Types of Bassists (Part 1)

In order to further my purpose of helping the world understand bassists I think it would be to my advantage to give laymen a guide to the different types of bassists out there.

The Meat and Potatoes Bassist – This is probably the most common type of bassist out there. These musicians generally stick pretty close to the root note, don’t ask too many questions and hold down the fort for the rest of the band. Generally they are the master of a few styles of music and technique though they only get fancy when required. A great example of this type would be Tom ‘Two-Tone Tommy’ Blankenship of My Morning Jacket.

The Picker – This class of bassist is probably the second most common and is made up of the youngest demographic of bassists. These musicians are often converted guitarists who have not learned to play finger-style yet or they simply prefer the pick sound to finger-style. Many older bassists often look down on these players because the pick technique is considered easy (despite the fact both Paul McCartney and Sting used this technique quite often). Personally I rather enjoy playing with a pick when I get a chance. A great example of a modern picker would be Michael Jared Followill of Kings of Leon.

The Funk Master – This class of bassist enjoys playing in a “slap n’ pop” style using their thumb and finger to bounce the strings off of the fretboard and get that signature funk sound (see the intro to Seinfeld if you don’t know what I mean). It is technically much more challenging than picking and finger-style and often takes an experienced bassist to pull off correctly. Most people have probably heard Flea play some slap bass for the Chili Peppers though is you want to hear a true master check out Victor Wooten of the Flecktones. He is probably one of the greatest bass players of all time.

Of course these are many more types of bassists but I will get to them next week with Types of Bassists Part 2.

Bass Player Origins

Before McCartney was coming together with Lennon, Harrison and Star on his trusty left-handed Hofner he was a rhythm guitarist. Before Sting was sending messages in a bottle he was playing piano with his mum. Before Flea was slappin’ the bass with the Chili Peppers he was playing jazz trumpet! Notice a pattern here? My point is bassists who started out on the low end of the musical spectrum are few and far between. It also just so happens that I am one of those few bassists who took the low road right of the bat.

See really I owe my love of the bass guitar to my dad. When I was younger he was the bassist in a country band called the Wooden Nickel. He never thought to make me or any of my brothers take music lessons like many musician parents. He instead went with the philosophy that we had to want to play music in order to learn.

This philosophy paid off when in my 12^th year of existence on this earth I had an epiphany: I like girls and girls like musicians… I should be a musician! And so my quest began to woo the fairer sex with the charm and, dare I say, swagger of an artist.

The first step was choosing my instrument. As this was an important rite of passage in my family my dad sat me down and laid out the instruments I could choose from. He was a multi-instrumentalist so I had the option of piano, guitar, banjo, drums, and of course the bass guitar. Piano was fairy boys; one third of the kids I knew played guitar; banjo was for inbred hicks and drummers have an alarming mortality rate.  Plus I was a pretty shy kid so choice was more than obvious. It also helped that my dad had a healthy collection of bass guitars to choose from.

After that fateful day I became absolutely enthralled with my 4-string wonder instrument. I promptly started a band with one of my guitar playing friends and started taking lessons at a local music shop. I realized at some point that I could substitute practicing music for doing homework without any domestic penal repercussions and voilà I was the best bass player I knew (I was also the only bass player I knew). And then there was high school, but I’ll save that story for next week. Until then checkout this amazing young bass player whom I will be talking about next week: