Guitarist learning bass

[MrBoy]

Hi there,

I just found this forum mentioned in passing by Paul Wolfe (How to Play Bass .com). I'd been looking for something like it for a while, is this THE online community for bass players as I hope?

I've been playing guitar, mostly rhythm for some years and just started getting into bass this year on an old Encore P-Bass.

The only other bass resource I know is ScottsBassLessons (SBL) which seems really great but not the cheapest and sadly even their forum is locked down to paying members only... I'm on a free trial now to evaluate it so if any of you fine people are members or have been, do let me know your thoughts (and you're welcome to find me on SBL).

Anyway, hi and look forward to seeing you around.

 

[W.Roberts]

Not to be PIMPIN' my own series of rather worthless and rambling video notes on my stuff () but one MUST check out Carol Kaye's bass and guitar instructional materials. I did. Utterly straight ahead no nonsense get down to it -- theory, reading, playing in general. She is the most recorded bassist who ever lived. Hundreds and hundreds of sessions throughout the 60's and 70's. She's tough, a babe at age 80 something and still kicking ass. She is what Jaco should have been and Jaco struggled through his music where Kaye makes it all so easy to learn either instrument old school like everyone was taught since the birth of jazz and Blues.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Welcolm, you might like talkingbass,com. For books anything written by Ed Feidland. Ed has a way of putting words together so I understand what he is talking about.

Coming over from guitar take your fake chord sheet music and play the chords one chord note at a time to the kick drum rhythm.

Start with just the roots, when that flows add the five R-5-R-5, and the eight is just above the five for R-5-8-5. That R-5-8-5 is about as generic as you can get and works over major or minor chords.

Most of what I do is in a major key, good ole I-IV-V, so R-3-5-3 also fits. It need not be rocket science.

 

[W.Roberts]

Whaa choo wanna do is get a standard dictionary and a music dictionary and study the very words and symbols of bass. You have to see it on music paper as well. You need a metronome. You need a sound to shoot for, a sound you can fully make your own. Find someone who turns you on on any instrument. Jaco was tuned to latin congas and bongos and that is essentially what his playing was -- conga and bongo rhythms set to melody and counter melody. Study someone, in other words. Transcribe as much as you can get your hands on. Come from somewhere musically. Pick a school, dig? Do these things if you want to become a player. If not, spend a lot of bread for trophy basses. There's many pictured on this site. I just don't know what any sound like.