Do you remember your progress?

[Spikeh]

This could be interesting... could also be very dull :P Write a single post, explaining your experience on bass.


In comparison to some people on here, I'm relatively new to the bass... I was bought my first bass on my 21st Birthday (a Westfield P-Bass), but didn't play it properly for a full year afterwards. I picked bits and bobs up, but never actually practiced or tried to learn anything. I've just turned 25.

After that year, I decided to have a jam with some friends in my garage - it quickly transpired that we all loved playing together (and man did me and my drummer suck at the time!) and wanted to start a band. The guitarist we were playing with had been playing for almost 8 years by that point and was a virtuoso - Steve Vai, Garry Moore style... used to be a metal head, but ended up getting very technical. He's now doing a Jazz degree at one of the UK's best universities. He was too good to be in a band with us newbies, plus he was going back and forth from uni all the time.

Anyway - I drafted in 2 guitarists and we jammed to some covers, quickly turning the jams into a band. At this point I was practicing 4 hours a day, learning exercises from the 'net, picking up technique from friends etc. I had 2 bass lessons, but they didn't teach me anything I couldn't learn on my own, so I quickly knocked them on the head. I bought an Active Fender Deluxe 4 string and a Trace Elliot 122H 300W Combo amp.

I got much better at that point and continued to practice as the band grew. We all grew together - which is what's made us so close now I think... there's no ego anywhere, we're all about the music and not about what we can put in to a song to show off to.

Now I've played around 10 or so gigs (not many, but we've been strugging with a singer for the last 2 years!) and got my technique down... I'm now entirely comfortable with slapping, popping, muting, 3 finger playing, singing & playing (bits and bobs) and I write some interesting (though not very complicated) bass lines... they're lines that I would never have thought I could do when I started, let alone write them.

In short, I love playing the bass - I have no inclination to ever learn guitar, though I would like to learn drums at some point. I'm just reflecting on 2 / 3 years of hard work put into the bass and my band... I'm constantly improving by pushing myself to the next level (although I don't practice anywhere near as much as I should / want to due to time restrictions).

I just want to say to any new bassists out there - no matter how disheartened you get with your ability, stick with it... form a band, or get some jams going with friends and hang around musicians - ESPECIALLY people better than you who are willing to show you a few tricks... it all adds up and helps with your development. I couldn't imagine life without bass now... sounds a bit sad I suppose, but I really do have a passion for it and I'm hoping that I never get RSI or CTS, or do anything that'll stop me from playing!

[Rakie]

I started playing bass in 2002, I had played flute since i was 8 years old and did all the middle school and high school stuff, got into complicated time signatures in high school with marching percussion, lot of my friend there (Still my best friends today) listened to Dream Theater, that opened an entire new world for me.

So, 2002: i have no money, a friend give's me a bass of his for a $10 a week fee, $120 for the bass, $10 a week is all i could get in high school... too much time for the band, no work but.. with all my time spent on flute, and listening to bands like dream theater, i cant stand learning an instrument slowly.

FIRST song i learned, Erotomania from Dream Theater, now i didn't play it well, but i could get through it, it took me 3 weeks, practicing a few hours a day just for my hands to get acquainted to the instrument and be able to play a complicated song, after that my second song was "The Awakening" from Les Claypool, this was the same, took FOREVER

then after that, i worked on building technique, learning how to slap and two hand tapping. I was able to play about the first 30 seconds of Norwegian wood, the Victor Wooten version, way way, way hard back then, all this done in maybe my first 7-8 months.

Then i decide i want a new bass... And i really look into it, and decide what i want, unfortunately i didn't have the money for a Dingwall, (LOL) so i scored a Lakland 55-01 on Talkbass from Chris A. (RIP thanks for my baby) A week later i get an SR506 Ibanez 6 string as well.

I love those basses, and start working on Technique again, mostly slapping.

2004: I don't focus on reading music, really my idea of playing the bass is sloppy as hell... I play flute, studied theory and all that crap under classical settings, never even at this point read ONE song written for bass, my approach to bass was "just mess around" which wasn't the best, but it did get me into playing some funky stuff on my own, i always loved the bass but never played it VERY seriously, it was what i did when i didn't want to practice flute.

One day im at my friends, my buddy was learning The Dance of Eternity (Guitarist) and he said "oh check this out" (He loads something up on Power tab) its a bassline, a very intricate one... i say "Who the hell is this ?" he looked at me blankly and said "you played that here, yesterday"

i was completely shocked and stunned, i always worked on old school funky finger stop type beats but, when i heard this i didn't believe it was me.

So, at that moment i decided what I needed to really work on was getting a tone, and put more into playing bass.

Present: All my playing revolves around tone. I sat for almost a year changing hand placement, muting technique's and working on improv.


Now, with just about 4 years of bass under my belt, this is what i sound like www.soundclick.com/rakie track 1 = Fingerstyle Track 2 = Slap.

Its not the only thing i want out of bass tho, i feel i now have a solid foundation to expand and elaborate on my playing skills and style, and over time define a tone of my own.


So, from then to now, it seems like im just getting started.