component is interesting too. Though you need drums to really feel it... it's hard to play off beat syncopated stuff without a constant regular beat.

2: I like the way music theory ideas are presented. I really got a good understanding of chords and intervals playing the bass. All chords/scales and such are the same pattern. You know how to play in one key, you pretty much know how to play in any key.

3: The range of the bass guitar's notes really appeals to me. The really low thump of a bass line, or the higher mid-bass melodic stuff... either way... it's the range of sounds that I am really drawn to.

4: It's pretty easy to get going and make something sound good. This is sort of a big thing about playing an instrument... some it takes forever to develop the proper technique to make decent sounding stuff. Bass, it's kind of easy.

5: Something I haven't really explored yet, but you can make a very wide range of sounds out of bass guitars. I haven't even started playing slap bass... or playing with a pick. I do play a fretless bass... which I can almost make it sound like an upright bass...

6: It's just plain fun to play a blues bass line. If you learn a blues scale... you can just play anything and sound pretty awesome. Blues masters will probably call you a loser... but eh... it's fun.

Some cons about bass...

1: It's not always a glamourous instrument. Despite being the key to many styles of music... and being a fairly portable bass range instrument... it's not that flashy.

2: It's really hard to play in rhythm. Being the foundation of rhythm... I think you need to have a really good internal sense of rhythm... that other musicians can fall back on. I'm not very strong with this... I really like complex rhythms and can feel a powerful beat in myself... sometimes... I am too inconsistent. So I haven't really attempted to play in bands... I would just get kicked out... I think.

3: Much music out there has fairly boring bass parts. And as much as you want to get flashy with bass playing... less is often more.

4: The distance between the frets is pretty big. It was very hard to get used to it... I am still not great... I have very small hands. I can manage, by moving my hand a lot... but it's not ideal. Often I play across 3 frets... it's much more comfortable... and not bad for many styles of music.



Anyways... I like the bass guitar. Even when I make my electronic video game type music... I always use a bass guitar in any style of music. It just fits in... nothing can make a cool melodic bass line quite like a bass guitar can.

try playing some chords on a guitar and chose bass

but really go with what you think sounds better ....

I first started out wanting to play bass, but wound up gravitating towards guitar. Even though Bass is similar to guitar in the layout of the strings, the playing technique is for the most part quite differant. I can play both, but when I play bass, I use a lot of guitar technique, IE, drastic string bends, barre chords and a lot of the times I use distortion. Some people seemed somewhat incredulous that I can bend barre chords on a bass, as it requires quite a bit of strength to do so.

If and when you can afford to, try both instruments, but at the same time keep your amp setup more along the lines of guitar amplification. Guitar Amps still utilise tubes, and some of the older ones like the old V series Ampegs and the YBA/YGL series Traynors plus Sound City's are very good with both instruments.

Current Bass amps as well as some from the 70's like the Acoustic 370, and the Sunn Colosium series are usually transistorised, and setup somewhat like a small PA system to produce clean tones.

The best instrument to play in my opinion is the guitar I have played the guitar for 5 years and am pretty good on it
Reasons why guitar is better than bass

1. the guitar has less thicker strings than a bass and it has six strings. This means that you are not as limited as you are on the bass.
2. You can solo on the guitar easier than on the bass
3. Bass is a good instrument but in my opinion it is not as easy to express creativity on the bass than the electric guitar.

however good luck with whatever you choose. playing the guitar helps me forget my trouble and blues by being creative

What does this mean? I have no experience with standard guitar... but I feel pretty creative when playing my bass.

I think it's different for everyone. I can play both instruments, but am much more creative on the bass. On the guitar, not much comes out of me other than chords.

I don't play much 4-string bass though, mainly 6-string bass or 5-string fretless.

I play a 5-string fretless... which is a more expressive instrument I think. Though can't say I used the low B-that much... I might change it up to a high C...eventually.

Mostly I just like how the shapes for chords and such are always the same on a Bass... every next string is tuned in 4ths. I like that.

If I ever play guitar, I am going to tune it all in 4ths.

I always use the low string, and actually have been enjoying dropping it down to a low A for the last few years. I love the lower tones and learned how to use them for more than just normal bass lines. You can use different dynamics and techniques with the very low notes to create a different vibe and add a completely different dimension to the music.

Yeah, I probably just have a crappy amp that can't handle those low notes.

Though I do need it for somethings I play.

GK came out with a neat line of amplifiers several years ago that have a button on them that you can push to tailor the frequency response for 5 or 6-string bass. Very cool!