Help to become less beginner

[jonnyonbass]

Can you guys do me a favor and check out http://www.easybassvids.com and tell me what you think?? there's a high quality beginner video bass lesson course giveaway and a bunch of other bass info videos

 

[wiscrna]

Know your fretboard.



Where is the 5th? Up a string and over two frets from the Root. Yep 5ths are up a string and over two frets from the root all over your fretboard.
Where is the 3rd? Up a string and back one fret.
Where is the 2nd? Same string over two.
Where is the 4th? Up a string.
Where is the 6th? Up two strings and back one. Over the 3rd.
Where is the 7th? Up two strings and over one fret.
Where is the octave (8)? Up two strings and over two frets.

Yep, your 5th is always up a string and over two frets, or if you place your root on the 3rd string the 5th is on the same fret but on the 4th string -- as well as up a string and over two frets, i.e. take your choice. If you place your root on the 3rd string where is your 4th? Where is the 5th? Is that great or what? Check it out your intervals are always in the same spot just waiting on you.

Now using that lets get some bass line riffs into muscle memory, i.e. Root-5 or R-3-5-3 perhaps R-3-5-b7 and then the major pentatonic R-2-3-5-6 always comes in handy. Playing 8's how about R-R-3-3-5-5-6-5. Five or six go to riffs can get you started. What the heck here is the blues scale R, b3, 4, #4, 5, b7 go have fun with that. I know you are working with tabs right now. Why?

Next listen to enough music that you can predict the chord changes. Let backing tracks help you with that.

Next use all that and jamm over backing tracks.
autumn leaves jam track - YouTube
Bass line riff for Am7 could be R-b3-5-b7 and the D7 riff could be R-3-5-b7

This will help with chord riffs. chord house ::: guitar room (advanced) -- online guitar chords and scales
Use this site to look up the bass line riff for that F#m7b5 chord. Scroll the screen down and you will see.......
F#minor7b5 intervals: 1,b3,b5,b7 (1 is the same thing as R or Root.)


For everything else check out Online Bass Lessons at StudyBass.com


Good luck.

Damn. This is pretty frickin' handy. +1 rep.

 

[bassinplace]

Take your personal favorite songs and learn them note for note from the recordings. You'll be amazed how much it will do for your ear over a short period of time. The more you do it, the better and easier it gets.

 

[angryclown5]

I never liked the "box" major scale pattern, although that was what I learned first.

I prefer to see the root on the E string as fretted with the middle (second) finger as in Malcolm's diagram, and also with a shift down 2 frets, the root is fretted with the pinkie (fourth) finger.

To me, this gives all the fingering options for just about all basslines and melodic riffs.


The Major Scale Root on the 4th string:

G |---R---|-------|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D |---5---|-------|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A |---2---|-------|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E |---6---|-------|---7---|---R---|-------|---2---| 4th string

 

[fearceol]

so, is there anything that has helped you play a little faster or a little better,

The key to playing fast is to start at a comfortable tempo and increase the speed gradually.

I would not worry too much about speed for the moment. That will come in time. Instead, concentrate on all the good advice given so far.

 

[jp58]

Triads (major, minor, diminished, augmented, sus) helped me a lot with memorizing the fretboard and string skipping, left hand permutations are helping with stretches and accuracy, learning songs at or above your level helps with a bit of everything including your ears, etc.

It's all relative to what you're trying to accomplish during that specific practice.

 

[edwardthewave]

I've been playing for about 1.5 years, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I would say the things to learn are:

1.) Where all the notes on the fingerboard are. You can memorize all the notes, which would be lots of work (e.g. 4x24=96 notes for a 24 fret 4 string bass). Or, learn a sort of "fretboard formula" where you can find any note from one note. For example, 2 frets up and two strings up is an octave, so if 3rd fret E string = G, then 5th fret D string also = G, but an octave higher. Or one string up and one fret down is a major third, so if 3rd fret A string = C, then 2nd fret D string = E

2.) Learn the notes of each chord. Learn what a major, minor, and dominant chord is, then learn augmented and diminished. You can also learn about 7th chords. Play these arpeggios up and down the neck, in different positions and starting on different notes. For example, for C major, play CEGC starting on 8th fret E string, 3rd fret A string, 10th fret D string, 5th fret G string, etc... Play these going up and down.

3.) After you've got a feel for the shapes of each chord, harmonize chords in a scale. Example, in C major, the chords are C, Dm, Em, F, G7, Am, Bdim. Play these up and down, in different keys (like F major, or G major, or D minor etc...). Learn WHY each chord fits in each key. Harmonize 7th chords also.

4.) This is a bit more advanced, but learn about the cycle of fourth/fifths. 80% of western music is based on this (IMO), and once you know it, then chord progressions are much easier to understand, even all those funny progressions in jazz tunes are demystified for the most part!

I'm still learning and I have a long way to go to achieve musical mastery, but I hope this helps!

Good luck on your musical journey,

Edward