Self teaching with slight mentoring

[Spaceboy1980]

I am learning bass mostly solo with some slight mentoring by a friend that plays bass. I have no musical background.

My main issue I'm having with is buzzing and coordination with my pinky and ring fingers. I'm practicing the major and minor triad in C to work on this. Does this sound like a good strategy?

To memorize the notes on the fretboard I'm playing a single note in all of it's locations and choosing another once I can do it the next day without thinking about it. So far I've conquered E and A. Any advice on note memorization?

Thanks for any and all guidance!

[germ_77]

For the buzzing make sure you are practicing slow enough so that you can play them cleanly. Play around and find the right spots and how hard to press so that it does not buzz.

Then play slowly, if it starts buzzing again play slower so that you have enough time to get your hand in the right place so that it is clean, then slowly start speeding up.

As long as you can get each note to sound clean without buzzing when playing just that note by itself then the bass should be fine and its just how you are playing the note. If you cant get it to sound clean by itself then it might be the bass causing it, may need to be setup.

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by Spaceboy1980

I am learning bass mostly solo with some slight mentoring by a friend that plays bass. I have no musical background.

My main issue I'm having with is buzzing and coordination with my pinky and ring fingers. I'm practicing the major and minor triad in C to work on this. Does this sound like a good strategy?

Yes and yes to what has already been said. Cut your gain back and figure out how you will be muting. You gotta mute someway. I play with my thumb so palm mute helps me. I also have some foam rubber at the bridge, (do a google) this helps, however gives an upright sound which you may not like. I do so I keep the foam rubber.

Practicing the triad is a good idea as that is what you will be playing most. However, right at first you may want to get your fingers doing a full 7 note scale, just so they know where to go. Say the name of the note as you sound it. IMO scales are for melody and chord tones are for accompaniment. As our instrument is an accompaniment instrument chord triads in muscle memory and scales to help our fingers move on the fretboard helps. You need both right at first. IMO

To memorize the notes on the fretboard I'm playing a single note in all of it's locations and choosing another once I can do it the next day without thinking about it. So far I've conquered E and A. Any advice on note memorization?

Sounds like a good way to do it.

[Ed Fuqua]

Originally Posted by SPACEBOY

My main issue I'm having with is buzzing and coordination with my pinky and ring fingers. I'm practicing the major and minor triad in C to work on this. Does this sound like a good strategy?

Depends on how long you've been working on it this way, doesn't it? If you have been doing this for awhile and getting no result, then maybe not. You know who is good at evaluating problems and coming up with solutions to address them? Teachers, that's who.

Originally Posted by SPACEBOY

To memorize the notes on the fretboard I'm playing a single note in all of it's locations and choosing another once I can do it the next day without thinking about it. So far I've conquered E and A. Any advice on note memorization?

Thanks for any and all guidance!

I'd have to disagree with the advice so far. It's not so much that you are "memorizing" where the notes are on the fingerboard as it is understanding their relationships to each other in scalar and chordal terms, as well as how that relationship plays out in 'geographical" location. My advice would be to start with the metronome at quarter note =60 bpm and play all your major scales as quarter notes, NAMING each note as you play it. When you can do that without any strain, timing issues or "fumbling" for the note name, move the nome click up two notches. Continue in this fashion until you get to 120 bpm. Then start over at 60bpm= eighth note and repeat.
When you finish this time, start over with the harmonic minor, then the melodic minor (jazz style, same going up and down, rather than "classical" which goes up one way and comes down the other). You might also want to search my posts to find a thread on an exercise for practicing triads and chords in all inversions. By the time you finish these exercises, you'll KNOW where all the notes are, how they relate to each other and how to get them up and down the fingerboard.

But again, rather than typing to a bunch of strangers, with a wide variety of skill sets, on the internet, sitting in the same room with a living, breathing humanbeing who has a MUCH deeper understanding of music than you is the BEST way to get deeper yourself.

Find a good teacher.

[Ed Fuqua]

To quote LeVar Burton, you don't have to take MY word for it:


From Danilo Perez, about BRADLEY'S -
“Learning first-hand through a teacher-student relationship has incredible value,” Pérez says. “Nothing compares to being in an environment where the people who are listening to you are the masters, who have lived the music, and are passing along that experience first-hand. To learn to listen, not to think that I have the answers to things, to learn to play with humility, because anybody can come and kick your ass on rhythm changes. What a challenge it was to play there. You heard Tommy Flanagan last week playing all these incredible things, and now you’re sitting in that chair. I miss it.”

[Spaceboy1980]

I'll take all the advice to heart. As for an instructor, that can't happen for a few years. I work nights and my wife works weekends so I have my four year old on the only time I would be able to take lessons.

BTW, the buzzing isn't coming through the amp, just it's loud on the fretboard.

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by Spaceboy1980

........BTW, the buzzing isn't coming through the amp, just it's loud on the fretboard.

Our beast just growls, gotta learn how to mute the strings, fact of life for a bassists. Google can help. If you use your fingers the floating thumb method is a good way to keep this under control.

If you use your thumb then palm muting is the way. If you use a pick - I suppose palm muting would work here also. I don't use a pick so I'm guessing.

[maxgrant]

You need to develop your hand strength. In order to do that, you need to learn the proper way to fret the notes. Fingers curved. Don't wrap your thumb around the neck. Don't bend your wrist too much.

To memorize note patterns you need to learn scales. I advise you looking up major scale patterns. Learn those scales, and learn to play them up and down the neck.

Doing that will increase your hand strength, and your knowledge of the fretboard at the same time.

The stronger your hands are the longer you can play, the more you can learn in one sitting, and the easier it will be for you to progress.

[bassandbeyond]

+1 to what Ed said. I sympathize with you if family obligations prevent you from going out to take lessons, but in the beginning, I do think it's important to get some personal guidance from an experienced player, in order to avoid developing bad technique habits. Perhaps you could find a teacher who can come to your house...

[Spaceboy1980]

I'm looking into babysitting so that I can take instruction. I think I can work it out if I can get a flexible teacher that will understand if I have to work on a Saturday.

I have been practicing with head phones on and I can hear what I play much better this way.

[maxgrant]

Originally Posted by Spaceboy1980

I have been practicing with head phones on and I can hear what I play much better this way.

+1000 to that. Both my son and stepson have this bizarre aversion to being amplified. To me, it is missing out on like 90% of the experience of playing music to practice in such a way that you can't hear yourself. Hearing what you are doing is immediate feedback on what works and what doesn't. Just hearing the clack of your strings on your frets, and not the fundamental note, is robbing you of the real sense of what you're doing rhythmically as well as harmonically. Notes aren't points in time -- they have duration too.

[Spaceboy1980]

Well this weekend I picked up a used ampeg micro vr amp and cab and it beats the crap out of my 15 watt ibanez amp.

I also got a copy of Hal Leonard Bass Method and it is a very good book! I was using Bass Guitar for Dummies and it is a nice manual but I think the Bass Method is better. I'm reading sheet music now instead of tabs and I understand it. It is coming together inside my head.

I'm able to use the line in on my newsed amp and play along with the included CD. This is very use full for practicing time since my ebay metronome crapped out on me.

Continual thanks for the guidance gang!