Bass (the guitar, not the fish)
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Well, there have already been several postings about the bass guitar, however, I feel the thoughts posted have been a little scattered. With that in mind (and no offense intended towards the other writers -- please add your thoughts and submit your comments to the editors for "official" status), I'm attempting to make a definitive (in the truest hitchhiker's sense of the word) entry on the subject.
Ahem.
The Bass Guitar is a stringed musical instrument which originated as a hybrid of sorts between the standard Hawaiian guitar as electrified by Les Paul and the enormously cumbersome bass viol. The standard bass guitar has 4 strings, tuned in 4ths up from a low E. While technology has evolved to make the modern bass sound and play better, it is essentially unchanged since the early days of rock and roll.
This is not to say, however, that myriad varieties are not available.
Current trends in bass playing have expanded the instrument to include up to 7 strings in a variety of tuning configurations. (Excepting, of course, the Chapman stick, which requires its own entry.) In spite of this expansion, the essence of the bass guitar is still the original 4-string configuration.
While generally considered a pop/rock instrument, the bass guitar is widely used in all types of music, if for no other reason than its portability.
While the bass guitar itself has remained fairly true to its original form, methods for playing it have not. In the early days, the bass guitar player was not generally considered an impressive musician, mostly due to amplification limitations. Without solid sound reinforcement, the bassist was stuck with some muddy quarter notes.
As sound reinforcement technology expanded, so did the role of the bass player. Jazz players began to give up their enormous old basses in favor of the electric bass guitar. Paul McCartney was among the first to make the bass guitar an integral part of popular song writing. From that point forward, the bassist increasingly became a force to be reckoned with.
Today, the bass guitar is as central to popular music as the electric guitar. Players like Sting, Jack Bruce, Jaco, Tony Levin, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Les Claypool, and Sam Rivers (to name a few) have helped to elevate the instrument to an art form.
Ahem.
The Bass Guitar is a stringed musical instrument which originated as a hybrid of sorts between the standard Hawaiian guitar as electrified by Les Paul and the enormously cumbersome bass viol. The standard bass guitar has 4 strings, tuned in 4ths up from a low E. While technology has evolved to make the modern bass sound and play better, it is essentially unchanged since the early days of rock and roll.
This is not to say, however, that myriad varieties are not available.
Current trends in bass playing have expanded the instrument to include up to 7 strings in a variety of tuning configurations. (Excepting, of course, the Chapman stick, which requires its own entry.) In spite of this expansion, the essence of the bass guitar is still the original 4-string configuration.
While generally considered a pop/rock instrument, the bass guitar is widely used in all types of music, if for no other reason than its portability.
While the bass guitar itself has remained fairly true to its original form, methods for playing it have not. In the early days, the bass guitar player was not generally considered an impressive musician, mostly due to amplification limitations. Without solid sound reinforcement, the bassist was stuck with some muddy quarter notes.
As sound reinforcement technology expanded, so did the role of the bass player. Jazz players began to give up their enormous old basses in favor of the electric bass guitar. Paul McCartney was among the first to make the bass guitar an integral part of popular song writing. From that point forward, the bassist increasingly became a force to be reckoned with.
Today, the bass guitar is as central to popular music as the electric guitar. Players like Sting, Jack Bruce, Jaco, Tony Levin, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Les Claypool, and Sam Rivers (to name a few) have helped to elevate the instrument to an art form.
