Guitar.

[sin]

The first song I learned to play on bass was Maynard's Dick. :p

Or, like, the million other songs that use that cord progression.

[Aaron]

Well then, I will learn it. I have the start of Schism kinda down. Its better then it was, but my timing is off...

[Naylzie]

THREAD NECROMANCY ALERT!

Any bassists in the house?  I see sin, but from my (limited) knowledge of guitar terminology, it looks like the rest of you are all talking regular guitar type guitars.

I've got a no-name brand acoustic guitar chilling in the coat closet (the closest place in the apartment to "climate controlled") untouched for going on 10 years now (give or take; keep in mind I've been HERE for nearly 10 years now, and some of you DO remember how young I was when I showed up) and I'm trying to come to some decision as to its fate.  Unfortunately for it, the guitar was a Christmas gift bought when I was going through my guitar phase.  Throughout middle and high school, I went through about one instrument phase a year.  Flute, drums, violin, harp, several other stringy things, guitar, and bass guitar.  I could still get into learning to play the guitar as well, but I've found that my deepest musical attraction (no pun intended) remains with the bass.  Rereading an interview with Simon Gallup (bassist for The Cure) revealed that he learned to play guitar before moving on to the bass, but the brevity of the interview left little room for any indication of a relationship between the two skills or instruments.  He still plays both, according to the interview, though various Cure CD booklets would suggest he's more likely on keys in addition to/instead of bass.

I guess the question behind all of this is a) should I learn guitar as a stepping stone to bass? and b) will one instill worse hand position habits than the other?  If that even makes sense...  I mean will it be more difficult, in terms of positioning, to go from guitar to bass or vice versa?

Oh!  I almost forgot.  I had an ex once suggest to me that I should try to trade in my guitar for a 3/4 size because I have small hands.  I don't tend to think they're UNUSUALLY small, but I have always struggled in past flirtations with teaching myself guitar, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm doin' it wrong or if I really do have freaky small hands.  What's a good way to gauge compatibility of hand size to guitar size before I actually learn proper positioning?

*waits for Teepers to jump out of the shadows with a wiseass answer*

[individualzero]

From what I understand when I was going to transition from guitar-playing to bass-playing a couple years ago, it might be easier (if you haven't learned a lot of the hand positioning and techniques behind playing a guitar, bass playing DOES differentiate itself from guitar playing to the point where it's LIKE a guitar how a bass cello might be different from a violin. Does that makes sense? They're string instruments you'd typically play a certain way, probably with a bow ... but the technique and the positioning vary from instrument to instrument.

Of course, that's just what I was told by my friend who played bass for 10 years, but I have no reason to believe she was wrong unless someone more learned can tell me "YOU'RE WRONG." I very well could be. lol

For hand-size-ness... I'm not sure, actually. I have slightly larger than average hands, but picking at a bass was actually easier for me for some reason. Maybe because they're larger rather than small?




Also, just to beat Teeps to it:

What's a good way to gauge compatibility of hand size to guitar size before I actually learn proper positioning?

I guess you could say this is trying to...

get a rise out of us.

...

[Naylzie]

*applaud*
*dies*
 

Well played, sir, well played!

At least I realized I was walking into it for once...  It was a conscious choice to continue through that door

Back ON topic, yeah, I kinda figured it would be something like that, being that they are both roughly guitar-like instruments (in being they are both guitars WHOA!) but that they're still very, very different. 

[Goose]

I've been playing bass even longer than guitar.  Got started on bass about 6 months before touching a 6-string for the first time.  So, in the long run, not much longer.

Personally, I found that a lot of skills transfer over nicely, but some things can mess you up.  When you learn bass, you typically learn to play one note at a time, and learn to play decent solid melodies/riffs.  Learning to do this well is a great foundation for learning how to shred like a motherfucker in the long run, and on bass its the typically expected role, so it feels natural.  On the other hand, most people who start with guitar end up going straight to simple chords and learning those in an effort to learn something cool sounding quick, and as a result knowledge of what notes are actually where and on which strings isn't as immediately important.  Bass chords are very rarely used in the grand scheme of things, unless you're Les Claypool.

TL;DR: bass before guitar good, guitar before bass can be trickier but doable if you leave your guitar knowledge at the door as much as possible.

As for a 3/4-size axe, buying something like that has nothing to do with hand size, and more to do with your height/arm length.  Unless you're shorter than 4'10" for some reason, or have some bizarre baby-hand syndrome, you don't need a smaller guitar.  If you actually have trouble reaching the first fret on a normal guitar, then its worth considering.  Keep in mind that many of the greatest axe-men in the history of the instrument were puny people (Alex Lifeson, Randy Rhoads, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, just off the top of my head, would be lucky to top 5'6").

[Naylzie]

Keep in mind that many of the greatest axe-men in the history of the instrument were puny people (Alex Lifeson, Randy Rhoads, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, just off the top of my head, would be lucky to top 5'6").

Perfect size reference, given that my license puts me at 5'7.  (Beloved claims I must have been wearing thick-soled shoes at the time, but that's beside the point )  My hands are definitely not *freakishly* small for my person.

I think, based on your explanation, I'll go for the bass first, even if it means waiting longer to get started (I'd probably have to hold off a bit on lessons anyhow, this gives me time to look for something I can work with).  I imagine that actually knowing where notes are, rather than starting off with chord progression, will work out better in the long run for BOTH instruments. 

[Goose]

There's another side benefit as well: chicks playing bass are significantly hotter than chicks playing guitar.  Don't know why, but its a rule.  Cases in point:







Hotness with bass.  Its a rule.

[Aaron]

Who is the chick in the second pic? White shirt... Cuz she looks a lot like one of the managers at work. Very close to one...

[Goose]

Tal Wilkenfeld, Jeff Beck's current bassist.  Talented as all hell (bass solo about a minute in).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC02wGj5gPw

[rokken like dokken]

Perfect size reference, given that my license puts me at 5'7.  (Beloved claims I must have been wearing thick-soled shoes at the time, but that's beside the point )  My hands are definitely not *freakishly* small for my person.

I think, based on your explanation, I'll go for the bass first, even if it means waiting longer to get started (I'd probably have to hold off a bit on lessons anyhow, this gives me time to look for something I can work with).  I imagine that actually knowing where notes are, rather than starting off with chord progression, will work out better in the long run for BOTH instruments.

That's how I'd do it (I started with bass before guitar too, somewhere around 15 years ago now), and that made it easier for the theory I had learned for piano to transfer over.  Full disclosure: I'm not much of a piano player, but I really took to the basic theory and that allowed me to learn a lot for guitar, pretty quickly.  I'm a big believer that that approach can actually be more helpful in learning chords and that.