Bassist

From Free net encyclopedia

A bassist is a musician who plays a double bass or electric bass (also referred to as bass guitar). Certain musical genres tend to use one or the other (for example, electric bass for rock and roll or pop music but double bass for classical music and jazz) but the rule is not hard and fast.

1 Electric bass (AKA bass guitar) players
2 Double bass players
3 Of interest

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Electric bass (AKA bass guitar) players

There have been a great many players of the electric bass in jazz, rock and roll, and pop genres, including such widely influential artists as Jaco Pastorius, James Jamerson, Bootsy Collins, Jack Bruce, Stuart Zender, Marcus Miller, Steve Harris, Flea (Michael Balzary), John Paul Jones, Geddy Lee, and Victor Wooten. Electric bassists are generally thought to be "The Wild Card" of the band. Some are cool and calm members of a band, keeping the rhythm and leaving the stage antics to the singer and guitarist. An example of this persona would be The Who bassist, John Entwistle. On the other hand, some bass guitarists do not rest while performing, creating an entertaining visual performance as well as performance in musical technicality. An example of this persona would be Dark Shift's bass guitarist, Brett Dumstrey.

Bassists play what is known as a bass line, which is a single monophonic line of music, which determines the key, chords and style of the song. The bassist often plays the root of the chords, pedal tones or ostinatos & bass riffs. Double Basses and Bass guitars have 4 strings. E A D and G. The strings of a guitar are E A D G B and E, so a bass guitar is just the four bottom strings of a guitar tuned one octave lower. Five-string basses usually add a B below the E string, and six-string basses usually add this "bottom B" and a C above the G string.

See: List of Bass guitarists

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