Any Tips for a Newbie?

[dave64o]

... but there are a million ways of making things harder for yourself

The point isn't to make things more difficult for yourself. The point is that you simply need to put in the work needed to improve. The only "trick" to getting better is to realize that there is no trick. But unfortunately it's easy to get distracted looking for a trick and when you do that you miss out the obvious answer.

That has nothing to do with bass. You can apply that to anything.

 

[HeadyVan Halen]

I wouldn't get a metronome...Why?
Drummers don't play like that..learn to keep time internally...How?
By practicing your a$$ off...try to play songs differently everytime for 2 reasons

1.) it won't get boring
2.) help with your improv

AND PRACTICE YOUR EAR!!!Leave tabs alone

 

[the general]

Practice. Do exercises(and there are plenty suggestions on this website for exercises) are also important. But with learning songs what helped me the most was playing along with the actual song. And enjoy yourself. If you can't play a certain song, don't give up keep at it and you will succeed.

 

[sfarnell]

Usually, Stumbo jumps in and provides this link, but I'll go ahead and do it.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9887651&postcount=2

/thread

Thank you. I haven't perused it all but it is obvious to me that it will be extremely helpful.

I'm a guitar player and have been for 48 years. But I've always wanted to play the bass too. Now I have some time and I'm going to learn some technique and take a few lessons. I have a strong background in theory so I hope that helps. Right now, reading bass clef is kind of kickin' my butt, but that's coming along I guess.

Are there any guitar players out there who switched to bass and who have some suggestions on what pitfalls to avoid in learning the bass after playing guitar for so long?

BTW, you guys were very helpful to me in choosing some bass gear. I ended up buying a Mesa Walkabout Scout and a Fender MIJ Jazz Bass. Thanks for all of the help.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Are there any guitar players out there who switched to bass and who have some suggestions on what pitfalls to avoid in learning the bass after playing guitar for so long?

We old time 6 string guys seem to have a tendency of filling our bass lines too full. Roots, 5's 6's and 8's are generic and play a lot of bass. Gather some generic bass lines and put them into muscle memory. We play chord tones one note at a time. Nothing wrong with a root groove.

I've had trouble finding bass clef sheet music. Lot of fake chord and lead sheet, but finding bass clef, beyond piano stuff, which has been written for piano, not bass guitar. So I play mostly from lead sheet or fake chord - that means I compose my bass line as all I'm given is the chord name. Recognize that for what it is. I play using the major scale box and have my favorite bass lines in muscle memory. Much like we did our scales, this time with chord tones. R-3-5-3 is one of my favorite major chord lines and then R-b3-5-b3 is it's counter point for a minor chord. I Like R-R-3-3-5-5-6-5 or just some plain ole R-5-R-5. Find the ones you like. It need not be complicated at first. A chromatic run to the next chord is one of our basic tools of the trade - target the next chord's root note - miss it - then walk to it and be on it for the 4th beat. Brings up the question what is a walking bass line? Any thing that moves the song to the next chord - i.e. walks the song to the next chord. We used to have 102 melody licks now we have 102 bass lines we could use. I never had more than a hand full and that's all I need for the bass.

That will get you started - welcome and have fun. www.studybass.com is a friend. With your 6 string and theory experience the bass will be a piece of cake.

 

[Stumbo]

We old time 6 string guys seem to have a tendency of filling our bass lines too full. Roots, 5's 6's and 8's are generic and play a lot of bass. Gather some generic bass lines and put them into muscle memory. We play chord tones one note at a time. Nothing wrong with a root groove.

+1

I've had trouble finding bass clef sheet music.

Here's a link to a TB thread covering sources of bass clef music.

 

[Chris K]

I wouldn't get a metronome...Why?

Very bad advice.

Leave tabs alone

Very good advice. Learn to read music instead.