music_phantom13

I'm constantly frustrated with my damn keyboard... it's probably the main reason I don't play more often than I do. I always find myself simply not being able to play fast enough, or switch chords perfectly, or hit the melody right every time, and it drives me insane. But I guess practice makes perfect, like #9 said.

Astronomer

Argh the dreaded F major chord! I hit the same difficulty when I was learning guitar years ago. I conquered a whole bunch of chords - C, G, A, E, D, Dm, Am, Em, etc etc. And then I came to F. I could not do it. I hated F. And I hated that it seemed to turn up in every song I tried to learn. So I understand your frustration. Eventually my fingers adapted to being able to play bar chords a lot better, but still to this day I am not a huge fan of them AT ALL.

Oh, and I don't believe in 'dumb kids,' only in dumb teachers But I understand completely where you're coming from, sometimes it just seems to easy to just quit - this painful and frustrating process of learning instruments was exactly what I was talking about.

Yep indeed... practice does make perfect. But sometimes the frustration just makes you not want to practice because it's too painful!

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Bulldog

I took guitar lessons for about 5 minutes when I was a kid. I doubt I was too fussed about the whole thing when I first gave it a go anyway.

But, a few years down the line I started taking alto sax lessons, which were dead frustrating, especially when you first pick the thing up, trying to figure out why you can't make a noise with it, let alone sound like David Sanborn. Once I knew how to use the main keys, octave key and key guards properly, it was pretty easygoing, at least 'til my teacher started giving me jazz pieces to do - the kinda tunes that combine staccato, higher or lower air pressure for different notes (ones that varied during the note were a pain in the arse), and it got really annoying when it came to making impossible angles with your fingers to get to all those levers on the side of the thing.

It was all good fun though, especially when I actually got the hang of something - very rewarding feeling, as you said. Plus my teacher was an alright bloke, which helped I guess.

Antonio

well i've taken guitar lessons for several years, but with teachers i guess i lucked out because most of my memories of lessons were quite good. idk, most of the teachers i had were more easygoing than most, while they didn't let up as far as throwing crazy excercises at me, they wouldn't really have that militant attitude about music. possibly because i was a teenager then, but the teachers i had were guys i could have regular conversations with, like buddies you play with.


as for feelings of frustation, i think every musician feels that, but really that's the thing that should be pushing you to do better. honestly Lateralus i think you'll be able to do great on the bass with enough time and dedication, just like many other skills.

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Astronomer

Thanks for all the responses guys!

...

I want to dedicate this entry towards my infatuation and appreciation for female bassists.


As you're probably aware, I have some slightly annoying feminist tendencies and I like to celebrate female culture (see: The infamous feminism thread and the great banning spree of 2009.) I have a complete adoration for any female musicians, especially those in rock music, which I think is still a scene predominantly occupied by men. The following ideas expressed are not my own but came from an interesting article written by a guy that I discovered on the net randomly. I don't necessarily agree with them but I found the article to be really interesting so I thought I'd share some passages from it. (link: The World Moves on a Woman's Hips:Female Bass Player as Contemporary Fertility Goddess).

I realised that these unusual but interesting ideas expressed pretty much summed up why I have this obsession with female bassists.

Watch Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle, Zwan...) in this clip. She wraps her hands around the neck of the bass almost sensually (about 0.30) and pauses to tie her hair up mid song (5.53). She leans into her playing and into her instrument voluptuously. To me, these are almost overt instances of her womanhood.



I think D'arcy Wretzky "feels it":



As does Kim Gordon:



Melissa Auf Der Maur:



...and Sean Yseult:



And the article I've been citing finishes with this conclusion:

So there you have it. Just an interesting little bunch of ideas that really appealed to me and I thought I'd share. Of course, the magic doesn't happen with every female bass player I've come across. Bassist like Aimee Mann and Julianna Hatfield have never really appealed to me and don't seem to have that same connection.

And so I'll leave you with a clip of Carol Kaye, perhaps the woman who stuck a crowbar in the female-bass-playing door.

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Seltzer

Another one for the list is Tamaki Kunishi of Mono. I saw them live a couple of weeks ago and she gets right into it... in fact, they all do. Yoda (yes that's his name lol) was sweating so much I'm surprised he didn't fry the electricals.

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ElephantSack

There's few things I love more than a girl that can play bass. Mainly because I've been playing for 15 years, and I used to fee like the bass was the "by default" instrument to play in a band. Like the guy who wasn't cool enough to play guitar or drums got stuck with the bass. That changed when I discovered Les Claypool.

But when I first saw Sean Yseult and heard White Zombie was when my infatuation with chick bass players began. I didn't see another one until I saw a Smashing Pumpkins music video. And after that, it wasn't until Hole covered "Gold Dust Woman" and I saw the video that I first saw a redhead playing bass. I was stunned. I guess the whole appeal for me is a girl who seems to be on the same path, and its instant conversation fodder.

But although all of those girls have the sex appeal and the moves, I was by far most impressed with Carol Kaye. I had never heard of her until now. I feel like I could actually use a couple of lessons from her, because the cycles and jazz walking is something that I would like to know more about, and was something that eluded me when I was first learning.

Very nice entry, Lat.

And Seltzer. That **** was blazing, man! I'd never heard of Mono. Very nice!

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music_phantom13

Probably my favorite female bassist has yet to be mentioned...



Rika Hamamoto of Melt-Banana. She gets such an amazing groove going through songs that if not for her would just fall apart. I think the bass in that band is more prominent than a lot of music and at one of their shows really gets the crowd going. Plus, she's really ****ing good. Kim Deal was cool too, I'm surprised she didn't get any mention from any of you. Shame on you.

And I have to say, outside of just bassists, I really love seeing girls making music at all that isn't crappy pop like Lady Gaga and the likes. I find it strange that you don't see bands with female members more often, I can't understand what it is.

NumberNineDream

Ditto on that point. I'm not much familiar with any of the bass players mentioned earlier, so very interesting to watch them.

I do wonder why it's so rare to see any female members, or just females in any other Art department. Between filmmaking, painting or writing, there's just not so many women. And tho it's very rare to see females in the Rock music scene, it's even less in Jazz, blues, electronica or classical music (and rarely any of them are composers).

I strongly hope they won't stay only a part of the pop gaga scene.

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Astronomer

Wow, that was intense. Thanks for sharing!

I agree, Carol Kaye is definitely a person who I would love to meet and who I admire immensely. Glad you enjoyed the entry, I always love hearing about other musicians' journeys and views, so thanks.

I've heard the name Melt-Banana thrown around a few times but am not really familiar with them but Rika Hamamoto sounds amazing. I'll have to check some stuff out. And yes! How could I forget Kim Deal, another very admirable bassist. Thanks for reminding!

I don't want to get into a whole debate about the lack of women in the music scene and such, but I'm pretty sure it's got a lot to do with the way women are 'marketed' and the way men are 'marketed.' It's a known fact that once an artist becomes quite established and well-known that they and their manager/record-label/whatever will have some kind of marketing plan to assist them in their pursuits for success. Men are more often than not marketed as musicians, band members, etc. Women, however, tend to be marketed as objects of sexual desire and which is why they end up selling their sex appeal in the crappy pop scene. So many female artists start out as talented musicians - a singer-songrwiter on piano, a girl and her guitar, a woman in a band - but end up half-naked with barbie-doll looks singing some horrible pop song. However, these females do allow themselves to be put in this position, and this also happens to male artists all the time as well. I just really admire any girls in the rock scene, especially ones who are talented and inspiring musicians.

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