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What it Really Means to be a Professional Bassist and How Relevant Can This Be?
Meet Igor Saavedra –
The word “Professional” is like a rubber band that can be expanded everywhere on its meaning depending on what somebody would like to express, and quite often depending on what’s convenient, which in fact, in my opinion, is the most dangerous and toxic aspect.
When most of the people make use of the word “Professional”, they don’t have a really clear idea of what they are talking about, and they usually “just say it” because it sounds good.
The big problem with this is that if we don’t know what this word really means, so to assign it correctly to the rest of the people, it’s obvious that it will be even harder for us to “Behave ourselves as Professionals”.
Dictionaries are very clear with explaining the term, but despite this fact it seems that it is still misused, so what I’ll try to do on this occasion is to contextualize the real meaning and importance of professionalism itself within the context of bass playing, which I think is the most important aspect to discuss here.
There are three meanings for the word “Professional”, and obviously those can be applied to any activity, not only to bass playing.
The first meaning has to do with relating Professionalism strictly with an Academic Degree, so that would mean that you should not be entitled to call yourself a professional bassist if you did not study “Bass Playing” in a Music School that issued you a validated diploma certified by a formal institution from your country’s government through its regular channel, which is usually the Ministry of Education.
The second meaning has to do with a behavioral aspect and relating the word Professionalism with an attitude, with positive ethical values like Responsibility and Proficiency.
The third meaning has to do with the remunerative aspect, so that means that if you are being paid for playing bass that would imply that you are entitled to call yourself a Professional Bassist.
A very important philosophical question is the following:
Is it important or not to be a Professional Bassist?
My humble answer is that “it’s not”…. and this is because in my opinion “Being a Professional Bassist” doesn’t even mean that you love and enjoy music, and under any circumstance that you are necessarily a “Good Bassist”….
How is that?
Very simple…and I will answer this in the fewest words I can.
You can have a music/bass degree, being generously paid for what you do, and be proficient, meticulous and responsible in your activity, and anyway be a crappy bass player”!!!
So what I’m intending to do here is to demystify this word and bring it down to earth, because it’s not an absolute fact that being ‘professional’ guarantees that you will be any good.
That being said, we have to accept though that working hard to become a Professional Bassist exponentially increases your chances of being good…. so let’s bring it down to the original question again.
What does it take to really be a professional bassist?
In my opinion, being a Professional Bassist means that you are putting music and bass playing in the first place, mentally and emotionally, within your numerous activities so to assign the best of your efforts and your energies to that purpose. When you do this you are somehow guarantying maximum responsibility and proficiency on what you do… and that couldn’t be bad.
Secondly, when you are paid for what you do, this will mean that you are going to have to “take care of business” trying to provide the best service in exchange for the money you are receiving.
The money issue will imply and mean two very important things:
1) The more money you are offered would imply that is very possible that you are doing a good job.
2) The more money you are offered, the better the service you have to provide, so that will become a factor that will press your improving.
So as you can see, money and professionalism are indeed related.
3) Thirdly, having a music/bass degree from a serious music school means that you have studied a lot and also that this school and the teachers that taught you are somehow endorsing your knowledge and abilities, so I don’t see anything wrong with that.
4) Finally and resuming…. those three aspects/meanings of professionalism make a lot of sense to me, and I think that they can coexist perfectly in the context of a musician/bassist.
In my opinion, being able to achieve them can’t be bad, and not complying with any of them can’t be good… and I stress the fact that in any form you are guaranteed that you will be a great or a good bass player, even complying with all of these three aspects of professionalism….
That outcome has also to do with a myriad of intangible aspects, some of them psychological and some of them ethereal, like your musical soul and spirit, your empathy, assertiveness, “talent”, personal equilibrium, experience, wisdom, IQ, EQ, and thousand more aspects.
Eventually the “implacable final average” that will consider all of these aspects (the professionalism being just one of them), will tell you if you have become a good/great bassist or a bassist that is not, considering of course that every single opinion will be always relative, but the sum of them, with the inherent possible configuration of a tendency, will tend to absolutize the outcome.
See you guys on my next article!
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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