The Usual.... How Do I Become a Better Bassist?

[grass132456]

Hey guys, as every musical instrument player, I would like to become a better bass player!

As of right now, I'm a jr. in high school, already playing 2 years of bass. I am in this really nice worship band and I have to say that these guys and girls are pretty decent. The average listen to each other and all that goodie stuff. So I want to focus on m skill.

I categorize myself as a less than average skilled bass player. I really can only play fingerstyle and I play the root notes. I can feel the rhythm and stuff so rhythm is not a problem. I really only play root notes and occasionally add in an extra note here and there. I'm not planning to do anything insane like a slap bass solo or something but how can I improve? Should I learn the scales? When I "practice", I put on some headphones, get my chordsheets ready, and just jam with the song. Is making up your own licks and better bass playing skills and techniques come from music theory?

[DeadHeadSF]

Originally Posted by grass132456

Hey guys, as every musical instrument player, I would like to become a better bass player!

As of right now, I'm a jr. in high school, already playing 2 years of bass. I am in this really nice worship band and I have to say that these guys and girls are pretty decent. The average listen to each other and all that goodie stuff. So I want to focus on m skill.

I categorize myself as a less than average skilled bass player. I really can only play fingerstyle and I play the root notes. I can feel the rhythm and stuff so rhythm is not a problem. I really only play root notes and occasionally add in an extra note here and there. I'm not planning to do anything insane like a slap bass solo or something but how can I improve? Should I learn the scales? When I "practice", I put on some headphones, get my chordsheets ready, and just jam with the song. Is making up your own licks and better bass playing skills and techniques come from music theory?

I read an article someplace where someone asked Les Paul about how to become a better guitarist. His one-word answer: "Practice".

But... how do you practice? What do you practice? These are things only a good teacher can answer for you when you're first starting out in music. Boring as it sounds, you must focus on scales and arpeggios at least some of the time. I don't mean just practicing scales by plodding metronomically through each scale - play with the scales a bit. Improvise with them, get to KNOW them (even if it doesn't sound very good to start, it will improve faster than you think). The key is to practice intelligently, not just practice.

Don't overdo it though. My daily routine is to do no more than 10-15 minutes of actual scale/arpeggio practice BEFORE I play anything else... I do this more as a warmup than anything else. You can learn more in 15 minutes of focused "intelligent" practice than you can in 3 hours of plodding through exercises. But you need the guidance of a teacher, at least at the beginning.

And if you can't already, learn to read music... it opens up a whole new world of possibilities and greatly eases learning new material.


EDIT: Also see this thread: How did you design your practice session?

[ksandvik]

Practice things you can't do, not things you can do (that's mostly waste of time.)

[Marty Forrer]

Pick a song that you like, that sounds as though it's not too hard, and find it on youtube. Using the pause button, play the first bass line of the song over until it's in your head. Now find where the notes are on the bass. Repeat it until you can play it smoothly..... now go to the next line..... repeat the process.
This is how we learnt to play bass in the 60s and 70s, except we didn't have the benefit of computers.
When you've learnt the first song, go learn another... and another. Learning these songs will give you manual dexterity, give you an idea of where things are on your fingerboard, build you a repetoire of songs, and give you a library of patterns and riffs to apply to your original songs.
Scales, arpeggios and chords are important, but not essential to a beginner.
I played in a fully pro rock band when I was 17-18 without knowing any scales or theory. Now I'm not saying dont learn them, I'm saying do it in conjunction with more practical exercises.

[dmrogers]

Very good advise so far. I would like to add my humble tips as well.

Music is made up of notes and chords. Chords are made up of notes. So, it is important to learn your notes. It is also important to learn how chords are formed. A good way to do this is to start off learning your scales. At first, it might seem boring, frustrating, or not worth it. However, at some point, it will start to click and things will become much easier.

I am not going to go into theory, keys, notes scales or things like that now, because, you can find enough information on this forum (and posted links) to keep you busy for months. Many people have posted so much helpful information and links that will go a long way in learning to become a better musician.

Check out some of the threads and keep a notebook handy.

Good luck!

[Rickett Customs]

How good is your theory? There's always something to work on.... how about stripping away everything that you know about guitar, when playing bass? (in other words, try not thinking like a guitar player)What do you typically gravitate towards (hearing), when listening to music? Try some different genres of music and focus only on the bass..........

[StyleOverShow]

You have the right attitude and if you can feel the rhythm, then as your technical proficiency increases, you will be able to 'add in an extra note' much easier.

You have yet to pass the start line. Life is long and if you stay with it, playing bass is an amazing thing.

[James Judson]

Practice, practice, practice and practice some more. Find some buddies to exchange licks, chops etc. Playing with other players is really good, short of that, turn on the radio and jam to that. Singing the bass line is a good step towards playing it.

All that other stuff the guys have said is good too. Learn it all.

A self taught bass player will eventually get bored and fall in a rut. Lessons should keep this from happening but it really happens to everyone so just push thru that.

Don't let anyone tell you there is a wrong way to play music (musicians like to say these kind of things).

And did I forget to say practice, practice, prectice. I have worn out many songs. Family members would frequently say "can't you play a different song".

[mambo4]

Lessons with a competent instructor will go a very very long way, assuming you do the homework.

[grass132456]

Haha, I had lessons, but the teacher wasn't the best and I was getting lazy. I somewhat know chords, like root, 3rd, 5th, octaves are good, 7ths, sus4, and some of that stuff from guitar chords. I also used to play piano, but my sightreading skills are poor. I can read notes, I just can't read them fast enough. I also have the bass grimoire, the book with all the scales including major, pentatonic, and the more exotic ones. Should I start on those? Should I find patterns in the scales like scales are the same position for each key, just moved up a fret?

[GeoffT]

Originally Posted by grass132456

Haha, I had lessons, but the teacher wasn't the best and I was getting lazy. I somewhat know chords, like root, 3rd, 5th, octaves are good, 7ths, sus4, and some of that stuff from guitar chords. I also used to play piano, but my sightreading skills are poor. I can read notes, I just can't read them fast enough. I also have the bass grimoire, the book with all the scales including major, pentatonic, and the more exotic ones. Should I start on those? Should I find patterns in the scales like scales are the same position for each key, just moved up a fret?

Chord tones. Master them, then spend a lot of time learing to apply them.

Go to: Free Online Bass Lessons | ScottsBassLessons.com and check out his lessons on Expanding and Developing Bass Lines for some great examples of how to apply chord tones and approach notes to see how much you can do with a solid foundation of just chord tones. This is the bulk of what we are expected to do as bass players. He also has some lessons on how to learn your chord tones/arpeggios to really get a handle on them so that you can play them efficiently from each finger.

Another great way to get chords down is this.

Scales are important to know and will provide even more things you can do but your best bet to get to the next level is chord tones. You are working from chord charts, the chordal instruments (guitar and keys) are playing the chords, so when you hit chord tones other than the root, they should work well almost all of the time. That is how you help outline the harmony along with them. Chords are less information than scales and much easier to apply in a way that sounds good, especially when working from a chord chart or chord progression. Once you get a handle on how you can apply them effectively, spend time on scales to open up your options even more.

The important thing is to spend a good portion of your time actually working out how you can apply them rather than just mindlessly grinding patterns, whether they are chords or scales. If you spend all of your time just working the patterns you will get very good at sounding like you know your patterns, rather than getting good at making music. You do have to spend some time on the patterns so that you develop the familiarity and facility to apply them more efficiently and in a more musical way without having to think about where the notes are.