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Need play-along help I know HOW to play, mechanically, and I 've studied music theory- all scales, pick or finger and I've stretched and strengthened my small chick hands and fingers to the point where I could now probably crush cocnuts with em if I needed to. But-What notes do I play, for cryin out loud? I read numerous places that the best way to become a good bass player is to play along with stuff. but I'll put something on and have to stop, figure out what key it's in, and then most of the time the only way it sounds right is when it's played the way it was written and recorded- and that doesn't teach me anything except how to play that particular song. What am I doing wrong? Perhaps my choices are inappropriate for this sort of exercise (Police, most recently). I will be immensly grateful for any suggestions on approaches to creating harmonic bass lines, especially spontaneously. What's your approach? THANK YOU! |
Actually, you are on the right track. Start with simple songs. Oldies are good. Pick a song with simple bass lines. Also check bass tabs online for the actual lines. I've been playin by ear for decades and I still have to sit down, figure out the key, listen to the recording over and over, and stumble through the song for a day or two before it starts coming together. Remember, easy does it champ |
If you have an Ipad or an Iphone, buy the Irealb app, and find some songs you know in the forum. The beauty of this app is that you can listen to a bass part, then mix it out and simply jam with the drums and chords! its great for figuring out what notes to play. Then if you REALLY want to get to know your theory you can start studying the chord extensions and figure out how to add spice and how to walk. If that seems a little daunting there's plenty of sites online that host thousands of jam tracks for you to mess around with. One thing I think every person should do when there starting out is learn the minor pentatonic, then simply jam over a twelve-bar blues for a few hours. Its sometimes the funnest thing and the easiest way to get comfortable "putting in" what you think fits. When I first started everything I played I somehow though was ether too cheezy, not "locked in" or simply too easy. It takes time to get comfortable with playing and improvising music. Its a LIFELONG journey. Your never really done discovering what your capable of. Anyway that was kind of a long-winded way of saying just keep playing. The fact that you want to stretch out from the written line is a GREAT sign. I can't tell you how many "musicians" I've meet from school and other places who can play circles around me, but cant spontaneously create music to save their own lives. Keep Jamming along, Have fun! |
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Buy all his books and take online lessons from this guy: http://www.edfriedland.com/instruction/ Learn to read music so you can play bass to any song. Learn 1,000 songs, start with the blues. Pickup Ed's Blues Bass book. After a few hundred songs you'll recognize patterns. You'll also learn which notes the bass player chose to play over the chords of the song. Lots of TBr's improvise their own bass lines to songs. Learn to play keyboard chords/guitar chords to all the 1,000 songs. Analyze the chords progressions of each song. Soon you'll hear patterns. Learn this for all 12 keys: C: (I) : C-E-G-B : C Major7 D: (ii) : D-F-A-C : D minor7 E: (iii) : E-G-B-D : E minor7 F: (IV) : F-A-C-E : F Major7 G: (V) : G-B-D-F : G Dominant7 A: (vi) : A-C-E-G : A minor7 B: (vii) : B-D-F-A : B minor7 (b5) Learn the lyrics/vocal melodies and be able to sing with guitar chords or bass lines. Work on ear training. Join a band. Here a few links that may help you out: If I only knew then... Best musical advice Every bassist should know... How to really "learn" a tune" ~Instructional materials Over 100 DVDs/books Books, DVDs, all styles/ methods Looking for the Bass "Bible" MarlowDK's recommended books "Best" theory/harmony book TB Book Links TB member Jon Liebman's books and more Books, DVD's, equipment, accessories, etc. (by style) over 100 books of transcriptions & more ii-V-I book and CD ~Online lessons dmanlamius.com Dman's hands on videos and more playbassnow.com MarlowDK's cool videos & more Read music,lessons, online metronome,bass clef tutor & more Studybass.com Sound files/tab/standard notation based lessons..more thelibster.com Tech advice,drills, bass sound files & more cyberfretbass.com Videos & more activebass.com Lessons, backing tracks, articles and more. Xlnt site ~Software: Slow Down, Change pitch/key, Loop, Record, Metronome,Utilities 1 Slow down software 2 3 4 BestPractice-PC based, free, easy to use, slow downer/pitch shifter/looper/vocal remover/bass isolator/ backing track maker Good paid software for learning songs: Transcribe (helps with chords), Song Surgeon, Amazing Slowdowner ~Ear training Goodear.com Test your ear Free downloadable ear trainer (basic/advanced) Xlnt program Trainers/tutorials. Music theory, ear training, read music, chords, intervals, etc. Online Visual Beginning Theory, ear trainer Discussion of Solfege ~Sight Reading {www.studybass.com/lessons/reading-music/bass-clef-fretboard-notes/bass-clef-notes-fretboard.pdf}Note: paste web address to your search bar to Download this cool doc: clef to fretboard translation. Memorize this! 1 Learning 2 Improving Practicing Sight reading source material Transcribe/read transcriptions free online ~Theory Musictheory.net Useful music theory info with audio Learning basic theory Intro scale & chord theory Theory links list Theory (from the DB side of TB) Learning "modes" Reason for modes Using modes Putting it all together (scales/modes) Key signatures/Circle of 5ths/Cycle of 4ths Circle/Cycle of 5ths/4ths (spreadsheet format) Playing over ii V I progression 3rds & 7ths? Tri Tone Substitutions Check my >500 links below for more great TB info. Good luck. |
Not sure I'd start with The Police :) Songs like "Message in a Bottle" are slightly off-beat, and might be confusing at first to play along with (I know that I struggle playing along with Reggae, as lot of the groove happens AROUND the beat and not ON IT). I like to spend time with backing tracks that have the bass-line removed, that way I don't feel like I need to mimic anything. I'm free to be an expressive player. If you're not sure what to play, triads are usually a safe bet. |
Stumbo - good to "see" you again, been awhile. Bunny - All good advise, I'll just add this: What notes do we play? Harmony has to do with the melody line and the bass line sharing some of the same notes. Again, which notes? Notes from the chord and yes they have to be from the key everyone else is using. If you follow the chords good things happen. I know that begs a little more...... There is a book called Pentatonic KHANceots by Steve Khan that goes into detail - over this chord here are your choices. For example: Over a Fmaj7 (F, A, C, E) chord here are you choices: All of those choices share like notes. Which brings up the next great question. How many like notes are necessary for a bass line. Answer, one per measure. That's why roots work, two shared notes are better (R-5) and three per measure are probably not necessary as once you harmonize, the rest is just gravy. Which brings up the question chord tones or scales.......Scale / Mode Option: I think you will enjoy Pentatonic KHANcepts it was one of my WOW books. There is a CD play-a-long included. My notations, in the margins, were put there when I was playing the 6 string guitar, but, theory is theory. Have fun. |
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Good to "see" you too. TB time for me reduced by 90%...been busy with life. |
Thanks to you all I've been dinkering around with basses for several years, going through periods of - What the hell am I doing here, a grown woman trying to play bass guitar, can't play for (@*@ anyway- so then I wouldn't play for a while. Then over this past summer I got a wild hair and bought an acoustic/electric. Wheeee! I can play chords!! That's been fun but ultimately the experience left me: 1) re-committed to bass as my instrument of choice 2) knowledgeable about chords 3) improved my ear. So you could say it was like - a fun affair, a romp in the hay that made appreciate my real true love, but wound up teaching me a few things too. Thanks again! |
I recommend to learn more songs imperfectly rather than fewer songs perfectly, at this stage of your ear-training development. Listening to the radio is perfect for this, because you can't pause the song, you have to play in real-time just as you would on stage. A good place to start is to listen to the Oldies station and set the goal of, by the end of each 3 minute song, be able to answer: what key is it in? what is the chord progression (I like to use Roman numerals)? is there a "bridge" or modulation or other "twist" to the song? what is the predominant rhythm? (quarters? eighths? shuffle? Bo Diddley?) If you can figure out the exact notes of the bass line, that's great, but that's not the primary goal of the exercise at this point in your learning. Also are you familiar with the band Talking Heads? Tina Weymouth is a very groovy female bassist, and her lines are generally repetitive, prominent in the mix, and easy to learn. :) |
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