I am new to playing the Bass. About 6 months of going through a Hal Leonard book. I have lessons with an instructor coming up in August.
My question deals with playing with other people with my very limited experience. I have some friends that play together and they are lacking a bass player and they want me to sit in with them.
Of course my knowledge is nowhere where it should be and my fingers are surely too slow at this point.
I have never played with anyone before and don’t know but a few songs to play. And they aren’t that hard to play (Imagine, Lady Madonna, and Whiter Shade of Pale)
If I was to sit in with them and play just “a simple little bass line” as they told me, how does one do this?
I have heard people say to just play to the beat of the kick drum. Is it really that simple? Pluck a note when the drummer hits the kick?
I would really like to play with my friends, but just don’t know what to do when I get there. Once I start lessons with an instructor things should fall in line, but until then……?

Any suggestions for a new player? Thanks!

If you don't know the song's bass line and not far enough along to come you with your own lines quickly then playing roots to the bass drum pattern will work and make the others happy. I would say throw on the radio of just toss any CD on and play along with it. Don't stop force yourself to figure out the roots of the song and challenge is to have figured out the song before it's over. There is a lot of skills to be learned doing that and should be done everyday for a few minutes.

But playing with others is a great education sounds like they know you ability so go sit in groove with the drummer and everyone will have a good time.

I'm pretty new to this myself but I find these things work/worked for me...

Throw a drum track on your computer and start trying to play along to it, try using the notes from the bassics lessons at http://www.studybass.com/ you don't even have to change chords just stay keep one root note until you are ready to work with a progression. Just the root will do but you can ad the 5ths, 6th, 7ths and octives for more substance (or a major/minor third depending on what the guitarist is doing).

Try to feel the rhythms of the drums, and play something that accents the same points, you'll know when you get it, suddenly it will sound like you are adding the middle ground to the background of a painting without ruining the picture, and your foot will want to tap. If you can do that your halfway there...also if you have time listen to some of what your friends/your kinda music is and try to absorb the rhythms, and play along even if you are getting the notes wrong.

When you go to add a guitar it will get more complicated... but if your friend is a lead guitar style player you can play a looping line to the drums and he can just solo over top of it to his hearts content, and you will all have lots of fun...If he is more into rhythm guitar I suggest you parrot him and just play the roots of his chords until you are more comfortable and can start adding notes/variations.

You will also find that some styles with allow you to do a lot in terms of shaping the rhythms and sound and others will not...For example if you drummer is into punk you have little choice but to play 8th notes 90% of the time, and you will understand why when you try to play something funky on top of it and it sounds like you are hacking the song to pieces. Also make sure you take you take the opportunity to lead a jam yourself in addition to letting your friends lead, this way you can play anything you think sounds good and your friends will fall in line to complement you.

If you don't know the song's bass line and not far enough along to come you with your own lines quickly then playing roots to the bass drum pattern will work and make the others happy. I would say throw on the radio of just toss any CD on and play along with it. Don't stop force yourself to figure out the roots of the song and challenge is to have figured out the song before it's over. There is a lot of skills to be learned doing that and should be done everyday for a few minutes.

But playing with others is a great education sounds like they know you ability so go sit in groove with the drummer and everyone will have a good time.

Very good advice.

Plus just ask the guitar player what chords he is playing. This will give you the root note to play. If he says G major, then play a G. If he says G minor, then play a G. If he says G suspended, then play a G. You'll have to figure out what rhythm to play based on the drummer. Listen to the high hat and ride cymbal to hear whether 16th notes or 8th notes or even quarter notes are appropriate. You don't necessarily want to play a 16th note feel when the rest of the band is playing quarter notes. The bass drum and snare drum will tell you which beats should be hit (of course this is super simplified and you instructor will help you out much more...but this will get you started) If it's cover tunes, listen to the song and play along with it before you get there. This will tell you what rhythm you should play.

I am new to playing the Bass. About 6 months of going through a Hal Leonard book. I have lessons with an instructor coming up in August.
My question deals with playing with other people with my very limited experience. I have some friends that play together and they are lacking a bass player and they want me to sit in with them.
Of course my knowledge is nowhere where it should be and my fingers are surely too slow at this point.
I have never played with anyone before and don’t know but a few songs to play. And they aren’t that hard to play (Imagine, Lady Madonna, and Whiter Shade of Pale)
If I was to sit in with them and play just “a simple little bass line” as they told me, how does one do this?
I have heard people say to just play to the beat of the kick drum. Is it really that simple? Pluck a note when the drummer hits the kick?
I would really like to play with my friends, but just don’t know what to do when I get there. Once I start lessons with an instructor things should fall in line, but until then……?

Any suggestions for a new player? Thanks!

I would suggest listening to these songs and training your ear to listen for the bass. Imagine and Whiter Shade of Pale are the easier of the three, Lady Madonna being the hardest. But you can play along to all of them with a bass part which is simpler than the record.

Ask your teacher to help you with these three songs so that you can really feel confident playing along with the recordings. That way, you'll give yourself the best chance at enjoying getting together with your friends when you're musically ready. I don't know about you, but playing along with people that are way beyond your level may be an exercize in frustration. Or maybe not.

I think I spent six months playing along to records before I ever played with anyone.

Regarding the kick drum: sometimes the drummer has an inconsistent kick drum pattern, which may or may not be intentional. Also the kick drum pattern may be right for the drum part, but not necessarily to be duplicated verbatum by the bass player. Occasionally both of these things synch up. It is good to learn to play with the kick and act "as one" and also sometimes it is good to not do so. It depends on the music- and sometimes both approaches are found inside one song. And sometimes they aren't.

Good luck with it.

Yeah, just ask the guitarist to yell out the chords as they change and then (a) locate and (b) play that note. It will be hard at first (like almost everything wothwhile) and then it will start to get easier. I guarantee you will have one ear-to-ear grin by the time you guys are done playing. Really. Now just go do it!

Yeah, just ask the guitarist to yell out the chords as they change and then (a) locate and (b) play that note. It will be hard at first (like almost everything wothwhile) and then it will start to get easier. I guarantee you will have one ear-to-ear grin by the time you guys are done playing. Really. Now just go do it!

Here's the problem with doing that: when yelling out chords (above the music) E sounds just like you're saying B, C, G or D. I regard it as the great cosmic joke in music, and whoever first came up with the names of the notes must be laughing their keysters off in heaven on a daily basis: name as many notes with the same phonetic "ee" sound just to cause as many musicians as possible musical train wrecks in collective musical experiences!

:D

Here's the problem with doing that: when yelling out chords (above the music) E sounds just like you're saying B, C, G or D. I regard it as the great cosmic joke in music, and whoever first came up with the names of the notes must be laughing their keysters off in heaven on a daily basis: name as many notes with the same phonetic "ee" sound just to cause as many musicians as possible musical train wrecks in collective musical experiences!

:D

Yeah, agreed, that is definitely a problem. Many experienced musicians who are in the habit of doing this (like during the first rehearsal of a new, original song) use words like "dog" for D, "Egg" for E, etc.

Take a notepad with you to write down the chord progressions. I usually write down a complicated song that my band is working out until I'm comfortable with it. Maybe your guitarist could email you the chord progression in advance.

For future reference: it's a good idea to learn guitar chords so you can see what your guitarist is playing so he/she doesn't have to have to shout them out.

Remember that most songs are in 4/4 time - so learn to tap your foot and count to four. Even if you can't hit the bass drum rhythm, people will be pleased to hear the root. You can hit the root 4 times per measure (those are quarter notes) and to really impress everyone, double them (8 times - 8th notes!)

Only difficulty is when the chord changes mid measure, which with a beginning band shouldn't happen too much or at all.

If your band doesn't know what to play - you play 12 bar blues! That's three related chords over 12 measures - if you need help figuring it, people here will tell you how to do it. E is my favorite (third string, second fret) for four measures (16 beats) then A (fourth string, second fret) for two measures (8 beats), then E again two measures. Then B (second string, second fret) for two measures, down to A (second string open - two measures) then back to E.

That's four notes total (really just three different notes with A played an octave apart), and 48 beats. You can of course easily vary this to go with the drum - or grab a rhythm from a blues or rock player you like.

I think I"ve got it right. If you look around you'll find plenty of tab for this on the internets!

Many songs are built on this pattern (I, IV, I, V, IV, I).
You can start it on A (second string) and then it's in the key of A: A, D, A, E, D, A. That one is easier because it's all open (you can play your lowest string as E and it will sound just as good).

Hey thanks everybody for your input! Great suggestions. The suggestion thaqt 'scottbass' mentioned is one the keyboard player uses except he yells out the note number! Seems to me that having to count up or down to the note would be a pain, but I guess the more you work and practice it becomes second nature to know where they are.

Again, thanks everyone! I'll post the resuts of my sit in with the band when it happens.

Just jam in A or something. You can do a lot with very few notes.