Welcome to the world of bass Victor.
The tuning portion has been explained. I suggest a chromatic tuner by Korg. It is about $35 and has a microphone and input jack. You can buy a non-chromatic tuner, but if you ever decide to later in life buy a fretless, it will come in handy. Plus, a chromatic tuner can help develop your ear. As has been explained, you tune the instrument E-A-D-G, starting with the lowest note, which is also the heaviest, thickest string.
Buy a
metronome.
This next part I cannot stress enough. I firmly, with all of my convictions and beliefs, suggest that you
find a teacher. If you feel that you cannot afford a teacher, take 3-4 lessons. Surely one can scrounge up the money, (save the trip to McD's, put off buying the new CDs for a month, ask a friend), for
at least 2 lessons, although I suggest a minimum of 3-4.
If you are able to afford a teacher on a regular basis you will find yourself in a wonderful position. You can take a weekly lesson, or biweekly lessons. There are many ways to finding teachers. You can find webpages, by googling, or possibly your area has a unique classified listing. (e.g., here in San Francisco we have Craig's List and the Bay Guardian and the SF Weekly newspapers). If none of these things work, got to a jazz gig. Yes a local jazz gig. Not a rock show. I understand you may not want to play jazz, but go there anyway. Ask the bassist, (preferably not during a song or solo), who his/her teacher is/was, or even if that person themselves is a teacher. (Jazz players are more likely to have had a teacher than an original rock band player). It doesn't matter if the cat is playing an upright, as most upright teachers and players will not only play electric, but be excellent teachers. Next, remember that the teacher does not have to be the best player in the world, just a good teacher. There is some great advice in this forum about finding a good teacher. I suggest a quick search or use the newbie link thread.
If you cannot afford a teacher, your journey will take considerably longer, and be paved with many more mistakes. But, you have to do what you have to do. All is not lost however, as there is a wealth of information and material available to you.
First, as you begin playing,
technique will be an issue. If you find that anything you are doing is causing so much discomfort that you become extremely sore, or even worse, injury yourself, the odds are great that there is something wrong with your technique. Playing an instrument, any instrument really, can be physically demanding. Your body will adjust over time, but at first you will be committing repetitive actions that your body is not used to. The most important thing here is to listen to your body. If something becomes very sore while you're playing, it's time to take a break, or stop for the day. Learn how to stretch your wrists. It will do the tendons and ligaments a world of good.
The
setup on your bass should be comfortable to you. This is where a teacher would come in handy, but if not, take the bass to a trusted person who knows about these things. Perhaps that action is not set properly for you, and these things can be adjusted.
Click the link in my signature. Become familiar with the terms in my lesson. The information that is contained in that lesson is essential information to communicating in music and music terms. This information will build a foundation for which, if you choose, you can continue on in your theory knowledge. The basic information is definitely something that will increase your ability in playing.
Have a
well-rounded practice. There are many components to musicianship. You should work on
ear training, sight reading, scales, arpeggios, songs, techniques, rhythm and much more.
In
ear training, you want to develop your ear to the ability to where you can here chord changes, basslines, and much more, but you have to start somewhere. I highly suggest starting with a song you know very well. There are many threads in General Instruction about ear training, with a great one by member Lump. Personally, I suggest starting with the blues. I think it's a great way to go because you are going to typically know the chord changes already, assuming you find the right key. And hey, listen, there is nothing wrong with hearing a note on the CD, pressing pause, not having any clue which one it is, and just hitting every damn note on the bass until you find it. We ALL start there. But, with the blues, you know the structure, or what the structure will be like. And here's the golden thing about that, that blues I-IV-V structure is used very commonly in popular music. It's probably the most used chord progression. Having repeated exposure to hearing those chord changes will do your ear a world of good. Also, when you decide to sit down and learn a song by ear, first listen to the song, three times, without playing the bass. You want to get a feel for the structure, (e.g. intros, choruses, verses, etc.). This will help you internalize the song, and make learning the bass line easier.
Sight reading is often neglected, but very important. I like the beginning book "Note Reading Studies for Bass" by Arnold Evans. You can use the book on your own, without a teacher's assistance. The great thing about sight reading is that it's going to increase your familiarity with the fretboard, help your rhythm and time, give you melodic ideas and concepts, and much more. Also, it gives you the ability to communicate in the language of music. Victor, this next part is my advice, and I believe it as strongly as I believe anything about bass. You'll find people that disagree, and ultimately, of course, you must do what works best for you, but I so firmly and stronly believe that you must avoid tabs. Tabs, in my educated opinion, will hinder and slow your progression as a musician. They do not teach you how to play the instrument, they simply turn you into a machine putting your finger here or there. Besides which, often they are wrong. You lose the idea of the structure of the song, you no longer see the intervallic relationship of the notes contained within the bassline, you lose the rhythm, you lose the key signature and idea of viewing a bassline within it's scale, you lose the ability to navigate the bass how
you feel comfortable. You lose so very very much, and in the end, you have just barely learned one song, and probably with many errors. I feel very stronly that they should be avoided.
There are many websites, like activebass.com, where you can find information on how to play
scales. The lesson I asked you to click on earlier will show you how to derive scales, but you also have to learn how to play them. Making scales and arpeggios a regular part of your practice is essential. Scales and arpeggios are the foundation of what we, as bassplayers, do. Always always always always always always always practice them with a metronome. Start slow, you're not trying to impress anybody, and it sure as hell ain't a race. You just want to be accurate. Start the clicks at 50bpm, or slower if you want, and play the scales, all of them, and arpeggios with the metronome. Always have that metronome near by. Yes, I know that scales can be boring. Checking out Jamey Aebersold's first play along volume, "Learning to Improvise", (or something like that), can help add some fun to play scales and arpeggios. But, before you start there, you should just try practicing them alone, so that you have a feel for it, and your hands get used to playing. Try, when you can, to make things musical. You don't have to play the same old thing all the time, and there's no rule saying that when you play a scale or arpeggio that you have to always start with the first note. Play around them, try different things, explore. There are no rules here. Just focus, use the metronome as often as possible, and
listen.
Check out my thread in General Instruction called
"Practice Practice Practice". A good practice routine is essential at the beginning. The important thing is to keep you practice fun and exciting. I suggest that when you do practice, make it the priority. In other words, give yourself a quite place, try your best, where you won't be disturbed. Don't take phone calls unless necessary. Focus just on what you're doing. I think that one of the worst things you can do is watch TV while your practicing. Randomly moving your fingers over the fretboard doesn't help much of anything. Music is auditory. It's about listening, hearing. The mechanical part comes after. You must hear what you're doing, hear how things sound when you play them, because as many believe, the ultimate goal here is to be able to play what you can hear and sing. Also, as you become better and better, challenge yourself. It's not really a practice session if you are just playing that song that already know. The goal is to learn and try different things. It's not fun, but what you want to practice most is what you are struggling with, the things that are challenging for you.
Find the time that you can for bass, but life is hectic. Just because you can't devote an hour a day to bass, doesn't mean you won't be successful. If you can only play 20 minutes, then play 20 minutes, but challenge yourself, play something difficult.
You'll notice that I didn't say anything about faster fingers. Faster fingers are a side effect, they're not something you work on. You become faster by doing the things I mentioned. But now, not only will you be fast, just like those robots and Guitar Center that practice speed speed speed at home and come tear up the display basses, but unlike them, you'll be saying something musical while you do it. Speed will come with time, when you don't even realize it.
Ultimately, you will get out of bass what you put into it.
And, after reading all that, click here:
Proverb
Oh yes, my favorite bassist is a guy named Eric. I don't know his last name. I can't find him.
