Since the beginning of music and the dawn of musical composition there has always been a demand for low-pitched instruments. In nearly all modern musical arrangements the most desired instrument is a bass guitar.
Not surprisingly, the bass guitar remains true to the design originally intended for normal guitar. However, differences do exist. Four-stringed basses are the most common, which differ from the six-stringed guitars most people are used to seeing. The strings of a bass guitar are longer, as is the entire instrument. Most bass guitars are played through an amplifier, although acoustic basses are preferred by some. One deviation from the normal guitar design did occur when a few bass players began to remove the frets from the necks of their instruments, which has since been applied to normal guitars by an even smaller percentage of players.
One thing that makes the bass guitar so appealing to so many people is that there are many ways to play it. One method, called fingerstyle, involves the player using only their fingers to fret the notes on the neck and pluck the strings. Fingerstyle is a popular method mainly because of the many tones one can create using it.
Like a normal guitar, a bass guitar can also be played with a guitar pick. Any normal guitar pick can work on a bass guitar as well, and it is known to create a more percussive tone which many say is more pronounced and distinct than a bass guitar played fingerstyle.
Bass Guitars in Modern Music
Unlike the guitar, which has great potential for harmonic and melodic uses, the bass guitar is mainly classified as a rhythmic instrument. For example, in modern rock, a genre that electric bass guitars are prevalent in, the drums and bass are often used to set up the heartbeat of the piece and drive it along. Rock bassists often simply play single notes in a uniform rhythm in order to keep the pace and harmony of the song simultaneously. In faster, heavier rock genres such as hard rock or heavy metal, bass players are often heard playing blisteringly fast sixteenth notes and using distortion and feedback just like their lead guitar playing counterparts.
The bass guitar was synonymous with jazz since before the electric bass had even been invented, back in the days of the upright bass. Modern bass guitars are well suited to jazz because along with the drums, a bass guitar is perfect for maintaining the swinging feeling of jazz. Upright bass lines are perfect examples of jazz bass playing. As the bassist moves from chord to chord, playing one note per beat, you can literally feel the song swinging and rocking back and forth.
Although bass guitars are sometimes seen as boring instruments when compared to regular guitars, the endless possibilities that a bass guitar presents make it an exciting instrument. When it comes to versatility in terms of playing methods and different musical styles, the bass guitar may very well be unrivaled in the modern musical world.
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