people who are self taught

[Masturskate]

for all the people who are self taught, what did you do to teach yourself? did you just find tabs of songs you liked and just learn that way? or did you find lessons on the internet or from a video? or what?

[Basshole]

I have monster ears, and good rhythm. I can hear something (maybe twice through at most), and just play it. I took 3 guitar lessons when I was 10 (45 now...played professionally as a bassist for 15 years until the early 90s). Learned about 7 chords. The rest, including bass (I now play 4,5,6,7 and 12 string basses), and drums I just taught myself. I play enough keys to sequence and write, but really not that well. I can't solo on keys. I can cover most simpler parts, however. Bass I pretty much play with total freedom, guitar too...although I can't claim to be a Jazz chord master...I can play rock, and can solo pretty well. Starting to even get good enough to blow over even Steely Dan changes intuitively (I can't even claim to know 'my scales').

Things that other people report having difficulty with I just seem to play naturally. There's no secret formula I can clue you to. It's really just ears, and good rhythm.

I can teach you something about how the human brain learns, though:

Play along with stuff, and remember; when learning things, it's all about writing patterns in the brain...don't make mistakes!

If you do, you just write the mistakes to the brain as a pattern! Slow things down, use a metronome if you must...but GET IT RIGHT. Then come back to it after lunch, and magically, you'll be able to play it perfectly, and in tempo.

Good luck.

[seanm]

I took music (sax) all through high school, had lessons, and played in a community band after college. So I already had basic music training before learning the bass

What I wasn't good at was playing by ear. All my training was with reading music. I tried tabs and very quickly gave up and learned to transcribe myself. I am still slow at transcribing, but getting better.

The most useful thing I did was answer an ad for a country jam. It has really improved my ear

[ERIC31]

I played trombone in hs band for 2 years...but it was about 4 years after that I finally picked up the bass. I've always had a good ear and rhythm so I just played along with records I liked (The Cure initially-Simon Gallup) and learned that way. Didn't have the cash for lessons at the time so I had to fend for myself.

[FunkyDoesIt]

I learned practicing some tabs until I got it right. Then I watched some clip and lessons on the net to get some technique and I'm getting quite good. I played with a band for a student show last winter and I'm workin on a Drum and Bass show. The biggest problem that I have right now is that I have some trouble with music theory and it pretty difficult to solo, but I'm working on it...

[MarkMyWordsXx]

i learned all the songs i could. and then uhh i dunno i just fell into it.

to me there are 2 parts to learning any instrument.

1. technique- physically playing. applying theory.

2. theory-if you dont know what your playing what good is it?

so the songs are to practice technique. theory you have to learn elsewhere, but thats a good start

[thebassclef]

Started off palying Trumpet in High School Band, so my ear was pretty good. Then I just started picking out songs that I like and learned them. From there, I went to theory from the net and a few books on basics of technique. I have developed a lot of "Bad" Habits by starting off this way, but I am slowly breaking them as I learn new things. The songs I already know how to play, i still use the "bad" Habits.

[EADG mx]

I started out just learning songs from tabs. I learned almost everything technical I know from forums, or just experimenting with my equipment. My technique I developed from trial and error mostly, and watching videos and other bassists. I learned how to sightread and some theory in school. I learned how to jam when I joined a jam band - I just showed up, plugged in and they told me to play. It was like being taught to swim by being thrown in the water.

The internet is an amazing place really, you can find pretty much anything you need or want to know about bass.

[All_¥our_Bass]

Well I joined this site, got me some books and looked up a lot of music theory online, lots of practicing and trial/error, but it is well worth it. I've been playing for about 2 1/2 years. My friends helped me out here and there as well (I have two guitarist buddies that know their stuff) but most of my ability is all me.

[steveb98]

I actually play guitar for awhile before switching to bass so that got me started. On bass I mainly learned songs. I was lucky and got in a band not long after starting bass and playing and practicing got the basics down. Then I would take a few lessons now and then, but mainly transcribed bass lines and played with others as much as possible. As the years went by I started studying more both in college and privately.

[bikeplate]

Hi

Started by listening to records and playing along with them. My ear is tremendous. I could always pick out the bassline and find it on my bass. About a year in, I took about 3 months of lessons. Taught me some theory and some staccato and muting. I also took a theory class as a senior in high school. This also helped as it was an excellerated college equivalent.

I can just hear a song and as long as I know the key and play along. Cant really explain it. My Mom plays piano by ear, also. This might explaing part of it. I can also harmonize vocally on the spot.

I would just always play along with songs and MTV and figure out all the tunes. I would learn every note on a Rush or Iron Maiden record. As I got better, Id work on Earth wind and fire, Bill Bruford, and other more technical playing.

The more and more I played along with rock, pop, and other tunes I learned how chords and melody moved. I also have been to hundreds of shows and have watched my bass heroes up close. Might also want to pick up some instuctional tapes or dvd's. They help, too

This all being said, take some lessons. They are a great help

Rob

[emblymouse]

I am the poster boy for self taught bassists. 30 yrs a pro, never had a lesson. I learned by playing along with recordings and later, internal music I could 'hear'.
If you can hear it in your head you can eventually play it if you have the fortitude to master the physical aspects. You've got to have something to say before you choose your words, eh?
I've always played totally by ear. I have a very clear and specific sound in my head and I make my hands do what it takes to 'match up' to the sounds. This is a very simplistic explanation of a complex chain of events occurring in my brain and nervous system.
It is intuitive by nature, and I am a natural improviser. Actually, everything I do is improvisation! There is more than one way to be a musician and each path has it's strong suit. I'm certain I would benefit from learning theory, but I'm equally certain that theory alone is empty, like paint by numbers. IMHO.

[Kickin'Fruit]

I'm in my 4th month or so of teaching myself and I think it's going pretty good. I wish I had some confirmation of technique and my grasp of theory, but all in all I think it's going very well. I am starting to transcribe and learn songs by ear. I taught myself Pawn Shop by Sublime today, I had to check the tab on it though and while I knew something didn't sound quite right the tab filled in the missing blank.

I would have to say resorting to tabs at every moment is very detrimental and you won't learn anything. at all. seriously. A few years ago when I was interested in bass, I would look up a bunch of songs in tab form and I would fret every note with my index finger and have no clue about what I was playing. I could only play the songs I learned and couldn't improvise at all. Now that I've been reading theory and really going the hard route, my playing has definitly improved. I can also say that I attribute any success I'm having to this site. That's why I'm going to be a supporting member soon.

[SOA_bassist]

ive been playing for 2.5 years, and i have been using activebass.com, wikipedia.com, and my bass grimoir to teach myself music. It has been working fairly well for me because unlike most guys i know i dont just learn the scale patterns, i learnwhat notes are in the scale, why they are there, the names of the intervals, and how things are related to each other, but still i am gonna' get lessons once i get a job to pay for them.

also, ive been working on my ear a bit, not enough though. I still have to resort to tabs but im trying to work my way away from them.

=-p =-)

[Daywalker]

I have a pretty decent ear I guess, I taught myself by trying over and over again until I could replicate what I had previously heard on the radio, TV, or whatever...

[Yman]

ive been playing for like 7 years, and took 3 lessons at most with a guitar teacher who did nothing but jam with me (cool dude though)

i dont claim to have a monster ear, i just played and played. I started with tabs, but read that its better to try and learn yourself, so i started down that way. Then my ear/brain started to pick up where notes/sounds are on the fretboard (p.s. one of the first things i learned was where the actual notes are on the fretboard. That helped IMMENSLY, and if you are teaching yourself, i suggest that as a starting point) And from there i just memorized sequences of notes and patterns that were applicable to the entire fretboard and sounded good. So i kinda know some theory, i just find out what its called later

truthfully, i probably took a really roundabout way of getting to where i am, but it makes me feel good to know that i got to where i am through my own will power and skill as a musician. Its really fulfilling now that i can pick up and play with any band around.

[Poop-Loops]

I really envy all of you who can teach yourselves like that. When I first got my bass I was like "...what do I do?"

I need everything spelled out for me before I can do anything. I'll have to stop that and start playing along to songs and stuff.

[parkerd]

I am pretty much self taught. I started off with having no clue of what to do, finding my left hand impossible to use, etc.

My dad (who was a bassist himself) started me off with the basics such as finger excersices and then some scales later on. Since he left Perth, I've been learning myself (about a year and a half), so practically everything I know is self taught.

I learnt mostly by getting tabs for the songs I liked. Once I figured how to read tabs, then I just played to get technique better. Looking back, I kind of 'progressed' with the difficulty of music I played. I started with stuff like the offspring and green day, then moving onto stuff like SOAD, and now stuff like Iron Maiden and Metallica.

Techniques such as hammer-on/pull-off actually came to me natrually. This happened when I was playing off tabs, but couldn't seem to get the same sound as the recorded version of the song. I kept mucking around, until I found out what worked. I then learned later, what I was actually doing, was hammer-on/pull-off.

I probably would know a lot more if I had a teacher, but I kind of appreciate having learned things myself.

[morf]

I was self taught for the first 7 months or so. I've always listened to alot fo music, and being an audiophile definately developped my hearing, so I picked up the bass, found the notes, and played most things by ear, or with tabs correcting them as I saw fit. Then I hit a wall and started lessons. Learned what I wanted, stopped lessons, and teaching myself again, watching videos, listening to stuff, transcribing everyday.

[jonly]

When I started playing ('84) there were maybe 2 songs tabbed in 'Guitar for the Practicing Musician' and nothing else. I would learn those if they were any good at all, and aside from that I just learned songs by ear. Back then I would be given a tape of songs to learn for an audition and it would be a two week process for me to learn them. Thank god for the internet.