Starting bass without a bass

Mikewl · #1 12-09-2003, 04:24 PM

Hi there.
I am starting bass lessons soon; I've played violin for about 12 years, and now I want a change. So the thing is this: I wanted to rent a bass for a couple of months before I buy one. The only bass shop in my state has rented out all of their basses for summer, and will only get some back late-january. Now I've also arranged lessons for me - I'm learning jazz from a great jazz bassist in the area, but I was wondering if there's any point in taking lessons for 6 weeks if I won't be able to practice anything on a bass in that time. Coming from classical violin, I really know little about how jazz is played - is there anything theoretical he could teach me that would make playing easier?
Thanks for your help.

**Damon Rondeau** · #2 12-09-2003, 04:33 PM

Six weeks of theory without touching a bass? Save your money. DB is physical in the extreme, that's what you gotta deal with from the get go. You've been a musician for 12 years so I'm assuming you're not starting from scratch with theory.

Now, if you were to phrase that: can he teach me anything about JAZZ without a bass it's a different story.

davegr8house · #3 12-10-2003, 12:14 AM

Learning to read Bass Clef will help..

Alexi David · #4 12-10-2003, 10:17 AM

Hmm...You could spend your time learning a whole host of other stuff before you get the bass. You can improve your theory; you can spend a lot of time listening to bass playing - on records, live - there's many things you can do to educate yourself in the meantime. I was thinking of telling you to try some stuff on an electric bass, but that would be as detrimental, as they are different instruments (esp. physically!) If you already were an EB player though, it would have been ok.

This might sound a bit weird to some, but many times I've improved drastically away from my instrument just by doing mental exercises - visualizing the fingerboard and trying different note patterns, scales, etc. - and playing it back in my head. Sort of a Zen technique for Bass!

You can also spend a lot of time talking on the forum here, asking all the questions possible. You can get fantastic advice for playing bass even before you start, so you don't start out on wrong technique and have to correct it later (as I'm doing now).

Hope I could be of help

Alexi