Just started playing, played trombone before

[EnigmaTrain]

Hey guys. I'm a classically trained trombonist (some 8 years in the classroom, 5 years of jazz), and I decided I wanted to pick up the bass with some persuasion from a friend.

It's been two days. I think I've made some decent progress - I went through about half of my friend's Hal-Leonard Bass 1 book, and I can play a few basic songs pretty well. I know y'all hate tabs, but I'm not going to bother finding sheet for popular music. I learned like, Seven Nation Army and some Relient K songs. Easy stuff, but great practice on repetition.

I'm pretty sure I have some blisters forming now. Anyone have general advice or resources? The biggest thing I wanna work on right now is fretting speed. My hands move frustratingly slow, and I pretty much have to watch them unless I've been practicing a song nonstop for an hour.

Anything is helpful

P.S. I'm not really interested in jazz bass resources. I can play jazz trombone. I picked up bass for mainstream music haha

[plangentmusic]

You have a great advantage being fluent in reading bass clef. Becoming a monster reader may set you apart from a lot of guys. But most utility work for a bassist goes to the guy who grooves, hears and learns changes quickly, and knows how to play things that makes the band feel good. That's a combination of practice, instinct, personality and playing thousands of gigs.

[EnigmaTrain]

Originally Posted by plangentmusic

You have a great advantage being fluent in reading bass clef. Becoming a monster reader may set you apart from a lot of guys. But most utility work for a bassist goes to the guy who grooves, hears and learns changes quickly, and knows how to play things that makes the band feel good. That's a combination of practice, instinct, personality and playing thousands of gigs.

Yeah, sight reading is no problem for me - on trombone. I'm working on bass, haha. Trombone sight reading is habit for me, I'm really used to it by now.

And, well, yeah, that's experience.

[thatonedude02]

I just started bass about 8 months ago, also with some musical background. Here's what I found.

I prefer notes over tab. One thing you can do is find the tabs and transcribe them in to the notation you prefer. There are several free music programs available for doing so (I use MuseScore, it works on Linux).

I also recommend focusing on the 4 fingers over 4 frets technique. Use simple exercises. Basically, pick the string order (EADG, ADGE, etc...) then for each string pick a different fret (1234, 4321, etc...) and play that string/fret order repeatedly faster and faster, then pick a different combination.

[Handyman]

You've picked a great book to start with. I'd definitely suggest picking up volumes 2 and 3 when you're done with the first. They technique advice in your book is right on, so just keep on practicing.

Oh, and congrats on picking up an instrument that doesn't require the periodic draining of spit.

[MalcolmAmos]

Mainstream sheet music. Yes forget tab and then this leaves us with fake chord and lead sheet which has no bass cleft. Good luck finding bass cleft on Rock, Pop and Country.

Playing mainstream music. In my neck of the woods that means playing with out sheet music, i.e. jamming. So....

Hearing the chord changes and composing your bass line on the fly is what I would recommend you work toward. From your experience hearing the chord changes will probably be a piece of cake, but, knowing what to play over those changes is going to take some study. Our job - the groove, don't forget the groove.

Right now just get to know your beast. How to hold it, how to make sound come from it, how to mute some of the sound and yes how to tune it. Fingers, thumb or pick will enter the picture and then of course where are the notes on your fretboard is going to be kinda important. With no bass cleft the major scale box pattern will, can, IMHO should enter your life. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...eat-sheet.html
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showth...67#post9372867
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/conten...eat-sheet.html
In that last site - notice the Country Groove Skeleton in standard notation. Take that to generic interval numbers and you have
R-5-R-5-6-8. Take that to your box pattern and use it over all the chords, of course change the root as the chords change, in the song. Notice there are no 3's or 7's its generic (6's seem to be neutral and go either way). My point - generic grooves right now - fancy grooves later. Have fun.

Bass Guitar for Dummies is chuck full of the basic information a new bassist needs to know. Then www.studybass.com will be a friend.

Good luck.

[EnigmaTrain]

@ Handyman: Alrighty haha.

And spit is a good indicator of how well I'm playing!

@ Malcom: I want to learn basic technique before I start improv - I'm not confident enough yet.

Thanks a ton for those links.

And, to be honest... I have no idea what you mean by 'generic interval numbers.' Are you talking theory? Like, root fifth root fifth and so on? I'm confused.

[EnigmaTrain]

Nevermind, I figured it out. Whew, that's hard to keep track of. I'll keep practicing scales I guess haha.

Til then... taaab

[MalcolmAmos]

=EnigmaTrain;10111285And, to be honest... I have no idea what you mean by 'generic interval numbers.' Are you talking theory? Like, root fifth root fifth and so on? I'm confused.

Yes. By generic what combination of notes (in the bass line) can be used over all the chords in the song - and still sound good. Well....
Every chord will have a Root so just roots qualify as generic.
Every basic chord will have a 5th so the 5th qualify as generic .
The 8 is a root - up an octave so it qualifies also.

R-R-R-R
R-5-R-5
R-5-8-5 or any combination of those notes will give you a generic bass line that will work over all the major, minor and dominant chords. You will have to watch out for the diminished chord as it will have a b5 note and may clash. Most Pop, Rock and Country will not be using a lot of diminished chords so you are relatively safe with your R-5-R-5.

Little more complex but still generic. The 6 is neutral so feel free to slip in a 6th, if you like. The R-R-6-5 is the ole Rock stand-by groove. The 4 makes a good passing note, just keep it passing, don't land on it or accent it.

The 3 and 7 will not be generic as each has a specific job in the major, minor, dominant chord. Forget about the 2 for now as it is too close to the root.

So --- in a generic bass line use the generic or neutral notes and you will be able to use that one bass line pattern with every chord - of course change the intervals within the pattern when the chord changes. Takes some of the pressure off.

In case that was not what you cleared up.......

[EnigmaTrain]

Thanks for that explanation haha, I'll probably be looking back at this a bunch

honestly right now I'm still at the "improving dexterity" stage.