As some of you may know I am a new player and over the past few weeks I have been trying to get the fretboard figured out and working on some dexterity for my fat fingers not to mention working on some music theory, and it's been going ok I guess.
The last few days I have been working on seeing if I could actually make some "music" with my bass.
This week I started working on Victor Wooten playing Sinister Mister with Beta Flec and the Flectones mostly to see if I could even come close to pulling it off and it has been very educational for me as a new player.
I know it's not a hard piece for most of you but doing this has really made me see some things and have a blast while doing it. I haven't been working on all the things Wooten does but just that basic bass line that makes the song feel the way it does.
So I started by finding the notes and trying to play along. The first day I was all over the place and lagging way behind and getting lost. But it was amazing how within a few days of working at it a little at a time how things started falling together, first single notes, then the doubles like the song, then the feel started coming around I found I didn't have to think so much about what I was doing with my right hand and I realized that I didn't have to play the F up the neck on the D string but instead played it at the 8th of the A which meant I didn't have to move my left hand up and down the neck. Then all of a sudden my hands relaxed a bunch and playing became easier and more casual and less like work.
I know it seams like a no brainier but just spending time playing a tune and working on the fretboard this way has been quite an education, and to be able to actually play and have it sound "right" is great.
I know that all the theory stuff and memorizing the notes on the fretboard is very important but the past couple days have been a blast and given me hope that even though it will take time to become "good" I can see that even this old man can learn new tricks.
