“It's really easy to play harmonics, anyone can do it. It's another thing to be able to swing, to make to make a band swing, to create a groove. Harmonics ain't everything. Being able to play harmonics certainly does not make you a good bass player. Cleverness is no substitute for true awareness.” DoePlayAbleEasyCan DoPlayerAwarenessBandSubstitutesSwingsBassClevernessGrooveBass Players Author:Jaco Pastorius
“People ask how I learned to play bass with one hand. Well, with a face like mine, you learn to do a lot of things with one hand.” PeopleWellsPlayHandsFacesAsksMinesBass Author:Peter Steele
“Plays bass guitar in rock band "Capitol Offense".” PlayRocksBandGuitarOffenseBassCapitolRock BandsBass Guitar Author:Mike Huckabee
“I was charmed by a performance given by Crowded House at Toronto's Massey Hall where the bass player broke a string.” HouseGivenPlayerPerformancesBrokeStringsHallsBassCrowdedTorontoCharmedBass Players Author:Alannah Myles
“Lance Bass needs to quit worrying about outer space and celebrate life by learning how to kill his own food.” NeedsSpaceWorryQuittingCelebrateBassOuter SpaceCelebrate Life Author:Ted Nugent
“Heaven to me is percussion and bass, a screaming guitar and a burbling Hammond B-3 organ. It's a soup I love being immersed in.” HeavenGuitarOrgansSoupBassPercussionBass Guitar Author:Dan Aykroyd
“I knew Glenn Frey. He called me up in 1977 and told me The Eagles were looking for a bass player, preferably someone who could write and had a high voice. That was me.” WritingVoicePlayerEaglesBassBass Players Author:Timothy B. Schmit
“Critics are like horse-flies which hinder the horses in their plowing of the soil. The horse works, all its muscles drawn tight like the strings on a double-bass, and a fly settles on his flanks and tickles and buzzes. And what does the fly buzz about? It scarcely knows itself; simply because it is restless and wants to proclaim: 'Look, I too am living on the earth. See, I can buzz, too, buzz about anything.'” KnowsWantLooksDoeI CanEarthHorseCriticsSettlingSoilMusclesStringsRestlessBassLiving OnHinderBuzzPlowingDouble Bass Author:Anton Chekhov
“If a car comes past me in a traffic jam with a boom box going, I jump out of my skin. Those big booming basses. I'm just more sensitive to noise these days.” IfsBigsPastCarSkinsBoxesNoiseThese DaysSensitiveTrafficBassJamTraffic Jam Author:George Harrison
“There was this big skiffle craze happening for a while in England.... Everybody was in a skiffle group..All you needed was an acoustic Guitar, a washboard with thimbles for percussion, and a tea-chest- you know, the ones they used to ship tea from India- and you just put a broom handle on it and a bit of string, and you had a bass..you only needed two chords; Jing-jinga-jing jing-jinga-jing jing-jinga-jing jing-jinga-jing. And I think that's basically where i've always been at. I'm just a skiffler, you know. Now I do posh skiffle, that's all it is.” ThinkingKnowsTwoBigsUsedBitsGroupsNeededHappeningsIndiaEnglandGuitarHandleShipsTeaStringsChestsChordsBassAcousticsBroomsAcoustic GuitarPoshPercussionCraze Author:George Harrison
“In high school no guys wanted to be in a band with me unless I was going to play bass or play grindcore or be in a scream-o band, so it was fun to finally have that experience of having my songs backed by a drummer and a bassist who were just as excited about it as I was.” PlayWantedSchoolGuySongFunBandHigh SchoolExcitedScreamBassDrummerBassists Author:Weyes Blood
“As time progressed, my songwriting developed out of my bass, because that's all I could do. I decided to take it as far as it could go and to use my skill as a tool.” UseSkillsToolsDecidedSongwritingBass Author:Stephen Bruner
“You don't have to just hit nails with hammers, you know; you can use a hammer to beat somebody's brains in, to make armor or break a car window. You can do all kinds of things with your instrument outside of its surface purpose. My bass is my crutch but the best crutch I could have.” KnowsKindUsePurposeCan DoBrainBreakCarBeatsWindowInstrumentsSurfaceAll KindsNailsHammersBassArmorCrutches Author:Stephen Bruner
“I remember swallowing my tooth up in a high chair, but I definitely don't remember the first time I played bass. It was like, back there!” FirstsRememberFirst TimeTeethChairsBassSwallowing Author:Stephen Bruner
“I eat steamed sea bass and vegetables, and I have no sugar, and only drink soy milk.” SeaDrinkVegetablesMilkSugarBassSoySoy Milk Author:Angelina Jolie
“Figured Bass (Harmony) and Religion are self-contained things, one should not argue these.” ShouldSelfHarmonyArguingBassSelf Contained Author:Ludwig van Beethoven
“I will sing whatever I'm given to sing. Growing up, I would sing anything that I was given. If the choir needed a first tenor, I would sing first tenor. If they needed a bass, I would sing bass. Throughout my life, I just figured out ways to hit notes I needed to hit.” IfsWayFirstsGivenGrowing UpGrowingNeededNotesBassChoirTenors Author:Josh Young
“Ridley Pearson also plays bass guitar and sings with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band made up of such successful authors as Amy Tan, Stephen King, and Dave Barry-a band that, according to Barry, "plays music as well as Metallica writes novels".” WritingWellsMadePlayNovelSuccessfulRocksKingsBandGuitarBottomBassAmyDaveMetallicaBass Guitar Author:Otto Penzler
“I'm always scouring the universe for great old instruments from the '50s and early '60s. That's really, for me, the golden age of basses, when they had just been invented within 10 years of that period and they had just started to come into their own, especially the old Fender jazz basses and old Rickenbackers and Gibsons. I'm always on the lookout. It's fun.” YearsAgeUniverseFunPeriodsInstrumentsJazzGoldenBassGolden Age Author:Geddy Lee
“I got a little bit of a sense for the subculture, which is the equivalent of any subculture, really. The stakes are high, even if you live in a small town. It's like the annual bass fishing contests, or whatever it is. The stakes are always absurdly high, and this is no different. The competition at this butter carving things, from what I understand, is not that far off from what we're depicting in the movie.” IfsLittlesDifferentBitsLittle BitTownsCompetitionFishingStakesContestsSmall TownBassAnnualsCarvingSubculture Author:Ty Burrell
“I always tell girls who say they want to start a band but don't have any talent, well, neither do I. I mean, I can carry a tune, but anyone who picks up a bass can figure it out. You don't have to have magic unicorn powers. You work at it, and you get better. It's like anything- You sit there and do it every day, and eventually you get good at it.” WantWellsMeanI CanGirlMagicTalentFiguresBandPicksGet BetterTunesBassUnicornTell A Girl Author:Kathleen Hanna
“I like writing songs. I like the camarderie of the and. I like touring. I love playing bass. And then there's free beer.” WritingSongBeerTouringBassWriting SongsPlaying Bass Author:Keanu Reeves
“Okay, I get kicked off the drums when I try and...the notes just keep coming at you and I'm like "Ahhhhh!" I can't do it. I have literally gotten booed off the stage way too many times. It's terrorizing. The rest of my band mates just are...they tell me to get off. I'm like, "I can play bass. Dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk."” WayTryingI CanPlayStageBandOkayNotesMatesBass Author:Alison Pill
“A couple of months ago I went fishing with a buddy of mine, we pulled his boat into the dock, I lifted up this big 'ol stringer of bass and this idiot on the dock goes, Hey, y'all catch all them fish? Nope - Talked 'em into giving up. Here's your sign.” GivingBigsMinesMonthsCoupleGiving UpFishesBoatHeyIdiotEmsFishingBuddyBassDocks Author:Bill Engvall
“I used to play bass for a while and got to the point where I was good enough to be in a shitty band.” EnoughPlayUsedBandGood EnoughBass Author:Christian Finnegan
“My reading was good enough to play big-band charts, but I ran into trouble with Claude (Thornhill)'s theme song "Snowfall," which had a repeating bass line in D-flat that was very difficult for me to finger using my self-taught technique. I spent one morning figuring out an alternate fingering, and that started me on the way to learning a better use of the fingerboard.” WaySelfEnoughPlayUseBigsSongReadingDifficultLinesMorningTroubleTaughtBandFingersTechniqueRanThemeFlatsGood EnoughBassSelf TaughtSnowfallFingerboard Author:Bill Crow
“I found a guy in the Bronx who had an old plywood Kay bass that he wanted $75 for. He held it for me, and I gave him a few dollars every time I could scrape some extra money together. Meanwhile I borrowed or rented basses for jam sessions and paying jobs. It was a great thrill when I finally took possession of my Kay.” WantedTogetherJobsGuyFoundDollarsPossessionExtrasThrillSessionBassJamBorrowedBronx Author:Bill Crow
“For my money, Ray Brown is the greatest living bass player. Every great thing that's happened on bass since Ray Brown -- all of us point back to him. That's where it started, you know. Ray Brown is definitely a walking master, and to get to play with him is obviously an opportunity that no one should ever pass up.” KnowsShouldPlayOpportunityPlayerHappenedMastersWalkingGreat ThingsBrownRaysBassBass Players Author:Christian McBride
“The rock and roll spirit. I learned a lot of that because I worked with Buddy Holly. I played bass with him, and he taught me a lot about that.” SpiritRocksTaughtRock And RollBuddyBassHollies Author:Waylon Jennings
“I'm not quite sure. Probably because "Hanky Panky" and "I Think We're Alone Now" had more to do with it than anything else. For some reason, staccato eighth notes on a bass sounded like bubblegum. Basically, groups like the 1910 Fruitgum Co. took my early format and kind of perverted it, and made these mindless pre-fab hits over and over. In the 60s, anybody who was making commercial music, that is music that didn't have a political slant to it, or wasn't taking drugs, was bubblegum. And that term kind of hung on a lot of people back then, and it's unfortunate.” PeopleThinkingKindMadeReasonPoliticalTermGroupsDrugNotesUnfortunateHungBassFormatMindlessCommercial Music Author:Tommy James
“I just naturally started to play music. My whole family played-my daddy played, my mother played. My daddy played bass, my cousin played banjo, guitar and mandolin. We played at root beer stands, like the .Drive-ins they have now, making $2.50 a night, and we had a cigar box for the kitty that we passed around, sometimes making fifty or sixty dollars a night. Of course we didn't get none of it, we kids.” SometimesPlayWholeKidsMotherNightCoursesRootsDollarsGuitarBoxesBeerFiftySixtyDaddyCousinBassCigarWhole FamilyMy CousinKittiesBanjosRoot Beer Author:T-Bone Walker
“I know it was a gift from God. My father was a preacher and my mother worked in churches all her life. My father had a very deep bass sounding voice and my mother had an in-between soprano voice. Not great singers, but they had great tones to their voices. I think that had a lot to do with it. Also, I really believe my voice was a gift from God. I believe if you take care of it, He will help you take care of it.” IfsThinkingKnowsBelieveHelpingCareMotherFatherI BelieveVoiceChurchTake CareSingersTonePreacherBassGift From GodVery DeepSopranos Author:Darlene Love
“Grunge, like Nirvana and all that. Heavy metal, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Guns and Roses, drum and bass. I like to listen to it and try and break down what makes a fan of that music say 'Ah fuck that other music', do you get me? Trying to figure out what makes them tick, I always try and break that down with every piece of music. But the energy in that music, I love it.” TryingEnergyBreakPiecesFansFiguresGunRoseHeavyIronMetalsBreaking DownBassMaidensTickHeavy MetalMetallicaGrungeIron MaidenDrum And Bass Author:Dizzee Rascal
“I think the biggest problem with drum and bass is that people don't like to collaborate, and so from very early on I have made a point of stepping outside the box and working with as many people as I can.” PeopleThinkingMadeI CanProblemBoxesBassOutside The BoxDrum And Bass Author:DJ Rap
“I started at 14, and only played bass. I traded in my train set for a bass, and used my dad's amp.” UsedDadTrainMy DadBass Author:Robbie Merrill
“I've been making Bass Communion music longer than any kind of other music. I don't know if you picked up a copy of a vinyl release I put out a couple of years ago of something called Altamont.” IfsKnowsYearsKindCoupleYears AgoReleaseCopiesCommunionBassVinyl Author:Steven Wilson
“Every Bass Communion track is based on a single sound source. Increasingly I find that I'm really interested in taking a particular sound and it's almost like solving a problem. If I have a sound, the problem is how can I create a piece of music from this one sound source?” IfsProblemSoundPiecesParticularSourceTrackCommunionBass Author:Steven Wilson
“When The Murderdolls started it was a really cool thing, especially for me because I had never done anything on that scale before. Even for our drummer and bass player it was their first really big band.” FirstsDoneBigsPlayerBandScalesBassReally CoolDrummerCool ThingsBass Players Author:Wednesday 13
“Some songs started from a bass line, some started from having the full lyric and Jim, my drummer, who's also the first guy I've been in the studio with him since 16, sometimes he'd have an idea and I'd put a lyric to it and then the track evolves, there's no set way to write a song.” WayWritingFirstsIdeasSometimesGuySongLinesTrackStudiosEvolveBassDrummer Author:Paolo Nutini
“I turn on the machines and start to think about ideas and take it from there, it usually begins if it's a beat, a track creating a beat/beats and then the bass-line/lines, then comes the sounds--drones, atmospherics etc, then the edits of various sounds I created and keep going till I feel I have enough sounds ideas to start working and building a track. I have many banks of sounds that we hear that can be manipulated in the machines.” IfsThinkingFeelsIdeasEnoughTurnsSoundLinesBuildingCreatingBeatsMachinesTrackVariousEtcKeep GoingBassTurn-onEditsDrones Author:Mick Harris
“There are many influences in my music, not only blues. R&B, Motown, gospel, old timey, jazz, even classical are all part of what I do. I started with classical, then country, then blues, and after that I started listening heavily to Motown and gospel. My earliest efforts as a songwriter were soul. Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Wilson Pickett, Gladys Knight, James Brown, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and Fontella Bass are just a few of the names that come to mind as the God's of soul and Motown.” MindSoulCountryNamesEffortInfluenceListeningJazzBrownSongwritersKnightsBassFranklinWilsonOld TimeMarvinMotown Author:Rory Block
“Anybody I'm in a band with can do what they do better than me. I'm a huge believer that I can play bass or whatever I bring to the table - producing, songwriting, orchestrating - and I can look at the other guys and say, "He's got that, he's got this, and I have this." It's a team thing.” LooksI CanPlayGuyCan DoTeamHugeBandTablesBelieverSongwritingBassOther Guys Author:Nikki Sixx
“My favorite moments are when the bass falls in the pocket with the drums, the guitar is on top just slicing it, and the melody is scraping across like a sidewinder shattering through the monitor. It's just, ahhh, I love it! That's the jones, the hit, the buzz right there. It gets me off.” MomentsFallGuitarMy FavoritePocketsMelodyBassBuzzShatteringScraping Author:Nikki Sixx
“I spent five years, at least, working with Miles. Together, we recorded ESP, Nefertiti, Sorcerer -- and I can tell you; each of these albums instantly became jazz classics. Hey, we had Wayne Shorter playing tenor sax, Ron [Carter] on bass, Tony Williams played drums. That was great band we had.” YearsI CanTogetherFiveBandJazzAlbumsMilesHeyFive YearsBassCarterWayneTenorsEspNefertiti Author:Herbie Hancock
“My dream as a child was to play with a bass player like Ray Brown, who played with the Oscar Peterson Trio. The feeling I had listening to his work was almost carnal, so to actually play for him was earth-shattering for me.” ChildrenPlayFeelingsDreamEarthPlayerListeningBrownRaysOscarsBassShatteringBass PlayersTrios Author:Diana Krall
“Obviously, it's had a huge effect on repetitive music or dance music or house music. Ambient in the last ten years has infiltrated into all those repetitive musics. I don't know what part it plays in pop necessarily but I'm sure there's some connection. But in all the music that deals with experimental repetition, drum and bass, dub, various kinds of house music, there's always been a quality of atmosphere and ambience. I think it's infiltrated that pretty heavily.” ThinkingKnowsYearsKindPlayLastsHouseDealsQualityEffectsHugeTenConnectionsVariousPopsAtmosphereRepetitionBassRepetitiveDance MusicAmbientHouse MusicAmbienceDrum And Bass Author:Bill Laswell
“I first picked up the bass guitar when I was twelve years old, and fooled around with it. By the time I was thirteen I got pretty serious about it.” YearsFirstsSeriousGuitarTwelveBassFooledThirteenBass Guitar Author:Mark Mendoza
“I bought my first bass because I wanted to be in a Band, and heard that it was the easiest instrument to play. A friend told me that it was the sexiest instrument.” FirstsPlayWantedHeardBandInstrumentsBassSexiest Author:Nate Mendel