How long before you take the thing to practice?

[fdeck]

I waited way too long. Don't do that. Throughout college I took classical lessons on DB, but played slab in the college jazz band, because I assumed that I would never conquer the amplification problem. Once I took it to a rehearsal, the rest was history.

[Gearhead43]

+1 get in a band ASAP.

I played with myself for almost two years before I finally found a DB friendly style band. I've been playing in a Honky Tonk & Western Swing band for the last four months or so and have progressed faster in that time than ever before.

[chancletarock]

i honestly think you should find a way to be forced, more or less, into it. for me it was a matter of joining a group that needed the upright, no matter how poorly i felt i played it. then you have even more reasons to improve, not just for your own edification but the sake of supporting harmonies with correct intonation, having good pitch, taking solos that are as bitchin' as the guitarists (well, we can hope), etc. if you're like me, after a while you might start saying "aw, damn" whenever someone asks you to play electric.

just do it! good luck!

[bassist1962]

Originally Posted by chancletarock

after a while you might start saying "aw, damn" whenever someone asks you to play electric.

So True, So True!!

[RustyAxe]

Originally Posted by sevenyearsdown

The challenging part is having to write new lines for a lot of stuff. As I'm sure most of you already know, bass guitar lines don't always translate all that well to the DB. Even when they do, the fingering for me doesn't. I hardly ever use opens on a bass guitar.......I use them all the time on DB.

Yep, that's my experience, too. On the bass guitar I used closed positions as much as possible, which made transposition a snap. Have to think a little more on the bass ... but it comes quickly (and fairly easily) to me. It's worth the effort, though. I liked playing bass guitar ... I LOVE playing double bass!

[jmain]

For me, finding this thread is timely. Finishing grad school and settling into the job, so time to take some lessons.

I'm gonna hit my co-worker up for some jams (pianist that studied for a while at Berklee that's been out of it for a while). I'm gonna take a couple few lessons and then start annoying him. But I'll keep taking lessons, so hopefully the annoyance will subside with time.

[sevenyearsdown]

Played it for about an hour today at practice - first time with other musicians. It went pretty awesome.

Strange part is I find that I hardly ever look at where my hands are once I'm locked in on a tune, unless I have to shift or mod. I've been playing bass guitar for almost 15 years and the first thing I do is look at the fret board....even still.