How do you feel if people say playing and learning bass is easier than the guitar?

I don't mean to start any ruckus about this question. I just want to know if you guys feel about it and what you guys do when you hear it. Many of my friends and people I know say "it's the easier instrument to play" and when I hear something like that I kinda get hurt or a little insulted. Sometimes I just want to walk away and just scream somewhere no one can hear me. What i think about it is that the guitar and bass is that they are both challenging to play and learn in their own way. I know that i should respect their opinions I'm just tired of it. >_<
I just wanna ask you guys, who do you handle it if you are being told this and you are irritated by it?

This is an often mentioned thing but:
Guitar - hard to learn, easy to master
Bass - easy to learn, hard to master

It just looks harder because guitarists play chords instead of single notes. They also tend to show off a lot with tapping and slides and floyds and fast scales, while bassits just sit back and fill in the whole thing.
If your friends are technique freaks, learn to slap and do some random fast slapping thing to put them in their place XD

Stryfer wrote:This is an often mentioned thing but:
Guitar - hard to learn, easy to master
Bass - easy to learn, hard to master

It just looks harder because guitarists play chords instead of single notes. They also tend to show off a lot with tapping and slides and floyds and fast scales, while bassits just sit back and fill in the whole thing.
If your friends are technique freaks, learn to slap and do some random fast slapping thing to put them in their place XD

Thanks! I'll try to learn as fast as I can to play my beloved Baisey! I guess they are kinda technique freaks. So, what do you do when you hear something like that?

Good question!

For me, personally, I find guitar a much easier instrument to play (and i'm not a bad guitarist). Always have done. (not talking about guitar solos here)

If a guitarist goes out of time when a band play it doesn't really matter. You can get away with it to an extent. If a bass player goes out of time, it's a completely different matter. EVERYONE feels it. That's the first issue, timing. We HAVE to be in time. No questions asked.

Secondly is strength and stamina. Guitar is a "looser" instrument, and its easier for us to place our fingers onto strings, and sustain chords. Of course, bass is a lot harder, so it's harder for us to maintain stamina.

I also agree with what Stryfer says.

I love both instruments. But it is a common mis-conception that the bass is the easier of the two.

I've tried hard to master electric guitar, sort of more than just playing power chords etc and I genuinely find it hard to the point where I gave up a while ago, I find it easier to coordinate playing with my fingers (a la Mark Knopfler) than with a pick which I find almost impossible.

On the other hand I play acoustic guitar reasonably well, being able to play solo pieces by Gordon Giltrap etc (tho not now I've lost mobility in my shoulder I just can't get my right arm around the body of my Lakewood ).

So it comes to Bass guitar, I don't find it easy, I definately find it easier than electric guitar as I am so crap at that but it's definately as hard as playing my acoustic guitar and I'm learning more and more every week.

So it's subjective really (or is that objective) every instrument is hard to play well so it varies from person to person.

That was a really crap answer wasn't it? Didn't really answer the question at all!

If folk were to say to me that learning and playing the bass guitar is easier than the guitar then I would feel they were making a sweeping generalisation and it would erk me!

There - that's better!

Well, whatever the answer is, we can safely say that because of this common misconseption, bassists are pretty rare. Which means more gigs, 'cause everyone wants a bass player but can't find one Speaking of more gigs, I think I somehow joined a third band yesterday

Bass playing was easier for me cause i got thick fingers... I tried electric at first but couldnt play chords because my fingers kept pressing two strings at a time instead of one.

Sometimes I learn guitar riffs on bass just to prove I dont find it harder. I swear when people I know who play guitar try and play on my bass they have more trouble than when I play on their guitars. I definately find it harder to play long pieces on bass and overall I just general prefer Bass, much more versitile

x2n wrote:So, what do you do when you hear something like that?

I show them this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy3V2Tl4g3s

Oh and as for what Dman said, timing is very critical for bass players. However, in comparison guitar solos have to be very melodious and relevant to the song. Which is difficult.
Although, since there are also bass soloists today, we might be able to disregard that

DubHertz wrote:Bass playing was easier for me cause i got thick fingers... I tried electric at first but couldnt play chords because my fingers kept pressing two strings at a time instead of one.

I hear you..... I also have short fingers so some of the positions were difficult when returning to classical guitar (after a 5 year break) i then grew interested in the bass et voila have stuck with it.
I enjoy bass a lot, but I'm thinking about buying a chepie acoustic to thrash some songs out on.

It depends. I think it goes both ways. For me bass was a lot easier to get in to than guitar but well i was already familiar with guitar.
And today jamming for me is easier with band when im on bass than playing guitar.

Like Stryfer already said

Stryfer wrote: It just looks harder because guitarists play chords instead of single notes.

but there is bit truth into this. Like if you look something like Neil Young rocking in the free world that bass line is as easy as hell and pretty boring to play. Really. But still There are bunch of awesome bass player as well as guitar players. Still bassist are bit more rare but even more rare are people who can master both instruments like Buckethead

It's all relative.

Thank you everyone for sharing your opinions! ^_^ It's just irritating to hear that our instruments are easy instruments to play. I love both instruments but, i just wish people would stop telling me that it's easy to play.

No it ain't easy.Just look at how hard is for us to do the 1-3-1-3-1-3-1-3 kinda thing on the E,and do that on a guitar. That's a preety example to show people their mistakes.

Try 1-4-1-4-1-4-1-4 on the low B

Or give'em a BTBAM song

It kills me inside a little, sometimes. Mostly cause 90% of people are too obnoxious to listen to your side of the argument.

Like Yesterday [vday] I was learning my and my girlfriends song on acoustic, going pree well n stuf. And she updated her facebook saying thats what I was doing. And I got FLAMED.

Ugh.

The bass shall rise again, yeah.

Cliff em' all wrote:Or give'em a BTBAM song

I listened to one of the songs of Between the Buried and Me and it's scary haha but, i like it and the basslines are sick!

x2n wrote:

Cliff em' all wrote:Or give'em a BTBAM song

I listened to one of the songs of Between the Buried and Me and it's scary haha but, i like it and the basslines are sick!

Drakon, you are right! the bass will rise again! >_< and rock the world with pure awesomeness!!! 0_o oh! did you play the song for her? did she like it?

x2n wrote:

x2n wrote:

Cliff em' all wrote:Or give'em a BTBAM song

I listened to one of the songs of Between the Buried and Me and it's scary haha but, i like it and the basslines are sick!

Drakon, you are right! the bass will rise again! >_< and rock the world with pure awesomeness!!! 0_o oh! did you play the song for her? did she like it?

SORT OF

See, Im no singer, Im a screamer.

She is a singer.

I learnt to play it and she sung it, we had a good day.

also

BTBAM are love and are gods to me.

Drakon7 wrote:It kills me inside a little, sometimes. Mostly cause 90% of people are too obnoxious to listen to your side of the argument.

Like Yesterday [vday] I was learning my and my girlfriends song on acoustic, going pree well n stuf. And she updated her facebook saying thats what I was doing. And I got FLAMED.

Ugh.

The bass shall rise again, yeah.

Aww thats really sweet

The bass hasn't actually ever risen yet
It's a very new instrument, only 50 years old according to Victor Wooten. There's still so much that can be done with it. It will rise, in time, and when it does it's not coming down

Ha Ha! That just reminded me of a (now deleted) conversation I had with someone on youtube, when I first uploaded my beginners lessons.

It went something like:

Me: I mean, bass has been round since god-knows when. It was needed to support the high-end of guitar.

Some guy: No it hasn't. Victor wooten says it's still a new instrument.

Me: No, bass has been around for years as double bass. But even then, Wooten was wrong when he says the electric bass is 50 years old. The first electric bass was actually made in the 30's. It's a little bit older than when Leo Fender made it mass produced, which is when everyone presumes it was created. I made that mistake as well.

Some guy: WTF?! so your saying your better than victow wooten!?!?!?1111111

Me: Er, no. I was just pointing out that he was slightly wrong, and that the double bass has been around a lot longer than the electric.

Some guy: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!111111 NOOB!

Me: Yes.

I think I remember you talking about that, sometime!!

But also.

I dunno, the bass was pretty popular n stuf back in the ole funk days and whatnot.

And it was pretty cool in classic rock days, too

I dont think it was till.. I dunno.. Punk revival, maybe, that bass REALLY started to simplify in the eyes of others.

Yes on my many browsing sessions through wikipedia in the event of extreme boredom I search articles that I know are really long and just read it all. Eg. Metallica, Bass Guitar anything that interests me. But...yeah it was introduced in the 30s but didnt take off till the 50s