Guitar or low? What to learn with your style

It's up to you to have a role in music. If you want chords to sing, melodies, and the possibility to play alone in your room, choose the guitar. If what moves you is groove, feel the rhythm in your body and be the basis on which you can get to the whole band, choose the bass.

At first, the low looks easier, because you play a note at once and guitar demand chords from the first few weeks. But none of them are an "minor" instrument: later, both have the same depth.

To sum up

The guitar takes care of harmony and melody, and the bass binds the rhythm of the drums with harmony.
The bass has four tunes as serious as the guitar's four, an octave lower.
The first low lines come out quickly and the bassist's great challenge is to play perfectly in time.
The guitar is very good for playing alone and the low shines as it sounds with others or with clues.
A bassist and move from guitar to bass or upside down are often missing from gangs.

Guitar vs. low: quick comparison

The difference between guitar and electrical bass for those who start
Aspecto	Guitar	Electric bass
Rol in music	Harmony and melody: chords, arpegios, Riffs and alone.	Bridge between rhythm and harmony: fundamental notes and groove next to the battery.
Rings and tuning	Six: Me, La, Ree, Sol, Si, Mi.	Four: Mi, La, Ree, Sol, an octave under the guitar.
First few weeks	Acordes and chord changes, and the yolks hurt a little.	A note line and thick and long ranges at the mast.
The challenges that come after	Fingers, single, pat or finger technique, more rich harmony.	Absolute rhythmic accuracy, sound matching, walking bass, slap.
Touch alone at home	That's quite satisfying: you're with us singing.	It sounds incomplete without others. It's performed with clues or metronomics.
In gangs	There are usually several guitarist people looking for a band.	A bassist's most often necessary.
Equipo	Acustics: nothing extra. Electrical: amplifier and cable.	It always needs low and cable amplifier, or hearing aids with suitable equipment.
Age of Orientation Initiation	From 6 to 7 with small nylon guitar.	Around 9 or 10 years old with a short-scale low something earlier.

What's everyone do with a band

He thinks about a song as a house. The drums are the floor, the bass are the columns and the guitar, the walls and the windows. If you remove the guitar, the song loses color and if you remove the bass, everything sounds floating, even if a lot of people can't explain why.

In the salsa, the bass plays the Tucbao, that anticipates the chord and pushes the dancers. At the vallenato and the modern cumbia, the bass is half of the dance. At rock and funk, low and drummer form a single rhythmic machine. Instead, the guitar can scrape chords at a bolero, make raffs at rock or carry the single of a balada.

The difficulty at first, with no myth

On guitar

The first wall are chord changes: put three or four fingers at once, at time, without them ringing out. The second, a few months later, is the cebilla. Instead, with four chords you have been with many songs.

At the bottom

To play a note at once makes the first lines come out quickly. What costs is physical and rhythmic: the mast is long, the ropes are thick and the left hand has to open without tension. And time doesn't forgive: if the bassist goes ahead or delays, the whole band will be staggered. methonomic From day one, it's part of the technique.

What does your musical personality say?

Answer these questions honestly while listening to your favorite music:

Do you sing the melody or move your head with the line down?
Can you imagine at the front of the stage or back, holding everything with the drummer?
Do you get excited about a guitar solo or a groove that doesn't leave you still?
Do you enjoy playing for only hours or do you prefer the feeling of playing as a group?

If your answers are leaning about the melody, leading and playing alone, the guitar goes with you. If you recognize yourself in groove and teamwork, you're probably bassist and you still don't know. If you want to know more about that role, read why learn under electrical.

Choose guitar if... / choose under if...

Choose the guitar if...

Do you wanna sing and come with me?
You're attracted to the solos and the Riffs and chords.
You're gonna practice about everything by yourself at your place.
It's for a 6 to 8 year old child that doesn't quite reach a low mast.

Choose the bass if...

The first thing you listen to in a song is the bottom line.
You love salsa, funk, reggae, vallenate or modern cumbia.
Do you want to get into a high school band soon or with friends?
That's more to hold than to shine.

See the [acoustic guitar classes] approach](/clases/guitarra-acustica)[Electrical guitar]](/clases/guitarra-electrica) and electrical lowIf you have already chosen guitar, the next step is to decide whether to start with acoustic or electrical.

To move from one to another later

Since the four strings of the bass are tuned as the four serious guitar, what you know about the mast serves you in both ways.

From guitar to bass: He learns to press with his index and half-finger alternates, to turn off his bad and to think first about his rhythm and then about his grades. The typical mistake of his guitarist who plays low is to fill up his whole note.
From bass to guitar: you will master the rhythm and get to know the fundamentals of each chord and have to put complete chords and get used to more thin chords.

Many musicians play both. To know under makes better guitarist, because they understand where harmony comes from, and to know guitar makes better bassist, because they know what chords they are holding.

Frequently asked questions

Is low easier than guitar?

At first, it usually looks as if it's a note at once. The difficulties have been balanced with time: the low demand a high rhythmic accuracy and the guitar, more harmonic co-ordination.

Can you learn under without knowing guitar?

The bass's a complete instrument and can start from scratch.

How many strings should a bass have to start with?

Four. The low five or six strings extend the record but have the widest mast and complicate the first few months without contributing much to those who start.

Can I practice low without an amplifier?

A while they do, but they don't listen well and they don't learn how to control sound. The best thing is a small low amplifier or a device that allows them to use hearing aids.