Practise problems

[newbass1000]

I've been playing bass 6 months now and i practise with my band 6 days a week, i've still got the time to practise by myself but when it comes to picking up my bass i have no idea what to practise, i know all major and minor scales and note names but beyond that i'm clueless, i've learned a lot of songs and can play along to tabs easily enough.

I need to know the best way to practise and specifically what things would be good to practise, and help improvising. links would be helpful.

Thanks

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by newbass1000

I've been playing bass 6 months now and i practise with my band 6 days a week, i've still got the time to practise by myself but when it comes to picking up my bass i have no idea what to practise, i know all major and minor scales and note names but beyond that i'm clueless, i've learned a lot of songs and can play along to tabs easily enough.

I need to know the best way to practise and specifically what things would be good to practise, and help improvising. links would be helpful.
Thanks

Practice playing with out the help of tabs. IMO tabs are a dead end. If you want to improvise, you first have to get rid of tabs. Start playing from fake chord or lead sheets.

That will force you to come up with your own bass lines. Which will give you the confidence to take on new challenges.

Good luck.

[newbass1000]

Thanks, I'll get to work trying to figure the basslines to a couple of songs

[MalcolmAmos]

Roots work, boring, but safe.
R-5-R-5 you can play thousands of songs with the ole R-5.
try R-R-5-5, R-5-8-5.
Then throw the 3 into the picture.
If the chord is a major chord R-3-5-3.
If the chord is a minor chord R-b3-5-b3.
If the chord is a dominant seventh R-3-5-b7.
Don't get fancier than that right now.

Here is one of my favorite generic bass lines R-3-5-6-8-6-5-3. You need two measures of the same chord for this.

This may help. http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showth...67#post9372867

Good luck. As you get a song to where you like it put it in your gig book.

Have fun.

[PhiDeck]

http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-M.../dp/0793563836

[fearceol]

You could practice arpeggios as in this link (post # 1 ). I found this exercise very helpful.

HOW TO PRACTICE ARPEGGIOS

[Chris K]

Take lessons.
Learn to play from lead sheets (as Malcom wrote) and from written music.
The latter will open the possibility to study just about everything.