| Beginner's Luck (Newbie Fun)
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My wife's not musical, my teacher I don't see for a week, and my day job is spent on a massive data warehouse project ... so I can't really bring this up anywhere. You TBers will have to do. You'll understand.
Had my bass all of 4 days now. Wanted to learn for 25 years, just now starting. (Background: I know a bit of theory from my mis-spent youth). Had my first formal bass lesson yesterday. Worked on fundamentals of good left and right hand technique, just trying to get that nailed so I don't cripple these old hands. Went home with instructions to practice that, do some chord and scale practice, and "have some fun, too: play around with it".
So, I did. Last night, plugged my MP3 player into my amp (Line 6 studio 110). Selected a song I'm fond of, ballad-type thingy, slow tempo. Started plucking away at my bass, cursing a bit, felt totally lost. Finally, I hit a note (C) that rang right along with the bass in the song. Bingo! Messed around a bit more, finally figured out a little 3 note progression that gets repeated. Built on that. Lots of dead ends. Lots of "dang, what *is* that note?" Many wrong notes. Some occasional rude words.
Then it jelled.
The grin on my face may well have caused some hairline fractures in my jaw. I was bouncing around the living room to the music, playing along, each note *rang* when I hit it. It damn near felt like the band was right there with me. Got to the end of the song. Thought, "nah, that can't be possible". Thinking it just had to be me enjoying the studio bass, I changed the EQ on my MP3 player, muted the low end a good deal, nudged my own amp up in the mix, and gave it another try.
Same thing. I had it.
Now, that was fun. It got better. Remember, I'm 40, haven't touched an instrument since I told my folks I was far too cool for piano lessons back when I was 12 (BIG mistake). I've brushed up a bit on theory over the last month in anticipation of getting my bass, but that's it. So I'm playing along, and decide that now that I've got the pattern of this thing nailed on the fretboard, I'm going to figure out what the notes are.
There I am in my living room, 11 at night, kids are all asleep, wife's in the family room, I've got my headphones on, and I start singing the note names as I play them on the fretboard. Not loud, mind you, just enough that I can hear myself. "A B ... C, G,E,F", repeat the pattern a bit. Remember, this is a fairly simple, ballad-type thing. Then there's a bit of a change "D E F, A B C" that repeats. There's a bit there where there's a 3 or 4 measure rest for the bass. I get to the end of it, hit that "A" from the first sequence, and completely unbidden, the though hits me "This is in the key of A minor." Yep. Minor key (the tune is kind of morose), no sharps or flats in the lot of 'em. It's A minor.
Then, I started improvising a bit the next time through, now that I knew the key and the chord progression. Whee! Drew myself a quick staff, scribbled the notes down, looked for an extra 3rd or 5th to add a bit later in the song for flavor, a passing note here. Now the bass part was mine, all mine.
This is better'n drugs. How come no one told me about this? Ye gods, all the wasted years. I've got some catching up to do. Three day weekend coming up. More practice time!
I know this is probably beginner's luck, but I damn sure want to get back in that zone again. This will serve as some fine motivation to continue slogging through left-hand technique exercises, arpeggios, et cetera. Oh, and I actually *want* to transcribe more music now.
Just had to tell someone. Thanks for listening.
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"The life so short, the craft so long to learn."
US Peavey Cirrus Club member #66
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