Which Style

[mdsmith]

I've been messing around with the bass for about a year. No real structured practice, just learning some tabs of songs I like. Since I've been listening to more music with a focus on the bass, my musical taste has expanded to include R&B, funk and jazz, as well as the classic rock and reggae that I've always liked. So my question is, is there a particular style of music that is better to focus on in the beginning? Maybe a certain style that utilizes more techniques and theory then others. A style that if you learned, you should have no trouble learning others styles? Without knowing too much about it, I would think that jazz would be like this. Thanks

[Deacon_Blues]

I think classic rock, older soul / r'n'b, country, folk, blues etc. is a good start. They mostly feature simple and clear harmonies that are easy to learn by ear. When you have learned to play along to virtually any simple song within these genres by ear, you should have a gained solid understanding of basic harmony.

Latin (e.g. salsa) often feature rather simple harmonies too, but on the other hand the rhythms are be pretty challenging. Same thing could be said about a lot of the funk out there. Very good things to practice to learn to groove.

Jazz and soul are great styles for helping to build up a deeper understanding of harmony, rhythm and dynamics, but as ear training (which I see as one of the most important things every musician should learn as well as possible) it might be pretty challenging. However, there's "easy" stuff in most genres and it's great to practice a large variety of styles already from the beginning.

[fearceol]

Originally Posted by Deacon_Blues

I think classic rock, older soul / r'n'b, country, folk, blues etc. is a good start.

+1 for the blues. Also from listening to blues you can learn something that's not taught in any book or web site.... i.e. playing with feeling