Six hours a day -- you will burn out. Now yes you need some focus to your practicing and remember if you are just running scales for the sake of running scales you get real good at running scales, only problem your solo will sound like scales.
Go get some sheet music on the songs your prospective band plays. Fake chord is all you need if you can not read and play from standard notation. Use that music to focus on what you need to be learning. Your goal is to play with that band - learn that band's music.
Forget about solos a newbie bass band member will not be getting solos. The keyboard or lead guitar will be doing the solo work. Concentrate on playing the chord tones and doing it with feeling, i.e. be able to lay down a groove.
How? Know your fretboard. You gotta find the chord tones. BTW chord tones are the notes of the chord. You can memorize the notes in 20 +/- chords or use patterns. I'd suggest you use patterns. More on that later.
Here is a chord/scale generator that will help you with the notes of the chord.
http://www.looknohands.com/chordhous.../index_rb.html
Ask it to generate a C chord -- then scroll the screen down to find this:
Quote:
C Major
a.k.a.: C, CMaj, CM
intervals: 1,3,5
half-steps: 4-3
notes: C,E,G
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What you are interested in is the intervals and the notes. If you are going to go the pattern route that 1-3-5 are the chord tones of the C chord and the riff you will play when ever that fake chord sheet music has a C chord shown.
Patterns:
Major scale pattern - Root on the 4th string.
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---R---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string
Major scale pattern - Root on the 3rd string.
G|---6---|-------|---7---|---R---| 1st string
D|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
A|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|
E|-------|---5----|-------|---6---|4th string
Use those patterns to play the C chord riff, i.e. that 1-3-5. 1 is the root and will be called R from now on.
Place the R on the 4th string 8th fret. Why? Well the 4th string 8th fret is a C note. Start your pattern on the C note and then follow the pattern. Every note in the C scale will be waiting. Yep, we use C scale notes to make a C chord. Play R-3-5-3 and you just played a C chord bass riff. Now get those 20 +/- chords you will encounter in rock music into bass riffs that you can do in your sleep. Pay attention to the following; look at the root on the scale pattern - where is the 5th? Up a string and over two frets. The 5th of any note is up a string and over two frets. Where is the 3rd of the root note? Up a string and back one fret. Again the 3rd of any note is up a string and back two frets. Where is the 7th? Same place it always is up two strings and over one fret. Learn where the interval numbers are - that's what we do to play patterns.
Yep get some fake chord sheet music on the songs that band plays and practice playing those songs. Doing that will point you to what else you need to learn.
http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/ww...al/135314.html
Once you get a song down to where it flows put that piece of sheet music in your gig bag and move on to the next song. Suggest you work on 2 to 3 songs at a time. Shoot for two new songs per week. By May you will be ready for the rhythm section in that band.
If you have not found
www.studybass.com already you need to. It will go into detail how to mute strings to kill the sustain. Which fingers to use - thumb, pick, or what. It is a must for newbie bass players.
Should give you this. That fake chord will give you the chord name up to you to come up with the bass riff, i.e. you gotta write your own bass line riffs. Sheet music gives you a C chord:
Root nothing is always safe. Boring but safe.
R-5 works 99% of the time. So a repetitive R-5 riff changing the root as the chords change will work.
R-3-5-3 is a little better and works for any major chord, i.e. C chord.
R-b3-5-b3 is the go to riff for a minor chord, i.e. Cm.
R-3-5-b7 is the go to riff for the C7 chord
R-3-5-7 is the go to riff for the Cmaj7 chord
R-b3-5-b7 is the go to riff for the Cm7 chord.
Fancy chords Fmaj7#11 -- Forget about the #11 it's a Fmaj7 chord and you already know how to make that.
Slash chords Fmaj7/C -- the bass will only play the slash or C don't worry about why just be glad you just have to grab the slash part.
Two chords per measure, i.e. in 4/4 time you have 4 beats per measure so a R-5 for both of them is all the space you have. Lets say it's Cmaj7 and Am7 in the same measure. OK R-5 for both or C-G and A-E will fill the measure nicely.
Get those into muscle memory - yes those 20 chords you will see in rock music.
Here is a play-a-long to get you started. Use a repetitive R nothing till that gets comfortable then try a R-5. When that is easy try R-3-5-3. Of course change the root to the chord that is being played in the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUK5p...eature=related
Good luck.
