If you were to examine the Billboard charts these days, you’ll notice there is a lot of electronic music there. Music that features no real bass guitar at all, but rather something which was programmed on a computer.
You may also have noticed some major acts (and even minor ones) that don’t feature an actual bass player at all, where some guy on the keyboard is on the side playing all the bass parts.
This begs the question…
Should you as a bass player be worried about being replaced by a keyboard?
The first time I heard a good sampler I thought, there goes the gig. I think that was 1979.
Nothing but another good bass player could replace a good bass player.I like keys and synths in my music but when it comes to bass,a warm body is ideal
There’s an old joke that goes “What’s the difference between a drummer and a drum machine? You only have to punch the drum machine once to get the correct beat”. Now, that being said, drum machines have not replaced drummers and keyboards will never replace bass players!
If you want to play bass in Rihanna’s cd, you have a problem. That’s it. Unfortunately (well, that’s just a point of view) this is almost the only kind of music sponsored by majors now, and for this reason you can perceive that the bass is replaceable. But normal bands keep on being in need of a good bass players.
I think live musicians should be worried about being replaced by DJ’s or iPods on shuffle. Venues are paying so poorly for live music that a lot of bands can’t afford the gas and parking fee to go to a gig.
Bassists should learn to play keyboard bass. These days, that’s part of being a well-rounded player.
The low keys have their place, but you cannot replace the feel and the push that a good bass player can provide…..even Bernie Worrel
l would admit to that
It helps if you can sing. Many small groups are singers who play and they fill in the rest of the instruments with tracks. Of couse, the sound of a real bass will never be duplicated with prerecorded tracks if you want to deviate from the arrangement or play with any dynamics.
For some kinds of music bass players aren’t required, but I don’t think they’ll ever be ~replaced~. The 80s was FULL of synth-pop that didn’t use a bass player, and yet we’re still here. I wouldn’t worry about it. I have to agree that a well around bassist will know their way around a synth. There’s some music that a synth will totally overpower a stringed bass, yet other types of music require groove and feel that is difficult to produce with keyboards. So as was said a well rounded bassist will know their way around both methods of playing a bass line (synth and stringed bass).
We had this discussion back in the 70’s & 80’s, when synths could hit those low notes… Then we added a Low B… and a low F#… and a low C#… They said that about guitars and drums and Real Bands. There will always be a need for bass players, even if that need is manufactured by bass players.
Whether you play it on bass guitar, upright, synth, tuba, or ice cream truck…the groove still has to be there. How we go about achieving the right sound for the right song is up to the song, and our musical facility.
I am an avid, 5-string playin’ bass player who is very passionate about my role in the musical arena. My opinion in this matter of being replaced by a keyboard player is this: there should be a law of sorts banning keyboards from being able to produce ANY NOTE in the 30 – 520 Hz range, and let us have our gigs back! Keyboards cannot reproduce the spirit of our expertise. They have their own space over the rest of the musical spectrum. Right?
can remember when a lot of local work disappeared from the pub circuit, bands replaced with a guy with a keyboard or karaoke nights but we are still here, nothing matches the sound of real musos making music and bass guitar and keyboard are entirely different dynamics.