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Bass in a Year

M

Mike Saville

May 27, 2008
72
0
UK
ww.howtopractise.com
#1
How good can you get in a year?

On any instrument.

Using good practice methods.

It's a question I've been asking myself for a while now. I've been giving advice to others on practice for the past five years in person and via my website. I've played as a professional musician in London and all over the UK in various orchestras, bands and shows. The trouble is that the practice I tend to do on my main instrument is of a maintenance type - I put in the hours of hard work many years ago. This has left me feeling a little detached from the feelings of the beginning musician.

What I'd like is to recapture some of those feelings of inadequacy, frustration, joy, excitement and everything else that being new to an instrument can bring. I also think it wil bring a huge benefit to the advice I offer others on practice.

So it's back to basics for me.

Or rather BASSics

What I'm going to do is to see how good I can become on the bass guitar in the space of a year. I'm going to commit to doing regular practice everyday in order to try and meet some goals (tbc). I'll post warts and all updates via fora and video so that everyone can see how well, or badly I'm doing.

This will also be a test of self-teaching and of how the internet can help you learn. If approached by someone in the same boat I would usually recommend going to a teacher - however this is part experiment so I'm going to go down the self-taugth route on this occaision. Who knows, next year I might learn something else with a teacher . . .. . .

Where am I now?
The good news for me is that I can read music without any problem at all. So I guess an advantage over those that are startign completely from scratch. I don't really read TAB so that's something I'll need to pick up. I did dabble for a few weeks with the bass a couple of years back but let's just assume that I'm a complete beginner (which is about my standard :) )

I've got a 5-string Ibanez Soungear Bass and a Marshall 4x10 combo. I'm not going to focus on gear as it's learning, technique and music I want to focus on. Better gear might make me better in future but not now.


Goals:
By the end of the year I would like to:
To be good enough to play in Jazz/Pop/Funk band
Play good gig within a year
Comfortably 'walk the bass' on basic jazz tunes
Read well enough to play in show

Preferred Styles:
Jazz, Soul, Big Band, Pop, Funk


Artists:
Earth Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Horn led pop, Buble, Sinatra, Connnick Jnr

Questions;
I have so many questions about all this it's tricky to know where to start. I'm really hoping that the above doesn't sound naive to more experienced bassists out there. I'm sure there are already some errors in my thinking - but hey, I'm here to learn :)

How good do you think I could get?
What materials would you recommend?
What techniques/exercises would you recommend?
Any good sites?
Video lessons?


I'm really looking forward to any tips, help or advice I can get. I'm going to continue to read and prepare for a week or two longer before jumping in with both feet.

Wish me luck! :eek:
 
#2
You can do it... I've had students that got good really quick, plus you arent really a beginner, the fact that you can read music already is a HUGE part... You already have basic understanding of rhythm and notes.. which is monumental!! You will be able to read and play almost anything you want very quickly if you practice alot...
Mindset is alot of it as well.. If you know you can get really good, then you will...
Get the year thing outta your head, I've had students in bands after 2 months..
It's just a matter of training your hands...

Good luck buddy...

Here's your first free bass lesson.. I use this song with my students because it's very very simple... and I like to show them that they can play a song in a day...
and it's not always that hard to be in a band.. : )

Here's the link
Learn this song real quick right now... and you are on your way...


eighth notes
D
A
B
G
And Walla!!
You're a bassist..
 
#5
You'll never have to contend with the confusion that is trying to understand your roll as a new bassist, since you clearly already understand that. For the true newb http://studybass.com helps clarify as to what your job is.

If you have musical experience on another instrument I bet you can be gigging within 6 months doing rock/pop covers...Jazz/walking in general is gonna be difficult though, you really have to know your fretboard to do it on the fly. I would say start with Blues walks first because at least they are all pretty much I-IV-V diatonic and in the most common keys.

70's style Meters finger style funk is gonna be fun and easy and you can be playing it tomorrow. Bootsy/Wooten style slap funk though that stuff is all hard won technique.

Reading TAB is not hard. I assure you, you can already read TAB as well as the next guy.

Make sure you learn your chords/arpeggios, pentatonic major, pentatonic minor, major and minor scales...Pentatonics are the bread and butter.

Remember there is more than one position/pattern to play pretty much anything in.

Don't neglect your low tones, I'm always thinking up from the root, but a lot of killer grooves come from hitting that low 5th, minor 7 etc.

Jam with a drum machine. Jam over chord progressions.

Your bass is tuned in fourths, in case you didn't realize it.

If you are playing finger style make sure your fingers lightly touch the string above the one you are plucking in order to mute it (your left hand mutes the high strings your right the low strings).

That's all I've got for now.
 
#6
you'll be able to do a lot in a year

it sounds like you'll need to get up to scratch on:

technique, bass-guitar specific phrasing, note choice, fulfilling the role of the bass, playing bass with a drummer etc

you're already a musician, so much of what you're doing is translating what you already know

most crucially, you'll know how to practice effectively... most new bass players don't know anything about technique, music OR how to practice... a triple handicap
 
#10
No doubt that with your background, you're in an excellent position to make much better progress than a raw rookie in music. You wrote "This has left me feeling a little detached from the feelings of the beginning musician". I'm just wondering if taking up the bass is going to change this though, as my worst frustrations as a rookie came not from playing the instrument as such, but from mastering a magnitute of musical concepts (i.e. theoretical stuff) - which you've already mastered.

Having said that - be prepared - the bass is an addictive instrument (I also play various instruments but for the last 2 years I just could not put the damn thing away to spend more time on the other instruments). In other words it's absolutely worthwhile and a majical experience!
 
#11
With the background you give, my guess is you can make a lot of progress in a year. I started about a year and a half ago, but have played percussion for 30 years. My background in music and reading helped get me functional pretty quickly in terms of playing and understanding concepts and the role of bass. Enough so that I found a band about 3 months after I started and we started gigging about 6 months later.

My biggest issues were technique and strength. I hadn't played a stringed instrument before, so it took a while to get my fingers doing what I wanted them to. Depending on your principle instrument, this may or may not be an issue. I feel that a teacher is key to learning good technique, so you might consider taking a few lessons just to work on mechanics.
 
#13
Guys, thank you so much for the input so far. Lots to be thinking about.

Normally I play either trombone or piano.

Some of the areas/concepts I'm feeling OK about. Others such as finger dexterity and learning the fretboard are completely alien to me at the moment.

I've got some ideas on some books I'm going to start with. What I don't have at the moment are any fingering/fretboard exercises. Anyone have any ideas on these? I'm guessing I'll need to start off gently. . . . .
 
#14
Mike Saville said:
Guys, thank you so much for the input so far. Lots to be thinking about.

Normally I play either trombone or piano.

Some of the areas/concepts I'm feeling OK about. Others such as finger dexterity and learning the fretboard are completely alien to me at the moment.

I've got some ideas on some books I'm going to start with. What I don't have at the moment are any fingering/fretboard exercises. Anyone have any ideas on these? I'm guessing I'll need to start off gently. . . . .
Click to expand...

I'd stick with musical exercises like arpeggios, I don't see much point in many of the other ones, that are just some sort of gymnastics. You can get a lot of mileage just knowing major and minor triads to start. Then walk a very basic blues using just those notes.

Avoid TABS at all costs.
 
#16
MattyBass said:
You can do it... I've had students that got good really quick, plus you arent really a beginner, the fact that you can read music already is a HUGE part... You already have basic understanding of rhythm and notes.. which is monumental!! You will be able to read and play almost anything you want very quickly if you practice alot...
Mindset is alot of it as well.. If you know you can get really good, then you will...
Get the year thing outta your head, I've had students in bands after 2 months..
It's just a matter of training your hands...

Good luck buddy...

Here's your first free bass lesson.. I use this song with my students because it's very very simple... and I like to show them that they can play a song in a day...
and it's not always that hard to be in a band.. : )

Here's the link
Learn this song real quick right now... and you are on your way...


eighth notes
D
A
B
G
And Walla!!
You're a bassist..
Click to expand...

:eyebrow:
I never realized just how easy that song was
 
#19
Mike Saville said:
I didn't realise that TAB was that bad???

But then again, I don't read it yet. . . . .
Click to expand...

No man! Everyone can read TAB. I assure you that you already know how to read TAB:

G----------------------------|
D-----------5--5------------|
A-----2--5--------5--2-----|
E--3---------------------3--|

That is a G major arpeggio written in TAB...but I'm sure you knew that already because reading tab is not a skill and you already know how to do it.

Not saying it isn't useful or that I don't use it when it's convenient, but nobody puts "can read tab" on their bass resume. It would be like putting "can turn on computer" on my web design resume.
 
#20
This reminds me of a Zen story:

A young monk once asked the abbot of his temple how long it would take for him to become enlightened. The abbot thought for a moment and said, "10 years." The monk then asked, "what if I meditated day and night and did more to become enlightened than any other monk here?" The abbot thought again and said, "20 years!"
 

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