In the latest Wikimetal poll, Geddy Lee of Rush was voted the best bassist/vocalist, with 29% of the vote. Lemmy Kilmister came in a close second with 28%, and Tom Araya in third with 13%.
Lee started playing different instruments in school, when he was under ten years old. At 14 he played guitar, but said he switched to bass because none of his friends wanted to be bassists. He never took lessons for either instrument, but says he took piano lessons after he turned 30.
Regarding playing and singing at the same time, Lee says the secret is to rehearse intensely:
“I was always a vocalist first and foremost; I was in the school choir, so I always sang. I always had a soprano voice, so it was natural that I would be the singer, and I needed to play bass. I started imitating people like Jack Bruce, who I admired a lot when I was younger.”
It was a matter of figuring out how to do it. There were many times when I thought it would be impossible and that I would never be able to do it, but for me the solution was to learn the bass parts beforehand, and learn them so well that I didn't need to think about them while singing.
For Geddy Lee, muscle memory is the most important part: “If you rehearse the bass parts a lot, it becomes easier than you imagine. It’s like any other physical activity or sport; the more you do it, the more muscle memory takes over and makes things work out.”
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