Any other lady bassists out there? ...

sabbath_of_bass · Post by **sabbath_of_bass** » Mon May 01, 2006 12:28 pm

Is that why shes an Ex girlfriend? She could out play you? Cause I dont know. That would probly drive me nuts. I mean... a girl who knows her music and can play is great. But being able to blow me away wouldnt be such a turn on.

blueflamerick · Post by **blueflamerick** » Mon May 01, 2006 12:51 pm

Welcome to the forum, Kaia. Check out Kira Roessler, former bassist of Black Flag.

Along with Cliff Burton, seeing her play a Rick made me want to get one.

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Mon May 01, 2006 1:56 pm

Yeah, she (my ex-girlfriend that is) can easily outplay me, but I don't have and never had a problem with that. She excels at playing both fretted and fretless bass guitar, but being no musician - and no show-off either haha - very few people know about her playing skills. Too bad.

atomic_punk · Post by **atomic_punk** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:02 pm

If my girlfriend could play better than me, I would applaud and support her. And what better motivation to practice?

That would be great.

woodsgirl · Post by **woodsgirl** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:05 pm

Hey, Cool to see and or hear about some more lady bass players! THanks, guys! Sergio, why doesn't your ex want to play in a band? What does she do, play at home? Of course, we all have to do that at times!!!

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Mon May 01, 2006 5:38 pm

Welcome Kaia! You picked a great first bass. Hey, a question. Is your name pronounced K eye a? I have a daughter named Kaija pronounced that way. Latvian name. Just curious, you don't see many with that name.

woodsgirl · Post by **woodsgirl** » Mon May 01, 2006 5:54 pm

I am glad you approve of my bass! I just love my 320 ao much I figured I couldn't go wrong. After hearing ebay horror stories, I guess I could have gone wrong! My name is like kayak without the k! Or like Kaya ala Bob Marley..... I used to spell it Kaija also, during a teenage phase!

woodsgirl · Post by **woodsgirl** » Mon May 01, 2006 5:57 pm

I was named after a lady my grandma knew in Madison way back in the day. A few years ago, some ladies were out visiting Washington and they said, " hey we know a lady named Kaia Johnson from Madison!" SO I asked them how old she might be? "Oh, probably dead!" It was HER! No joke, they were friends of hers......

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Mon May 01, 2006 6:27 pm

Love the Madison connection story. Very small world! My daughter's name is the same pronunciation also, you described it better. My wife had a friend with the name and I thought it sounded beautiful. In Latvian it means seagull. There is an Irish version also, Kia.

Anyway, welcome aboard!

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Tue May 02, 2006 12:38 am

Welcome, Kaia! I'm not a bass player, in fact, but i tried to be... didn't work, in fact, and then guys took the bass away from me saying "that's for men!"

Heey, Ted... very nice of you...

yes, the name Sheena is usually feminine, and i'm not the exception!

lars · Post by **lars** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:20 am

Welcome Kaia!

rick_ovic · Post by **rick_ovic** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:46 am

Hi Kaia!

I'm from Melbourne, Australia (along with Aitch, Greg Rahilly and Mark Bailey who all frequent this forum).

As far as I'm concerned, the future of the planet is in safe hands if there's a growing number of the fairer sex picking up Rickenbacker guitars and basses!

Good luck to you!

woodsgirl · Post by **woodsgirl** » Tue May 02, 2006 3:35 am

Darren, I was in Australia a few years ago and I loved it! A very friendly country!

Sheena, I think the guys still think the bass is for guys but, heck, there are not enough to go around, so they have to swallow their pride! Good for me! I have encountered some attitude over the years, even when I just played girlie instruments. I remember well getting some odd looks re playing bar chords on guitar! Girls didn't do that! Heck, I never even had a capo! I am usually the only woman player, but I am ok with that. It does present some problems, at times, but that is one of the reasons that is another story, and the bass is working out for me; I like playing it, and I get to play every song. When playing flute, congas, singing, and other stuff, I only got to play in certain situations. I LOVE playing bass!

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Tue May 02, 2006 4:13 am

Well, you've encouraged me, Kaia (the other thing that always keeps encouraging me is Mike Dirnt's comment - cannot remember it word-by-word, something like "i was a lousy lead guitarist and a good rhythm guitarist, so i decided to take the bass") - i'll try as soon as i manage to collect enough to buy a bass

To be true, bass is my favorite instrument to listen to, and some of my closest friends (male, in fact) play bass, and i always dreamt that one day i may... Frankly speaking, it wasn't my idea to switch on bass way back then - my male mates from the band (now long "dead", unfortunately

) thought that it'd look funny ("hey, we see the bass, but where's Sheena?!"), but then, after some time, it was decided somebody else will take the job - it was too hard for me to play, with my small hands...
Oh yeah... and i just love bar chords... since i finally got my hands on a good guitar, in fact

Capo? What's that?

woodsgirl · Post by **woodsgirl** » Tue May 02, 2006 6:06 am

Ha! SHeena! I love that quasi-quote! ANy real bassists---do not read any further:
I cannot play lead except for some Chuck Berry style stuff,(of course, I havent really tried) I am an ok rhythm player-done it a lot with a heavy bass worked in, but I find that bass is way easier than trying to play lead, however, I think playing bass is making me play melody lines and thus will improve my guitar playing down the road. I dont even know where notes are, just chords, but if I think about it, I can figure that out! I just never played anything but chords!

I read somewhere that women are the ideal bass player because keeping a band together, kindof being in the background is what women are good at. THat could be a sexist remark but I think it is an essential part of being in a band---lose the ego! It is funny being a background musician, meaning that time goes by and no one even turns around to see if I am there...........like a drum machine...I take that as a positive---prolly not too many wrong note!
Glad you are plunking with me!