Wednesday – Bass Players: Who Needs ‘Em?

[ninanevermore]

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Sweet Pea told me that when he is older, he wants to have a rock band. It will have 3 people in it, he told me. He will play guitar, and of course he will need someone to play drums. He is 5 years old, and busy making plans for the rest of his life.

“But what instrument should the third person play?” he asked me.

“How about a bass guitar?” I suggested. “In a 3-piece band, I think the third person usually plays bass guitar.”

“But I’m going to be the guitar player! I don’t need another guitar!” He was very upset.

“It’s not the kind of guitar you’ll be playing. People don’t even care about the bass player, sweetie. He’s just there to fill out the sound.”

“But I only want ONE GUITAR! If you say I have to have two, I don’t want to be in a band. It’s cancelled! I’m not talking to you!” He stomped off to his room.

I told his father about our conversation the next day, and Jeff took Sweet Pea aside.

“You want to have a band when you grow up?”

“No. It’s cancelled. I’m not doing it anymore.” He had only recently learned the word cancelled, which I told him means you have decided not to do something you had planned to do. He had planned to be a rock star; now that was cancelled. I suppose he will instead go with his orignal life plan of being a firefighter.

“Listen: you don’t have to have a bass player if you don’t want to. There’s a band called The White Stripes and all they have is a guitar player and a drummer. If that’s all you want in your band, that’s okay. You don’t need a third person.”

Sweet Pea pondered this for a moment. “Okay,” he finally said, “I’ll think about it. Because I only want one guitar in my band.”

I’m aware that bass players don’t get a lot of love and respect in the world. Lead guitar is where all the glamour is. The base player is often referred to as “and that other guy…what’s his name…the bass player.” I would argue that having one around does make a band sound a lot better, but the world doesn’t show them a lot of love. I’ve never heard of anyone loathing them so much that they would call off a whole rock-star career rather than deal with one, though. Maybe Sweet Pea will eventually come around and accept them. Or maybe he will be in a two piece band where he will rock out on lead guitar with only a drummer to back him up. Time will tell.

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Comments

[noblwish.livejournal.com]

The third person can be a keyboardist. They can fill in the base with their synthesizer. OR (and you may wanna wait a few years to suggest this), he can hire a really cool goth chick to play bass and then there won't be any competition for his stardom -- at least, not the sort HE'LL give a darn about. :D

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Since he can't bear to share the stage with anyone else holding a guitar, I guess he'll have to go with a keyboardist. He's pretty adamant it be a 3 piece band.

[noblwish.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's always the option of having a hot chick at the microphone. Does he plan to sing? If not, a hot chick lead singer is always a good attention-getter.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

He like "boy" singers. With the exception of Hart, that is. He likes them, despite the fact that they are girls.

[hermes-wade.livejournal.com]

Yep, the third person can INDEED be a keyboardist; The Doors used one (Ray Manzarek) instead of a bass player, and look how popular they STILL are.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

And if that fails, he can still be a firefighter.

Or a superhero.

He's 5; his future is wide open. :D

[suspiria.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention The Doors. =)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

We brought up the possibility of a keyboard last night, and our budding rock star was happy. :)

[willowwanders.livejournal.com]

This is the kind of stuff I'm looking forward to when Zaki reaches Sweetpea's age :)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

It's fun watching them grow and having these talks. A lot of work, but loads of fun. :D

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

LOL He's definitely got ideas...like Camie. ^^

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

They are certainly strong minded at this age, aren't they? ^^

[sidneymintz.livejournal.com]

I was the bass player in my bands. Dan showed B old pics of me, and now he wants me to play bass in his band.

Our boys wouldn't be able to play together after all, because B decided he'd rather play guitar over drums :)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Well, they are young yet. Who knows what they will be into by the first grade? I still might be able to sell the idea that bass players are worth keeping around. I'll check back with once he's been exposed to some time in Kindergarten and has had his horizons expanded a bit.