Complete Beginner

[Florida17]

How you doin I want to learn to play bass i played guitar for a couple months.If i dont have any bass lessons around my area how should i learn do those bass books help?O 1 more question on bass can you pluck more than 1 string at a time? like guitar for the chords you pluck only the ones you are holding is it the same for bass?Thanks

 

[Deacon_Blues]

A bass instruction book for beginners would probably be very helpful. I never used one myself when I started out, but to avoid bad technique and eventual injuries it is probably better to start with a book.

Of course you can play more than one string at a time on bass. It just happens to be that in 99,999% of the music you will ever have to play, one note at a time is enough. That's what you should focus on. An electric bass and an electric guitar might look pretty similar, but the functionality of the two instruments are completely different. The bass is together with the drums providing the foundation for the other instruments to play over.

Listen actively to the bass lines on various recordings of various genres: pop, funk, rock, punk, metal, jazz, country, latin etc. In that way you will start to recognize what the function on the bass is.

Welcome to the world of bass! As soon you start to learn a little how to play, you will discover how powerful an instrument it is....

 

[Parabolic Box]

Look at Hal Leonard's Bass Method: Complete Edition by Ed Friedland... actually, I should probably pick up a copy.

And, yes, you can play chords. It doesn't sound as great, though, because lower frequencies do not have as great a frequency interval between notes. Of course, someone is going to refute me on that.

 

[Oscar South]

Personally I spent the first few months just learning and playing songs, RATM, Offspring, easier Chili Peppers etc. (whatever you listen to). Basically get into playing *music* rather than just monotonous exercises, you can only improve what you practice and I assume you want to be a 'musician' rather than a 'monotonous exercisitian' (of course they have their place, but not as the sole means to improve). Practice with a metronome (http://www.metronomeonline.com/) and get someone to check up on your developing technique every week or so too.

Also, get this book and apply everything in it to your bass playing Invalid Link Removed
Its cheap, its not too big, its presented in an easy way for a beginner to understand and it'll make you a MUCH better musician.

Of course theres also the boring but vital part... practice your scales and arpeggios, yes it isn't ideally what you'd always want to be doing when you're holding your bass but if you want to be a good player theres no getting around it.

 

[fearceol]

In the absence of lessons ( which I'd strongly advise ), the book "Bass Guitar for Dummies" is excellent IMO. It covers everything to do with bass and comes with a cd. Dont let the "D" word put you off.

Welcome to the "low end".

 

[Oscar South]

I found method books to be too academic to learn from as a beginner, you can't be 'tought' music.. the best education you can be given is to be guided down the pathways that are most likely to lead to your own personal discoveries as a player and musician, a teacher can provide this and a book can provide valuable information for you to assimilate under your own judgment, but a beginning player hasn't yet developed that judgment and tends to take any information handed to them at face value. You can learn to a degree like this, but its by far less rewarding and more limiting than making your own musical discoveries with or without assistance.

 

[Parabolic Box]

I found method books to be too academic to learn from as a beginner, you can't be 'tought' music.. the best education you can be given is to be guided down the pathways that are most likely to lead to your own personal discoveries as a player and musician, a teacher can provide this and a book can provide valuable information for you to assimilate under your own judgment, but a beginning player hasn't yet developed that judgment and tends to take any information handed to them at face value. You can learn to a degree like this, but its by far less rewarding and more limiting than making your own musical discoveries with or without assistance.

Of course you can be taught music.

In fact, it is through instruction that you save a lot of time in learning what sounds "good" (aka harmonic). And a good teacher will give you the basic tools you will need for your musical journey. It is a lot harder to learn once you've arrive at a bunch of self-conceived notions, and not everyone is willing to accept that some of those notions can be wrong. Dead wrong.

(For example, what if you went to a music teacher after a year of playing and the teacher told you what you were doing in fretting and picking were dead wrong because it could lead to wrist problems later on. Would it be so easy to change at that point vs. if you were a clean slate?)

Plus, you become sort of jaded about what you know vs. what you could learn. For example, one of the guitarists I know is self-taught. He knows chords, and arpeggios. He doesn't know what they're called. He gets arpeggios confused with scales, and keys confused with chords. It is somewhat hard to communicate with him. Now, I'll admit I'm not formally educated myself, but fragments of musical theory and books have seethed in enough to have at least some clue what I'm talking about. When he says something to the extent of, "Then I climb the scale of G, and go to E, and go down that scale. After that, I strum in the key of C."

Wait, what?

What does he say when I suggest he gets a teacher? "I'm good enough. I don't need a teacher. I understand what I'm doing."

Sure, but does anyone else?

 

[Oscar South]

Of course you can be taught music.

In fact, it is through instruction that you save a lot of time in learning what sounds "good" (aka harmonic). And a good teacher will give you the basic tools you will need for your musical journey. It is a lot harder to learn once you've arrive at a bunch of self-conceived notions, and not everyone is willing to accept that some of those notions can be wrong. Dead wrong.

(For example, what if you went to a music teacher after a year of playing and the teacher told you what you were doing in fretting and picking were dead wrong because it could lead to wrist problems later on. Would it be so easy to change at that point vs. if you were a clean slate?)

Plus, you become sort of jaded about what you know vs. what you could learn. For example, one of the guitarists I know is self-taught. He knows chords, and arpeggios. He doesn't know what they're called. He gets arpeggios confused with scales, and keys confused with chords. It is somewhat hard to communicate with him. Now, I'll admit I'm not formally educated myself, but fragments of musical theory and books have seethed in enough to have at least some clue what I'm talking about. When he says something to the extent of, "Then I climb the scale of G, and go to E, and go down that scale. After that, I strum in the key of C."

Wait, what?

What does he say when I suggest he gets a teacher? "I'm good enough. I don't need a teacher. I understand what I'm doing."

Sure, but does anyone else?

Man, I am fed up of people just picking up on a few words or a phrase from one of my posts and running off a bunch of rabble thats completely unrelated to my overarching message.

First, I want you to read my original post in this thread (thoroughly) as the second post is a continuation of that elaborating on the post by fearceol.

Then I want you to re-read my second post (the whole of it, not just the first half of the first line) and understand my reasoning in it.

Then I want you to re-read your own post, and re-work it so that its actually relevant to anything I said.

Thanks.

 

[Drifta]

where is spring hill florida? If you are in or close to broward county pm me i know of a good bass instructor.

 

[Parabolic Box]

Man, I am fed up of people just picking up on a few words or a phrase from one of my posts and running off a bunch of rabble thats completely unrelated to my overarching message.

First, I want you to read my original post in this thread (thoroughly) as the second post is a continuation of that elaborating on the post by fearceol.

Then I want you to re-read my second post (the whole of it, not just the first half of the first line) and understand my reasoning in it.

Then I want you to re-read your own post, and re-work it so that its actually relevant to anything I said.

Thanks.

I'm not going to get into a fight about this because, frankly, it's a waste of time, but your overarching message appears to be, "Playing songs, written by other people, with no prior musical knowledge will make you a musician. After you become a 'musician', you can learn all the smaller parts of music, because only then is teacher useful."

You tell me exactly what parts of that is incorrect, why it's incorrect, and why a person who has no prior knowledge of how to play a bleedin' bass needs to develop judgment first, before learning proper technique as to not plague them later.

How about you read my entire post because you misunderstand the points I attempt to make and see that I am not simply addressing what you said, but stating a generality.

Sometimes, you need to take things at face value. Learning common patterns first (even if it may seem to no end) can be helpful in understanding existing lines. Tell me what benefit is it to you, musically, to learn written bass lines if you have not even cursory knowledge of music theory? Sure, you can incorporate their travel shapes into your own playing, but it's a lot simpler to understand what the bassist is doing in relation to the roots he is playing, and the progression of the song as a whole if you have the knowledge of patterns already there.

But I digress. Saying, "HAY GUYZ, I CAN PLAY HIGHER GROUND!!" is enough for some people.

Thank you.

 

[Oscar South]

I'm not going to get into a fight about this because, frankly, it's a waste of time, but your overarching message appears to be, "Playing songs, written by other people, with no prior musical knowledge will make you a musician. After you become a 'musician', you can learn all the smaller parts of music, because only then is teacher useful."

Personally I spent the first few months just learning and playing songs

Also, my post was obviously not arranged in a chronological order of what order to do things in.

You tell me exactly what parts of that is incorrect, why it's incorrect, and why a person who has no prior knowledge of how to play a bleedin' bass needs to develop judgment first, before learning proper technique as to not plague them later.

This is just random rubbish unrelated to anything I've said, you've taken a vague concept I touched on and spun it into a theory that is contradicted by this:

get someone to check up on your developing technique

Which I posted before even being inspired to post my follow up.

How about you read my entire post because you misunderstand the points I attempt to make and see that I am not simply addressing what you said, but stating a generality.

You raged out about a statement that only exists in the context of the first half line in my post (the retort to your own statement is in the next 2 lines, fyi) and then started on about a bunch of random and unrelated examples to back up your non-point.

Sometimes, you need to take things at face value. Learning common patterns first (even if it may seem to no end) can be helpful in understanding existing lines.

Every good bass teacher on the planet, and pretty much every notable bass player ever has said this and will continue to: "MAKE IT MUSICAL", its a bit of a vague statement I know, so you'll have to read into it yourself, Jaco talks about it on his DVD if you want to be spoon fed it at face value. Also this:

Also, get this book and apply everything in it to your bass playing http://www.amazon.co.uk/AB-Guide-Mus.../dp/1854724460
Its cheap, its not too big, its presented in an easy way for a beginner to understand and it'll make you a MUCH better musician.

Of course theres also the boring but vital part... practice your scales and arpeggios, yes it isn't ideally what you'd always want to be doing when you're holding your bass but if you want to be a good player theres no getting around it.

Tell me what benefit is it to you, musically, to learn written bass lines if you have not even cursory knowledge of music theory?

I had a ton of fun playing cover songs with my friends, I enjoyed every minute of it and in inspired me to start taking bass playing seriously and look into other aspects of music, I'm now at university studying music and performance specializing in electric and upright bass and will probably progress into a career in music, playing bass.

Sure, you can incorporate their travel shapes into your own playing, but it's a lot simpler to understand what the bassist is doing in relation to the roots he is playing, and the progression of the song as a whole if you have the knowledge of patterns already there.

This again!:

Also, get this book and apply everything in it to your bass playing http://www.amazon.co.uk/AB-Guide-Mus.../dp/1854724460
Its cheap, its not too big, its presented in an easy way for a beginner to understand and it'll make you a MUCH better musician.

Of course theres also the boring but vital part... practice your scales and arpeggios, yes it isn't ideally what you'd always want to be doing when you're holding your bass but if you want to be a good player theres no getting around it.

Hoping I wouldn't notice you selectively ignored that part of my post as the basis of you're entire argument.

But I digress. Saying, "HAY GUYZ, I CAN PLAY HIGHER GROUND!!" is enough for some people.

Killing in the Name was the bassline to know back in the day.

Thank you.

Actually thank you, I laughed out loud at this poorly placed sarcastic remark .

I've not gone into much detail here, but your main error is to take a statement or phrase from my post and start an argument based on it without considering how I elaborate on that statement in my own posts, there are retorts to ALL your arguments contained in my two relatively short posts.

 

[Parabolic Box]

Fair enough. My apologies.

 

[Oscar South]

No problem, I know that some of my concepts don't come across very easily on the net. Theres a specific name for the method of teaching I was talking about (regarding not being able to be directly 'tought' music and having "to be guided down the pathways that are most likely to lead to your own personal discoveries"), I got it from a book called Ishmael (or maybe The Story of B., the sequel) but I can't remember the word for it.