Ukulele = Better Bassist

Here's a quick article I wrote up for Seymour Duncan, where I talked about how picking up the ukulele made me a better bassist. But in the broader scope, playing ANY instrument that is different than your primary one is going to help you become a more well-rounded musician. Enjoy.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-players-room/ukulele-playing-for-better-bassists/

Great article! I noticed that the uke helped me become a better bassist too, because the re-entrant tuning challenged me to step away from just the root note and start thinking about the other notes that go with the chord.

Also, switching between a soprano uke and a Jazz Bass will train you to play ANY size instrument without having to take time to readjust!

haole said:

Great article! I noticed that the uke helped me become a better bassist too, because the re-entrant tuning challenged me to step away from just the root note and start thinking about the other notes that go with the chord.

Also, switching between a soprano uke and a Jazz Bass will train you to play ANY size instrument without having to take time to readjust!

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Thank you! And very true on both counts.

Same here I hear for guitarists too...

haole said:

Also, switching between a soprano uke and a Jazz Bass will train you to play ANY size instrument without having to take time to readjust!

Click to expand...

Well, sort of... I've played bass for 33 years, and ukulele for about 4 1/2 years. I used to play a lot of acoustic guitar, but not so much anymore (almost never, actually). I am now about equally comfortable on a Fender Jazz Bass or a soprano ukulele, but my acoustic guitar feels like a house with a tree trunk attached!

I've been a bass player for 30+ years, but feel stupid (musically) on the guitar. Ukulele is a different story.....maybe the extra strings???
I liked your article. Makes a lot of sense.

I switched from guitar to bass in our band a few years ago because we had three guitarists but no bass (and at the time we were also between drummers). I discovered that I love carrying that bottom line and wouldn't go back now if they asked me to. I also found that playing bass made me a much better rhythm guitar player. You can be sloppy on rhythm guitar or even drop out for a measure to get your bearings and as long as the bassist is doing his job nobody notices; you get sloppy on the bass and everybody notices! Also, playing bass teaches you a lot about the rhythmic structure of music - which you can then apply to other instruments.

I find that stuff I've learned on bass really helps with ukulele, too. I haven't really noticed much going the other way, but I played guitar for years before switching to bass so that might be why.

I see so many "help me with this strum" posts in the beginner section that I've toyed with putting together a couple of very simple tutorial videos and if I do it will basically be about relating various strums to the underlying rhythmic structure from a bassist's perspective. Most of the basic strumming videos I see are all about d-d-du-d and so on but don't really go into the timing adequately, IMHO, to explain WHY a particular pattern works.

Of course, finding time to shoot a tutorial will be the biggest challenge, right now.

John

Awesome! I first learned how to play bass then moved on to ukulele - I think playing the bass makes me a better ukulele player

UkuleleHan96 said:

Awesome! I first learned how to play bass then moved on to ukulele - I think playing the bass makes me a better ukulele player

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Basically, this is how I convinced myself to buy a bass............hoping it would make me a better uke player. Still puzzled how someone who types so proficiently has so much trouble fingering and picking. Different part of the brain?

PhilUSAFRet said:

Basically, this is how I convinced myself to buy a bass............hoping it would make me a better uke player. Still puzzled how someone who types so proficiently has so much trouble fingering and picking. Different part of the brain?

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I think so...plus there's the fact that if you're like me you've probably been typing for decades. It's funny, I took typing in high-school back before there were personal computers and before computers in general really took off. When I took it I figured I'd never use it in life, but I knew where the girls were... LOL Then I ended up working around computers even in the early days, and pretty much settled in as a full-time terminal jockey in about 1986. When I had a company go out of business out from under me back in the early 90's I had to take a typing test at TWC - the gal running the test said she'd never seen a guy who could type 79 WPM error free, before.

John

Sometime back in the early '80s I got my first bass. I'd been playing guitar since the '60s. I had noticed how hard it was to find a decent bass player, so I figured I'd cash in. I got this Fender Jazz in a trade, and two weeks later got a two week, six night per gig playing it, filling in for my friend's honeymoon. When he got back, I was hired as a utility player in the group. I played lead, rhythm, bass, harmonica and mandolin. Holy disconnect, Batman!

But as you guys have mentioned, it broadens your awareness, and makes you play, to my mind, more for the song. At the age of 63, I don't think any new instrument is going to help much, but after 8 months as a uker, I do think it increases my understanding of a different part of the music, and certainly my guitar playing is enriched. I understand folks who find that one instrument that they devote all their effort to, but I really enjoy the broad palette that being a multi-instrumentalist gives me. It also helps if I want to multi-track a song. I don't need to teach anyone their parts, I just play them all.

In my experience, playing bass makes you more aware of how all the instruments fit together, and what the song needs. Ever notice how many bassists are producers? Or how many bandleaders are bassists? Bassists listen to EVERYONE, not just themselves (ducks the tomatoes thrown by guitarists). I'm not saying ALL bassists do that, or that NO ONE who plays guitar (or whatever) pays attention to the other instruments. But in general, I think the bass plays a supporting role in a band, and that tends to make bassists more aware of what's going on around them.

In most of the bands I've played in, I have been the "arranger" (of sorts), and the guy that everyone looks to for dynamic cues, endings, and whatnot. Over the years, I have really become aware of the importance of playing FOR THE SONG, rather than playing what makes me sound cool. When I was younger, I wanted to play all over everything. As I've gotten older, and gotten more experience playing different styles, I have learned that sometimes the part that is best for the song is the simpler part.

A somewhat astonishing example of that philosophy is the song "All Right Now", by the band Free. Paul Rodgers (later in Bad Company) sang it, and I believe wrote the lyrics. The music was written by Andy Fraser, the bassist, who was only 17 or so at the time. Now, if I had written a song when I was 17, there would be bass ALL OVER THAT SUCKER! Andy Fraser, however, showed remarkable restraint. Other than the really cool bass riff during the guitar lead (that bass riff is pretty much a solo in itself), the ONLY bass guitar in the whole song is during the choruses. There is NO bass during the verses. NONE. So when it does come in, it sounds HUGE! Of course, the fact that Andy Fraser was a classically trained pianist from a young age might have helped....

Anyway... yeah. Being a good bassist means being a good listener!

Good article, btw... Too bad the one comment so far was just to rip you for "Confusing pitch with physical location of the string".... sheesh.

Chris Tarman said:

There is NO bass during the verses. NONE. So when it does come in, it sounds HUGE! Of course, the fact that Andy Fraser was a classically trained pianist from a young age might have helped....

Anyway... yeah. Being a good bassist means being a good listener!

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This is a lesson that every musician should learn (by having it pounded into them with a 14 pound 5-string bass, if needed ). I've played with guys that had to be doing something every second or, apparently, they felt their manhood was threatened. Played with one guy who was a very good rhythm guitarist, a fair keyboard player, and a bit of a novice drummer. The guy just could not take direction to shut the heck up. If the bandleader told him to sit out a part on guitar he'd pick up a shaker or a tambourine or a rainstick or...well, you get the idea.

Folks, part of being a musician is knowing when to just do nothing!

John

Chris Tarman said:

Good article, btw... Too bad the one comment so far was just to rip you for "Confusing pitch with physical location of the string".... sheesh.

Click to expand...

I just read that. Oh well.

In my experience, playing bass makes you more aware of how all the instruments fit together, and what the song needs. Ever notice how many bassists are producers? Or how many bandleaders are bassists? Bassists listen to EVERYONE, not just themselves (ducks the tomatoes thrown by guitarists). I'm not saying ALL bassists do that, or that NO ONE who plays guitar (or whatever) pays attention to the other instruments. But in general, I think the bass plays a supporting role in a band, and that tends to make bassists more aware of what's going on around them.

In most of the bands I've played in, I have been the "arranger" (of sorts), and the guy that everyone looks to for dynamic cues, endings, and whatnot. Over the years, I have really become aware of the importance of playing FOR THE SONG, rather than playing what makes me sound cool. When I was younger, I wanted to play all over everything. As I've gotten older, and gotten more experience playing different styles, I have learned that sometimes the part that is best for the song is the simpler part.

A somewhat astonishing example of that philosophy is the song "All Right Now", by the band Free. Paul Rodgers (later in Bad Company) sang it, and I believe wrote the lyrics. The music was written by Andy Fraser, the bassist, who was only 17 or so at the time. Now, if I had written a song when I was 17, there would be bass ALL OVER THAT SUCKER! Andy Fraser, however, showed remarkable restraint. Other than the really cool bass riff during the guitar lead (that bass riff is pretty much a solo in itself), the ONLY bass guitar in the whole song is during the choruses. There is NO bass during the verses. NONE. So when it does come in, it sounds HUGE! Of course, the fact that Andy Fraser was a classically trained pianist from a young age might have helped....

Anyway... yeah. Being a good bassist means being a good listener!

Concur..... agree.... endorse.....EVERYthing Tarman stated:agree:.

Sorry Tarman... I'm too much of a forum newbie to work the quoting tool. Lack of highlighting the words is not meant to steal your thunder.
Cheers.