Help.... Newbie wanting to learn BG

[shaundolan70]

Hello all, I’m new to this forum, well.... I must be going through a midlife crisis?! I’m in my early 50’s and decided to learn Bass Guitar! I was hoping someone could give me pointers as to who or what online classes I can sign up for to learn the fundamentals.. I’ve never in my life picked up a guitar with the intentions of actually learning how to play.. I love the sound of bass and it’s all I listen to when I’m ever at concerts! I’ve seen this Bass to badass subscription by Josh from Bassbuzz.. and was wondering if this is a good course for newbies like me? Or is there anything else I should be looking out for?
Thanks in advance,
Shaun

 

[Bass Man Dan]

Hey Shaun!

Alot of people dig Scott's Bass Lessons on YouTube. Good luck and welcome!

 

[direktor]

I found this video was helpful:




















…and for me, sadly accurate

 

[WI Short Scaler]

Hello all, I’m new to this forum, well.... I must be going through a midlife crisis?! I’m in my early 50’s and decided to learn Bass Guitar! I was hoping someone could give me pointers as to who or what online classes I can sign up for to learn the fundamentals.. I’ve never in my life picked up a guitar with the intentions of actually learning how to play.. I love the sound of bass and it’s all I listen to when I’m ever at concerts! I’ve seen this Bass to badass subscription by Josh from Bassbuzz.. and was wondering if this is a good course for newbies like me? Or is there anything else I should be looking out for?
Thanks in advance,
Shaun

I see Scott Devine was already mentioned, he has lots of good info but IMO he does more talking than playing.

I've learned good stuff from Josh/BassBuzz videos just off the free ones I've seen. I don't know anything about the subscription course but it might be really good. My suggestion is look at Josh or any other free videos first to see how they do things, that might help in making a decision toward a paying subscription.

 

[UNICORN BASS]

I did the same as you O.P. In my late forties i decided to play bass, i am not a gigging player but i think it has made me a better person. And hell, it's fun! Good luck.

 

[lomo]

Welcome-it's never too late to have fun while developing new neural networks and learning to groove

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

Hello and welcome to Talk Bass! I have seen lots of recommendations here for this book:

Music Theory for the Bass Player: A Comprehensive and Hands-on Guide to Playing with More Confidence and Freedom by Ariane Cap.

 

[Bass V]

tone, timing, and finger stretching are paramount, get those in line asap, then make learning fun.
there's the do it by the book way or just grab a bass and enjoy creating noise til it sounds cool in all the right places way, both work. some say bad habits are very bad, I say bad habits can be good, they help make YOUR style unique, after a little while you'll be good enuf to know what to dispose of and what to refine via your ear and tutorials. that's a perfect point to know if you really want to hunker down and become a bassist, then all the other points of 'by the book' come into focus big time. by far, most aspiring players of any instrument cave in early and may never achieve that dream, some are so determined that they succeed quickly, invest 1/2 a year and see how it goes. (use a thumbpick too)
if you can find one under $200 get a Fender B-DEC 30 combo amp to learn on, a neat low volume learners tool with great tones. for a bass, the Silvertone LB11 P bass @ $100 is pretty sweet.

 

[A9X]

Hello all, I’m new to this forum, well.... I must be going through a midlife crisis?! I’m in my early 50’s and decided to learn Bass Guitar!

Welcome and excellent choice.

Hello and welcome to Talk Bass! I have seen lots of recommendations here for this book:

Music Theory for the Bass Player: A Comprehensive and Hands-on Guide to Playing with More Confidence and Freedom by Ariane Cap.

Very good book. She has another as well that looks worth buying too, but I'm waiting for the post Christmas shipping mess to abate before ordering. She also has a YT channel and website NoTreble. There are periodic lessons and transcriptions.

Resources;
YT;
Bassbuzz (online course is good too and not too much $ - I can recommend from experience)
Become A Bassist
SBL - too much talk and way too much hard sell
TalkingBass

Gracie Terzian - excellent music theory. Like super amazingly good and explains it so well.
Rick Beato - ditto, plus lots of general music stuff.

www.tomreadbass.co.uk about 800 song transcriptions. He's a TBer and a gift to many of us.

That will get you started.

Get a decent bass, get it set up properly, cable, amp with aux in and headphones out and some headphones. Oh, and a tuner. A cheap Korg is like $US12 or so.

Welcome to TB. Ignore all the crap about tone for the time being and just get to playing.

I have a huge list of resources as I'm about to move back to my old, very small town, and will have to do everything remotely. PM if I can help more. However, that's enough for now, don't want to overload with info.

 

[Al T.]

First, welcome to Talkbass. I started at 40 something and what worked for me was in person lessons with a jazz bassist. He stressed technique and learning the fretboard and then reading. I spent some time with another teacher learning songs but a friend told me to learn music with a teacher and it worked out well for me.

 

[pcake]

scott's bass lessons - already mentioned above - has a free trial. i tried it, and it wasn't for me, but lots of people love SBL. you could try the trial and cancel if it isn't for you.

 

[A9X]

and what worked for me was in person lessons with a jazz bassist.

I thought I'd added that in the previous post. In person is the best by a long way.

 

[lfmn16]

Get a good teacher, at least to get started. The problem with online "lessons" is that there is no feedback. You don't know what you are doing right or wrong and as a beginner, you don't even know what you don't know. With so many great teachers teaching via Skype, there's no excuse for not being able to find a really good teacher.

 

[lomo]

A real face-to-face teacher is best, IF you can find a good one who is in tune with how you want to approach this. It also costs a lot more and requires scheduling that may or may not fit your life. That said, only someone who watches and hears you play can correct ergonomic bad habits before they become engrained and give you real time feedback. If possible, a good teacher for a few months would at least get you off to a strong start, and better equip you to shop around the 'net for other avenues of learning . I started at 40 (one of my best life decisions) and am now 59. I took basic lessons for 6 months (beginner ergonomics, fingering exercises, initial scales/ theory and some song learning) and have been on my own since then. It really depends on what your goals are. Mine were a)have fun and b)get a little better each month, with a greater emphasis on fun that efficiency/speed of learning. I promised myself 30-60 mins/day 6 days/ week and it worked out wonderfully for me. Happy thumpin'.

 

[jd56hawk]

Teach Me Bass Guitar-Roy Vogt
Doesn't get much better.
You start off learning the fundamentals, then plenty of scales. Roy really makes learning fun. What I like is that after each lesson you get to play what you've learned along with Roy and his band, then he sits it out and it's just you and the band.
Nothing better than applying what you learn and using it in a real-band scenario.
Teach Me Bass Guitar By Roy Vogt Ten DVD Course 16 Hours Of Instruction | eBay

 

[BarfanyShart]

If you can get in-person lessons in your area, this will save you a lot of time. The biggest thing when starting out is not to pick up bad habits while trying to figure things out - that's a teacher's main job, and it's worth every penny if they do it well. My bit of wisdom for newbies is my personal observation that the best bass guitar players I've ever known spent the majority of their practice time learning to play bass lines directly off of recordings - that is arguably the core skill of the instrument.

 

[salmon256]

I personally recommend in person lessons and asking your teacher for a method book to buy. I love the Hal Leonard method books. Everyone is different and in person or online call lessons do not have to be forever if you do not like them but they are great for starting out. They are also a great motivator after the buying the bass honey-moon phase we get.

 

[BigJohnAZ]

I never used his paid lessons, but Paul Wolfe seems ok. I like his tutorials. https://how-to-play-bass.com/

 

[themickster]

I learned by playing along to songs I liked. There are YouTubes that can show how to play a lot of songs. Learn how to find the notes on the fingerboard. The strings bottom to top - bottom being bottom in pitch and therefore the thickest - are E A D G. There is a sharp (#) / flat (b) between the notes, other than B to C and E to F, giving A A# B C C# D D# E F# G G#. A# is the same as BB.

That was my first bass lesson and you now know more than some players I've known.

 

[Old gold]

I’ve had some success with talking bass (not the same as talk bass). I find Mark to be a good teacher. There are lots of free videos and the pay courses are pretty comprehensive. I started (at age 70) by just learning a few riffs and a couple of songs. After a few months, I knew that I needed more instruction about technique, theory, and just plain how to practice. Talking bass has been good for that. I’m now trying to learn how to sight read. That has been slow going but very rewarding. I can now look at a page of sheet music and get a flavor of the rhythm, chord changes and such, opening a new world of potential.