"Bassist" or "Bass player"?

[BreadBin]

I hate the word bassist - it's really clumsy sounding. 

That may make it appropriate to describe my playing! 

[EliasMooseblaster]

18 hours ago, StringNavigator said:

And if you don't like speaking American, Canadian or British, why, you can always speak French! Parlez-vous 'en... No one understands each other here, but we always agree... so as not to offend anyone...
 

A bass guitarist to hold the bulb and the lead guitarist to tell him how to do it.

I second TheGreek's warm welcome, and applaud your thoroughly entertaining takedown of our deeply troubled mother tongue!

Just to reassue any people who might feel particularly precious about the state of the English language, it's not entirely alone in this respect - I remember an old office in which my French colleagues often mocked the "old-fashioned" Canadian French spoken by our particularly uptight Quebequois colleague. And in the office before that, there were two women from opposite ends of Germany, who preferred to converse in English because they found each other's Northern-German and Bavarian dialects too difficult to follow.

Love the joke at the end - I will definitely be keeping that one for use on future occasions!

[redbandit599]

Basstronaut.

 

[KevB]

I'm just a bloke who hangs about on stage with musicians and a drummer...

[StringNavigator]

6 hours ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

I second TheGreek's warm welcome...

...and applaud your thoroughly entertaining takedown of our deeply troubled mother tongue!

 

Thanks for the welcome. I find BassChat members to be most open, and they know what to ignore and how to deal with that which needs to be addressed. Either a result of the proud history of British comedy, or something peculiar in their island nature? From the zany to the profound, Goonies! Who else could sing in solidarity in a pub while their city was bombed to smithereens? I certainly mean no disrespect to the Queen's Own. All others, beware! 

In contrast, the online bass community in the US (uno?urtb) is a very uptight place with bands of gunslingers, trolling and lurking about; seeking to provoke you until you're triggered and then you're banned. Especially if you appear to be someone who doesn't need bass lessons from the trollers. (Is that a short form of patrollers hinting at the ugliness of a troll?)

English is a great language, and lot's of fun. You can just make sh*t up. Everyone wants to learn it! But in their own way. I love how you can say one thing and mean another without actually saying it. And everyone listening  knows it, but they all tip-toe around the elephant in the room! Unapologetic Aussie slang is also great fun, especially if you don't want anyone to know what you're saying. And all the other great variations from Cockney to Liverpudlian. All these dialects are like bas*ard children of an absentee mother. It's been said that even in Ye Olde Engalande, that a new dialect could be heard within a day's journey on foot, in any direction. Talk about the great Babylon! 

I read, recently, where one MP could not reply to another minister because he could not understand his Brogue! Perhaps he didn't want to. Now we know why they only speak to the Speaker. He must also be the translator. But every language is like that. Even in Quebec, where Parisian French is considered a foreign language, people in one region have difficulty understanding the patois of another. And Toronto is no better, for the people there speak 200 different languages, none of them being English. I believe the internet will help us all eventually to understand each other much better, right? (Dafuq, eli5 hifw udgaf, eh?!  : `)     

So how do pianists / piano players around the world deal with this burning issue? Is it a class issue? Or one of ability? Do piano players or pianists read music? Can you be a piano player for the London Symphony Orchestra or out with The Academy Of Saint Martin In-The-Fields? Can a saloon hire a pianist or are they stuck with the piano player? Can one be Irish and still be a pianist? (I can say that because I have a little Irish in me. Or at least my great-granny did.) If I trade in my upright pianee for a baby grand, do I become a pianist? Can you be a pianist and not get paid? When a piano player grows up, will she become a pianist?

I know I ask too many questions. I recently asked how I could make a million dollars as a musician... I was told to start off with two million! Then I found out how a Lead Guitard changes a light bulb...Apparently he just holds it and the whole world revolves around him.

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by StringNavigator