Bass as a second language???

GassieBall · #1 02-17-2007, 11:33 PM

I'd like to ask anyone here who started on piano (or any other instrument) and then learned bass...

Do you "think in bass"?

I think my major problem is that I still think in piano and translate. For example, the concept that a note can exist in several places on bass makes sense rationally, but not intuitively. As opposed to the piano which is purely linear.

It's sort of like when I learned French in high school. I'd almost always think in English and translate.

user101 · #2 02-18-2007, 01:40 PM

Theoretically, i did start out on piano at a very very young age. Now i play really lousy piano, but when i play piano i think piano and no bass thoughts enter my mind. When i play bass, well bass is my main instrumen, so of course i think bass. But when i translate the piano tunes i play to bass, i learn alot of new things.

I guess one should be able to think seperately for every instrument they play. But I'm not sure how to do it. For me it comes naturally.

bassist1111 · #3 02-19-2007, 01:40 PM

ya i've been playing piano since 2nd grade and i play a multitude of other instruments and keeping the instruments seperate has never really been an issue for me. i probably think in terms of piano mostly though. like when i'm reading notes on the bass, i'll tend to play things linear and i usually use the first 5 frets instead of keeping a position and using higher frets. then i think about it and realize there was an easier way to play what i just played. i hope that made sense. but everything works out so it's not a big deal.

HaVIC5 · #4 02-19-2007, 04:59 PM

I played piano for a couple years before switching to bass, and as a result, I do all my theoretical visualization in keyboard rather than fretboard. I often have to force myself to do fretboard visualation as a means of better learning voicings and such on the fretboard.

jIvan · #5 02-19-2007, 05:08 PM

i think i think in bass...i played piano starting when i was 4...before i used to have trouble looking at just bass clef, because i was used to seeing the treble clef more when playing pieces. it just takes some time to get used to, and eventually it'll become second nature and you'll be surprised when you know where some notes are intuitively when you're about to get stuck and somehow get out of it..

richard simmons · #6 02-19-2007, 09:01 PM

I also played piano for a very long time, but it was when I was younger, so I suck now, and I don't really have a problem with thinking in terms of bass.

Disco_Gee · #7 02-19-2007, 09:05 PM

I've never learnt any other instrument so I think primarily in bass. When I do try and play other things (like guitar or keys) I think in bass and translate.

atruedinguss · #8 02-19-2007, 09:15 PM

I can say that bass is my 4th language. I started on Piano, then did handchimes (grade school), then guitar, and finally Bass. Drums is my 5th language and Double Bass is 6th.

Who? · #9 02-19-2007, 09:27 PM

Bass is my third language, including english.

English, trombone and bass. So I think in trombone first, then translate to bass, wich is a very simple translation exept for some of the melodies that are thrown at me when I play in the jazz band. It makes it fun to solo with the lower brass though.

GassieBall · #10 02-20-2007, 05:54 PM

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I'm amazed at the talent here. I really like HaVIC5's comment on fretboard visualization. Conceptually I know what I need to do, but making it happen is totally a different story.

The time when I most want to get the picture of a keyboard out of my head is when I think of intervals. It's so darn easy on the keyboard. You think of an 11th, a 13th, I see ebony and ivory.

I know, I know youz guys are gonna say I should visualize the fretboard pattern for intervals... but I guess that's why I posted this cause I'm still having a hard time.

puff father · #11 02-20-2007, 06:00 PM

I still think trumpet when I hear intervals. I've been playing bass for many years now but the years of lessons and practice on the horn haunt me still!

All_¥our_Bass · #12 02-21-2007, 05:52 AM

When I'm on a bass/guitar I "think bass". I have a different line of thinking for keys/piano though.

Silas Martinez · #13 02-21-2007, 10:22 AM

My main instruments for the past 20 odd years have been guitar and bass (bass exclusively for the past 13 or so). As such, I actually find it fastest to think fretboard in terms of intervals - to me, it is simple, as you can always find intervals (up and down) by starting at a root - and those shapes are completely movable. You know, across strings is a fourth, up two a fifth, across two strings a 7, three a 10th. Intervals have always been the simple part, to me.

However, in terms of 'thinking in bass' or any other instrument, I have to say I'm thinking in terms of just the notes, and my fingers know where to find the notes. Where notes are available in multiple places, I will try it in the different positions, looking for what sounds best, what flows most evenly - and that is the instrument specific part.

doctorjazz · #14 02-21-2007, 05:00 PM

I'd say it depends what I'm doing. I use written music sometimes, but like khaspir said, intervals are done more by position relative to a root than by anything else. I get the key by thinking "notewise" on the board, and from there I think in intervals relevant to that key. Of course, that's only when I don't have music, with the page in front of me I switch over to "X note corresponds to Y position on Z string."