• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

help me

Don't. I suggest getting a teacher. Still, if you want to learn by yourself: buy a book. And make sure you never play anything without understanding what's behind it.

For example: I can play the bass to 'The bad touch', by the bloodhound gang (it's easy, but kinda cool). So tuesday, my teacher taught me something about octaves. He made me think about it, and all of the sudden I realised that the whole bass was just made up of octaves! Looks like:

--5-5-5-5-8-8-8-8-----------------|
------------------8-8-8-8-6-6-6-6-|
-3-3-3-3-6-6-6-6------------------|
-----------------6-6-6-6-4-4-4-4--|
 
Dom Wannabe said:
im thinking of teaching myself bass. any suggestions or words of warning? anything will do. :confused:
If you are going to learn without a teacher, make sure you learn good playing technique. People who learn with bad technique often never unlearn it and it can be limiting. Find some good bass instruction videos.

You may want to at least take a few lessons here and there to help get some direction. Of course, this forum's not a bad place to go either. You will probably just get a lot of potentially conflicting advice. :)

- Dave
 
Start off with a teacher. Hell, you may even have a friend who knows a thing or two about bass and he can get you started free of charge. I spent my first 3 months of bass playing with a teacher. He was moving to slowly for me, even after I told him I felt I could take down more challenging songs and move up to slap bass. So, for the past 2 and a half years I've been teaching myself and I'm a slap bass whizz. The point here being, it's important to start off with a teacher, but they tend to eventually move at a slower pace than you feel you can move at.