Teach Me! (Absolute Music Beginner)

OysterBoy · #1 09-19-2004, 07:12 PM

Hey, first music-related forum I've joined, seems pretty cool. I used to be huge into paintball, had tourney-grade gear and went fairly often. Then I realzed what a waste of money and effort it was.. I soon after realized some musical talent could help. Immediatley I went for bass, I love the sound. I know nothing, however, about music. I'm a quick learner though. Previous music experience.. uhm.. I own a Yamaha Acoustic which is badly out of tune, and I can play... lets see, the Peter Gunn theme song..

. Yes, its sad. With very little budget (Slowly increasing), is there anything I can learn? Spill any info, and hopefully I can make some sense of it. Some things which may help; recommended beginner bass', helpful web sites, possibly even teachers if anyone is familiar with my area...

Thanks.

Munjibunga · #2 09-19-2004, 07:37 PM

Learn to sing the bass part of every song you want to play. Once you can sing it, it's much easier to work out the patterns.

Mostly, take lessons, and learn formal musical notation.

freshmeat1989 · #3 09-19-2004, 08:24 PM

Hmmmmmm, dont know any helpful websites...

I would recommend a Squier MB-4 or something from www.rondomusic.bigstep.com.

OysterBoy · #4 09-20-2004, 02:23 PM

Thanks guys. I'm buying a friends old Ibanez, not sure of the model yet. He's replacing the strings and making sure it hums right, once I find out more I'll post info. He's asking $130 canadian, and he paid around $300 canadian, and its still in good condition; he bought a warwick so he has no need for the Ibanez

.

Already got the name of a highly reffered tutor, $17CDN lessons which doesn't sound bad, plus he'll teach me everything I need to know about music.

7 Stringer · #5 09-20-2004, 02:27 PM

Just play and enjoy. The more you enjoy it, the more you play and the better you get, which means you enjoy it more and so on... Welcome to the low end !!

**embellisher** · #6 09-20-2004, 06:36 PM

Welcome to Talkbass, and to playing the bass.

Since your post asks a lot of different questions, I am moving it to the Miscellaneous forum.

i like tictacs · #7 09-20-2004, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OysterBoy

Hey, first music-related forum I've joined, seems pretty cool. I used to be huge into paintball, had tourney-grade gear and went fairly often. Then I realzed what a waste of money and effort it was.. I soon after realized some musical talent could help. Immediatley I went for bass, I love the sound. I know nothing, however, about music. I'm a quick learner though. Previous music experience.. uhm.. I own a Yamaha Acoustic which is badly out of tune, and I can play... lets see, the Peter Gunn theme song..

. Yes, its sad. With very little budget (Slowly increasing), is there anything I can learn? Spill any info, and hopefully I can make some sense of it. Some things which may help; recommended beginner bass', helpful web sites, possibly even teachers if anyone is familiar with my area...

Thanks.

I was in your boat not too long ago. I made the jump from that hellish paintball to music and never looked back. I even posted at AO, PBR, PBN, etc, and played NPPL, yadda yadda...

OysterBoy · #8 09-20-2004, 06:57 PM

Just found out, the Ibanez I'm buying is a GSr100, not sure is its any good but I'm buying it.

Against Will · #9 09-20-2004, 08:21 PM

I would suggest, for learning music theory, rhythm and reading music:

"Edly's Music Theory for Practical People"

It's a fun little book that's not to intimidating and can give you a pretty thorough understanding of how to read music, how to play it, and how to create your own music.

Also: As Mentioned before, finding a teacher is a must, even if he's usually a guitarist, (which hopefully, it won't come to that), having someone just show you around the fretboard and understanding the basic way to play the bass.

stropsrats · #10 02-17-2005, 08:48 PM

I'll tell you like it is- there are two kinds of people to learn from : 1) the so called 'loopers'. This means people who use computers.. You must have one since you posted. So, you could download guitar pro demo version and use if for awhile and learn a whole lot about music. Scales, - try blues scales first and watch as an example plays, not just the fretboard roadmap. Check out the sound of other scales too. Spend time on it- the midi sound is all about learning music, not craftsmenship.

The second kind of person you will soon bump up against is what I call War Lords, or they may say 'old school' musician. These are more concert oriented, learn by listening to your favorite song and simply peck it on out. Very studious types, they just don't use MIDI keyboards, which are required for any serious computer work. Also for $10 you can get a CD that does reverse chord lookups and identification. You may laugh, but in modern electric guitar work, the giutars rarely use more than three string chords because the volume would cause the ear to hear distortion - and I mean that which is cause by physiological stress on the ear. This is the reason so much study goes onto exactly how a guy who can pick like the iceman should play his iddy biddy 6 string part. You may have that on bass too above 100db, but playing several string chords, slides, hammer ons and such are good to learn about right away and you should find being a bassist really isn't a bad thing, it's almost easier and better if you get started right. But you have to remember who teaches what, that's all I'm saying here.