I am teaching my self bass

[OctoRock]

I am teaching my self bass and I would like to know all the Technique's a good bass player has. So far I am able to play with both a pick and my hand and I have learned a viarety of songs that I like I have also learned Slap and Pop and a little bit of tapping. I was wondering what kind of other thing's a good bass player should know, Thanks!

[Mr wiggl3s]

Know your role jabroni!

Seriously though. Bass isn't guitar. It's it's own instrument. Just learning how and when to play a bass when needed is probably the hardest thing to grasp.

[MalcolmAmos]

Our bass is first and foremost an accompaniment instrument. We are part of the rhythm section.

Our job is to hold the band together by keeping the beat and laying down a groove for everyone else to follow.

And you are asking; "How do we do that"? In many and varied ways.

You asked; "I was wondering what kind of other thing's a good bass player should know". How to play with other musicians is the answer I would give and you learn how to do that by playing with others.

As far as what technique to use, you will figure that out as you play with the other musicians. Metal will use a bunch of roots, jazz will want a fuller bass line. I play Country that's chord tones, i.e. R-5 with some R-3-5-8 and R-3-5-b7 thrown in for good measure. My long range goal is to be able to provide echo melody to the vocalist's solo. I think your next step should involve playing with others. That will tell you very quickly what you need to focus on.

Good luck.

[Luckie]

Focus most on what notes you're playing and why.
While the how is clearly important, being a bass player is all about playing the right notes all of the time.
Guitar players have room to BS, we don't.
I highly recommend this book.
If you can, get a private teacher. They are magnificent, and they can teach you things you don't even know you don't know.

You've picked an awesome instrument, I wish you luck!

[E2daGGurl]

Find someone to play with. A singer whom you have to accompany, or a guitar player (better than a singer for you) or a drummer.

There's no way to learn to play bass really well all by yourself. You can self-teach, but you must learn right away to play with others.

[Buslady7803]

My 2c

Get a teacher cos they can show you all you want to know

[Stumbo]

Check out the link in my sig. below.

[zakimball]

Here are three things to consider that have helped me personally.

1) Imitate, learn lines from recordings. Try not only to get the line note for note, but also try to get the exact same tone as the original player. You want it to sound like 1 bassist playing when you play along and not 2. This not to stifle creativity, always be creative and write your own lines, but learning other people's work will give you things to work with and ideas to build on.

2) Play with other people. If you can, play with people better than you, people you can learn from. every time you get a chance try to find some body to jam with, whether its an entire orchestra or a single drummer. On a similar note, playing with other musicians is a great way to pick up new ideas and techniques. (which of course should be practiced and researched at home too!)

3) Stop worrying about notes when you are actually playing a song. (pitches) For bass the most important thing is the groove and the feel. People won't notice and won't care if you miss a couple notes, but they will notice if you stop and go back for them. It kills the groove and hurts the song. Learn to play through mistakes, don't be like I was for a long time!

Also if you can, learn some theory, the basics at least, but what helped me was learning about chord motion and substitution and resolutions.

Be sure to understand your role as a bassist and try not to overdo things when playing with others. I always found it more satisfying when I was asked to play more rather than less.

Just my $0.02, of course it will be worth significantly more in a few years due to inflation... but that's another topic.
Hope it helps

[Already In Use]

Regarding the singer option above. The singer in the band I'm playing with wanted to check my timing and had me play just the bass lines to a song he sung. It was pretty dang demanding at this stage in my game.

Another vote for playing w/others. That cant be duplicated.

Take a lesson now and then.