What are your thoughts on the phenomenon of headless bass players on youTube?
I’ve been checking out bass covers over the last few months and have realized that this is really a thing.
Is there a similar phenomenon of headless guitarists? Headless flautists etc.?
Or is this a bass player thing?
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That was puzzling. 
I initially thought you meant players of headless bass guitars (which is a thing).
I suppose you mean videos where you can’t see the player from the neck up?
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Yeah, exactly! 
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People don’t like their bass face.
Seriously, though – if you want to maximise the bits that count when playing, you want to show what the left and right hand is doing. Eyebrow movement is optional, and does not contribute to what it’s gonna sound like. I think that may have to do with it.
Also, you wouldn’t want to look at my head if you could help it. Not all of us are called Tai Wilkenfeld.
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If only they would come up with headless marriages, I wouldn’t have three divorces under my belt.
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That’s… pretty cryptic. 
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(This is the Lounge, so I’m allowed to run with it and have some fun, right?)
Here is a headless guitarist playing a headless guitar (quite eloquently I might add):
I don’t know about headless flautists, but I guess we all know the one-legged flautist:
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@peterhuppertz the only one legged flautist I can think of is Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, who could also sing and play the flute at the same time.
Am I correct?
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Yes, you are. Of course.
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did you wake up and debate chewing your arm off? lol
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I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube bass cover videos recently, while I made my mind up if bass was for me, and they all seem to be headless, and sometimes not even show the full bass like this clip, but at the end of the day it’s the playing I want to see.
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I love that song (and Dominion/Mother Russia) so much. I posted the videos to the “good music friday” thread a while back.
That guy is playing it slightly wrong though, I think. A lot of tabs get it a bit off. It’s not straight eight note chugging, there’s a couple held notes in there when it goes up to the D string.
Still a good cover nevertheless.
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I’m too new to bass to notice if he is playing it wrong @howard, but I think you’re right as some of the YouTube comments also point out it’s not quite an accurate version.
The guy in his YouTube bio says that he doesn’t try to get an exact copy, and it’s his interpretation, and I think that’s what’s so fun about playing something like the bass - taking it and having fun.
I really want to be good enough to hear something and get close enough that people know what I’m playing!
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No problem at all with doing your own interpretation in covers! I actually like playing it a bit differently than the actual song myself 
In fact covers that are exactly the same as the original bore me.
Perhaps my favorite cover of all time:
versus the original:
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Is there a thread on the forum already for covers that sound better than the original @howard ? If not maybe we should add one!
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Hah! Good question. That’s been a thread on every music forum I have ever been on, I think
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Incidentally I know no one asked but this is how I like to play it
A bit different than the original but I like accenting back down to A for a couple notes in there.
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The bass you describe would be absolutely perfect for playing the great Warren Zevon song ROLAND THE HEADLESS THOMPSON GUNNER! Good luck, Owen.
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Oh my!
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