What is your significant other's attitude towards your bass playing?...

[Claymore]

An informal poll to see how much support, or lack of, most of us are getting at home. Just to clarify the poll boundaries...

Supportive could be anything from "Play me something, honey" to expressing a sincere interest in basses you like or the music you're listening to or just sharing your enthusiasm for bass in general.

Indifferent would be like "That's nice, dear" (said with glazed expression while surfing the internet) and just a general whatever, I don't care sort of attitude.

Hostile could be something as subtle as rolling their eyes when you say you're going to practice all the way to throwing dishes at you and everything in between.

 

[JRA]

my wife cares about my music because i care about it. she goes to some of the 'big shows' but has stopped attending the little stuff...long ago. music is my thing, not hers. she'd be supportive if i needed support. she accepts that i'm a musician even though she deserves a dentist...or an amazon delivery driver. she thinks i'm talented but she would like it more if i won the lottery.

i voted "indifferent."

 

[cheapbasslovin]

She used to be hostile, but we've both grown a lot along our little journey together and now she alternates between supportive and irritated. I chose indifferent.

 

[CallMeAl]

She may not understand my revolving door of basses, amps and strings; but she definitely supports music as a hobby. She’s a musician too- trumpet and a little piano. She took a shine to the bass herself, and even encouraged our purchase of a double bass (long gone, sold for a move) and an acoustic bass (still got that one.)

 

[dalkowski]

Missus ranges from a degree or two north of indifferent to supportive (esp. when I was rehearsing and gigging on the reg). High point was the night after a gig some years back when she purred to me, "I brought home the bass player." Dim the lights, you can guess the rest.

To her great credit, she does respect and appreciate its importance in my life.

 

[Oddly]

Voted indifferent, but in reality uncomprehending would be more accurate.
She's never appreciated music at all, whether it's me playing it, or anyone else.
I reckon she tolerates my interest, as it's a relatively harmless and cheap one.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

Left a woman it part because she was borderline hostile towards my music. I don’t need that negativity in my life.

 

[ahadl2500]

Dated a girl for a year and a half who asked if I would give up making music for her. She had no interest in me actually quitting. She just wanted to be more important to me than music... she was not. ... dumped her.

Been with my wife for 15 years. She does everything she can to make sure I keep making music. She also makes something for me to put in every guitar case when I get a new one. I have always kept meaningful small items that were given to me in my cases (handmade bracelets, small fabric crafts, paper cranes). She understands me.

 

[joelns]

Super supportive. She's encouraging me to drop a bundle on a new amp and a couple of cabs. By bundle, enough to cover something like a little more than 2 mortgage payments.

On top of that, she bought me a MXR Chorus pedal for an early Christmas gift.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

 

[Killing Floor]

Supportive for sure. When we met in 1986 booking for some clubs. Never booked anything for me though!
But now she's just completed a PhD so we're pretty supportive all around.
I'd like to be able to be louder (a lot louder) but she's usually on meetings so I wait until she's off camera before I practice plugged in. Or I suffer through headphones, just not as fun. But totally cool if I want a new bass or gear or pedal, whatever. I let her in on the process of a Mod Shop (in production), she helped pick the color. That's pretty supportive. She walked by the other day when I was noodling on fretless and said "wow, you've got some new pedals, what's the red one?" We both have pretty broad musical tastes. Maybe if shows happen again I know she'd be there. She put up with many years of dating and being married to a bass player on the road or playing 4-5 nights a week and never killed me or even lit me on fire. So yeah, keeper.

She does ask me if I'm "gonna wear that" which is how I learned not to wear dumb sneakers or Jaco hats on stage. I can't ask her if she's gonna wear that.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

"Why don't you play any songs?"

I play bits & pieces and try out improv runs all the time (with varying success). If I played bassline to a song from start to finish she would still say this. I tried to explain parts without even mentioning frequencies that each instrument lives in.

 

[bikeplate]

I was full time playing when we met 10 years back. She gets it.

 

[Bent77]

Mine told me to buy an SVT

 

[bass12]

My partner loves that I’m a bass player. She’ll listen to me practising the head to “Confirmation” (or whatever song I’m working on) over and over and later I’ll catch her singing it note-for-note. She also loves visiting music stores/luthiers with me and will be the first one to say, “You should get it!” when I find a bass I like. I feel blessed!

 

[gln1955]

My wife is supportive in that she knows how much making music means to me. She's never criticized how much time or money I spend. She comes to gigs, but not all, even though she doesn't really like the music I play.

 

[Old_Noob]

"Its better than you going to the bar every night."

 

[Element Zero]

Well my wife is a player too so she gets it. Although she hasn’t played much in the past 5 months since her belly has been growing with another baby boy.

Hopefully next year if COVID calms down and live music starts happening in our neck of the woods (major metropolitan area), both our bands can get back to playin loud again.

 

[fdeck]

"Its better than you going to the bar every night."

I thought playing music was the same as going to the bar every night.

 

[fourstringdrums]

My ex wife resented me for money spent and started to look at me playing music as just dollar signs and not because it made me happy. My gf now isn't a musician but she's supportive. Whenever I buy something she just says "I just don't want you to be stressed about the money later" lol