Hi from a comeback newbie

[Noemi]

Hi everyone,

Soo glad I found this forum, and very nice to meet you all!

A bit about me. I used to play bass in a school/college rock group some 15 years ago. Wasn't too good, but we even did some gigs here and there around the city. Mostly played covers, along with a couple of songs I wrote.

In the last 15 years I've been playing very little and mostly guitar. But this year — hooray! — my husband gifted me a wonderful Fender Jazz Bass Aerodyne for birthday. I was happy through the roof, remembering all styles I've ever known how to play, and am pretty much training every day now.

I always loved bass, though never was especially good at it. Know how to play slap, tap, hammer ons, pull offs, but rhythm is my main problem. Want to play with a band again some day, and desperate to get better at it.

I wonder how did you train your sense of rhythm other than the obvious 'practice more'?

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

Welcome aboard!

As far as improving rhythm, play to a metronome or get into looping. The latter will require good timing to ensure proper loops, it is a great exercise. Reading and understanding rhythm helps. I would recommend checking out Anthony Wellington's "yardstick of groove" (or something similar, I cannot remember the exact name right now.)

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Hearing rhythm. Listen to the drummer's kick drum pattern. That pattern will be the bare bone beat that your bass line should lock with.



Takes awhile to isolate and then hear the kick drum. Start by listening to music with your bass on it's stand. Just you and the music. When you start hearing the beat start clapping the beat. Keep clapping until you feel comfortable with that beat. Now go get your bass and try the following as one way to get rhythm into your playing....

Same song just the tonic root -- pound out a tonic root note to the beat. You and the kick drum working as one instrument. Boom, boom, de boom. It's the de boom you want to begin hearing. Hearing first then playing. To play rhythm we really do need to start with our metronome. Metronome = click, click, click, click see what you can do with that steady click. Now try that with a drum track. My point; metronome's steady click is step one. The kick drum's pattern is where you want to be in two weeks.

The more you listen the quicker you will be able to hear and then feel the groove of the kick drum.

What's that? There is no kick drum. In a case like this I usually get the beat from the lead vocalist. Sing along with the lead vocalist a beat should develop.

Good luck.