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Why Guitarists Should Also Play the Bass (Part 1 of 2)

8/6/2017

Paul McCartney on Bass

The strings of the four string bass guitar are the same as the lowest four strings on the six string guitar (E - A - D - G - B - E) but the bass is one octave lower. This frequently leads guitarists to "assume" they can play the bass = not necessarily.

Here are some reasons I recommend guitarists learn the bass:

Learning proper right hand technique can also be used on the guitar (this way if you lose your pick you don't have to cancel the show) and is quite challenging which has innate value.
Embarking on the endeavor of learning the bass increases the odds you'll begin to listen to bass lines and bass players with greater discernment which will help your overall music IQ.
Studying and writing bass lines can be incorporated into your guitar playing, for example, you may have played A - D - E a million times but never with a walking bass line.
Writing creative, interesting bass lines requires a good command of chord and key theory so even if a bassist never plays chords or even double stops the knowledge that informed his bass lines, if analyzed can reverberate back to his guitar playing.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this article soon...

Eric

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Electric vs Acoustic

8/3/2017

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It's a common question that a lot of students ask - "do you recommend I play electric or acoustic?"

And it's a very good question indeed. So, here's my answer on this age old question...

It is absolutely worth every guitarists times and effort to become fluent on both electric and acoustic guitar. If you only play electric, it can be surprising the degree to which executing the same songs, passages, licks, bends etc. on the acoustic can be.

Standard electric guitar strings are 10-gauge (i.e. string size) and acoustic 12-gauge which, all things being equal, makes just about everything more difficult on the acoustic - barring, sliding, hammer-ons, pull-offs and especially bending but if you can tough it out and get through the additional discomfort and muscle/tendon strain your electric playing will be all the better for it.

If you only play acoustic you may tend to bend less, stay away from higher registers, utilize effects less and use less slides, pulls and hammers. While there are certainly acoustic players who frequently employ all said techniques, such as the great Tommy Emmanuel the history of the acoustic guitar leans more towards either the Paul Simon/James Tayor-esque fingerpicking or the Richie Havens/Gordon Lightfoot-esque strumming approach.

I'll be happy to talk to you in person about the direction you want to go in - whether it's electric, acoustic or (hopefully one day) both!

Eric

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Why Guitarists Should Also Play the Bass (Part 1 of 2)

Electric vs Acoustic

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