Most common mistakes?

For starters I'd say not being able to relax, playing too fast and inaccurate

1. Dunno- I'm old.
2. Nosepicking. Boogers are bad for strings.
3. Find a good teacher, learn to read & work hard on your weakness(es).

I'd say if you are starting from scratch, it's important to learn good technique. This way you avoid physical trouble later on, as well as playing efficiently. The second thing I'd advise is to always use a metronome while practicing to improve and maintain your sense of timing. The third important thing IMO as Tobbo mentioned above is to relax and be patient. Learn at a pace that's comfortable for you and build up your speed s-l-o-w-l-y. Try not to be in too much of a hurry to be the next ...( insert your favourite bass player here ).

ChiefLongDong said:

1. What are some of the most common new player mistakes?

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Most importantly, get your new bass set up the first time at a local shop for EASIEST playing (low action) and ask them to show you what they're doing. Most new bassists fight their bass for a long time because they don't realize how badly it's set up. How could they? A new player has never seen/played a properly set-up bass. A badly set-up bass will hamper your progress significantly.

ChiefLongDong said:

2. What are some "bad habits" that should be avoided?

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Set your strap so the bass is in the same position standing up as sitting down. No matter how fly Trujillo looks, a bass hung that low is harder to play and will force poor fretting hand technique.

ChiefLongDong said:

3. If you could go back, what would be one piece of advice you give yourself as a beginning bass player?

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Party less, practice more. Learn to read music. Kiss Kim Horton at the Sadie Hawkins dance.

NEVER GET FRUSTRATED!

Find a good teacher. If you cant find/afford a good teacher, I would recommend using http://www.studybass.com - do the lessons carefully. He covers alot of good technique in the beginning.

One of the problems I tend to have (that my instructor is trying to break me of - unfortunately learned it wrong the first time from my initial instructor years ago...bad habits are hard to break!) is that I tend to get the neck of the bass in a death grip rather than letting the tip of the thumb keep the left hand in place while the fingers are ready to press down on the strings. I do fine when I'm paying attention to the left hand, but as soon as I start concentrating on something else, the left hand tends to do what it's used to doing... So I would say, not only get a teacher, but make sure your teacher knows what he / she is doing, as not only can you pick up bad habits when learning on your own, but a teacher (esp. one who is self-taught) may teach you their own bad habits... Pat

1/ Get a teacher/mentor. Learn proper technique. If I could time-machine back & tell myself one thing . . .
2/ Get teacher/mentor to get the bass set up properly for your playing.
3/ Keep it enjoyable. Keep learning & growing, but keep it enjoyable.

1. Playing too many notes.
2. Playing too many notes.
3. Not playing so many notes.

...okay, well, maybe it's not that simple, but it just amazes me how many bassists (including myself, once upon a time) choose speed and filling each measure chock full. Learn what "groove" and "pocket" are all about first. If you can consistently nail both of those, you'll get the gigs.

Great questions to ask for getting started!

1. What are some of the most common new player mistakes? 2. What are some "bad habits" that should be avoided?

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-left hand 'death grip': you don't need to fret that hard, if your bass is properly set up.
-strap too low, causing bad wrist angels: keep your bass at a level that allows you to keep both wrists more or less straight
-not using a metronome.
-focusing all your attention on your own part and not listening to the sound of the band as a whole: bass is generally a supportive ensemble instrument.
-Favoring Pop /Slap /Tap /Shredding over Harmony, Theory and musicality.
-Ignoring genres besides one's favorite.
-spending all the money on gear and none on lessons

3. If you could go back, what would be one piece of advice you give yourself as a beginning bass player?

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-take lessons
-practice notation reading from the start
-each time you learn the bass line to a new song, get a chord chart and analyze what chord each part of the bass line is supporting.
-take vocal lessons : bassist who can sing back up vocals can get more gigs.

Lots of good advice above. Get to know your instrument, eventually you'll want to know how to do a set-up. Also get to know the history of your instrument, the role the bass usually plays and study some of the players who've made a difference.

Hi there, Chief.

I don't know your past musical training and experience, so I'll assume zero.

All the posts about getting instruction regarding proper technique are right on point. The most common mistake I see, however, which IMO most frequently causes new players to become frustrated and quit or significantly retards their ultimate progress (especially would-be guitarists), is to approach their instrument as solely or primarily a study in technique and short changing the importance of learning music theory (including sight reading).

If you've already had a few years of piano training, this is easier to recognize. The music theory you learn playing the piano doesn't have to be re-learned for subsequent instruments, which then can be approached as primarily stduies in instrument technique.

When I was 7 years old and my hand wasn't quite large enough to fit around the necks of the guitars available to me, my mother decided to give me accordion lessons instead and, of course, she saw that I practiced every day. By the time I was in the 7th grade, the junior high band/orchestra instructor had me playing a different instrument every year. What a treat! He and I would sit down a couple of weeks before school was out and I'd get to decide what instrument I wanted to play the next year. He'd give me a 2-week crash course in technique after school, loan me a school instrument and instruction materials for the summer and I'd report--ready to march with the instrument--in the fall. I played tenor sax, baritone sax, various types of drums and had a ball.

When I decided to try guitar again (at age 14 and, soon thereafter, electric bass), it came very quickly because I could focus almost entirely on technique. I knew scales and arpeggios and chord inversions. I could read trable and bass clefs. I understood key signatures and time signatures. I knew the circles of fifths and fourths. And I still use this information every time I play. (Thanks, Mom.)

Good luck with your bass. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I have and for as long. Just take the time to learn music, in addition to learning the bass, and it will happen.

Bluesy Soul

Don't pluck with just one finger on your right hand (assuming you're right-handed). Use at least two, alternating index-middle.

Don't fret with anything less than all four fingers on your left (fretting) hand. Use your thumb, not your palm, to provide leverage. Train your pinky strength!

Practice with a metronome, or at least a drum machine. Learn songs. Find a drummer to practice with as soon as you feel comfortable.

And...find a teacher!

Don't touch the truss rod! read up about the parts of the bass and what their function is first

Besides the wealth of GREAT information already posted, here's what I think are some common mistakes beginners make.

A. Confusing physically playing the bass with making music. You gotta learn where to put your fingers, but that's not the ultimate goal. You need to learn about the language of music and how to make music, not how to play songs. It's tough because you DO need to learn to play songs, but merely regurgitating the fingerings someone shows you isn't playing the song.

B. Being attracted to the "cult of personality" in bassists instead of digging the bass function. Being drawn to Geddy/Claypool/Zender/Mark King/Jaco/Stanley/Victor/Squire/Jack Bruce whomever because they play a lot of bass rather than because of how they function musically. I'm not saying that you should avoid any of these guys- I'm saying learn how they work musically so that you can emulate the music, not the chops.

C. Playing like a guitarist.

D. Thinking your time is "good enough". Learn to play with an independent time source giving you only part of the beat. That means if you use a drum machine, set it to only give you a snare hit on 2 and 4 rather than a full-blown groove. It's EVERYONE's job to KEEP time, and if you need all the drum set to keep time, you're not doing your job.

E. Limiting one's musical exposure to limited genres. A "well rounded" musician isn't one who only knows lots of different rock musics. The bass' function is the same ultimately in jazz, pop, rock, metal, classical, country, hip-hop, etc. Dig into how players in different styles approach and fulfill that function.

jte

ChiefLongDong said:

I will be receiving my first bass from the brown truck sometime next week. In the time before it comes, I'm trying to learn as much as possible about playing bass.

My questions are:

1. What are some of the most common new player mistakes?

2. What are some "bad habits" that should be avoided?

3. If you could go back, what would be one piece of advice you give yourself as a beginning bass player?

Thanks.

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1)
- Playing too much stuff that you don't like
- Playing too much before you're physically ready.
- crappy instrument
- poor setup (mile high action and nut)

2)
- Incorrect fretting hand position is the biggest one. The thumb should always be behind the neck, the neck should never be held in the palm of the hand (unless it's necessary for your style, such as slap) or cradled in the crooks of the fingers. Don't let the thumb wrap around the top of the fingerboard, even tho you literally see this all the time.

3)
-if I had it to do all over again, I'd have started on the fretless. The fretless is far less friendly towards poor technique, so it forces you into good basics (like fretting hand position I talked about earlier) a bit harder ( very important for inherently poorer players like myself).

LS

shoulder tension. when yo play relax your shoulders and upper arms. it all needs to be loose. speed is also a beginners mistake, they think that fast is good. it's usually fast and sloppy. good luck.

fearceol said:

I'd say if you are starting from scratch, it's important to learn good technique. This way you avoid physical trouble later on, as well as playing efficiently. The second thing I'd advise is to always use a metronome while practicing to improve and maintain your sense of timing. The third important thing IMO as Tobbo mentioned above is to relax and be patient. Learn at a pace that's comfortable for you and build up your speed s-l-o-w-l-y. Try not to be in too much of a hurry to be the next ...( insert your favourite bass player here ).

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Well said....start off by learning the basics first..proper hand technique and positioning so that you can get better faster. Playing with a metronome is by far the best way to improve as a bassist.

Master what you are working on before moving on.

Following that, once you have mastered said item, move on, DO NOT PLAY THE SAME THINGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN. That is a fairly common problem; I see a lot of newer bassists that can play a handful of line at uber lightning speed, but ask them to lay down a simple blues line and you get responses similar to the following