Where the bassists at?

I don’t know about you, but it seems everywhere I look there’s a shortage of bass players. Perhaps it’s just my uni. I reckon there are about five bassists at ACM. All of them are involved in ten thousand projects; you can’t get a session in.

When a child or teen wants to learn an instrument, it’s all ‘guitar! Piano! Drums!’ They want to be the next Hendrix, or Aretha Franklin, or Buddy Rich. Bass isn’t ‘attractive.’ It doesn’t have that ‘glamour’. Bassists stand, tapping a few notes. Of course you and I as musicians know that they hold the rhythm section. Without bass a song would be dead, though Prince got by just fine. Plus bassists are great with their, ahem, fingers.

When forming a band over the past year, finding a drummer was no problem. A bassist? Impossible. A drummer may be in two or three bands. A bassist is in about eight, give or take a few. If you’re a bass player you’re limited edition. Everybody wants to get a piece of you and take you out the box and play with you. You can pick who gets you and who doesn’t. Lucky fucker.

If you want to get by in this industry, learn bass. Learn it well. Bonus points if you have a vagina; female bassists are even rarer.