Have you experienced this? You tell someone you play bass, and then they say something about you playing guitar.
I get that a lot of people don’t know the difference, but it bugs me! I don’t even like thinking of it as a “bass guitar” because that phrase calls to mind people like Entwistle, Geddy Lee, Flea. I’m just standing here chugging roots and trying not to be noticed.
Anybody have a good solution for this one? I don’t want to be pretentious and go around correcting people in casual conversations, but give the bass the respect it’s due!
A bass IS a kind of a guitar, but if people say you “play guitar” is simply misleading. So I don’t see the problem with correcting them, which leads to awareness and respect for the bass.
If a person doesn’t know the difference between a bass and a guitar, does it really matter what they think? It’s hard to correct a random stranger on this without coming across as pedantic. And more energy than I want to invest.
If I were to invest I would ask what music is in their playlist and try to find common ground in groups they like.
The bass guitar is a member of the guitar family. It’s perfectly correct to refer to a bass guitar as a guitar. Correct, but of course also incomplete without the “bass” modifier. It could refer to a prime, tenor, baritone, electric, acoustic, etc.
I don’t get at all why it would upset someone to be called a guitar player. Guitars are awesome too. A bass is absolutely a subtype of guitar, much like an alto sax is a subtype of saxophone.
