From Bass to Guitar?

[Kgoodrich]

I hope this hasn't been asked before (Search didn't bring up anything)

and I also hope this is the right sub-forum.


I am currently a bassist in a band that is, well for lack of a better term on "hiatus" due to our drummer's seemingly deft-less abilty to keep his drums from breaking, and lack of job to replace said drums.

Digressing, I have decided that i would like to pick up playing the guitar as something to expand my musical proficiency so i can better myself at bass by understanding how the guitar works in a band.

Has anyone else done this? Did you find it particularly difficult? Or was it simple?

[MonetBass]

I did it, and it was fairly simple music-wise. The hard things were (1) adjusting to the smaller strings and spacing, and (2) learning to move between chords quickly and smoothly. The good thing is that you already have the callouses on your fingers so those tiny steel strings shouldn't tear up your fingers too badly.

Once you get comfortable playing all of the chords (major, minor, 7ths, add6, etc.) in first position, try to work on playing all of those in at least three different places on the neck. You will understand chord structures and voicings much better as a result, and that will easily translate back over to the bass.

Good luck and have fun!

[Kgoodrich]

Originally Posted by MonetBass

I did it, and it was fairly simple music-wise. The hard things were (1) adjusting to the smaller strings and spacing, and (2) learning to move between chords quickly and smoothly. The good thing is that you already have the callouses on your fingers so those tiny steel strings shouldn't tear up your fingers too badly.

Once you get comfortable playing all of the chords (major, minor, 7ths, add6, etc.) in first position, try to work on playing all of those in at least three different places on the neck. You will understand chord structures and voicings much better as a result, and that will easily translate back over to the bass.

Good luck and have fun!

thanks for the helpful response!

[Kgoodrich]

Another question.

I play both 4 and 5 string bass, would playing a 7 string guitar be hard to do before I get comfy with a 6?

[Bassangel44]

I think you should, I bought a cheap acoustic guitar just to mess around with. After you get used to the smaller neck, string spacing, etc it's really not that hard to get used to. Just learn a few basic chords, and it'll really help you as far as picking out your root notes on the bass side.

[Kgoodrich]

Originally Posted by Bassangel44

I think you should, I bought a cheap acoustic guitar just to mess around with. After you get used to the smaller neck, string spacing, etc it's really not that hard to get used to. Just learn a few basic chords, and it'll really help you as far as picking out your root notes on the bass side.

good to hear but I'm looking to get a electric, not an acoustic (although that is on my list)

[Kgoodrich]

any other inputs?

[Infernal Affair]

I picked up an acoustic to mess around with and it's lots of fun. It's not hard once you get used to forming the shapes and moving from chord to chord. For me it developed more callouses than before since I play bass more on the pads than the tips of my fingers.

Playing acoustic makes playing electric easier and many people usually learn on acoustic first for several reasons, the least of which is that you can practice anywhere without an amp. I wouldn't recommend a 7 string right off the bat because the first thing that you learn is strumming open chords and the extra string I would see as a hindrance until you figure out how to actually use it. However, it's your call.

[Kgoodrich]

Originally Posted by Infernal Affair

I picked up an acoustic to mess around with and it's lots of fun. It's not hard once you get used to forming the shapes and moving from chord to chord. For me it developed more callouses than before since I play bass more on the pads than the tips of my fingers.

Playing acoustic makes playing electric easier and many people usually learn on acoustic first for several reasons, the least of which is that you can practice anywhere without an amp. I wouldn't recommend a 7 string right off the bat because the first thing that you learn is strumming open chords and the extra string I would see as a hindrance until you figure out how to actually use it. However, it's your call.

good info, also i think your right about the 7 string.

[Darkstrike]

I think everyone should play multiple instruments, always helps, playing Mandolin & Banjo helped me with chords, I transfered all the chords over.

[Kgoodrich]

Originally Posted by Darkstrike

I think everyone should play multiple instruments, always helps, playing Mandolin & Banjo helped me with chords, I transfered all the chords over.

hence the main motivation for wanting a electric, i've got a practice amp so that's not really a big issue.

[Questor]

I went in the other direction, i.e. I learned guitar at age 8 and switched to bass for the High School jazz and marching band (although I stayed on the sideline during the halftime shows). I stuck strictly to sight reading then, but as I got older I continued to learn bass in a way that is probably analogous to what you're going through now.

1. Learn the building blocks. This means learn the notes on the extra strings (vs. what you have on your bass). Hopefully, you can play the bass without looking at the fretboard, because ideally this is what you should be able to do on a guitar.

2. Learn open chords. These are chords that use open strings.

3. Learn partial bar chords. These are chords that use one finger to play 2 or more strings, but are different than full bar chords, e.g. (xx3211 = F major)

4. Learn full bar chords. These are chords where the index finger spans all 6 strings. These are similar to an open E or A chord, except that the index finger is fulfilling the role of the string nut (which is that bar of wood or other material at the top of the fretboard).

Learning chords means not only being able to finger them completely (and strum them without any note buzzing) but also being able to switch to them relatively quickly, so you need to familiarize yourself with "standard chord progressions." Since these also use variations on chords (major, minor, 7th, minor 7th, diminished, sus2, sus4, etc.) you should learn the formulas for composing at least the ones listed in parenthesis above.

Major = 1 3 5 (note of the scale)
Minor = 1 b3 5
7th = 1 3 5 b7
Minor 7th = Minor + 7th = 1 b3 5 b7
Diminished = 1 b3 b5 bb7
Sus 2 = = 1 2 3 5
Sus 4 = 1 4 5

Note that chords don't always have to have the notes in that order. For example, a "C sus2" chord will frequently be fingered as x32030, which is (in terms of the ordinal on the C scale) 1 3 5 2 3

5. This is the biggest thing: once you've learned the above stuff to a reasonable degree of comfort, go find another guitarist and just play with them (you on guitar).

This is more verbose than you probably wanted, and I apologize in advance if I've insulted your intelligence unknowingly.

[Sahm]

Another good reason for learning guitar is the ability to read a guitarist's hands when learning a song on the fly. The singer of my country band knows a ton of songs from his solo setlist that we don't play and on ocassion, someone requests one. As long as I can see his hands, I can follow along, and we usually impress the folks with pulling one out of the air!

[Questor]

By the way, if you want to continue learning the guitar beyond this, the best way to do this (in my opinion) is to learn the advanced chords, i.e. add 9, 9th, 13th, 7#9, 7b5.

add 9 = 1 3 5 9
9 = 1 3 5 b7 9
13 = 1 3 5 b7 9 11 13 (A13 = 5x5677)
7#9 = 1 3 5 b7 #9 (E7#9 = x7678x; C7#9 = x78888)
7b5 = 1 3 b5 b7 (G7b5 = 343433)

If you really listen to the chords, you'll hear a unique "flavor" of each. It's tough to describe this in a way that makes sense, but my point is that learning the tonal characteristics that uniquely identifies a particular chord type will help you tremendously in pickup up songs by ear. Not only that, but this will also have an immediate and very large impact on your ability to play bass with more of a "groove" to it.

[Nyarlathotep]

I played around with my electric guitar for a while before i sold it, after i started playing bass.

The one thing i found way easier was fretting. Considering my low string was a 60 gauge..... tuned down of course

The hardest thing was fretting the unwound high strings. 13 gauge cuts a little when your used to a 45 (wound) as the high string.....

[MarkTAW]

Strange, I always assumed bass players were all fairly competent guitarists, whereas all guitarists think that the thing with fewer strings is easier but can never play it.

I learned guitar alongside bass, though I never "mastered" it in the same way I did bass. I quickly gravitated to acoustic guitar & downloading tabs off of the internet to sing along to. This is the beauty of guitar - it's a chordal instrument and great for accompanying yourself sing. Also great for doing purdy things the bass can be a bit too low pitched to pull off.

As the other posters say, first thing to do is learn the chords. The basic chord shapes are:

Open E (major/minor)
F (major/minor, barre chord - you'll find it's very similar to E, but you use one finger instead of the "zero fret")
Open G (major)
Open A (minor/major)
B (major/minor, barre chord - same relationship to the open A as F has to E)
Open C (major)
Open D (major/minor)

Once you know that you can play 99.8% of songs. This is also the first thing I would teach anyone wanting to learn to play guitar (who hadn't come from bass). Don't let the other guys fool you - this is what you need to know to play guitar.

If you want to go even simpler, just learn the barre chords (F shape for the E string and B shape for the A string) and chug your way through songs to begin with.

I would steer clear of the 7 string, since it's not really used for chords and chords are the primary thing a guitar does in a band.

[Deacon_Blues]

It's definitely a good thing to know how to play some guitar. I started on guitar and thanks to that, I have a much better knowledge about chords and chord recognizing skills than I would have without it.

[Questor]

By the way, as a matter of notation guitarists use a 6 character means of describing chord shapes:

EADGBE

That's the string order, from left to right. As with tab, the number specified indicates the fret on that particular string. An 'x' indicates that the string should be muted.

So E would be 022100; A would be x02220; D would be xx0232; etc.

[Kgoodrich]

great responses everyone, it's good to know i'm not the only one who has taken the plunge

[Infernal Affair]

Originally Posted by Questor

This is more verbose than you probably wanted, and I apologize in advance if I've insulted your intelligence unknowingly.

No way man. Yours and MarkTAW's posts are excellent! In fact, I'm learning a thing or two from them myself!