What People Think Is Hard On BASS vs What Actually Is 

Which one do you think's the hardest? I'd probably say making a living... hardly anywhere accepts exposure coin 😢

What people think is hard: Everything in this video. What actually is hard: Everything in this video.

I'm never quite sure whether Charles' videos motivate me to keep getting better or make me wanna throw my bass out of the window.

"Playing with an out-of-time drummer". I can say that I've always been blessed to play with great drummers. My favorite was a guy named Kit. When we got in the groove, it was like we were one person playing one instrument... it was amazing. Then there is my other favorite drummer, named Tim... I once knocked over his snare drum with my tuba. I'm not sure he ever forgave me for that. It was a very nice snare drum.

hardest thing for any instrument: Simple line...slow tempo..with a metronome..while recording. WHY

I think what actually is hard is to pick up a bass after you see a real pro play. That requires some strength!

The “Jaco only needed four strings” comment though 😂

I never thought I'd get to hear "Arabesque No. 1" on bass. I'd die to listen to you improvise on it.

I swear everything i know about playing goes flying out the window when i'm recording.

What people think is hard: The Dance of Eternity What is actually hard: always being asked if you have heard of flea and hearing “slappa da bass” jokes and not shooting yourself

I laughed pretty hard at the "Easy bass lines but you're recording" because one of the first songs that I learned all the way through is "Another One Bites the Dust". I use Rocksmith and a screen recorder, and I always mess up while recording it. 100% spot on! I'm not up to the level of the other things that you have mentioned, but I trust that they are accurate because they make total sense.

As a bassist who (unlike Charles) is actually human, I can say literally all of this is hard

That jazz part from 1:10 is absolutely mesmerizing. I'm always amazed whenever I hear such fluid continuous movement like that

0:54 the most beautiful 10 seconds of music I’ve ever heard

Ok it's official...you're just showing off now: Not just your bass playing skills but your video production, comedic timing, EVERYTHING!!🤣🤣 Favorite video so far!! Keep up the great work in EVERYTHING you continue to do!!👏🏼👏🏼

we need a full version of the changing tuning while playing bit because it honestly slaps

01:21 - That's the first fundamental truth for any instrument! And the second one is: your best take would be the one which you pressed play instead record!

Double-stops are pretty tricky. I taught myself the "Pink Panther" back when I pretended to play bass and I did the opening bit with 2-note "chords", sliding them to get the same gliding sound the real song had. It was fun, sounded great, but was definitely a trick to learn. Also, keeping a steady time when the feel of a song changes. Both "The Entertainer" and "Dixie" tripped me up because I'd hit the more energetic bits of the songs and start ramping up the tempo.

1:29 I remember having to play 8ths instead of 16ths while recording a fast tempo bassline I played with ease live almost every weekend just because of red light syndrome. That session still lives rent free in my head.

That moment you hear the metronome when you hit record, you become a beginner at every instrument and just can't do it. Love this its so real!

What people thinks it is hard: getting a great bass tone. What is really hard: have the bass player to get new strings.

the changing tuning in the little riff you had there was probably the most beautiful thing i’ve ever heard

Charles, I've discovered your channel recently, and as a bass player I'm so impressed by your talent and your love for bass. There is a song I'd love to hear you play called Scarified by Paul Gilbert. Some of the guitar parts are heavily influenced by classical music, and only you could do it justice. PLEASE play this song at some point! Either way keep up the great work and keep inspiring people like me to keep pushing their abilities forward.

Let's be real... none of this is hard for Charles haha

1:48 Funny thing. I both play the piano and the bass. I can easily read notation while playing the piano, but for the bass it's straight up hard for me and I do prefer tabs.

This got to be one the most incredible things i've seen in a while. Dude, you freaking ROCK! Outstanding playing!!

People asking questions while you're playing bass was like a jam session You're channel is amazing!

What people think is hard: YO PLAY SEINFELD Actually hard: Having to play Seinfeld again...

The Le Fay brothers should be paying you. I bought one of their instruments because of your content. It’s a brilliant bass by the way, so thanks for the nudge in the right direction. Love the channel. Keep it up!

Your comedic timing. And production always gets better, this is one which fees extra tight and wel edited

Damn, Arabesque n°1 on bass sounds so smooth, great job!

I love "the out of time drummer" 😂😂

Hey man, you always amaze in every technique. Always appreciate the talented work!

Every video you make is interesting, amusing and astonishing. Thanks

this man is an amazing musician...his playing is seamless and beautiful...im a guitarist and i only wish i could play this good!!!! hats off old chap!

01:59 hahaha yep, tapping melody and a bass line at the same time is difficult, but making a living playing bass is just another level xd

I literally said out loud "what is actually hard, moonlight sonata 3rd movement" when you were playing the 1st. So happy to be validated

Love the content you produce dude. Also your skill is pretty inspiring!

Man, I'm so glad even pros are nervous when recording! xD

I could seriously listen to you play your classical arrangements all day

Hi Charles! I'd love to hear a full version of Arabesque - one of my favourites and I bet you'd knock the full version out of the park on the bass. Please! :D

pfioufffffff Taping melody and bassline at the same time sounds so awesome i had trouble watching the rest of the video as i was comming back to it every 12 secs

Superb video, great editing, humor and a fine ending. Nice.

Just when I think I can't be any more amazed by you you amaze me. Changing tuning while you're playing seriously? Wow

Wow! You are incredibly good! You’re better than a huge percentage of the most famous bassists out there. Keep going!

EPIC VIDEO! Awesome chops and humor!

I'm so glad you're on RU-vid man. Love all of your videos :)

The changing tuning ones is so pretty!!! I'd love to hear a full version of that for real!

On piano (as a medium skill player) I find that doing triplets on one hand and an entirely different rythm on the other is fairly hard. I can't imagine it's any easier when tapping on bass.

Great bass demonstration with comedic brilliance!

3:08 reminded me of the anecdote where James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich first heard Cliff Burton play. Apparently he was playing (an early version of) what would later become "Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)" and they were counting the strings to confirm he was playing bass and not guitar. Imagine if he was on a 6 string bass! How different could metal history would be if they thought that was a guitar and moved on to someone else!

I will genuinely watch any number of videos where you improvise over Giant Steps.

This is a really excellent idea for videos! And I enjoy all your styles of playing.

This was hilarious, but also on point. Nice playing. You've been putting in the time and effort and it shows. Keep doing it right.

Dude, the Beethoven segment was perfect. I was like "Ha, wouldn't it be great if the 3rd Movement would be the actually hard one..." And, there it was. 🤘😊

we're going to need that baked bass strings recipe btw :D

Fantastic Charles!

Your change tuning is awesome always love those videos.

1:21 your slap style is really inspiring, I hope we will get a tutorial video one day to learn how to slap this amazing riff !

In all seriousness.. you are the most talented bassist I've ever seen. Like the Yngwie Malmsteen of bass guitar

as an amateur hobbyist bassist and drummer who recently bombed an easy bass line in my first recording session after going straight from recording on my phone to the studio, I really felt an incredible amount of pain relating to several of these

Your channel is the only one where the ad is as good as the content.

This is now my favorite video from you of all time! I’m retired now grudgingly, but I went through the same positives and negatives you showed here but those ran between 1977 through 2013. Oh, and minus anything by Victor Wooten. You left one thing out though about hard or not playing. You left out playing while slow dancing with a woman from the audience. You have her fit between you and the bass (facing or away), and play the bass line of the song the band is playing, or solo like you do. That was always met with positive applause and a few eye rolls. I made certain the girl was single and not with anyone there. LOL. I’m certain you COULD do that with your fiancé if you and her chose, but I’m just pointing out one you left out of this list. I owned a reasonably successful recording studio and would cringe when the drummer had no clue about keeping time. I learned never to use click tracks because so few would ever be able to play with them. Plus, no computers in my days. You had big balls to physically splice multitrack tape. My own recordings I’d try it. Getting paid to record…nope! NO WAY! LOL. PS….. I love your LeFay basses with four drop tuners. You make THE BEST use of those I’ve ever seen or heard! You should get a special award just for doing that bit of incredible hand eye, & timing coordination!! I looked them up years ago when I first saw you play. I’ve still have an original 1978 Rickenbacker 4001 in black with white. I loved that bass from McCartney to Squire to Lee. I even used to use the damper no one else knew what it was or what it was for. LOL. Many moons later I fell in love with the Tobias Killer B basses in all three available 4-5-6 string versions with different body woods. In my time only Jaco and Stanley Clarke were known as incredible jazz bassists. But I had the three I’ve mentioned plus players like Billy Sheehan back when he was still in his own band in Buffalo, NY, and others in the rock style. Sorry for the ramble, but I’m watching the video again as a type this. Bravo Charles!! I hope the RU-vid viewers appreciate all you do with editing for the 6-string part and the truly high quality recordings you make. Will you ever do another collab with the Higher Love guy??? And YES, making money playing music has always been very tough. I had to get my name out by word of mouth and thousands of auditions over my time. I also found out in the video world, attractive, skilled women have a much higher success rate than most men. Sexism in reverse. I’ve never liked double standards for anything, but I think that just because attractive females can play half as good and get ten times the views stinks. My eta on this point was a ton better. Unless photos were on the album cover, or you saw them in concert…all you needed to do was listen and let the music fill you and let your ‘gut’ decide what you liked or didn’t. But then along came MTV and ruined everything for live music in the USA followed by the idiotic drinking change from 18 to 21. Gotta stop rambling. Sorry. But music has always been my passion and in my life since age 4 and I’m nearing age 61! Ugh!!

Charles eats bass strings for breakfast! But I'm disappointed 😞 they weren't raw. Also, as someone that's a math afficionado, I loved the Pi/8 time signature. That would make anyone's head explode!

The Slap part at 1:22 is so good that i could hear a 10 hour version of it and still would smash the replay button

Love you Charles!

0:59 oh man I love this, I hope you once record a track full with these nice sounds

This is obviously great ability from very young bass guitar players. As an old guy who can still remember the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show (live), I can attest to the great accomplishments in the technical way young people now play. When I was in a garage band back in 1965, all we had were a few cheap electric guitars and some "Magnatone" amplifiers. The amps even had "reverb" and "vibrato" built into them. Yeah, we were on the cutting edge of technology back in 1965. We were as good as you guys are, "relatively speaking". In reality we sucked. But after watching all of this "virtuosity" I'm still waiting to hear the genius of music created by the likes of Carol King, the Beach Boys and of course the Beatles. All I'm hearing is technically fantastic guitar playing. Much better than we ever could have dreamt possible back in the day. But as the old saying goes, "Where's the beef?"

Monsieur, you are AWESOME!

Great video Charles. Very funny, thought provoking and great playing as ever

Just curious and I know you probably have used many different brands over your learning processes, but what kind of strings do you use? Do you have a personal preference for specific tasks? When I played semi-pro, I used Roto Sounds on a Rick 4001 stereo through 2 Peavy Mk4's with 2 of the18-10 cabs one on each side of the drummer. I loved the Roto Sounds because I could take them off and boil them in water with a little salt and extend the life of the strings well beyond their normal life. Although The Rotos were not the easiest strings to play on, they had an incredibly crisp and clean sound with a lot of punch. Being stainless steel they had a great life on the road. I think you are probably one of the best bassist I have ever seen anywhere and I truly believe that you are as good as anyone out there and that includes Wooten, Pastorius, Sheehan, Flea and others. Cmon man talk some tech from your point of view.

A full song with this please 0:53 .... it was beautiful

Entertaining!.. Thank you ❤

Ahhhhhhhh I love how he gets so into it and smiles at you.

#3 Alternate tunings and changing tuning while playing . I spoke to Michael Manring and he did mention you took a few lessons from him . I guess you paid attention !

This was such a wonderful compilation of bass flexes. You’re the man, man!

thumbs up for being still creative after all this time!

That piece you were playing in nonstandard tuning was lovely!

Great video and great add; thought of Jay Foreman and his enjoyable plugs

Great playing man

You are now officially my favorite bass player. And I know (of) a lot of fabulous players!

The dramatic background song becoming the song you play in the next part was genius

"Easy bass lines but you're recording" = can relate somehow

great content! Subscribed

I’m glad you seasoned your strings before baking them; too many people forget to do that.

Thank you, this was wonderful! You are spectacular!

Now THAT is a good way to integrate a sponsorship. Creative, funny to watch, and it doesn't screw up the flow of the video. Well done!

Great man !

Very entertaining. Deserve more subs but looking forward to more videos. Keep it up!

I was stoked to see you playing Highland Dream again, such a gorgeous piece

These are some hilarious thoughts I'm glad you made this one

The bit about recording is so true!

THIS IS FREAKING HILARIOUS!!!! Oh, and by the way, dude.....you rock!!!!!

more!!!! love your technics

OMG The recording had me in stitches..

your excellent technique and your sensible approach towards the music played makes it always a pleaure to listen to you. Not to forget your sense of humour !!

you have always inspired me to play more bass.

Damn good video Charles!

Man, that one at 2:06 is relatable to the extreme. You're the man, Charles!

I can't believe you played arabesque... simply amazing