Mr Fretbuzz Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I was thinking in the car about bass, as you do, instead of concentrating on the road, is it easier or more difficult these days to play Bass? I was thinking what we have now compared to what they had then when the P Bass came out. We have utube, computer programmes and apps, amazon selling tons of bass books, tv, digital, a huge archive of songs since 1951, DVDs, mp3 s,CDs , lots of bass players and bass tutors, bass magazines, bass shows etc etc. What did they have? 78s on a record player black and white tv with a few channels and probably poor double bass recordings. Have we got so much stuff that we can't see the wood for the trees? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) Maybe so, but consider that we've got more to learn too. In 1951, the electric bass just appeared on the scene in a commercially successful form. A "brand new" instrument. Slap bass as we understand it hadn't been invented (or at least formalised) - Leo thought everyone would play with their thumbs. Early innovators in technique probably just experimented and happened upon something pleasing sounding. And music theory hadn't changed, I'm sure the same dry books we get today on the subject were available in 1951 So there was less to learn back then, because it hadn't been "invented" yet. Edited January 22, 2014 by neepheid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lojo Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) Can only speak for the the covers world ... When I started playing in the 80s with no musical training, I had to keep rewinding tapes and pulling the needle from records to learn my covers. Id say its easier now, slow down software, online tabs/music, you tube playalongs to watch etc, almost no need to use your ear. Edited January 22, 2014 by lojo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 It might be easier now, but when everyone had to figure out stuff for themselves it made them far more individual in their musical thinking and style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott S Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Pros and cons, innit? I think it's great to have access to such a huge array of teaching aids. I, myself, have loads of tab books. But I can't help thinking that there was something special about the hours I spent with a cassette recorder/worn out stylus trying to cop riffs and lines. Ok, putting aside the dewy-eyed 1980's reminiscing, I think that paying your dues with less help can actually assist you in your development; you have to focus and concentrate more on the music. Back then I hated the fact that I made mistakes and couldn't play with 100% accuracy the music I was listening to but, in hindsight, these "mistakes" assisted me to find MY voice on the bass rather than helping me "speak" in the voice of another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Bass in 1951 was 2 in the bar and at most 4 in the bar walking lines. Dead easy. Since 1967 bass players work load has increased exponentially, and, these days, they can be playing more than guitarists were at the start of the 50's. IMO, these days it's a great time to be a bass player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obbm Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) When the P-Bass was launched in 1951 you wouldn't have been able to buy one in the UK due to the import restrictions that were still in place following WW2. When I started to teach myself to play in the early 1960s the situation hadn't changed much as the only basses you could buy were instruments like Burns, Watkins, Futurama,etc or imported German basses like Framus and Hofner. Fenders were prohibitively expensive due to extremely high import duty. Fenders and Gibsons slowly became readily available during the Mersey Beat era from '63 onwards. There were virtually no tuition books of any kind for electric bass apart from the book "Easy Guide to Rhythm & Blues for Bass-Guitar"by Chas McDevitt and Joephine Douglas, which covered keys, scales and a few exercises. I still have a copy of it. Neither were there any tutors, It was just "Teach Yourself" Apart from printed sheet music which was usually written for the piano there was no way to obtain bass parts for songs apart from the tried and tested way of transcribing them form 45s of LPs. One got quite adept at lifting the arm off and going over and over a passage again and again. Very good for ear training. The same applied to lyrics which is probably why there are so many different versions of quite well known songs. There were virtually no amps made specifically for bass apart from Watkins, Vox and Selmer but these were also expensive. I started by using the family radiogram as an amp with a doctored tape deck as a pre-amp. Only later did I invest in a Linear 30 which was an affordable all-valve PA amp and had a chippy build me a replica of a Marshall 4 x12 which was fitted with Bakers Group 25 25-watt speakers. True that techniques have advanced over the years but to be quite honest todays wannbe bass players have never had it so good. Edited January 22, 2014 by obbm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamtheelvy Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Perhaps easier to play, but harder to play something new... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sblueplanet Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 With so many sources for hearing and learning techniques it makes learning bass a lot easier but in terms of creating a new sound or style, pretty impossible as all the trail-blazing on the instrument has probably been done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madshadows Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 [quote name='sblueplanet' timestamp='1390409132' post='2345126'] With so many sources for hearing and learning techniques it makes learning bass a lot easier but in terms of creating a new sound or style, pretty impossible as all the trail-blazing on the instrument has probably been done. [/quote] +1 on this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 [quote name='sblueplanet' timestamp='1390409132' post='2345126'] With so many sources for hearing and learning techniques it makes learning bass a lot easier but in terms of creating a new sound or style, pretty impossible as all the trail-blazing on the instrument has probably been done. [/quote] I don't agree. IMO the is still plenty of trail-blazing to be done. However when everything technique-wise is laid out for you there is less opportunity to discover new things simply because you are trying the find out from sound alone how something was played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mentalextra Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) [quote name='Mr Fretbuzz' timestamp='1390395211' post='2344839'] I was thinking in the car about bass, as you do, instead of concentrating on the road, is it easier or more difficult these days to play Bass? I was thinking what we have now compared to what they had then when the P Bass came out. We have utube, computer programmes and apps, amazon selling tons of bass books, tv, digital, a huge archive of songs since 1951, DVDs, mp3 s,CDs , lots of bass players and bass tutors, bass magazines, bass shows etc etc. What did they have? 78s on a record player black and white tv with a few channels and probably poor double bass recordings. Have we got so much stuff that we can't see the wood for the trees? [/quote] Funny you should say that. I was thinking something very similar recently. When I picked up a bass back in the '70s the only help you had was TOTPs, or some dry "how to play Jazz" book from the library, if you were lucky there was a thin floppy plastic 45rpm record that never worked or was missing! Surely, its got to be easier now to get the basics what with youtube and online tutors and this and that! Edited January 22, 2014 by mentalextra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Whenever this topic comes up I am reminded of the story of some Beatles - McCartney and Harrison I think - getting a bus across Liverpool because they'd heard of someone who knew how to play a B7 chord and they had his address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12stringbassist Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) Interesting topic. I know that basses and guitars are a lot better now in terms of ease of playing and affordability than they were when I started learning in the 70's. It never fails to astonish me how kids half my age sit in a bedroom and learn their favourite tracks like I did and they are playing some Joe Satriani riff from hell, whereas I was copping riffs from The Sweet. [i]And they are doing it accurately. [/i]The bar has been raised, which is all good. There are a lot of aids to playing that weren't there when I started - videos, DVD's, YouTube. 99.9% of the time now if I have to learn something, I sit down with the track and break it down by lsitening to it til I have it. The kids can get online demo's of how to play a lot of the stuff they want to learn. I still prefer my way of doing it. Listen and do something approximate - not parrot fashion. If I want to change it Ia bit do. There is [i]often[/i] a lot of slavish recreation by kids, to show they have leanned it 100%. I wouldn't want to start again now. Everything has pretty much been done now.. In the 50's they were INVENTING IT, which was the hardest thing of all!! Edited January 22, 2014 by 12stringbassist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Much easier in terms of getting hold of instruments/gear of decent quality at affordable prices now and also much more backup in terms of recorded source material, online tuition and more flesh and blood teachers too. This however has led to a bigger expectation on both bands you might be auditioning for and the audiences you are playing to. You could probably get away with a bit more in the 50's than now (though a bum notes always going to be a bum note) so there may be more pressure on for players now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 [quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1390420763' post='2345331'] Whenever this topic comes up I am reminded of the story of some Beatles - McCartney and Harrison I think - getting a bus across Liverpool because they'd heard of someone who knew how to play a B7 chord and they had his address. [/quote] And Keith Richards turning up at the house of a complete stranger because it was rumoured he had a Howlin' Wolf record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamtheelvy Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 I feel quite fortunate that I was one of very few dedicated bass players in my local area! Lots of demand. I think most bassists in bands locally had this conversation: 'I play a bit of guitar!' 'We don't need a guitarist. You can play bass.' '... ok...' :-( Made me look good at least! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) When the first Precision appeared it was mainly played by upright bass players who found it more convenient to carry than an upright bass (dog house) but generally it was regarded as an oddity. It was only when curious guitarists picked the thing up and started to play it in a way not linked to the upright bass method that it became more popular. And because it could be amplified it was more audible than an upright and you could have a full-sounding band with fewer members, therefore bands got smaller, took up less room and could be hired for less money. But is it easier to play today? I'd say no - it's just different. People picking up a bass for the first time now are picking up a well-established instrument with a history that has featured on countless thousands of recordings. Obviously that wasn't the case in 1951. Edited January 23, 2014 by discreet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) Not to mention to get hold of the recording you had to go to a shop and buy it. Recording songs off the radio was a case of waiting a week and recording the whole of the chart show on Sunday night. Edited January 23, 2014 by TimR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Immo Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Today it's easier to:[list] [*]Obtain an instrument [*]Build a set of gear that will bring exactly the sound one would want [*]Find an idol or inspiration [*]Find a teacher and/or learning materials [*]Fix or mod your gear [*]Play anywhere [/list] More difficult to:[list] [*]Not copy anyone [*]Master all the techniques [*]Decide which bass to buy [*]Spend time training playing skills instead of lurking on the bassist web forum [*]Own just one bass [*]Keep it simple [/list] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 [quote name='TimR' timestamp='1390488980' post='2345959'] Recording songs off the radio was a case of waiting a week and recording the whole of the chart show on Sunday night. [/quote] I used to do that! Remember when home taping was killing music..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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