The Bass

For a while in the early 90s and early 00s I pretended like I played bass guitar. I never practiced or took lessons or really even tried to learn to play the thing. I just picked it up and joined a band...the first time around as a way to get around the difficulties of amplifying my cello (which I was playing instead of a bass) and the second time around just for the hell of it.

I've thought about getting more serious about playing the bass in the past, but it never really went anywhere. Then the drums came along and seemed like an easier pathway into what I wanted to do at the time, which was play in more bands. Also...I like hiding in the back of a band...the bass is good for that...but the drums are even better.

I'm fully committed to the drums at this point...the first time in my entire life that I've been fully committed to any endeavor. I've tried not to play other instruments much over the last year so as not to distract myself from the drums. But the truth is...I've just got too much damn time on my hands and need something else to do. I can only focus on drums a few hours a day at most before I get tired or discouraged or just lose focus. I need something to fill more hours of the day. I know, I know...this is not a problem most people have...the problem of too much free time. But it is a problem I have...in large part because...if I don't keep busy I get crazy and implode.

Anyway...the bass has been creeping back into my world. Enough so that I made a little fantasy proposal to join a band...which might or might not pan out...but which has lit a fire under me to get back in the swing of the thing...and to actually get a little more serious about it. Like learning how the instrument is actually supposed to be played and actually practicing. There are a few little tricks of the trade that I never really learned...like playing in the box and using pentatonic scales...but they are easier concepts to pick up now...after years of exposure to music theory and playing instruments and playing in bands and learning by ear, etc, etc...than they once were. My main barrier currently is redeveloping the hand strength that I once had to push down the thicker strings on frets that are further apart than on a regular guitar.

I don't actually think working on the bass a little bit is in conflict at all with drumming. They are complimentary activities so long as I don't stop practicing drums in favor of bass. More than anything else in a rock band, the bass and drums work as a unit. Understanding both ends is a benefit to my drumming, not a distraction.