Dave Mustaine's Comments

[westen44]

I don't know the source.  But I've run across some comments supposedly made by Dave Mustaine in which he said playing bass was easy.  That it was only one step above a kazoo.  The context was his observations after watching a Mike Huckabee video.  Maybe someone can verify the source.  I haven't been able to. 

Update:

I found it.

https://www.sputnikmusic.com/news/5378/Dave-Mustaine-Slams-Bass-Players/

[morrow]

"Dave Mustaine is a wonderful man."

... arsehole

[uwe]

Dave Mustaine tends to be full of himself, but his soundbite "bass is one step up from the  kazoo" was obviously ironic and also eight years ago.

Like many tropes, "bass is easy", does have a grain of truth to it. Compared to drums, guitar and keyboards, bass offers two major advantages:

- It is initially a forgiving instrument for a beginner, once you master pushing down one string without too much buzz and hitting it with your other hand, you already have a bass tone that can be used somewhere.

- You're not the focus of attention, people - audience or band members - don't really care what you do and how you do it. No one watches for the mistakes of the bassist and most people don't even notice if the bassist makes a mistake because bass is harder to hear for the unaccustomed ear than guitar, drums or keyboards. Most people can't even discern whether a bass player is any good unless the band stops playing and lets him/her do some fretboard acrobatics. People can then see whether he/she is good.

Name me one band whose career was held back by having a not good enough bass player. I can't think of one. Alec Jon Such was deemed as not good enough by his band mates and fired eventually, but I have no recollection of enraged Bon Jovi fans leaving stadiums disappointed about his abilities (according to Richie Sambora, he hit a lot of bum notes live, but who would hear those other than his band mates?).

So, yes, bass is initially easier (mastering it is another matter) and its role in popular music allows you to stay under the radar without anyone pointing the finger at you and proclaiming "the bass needs to do better". And I don't believe that a single AC/DC, Rolling Stones, Boston, Judas Priest, Eagles, U2, Coldplay or Pink Floyd album was ever bought by the public because of anything the bassists playing there did or did not do. Still, those bands did alright - and so did their bassists.

[westen44]

Bass reminds me of Spanish.  It is easy to learn, but hard to learn well.  If you want to be a beginner in Spanish, that isn't hard.  It isn't even hard to get at the intermediate level.  But if you want to get to the advanced level, then good luck.  You're going to need it.  Much the same could be said for bass.  I never stop marveling at the bassists who have reached the highest levels. 

Guitar is harder than bass.  But I don't know how many guitarists I've heard trying to play bass much the same as they play guitar.  It doesn't work very well.  I guess that's why a lot of those You Tube videos from music stores advertising basses turn out cruddy.  Because the person doing the demonstration is a guitarist.  Much of the time they note this in the video. 

The first time I ran across the Dave Mustaine quotes, for some reason they made it look like he had just said that.  But when I found the Sputnik article, that was obviously not the case. 

[uwe]

In a rock context, it's hard to surprise anyone with your playing. Only every few decades a Jimi Hendrix or EvH comes along and their tricks then become part of the international guitar language.

Bass playing OTOH is generally so under the radar and constrained by conventions, it's relatively easy to step out and do something different. That I like together with the ability to influence the general sound of a band via subtle changes of what you do. It's a sneaky instrument.

[Dave W]

I don't care about what any metal guitarist thinks. Even the ones I like. Oh wait, I don't like any of 'em.

[ilan]

"Dave should know – he's mastered the two most difficult skills in music, playing rhythm guitar and singing in a thrash metal band"

Trombone is easier than French horn, sax is easier than trumpet, upright bass is easier than violin, bass is easier than guitar or piano. IMO rock bass is the easiest intrument to learn. In jazz and classical things get a little more challenging. But I'm not playing for the challenge. I know two classical bass players who started bass at 30-40, and ended up playing in good orchestras. This is impossible with any other instrument. You can't start violin or piano at 20 and expect to get a position in a good orchestra.

[uwe]

I still remember my first night in 1977 with my freshly acquired Johnny Guitar Jazz Bass knock-off playing over a Dynacord amp and a 2x10" (or was it 2x8" ?) no name speaker cab - and I marveled at how within a few minutes already the notes did neither buzz nor sound out of tune (because I pressed too hard) like they always had on classical guitar. I immediately thought: Hey, this is going somewhere!  I also found the thicker (flat-wound) strings on the bass much more comfortable than anything I had ever played on guitar.