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Double Bass How did you learn? (DB forum thread)
- Thread starter bassbeginner95
- Start date
Totally self-taught on the bass - but I had learned a bit about music from working stuff out on the keyboard, and I was in a band straight away, which removed any questions in my mind about what to learn - I had to learn the songs we were playing!
- Oct 7, 2000
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- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
When I was 3 I was able to pick out simple melodies on a keyboard. Parents later wanted to get me piano lessons, I wound up taking accordian lessons for a few years (4nd to 7th grade?). Didn't really learn any theory or reading because my teacher used to record the songs for me and I pretty much learned them by ear anyhow.
Accordian is not so cool, and my brother played in a band that rehearsed in my basement. Coincidentally, James Lomenzo (who we all know) and Steve Augeri (who sang for Journey for about a decade) were in that band. I used to watch those guys in complete awe, and needed to be able to do what they were doing. They used to leave their instruments in my basement and I'd sneak down at night and play them. Whenever they didn't lock their cases.
They and my brother taught me 2 or 3 bar chords on guitar, and I preceded to sound out and learn just about every song on the first 3 kiss albums. Wanting very much to have a band of my own, I learned the bass lines too so I could teach them to friends and get things moving along. Bass was a lot easier.
Really. The bass player didn't have to play any chords or solos.
Fast forward a little more than a decade, some friends needed a bass player. I discovered the Chili Peppers, I fell in love, guitar got hung up, and I became a full time, totally obsessed, and loving it bass player.
Only thing that wasn't self taught to me was slapping. Couldn't do it to save my life, and someone at work gave me the Alex Slarvesi video.
And not to reopen a can of worms which I might, and a little off topic, but about 10 years into my guitar playing I was learning some covers. I think I was learning the solos in Sweet Child of Mine. The bass kept jumping out and I learned it for fun. In about 12 hours less than the time it was taking me to learn the guitar. I realized then that I had a choice. I could be one of a million, play average guitar, and be in a half decent band... OR, I could play bass, smoke it, and be in a really kick ass band. It was soon after that I wound up playing bass. And I was right.
I know. A lot more than you were askin for.
Accordian is not so cool, and my brother played in a band that rehearsed in my basement. Coincidentally, James Lomenzo (who we all know) and Steve Augeri (who sang for Journey for about a decade) were in that band. I used to watch those guys in complete awe, and needed to be able to do what they were doing. They used to leave their instruments in my basement and I'd sneak down at night and play them. Whenever they didn't lock their cases.
They and my brother taught me 2 or 3 bar chords on guitar, and I preceded to sound out and learn just about every song on the first 3 kiss albums. Wanting very much to have a band of my own, I learned the bass lines too so I could teach them to friends and get things moving along. Bass was a lot easier.
Really. The bass player didn't have to play any chords or solos.Fast forward a little more than a decade, some friends needed a bass player. I discovered the Chili Peppers, I fell in love, guitar got hung up, and I became a full time, totally obsessed, and loving it bass player.
Only thing that wasn't self taught to me was slapping. Couldn't do it to save my life, and someone at work gave me the Alex Slarvesi video.
And not to reopen a can of worms which I might, and a little off topic, but about 10 years into my guitar playing I was learning some covers. I think I was learning the solos in Sweet Child of Mine. The bass kept jumping out and I learned it for fun. In about 12 hours less than the time it was taking me to learn the guitar. I realized then that I had a choice. I could be one of a million, play average guitar, and be in a half decent band... OR, I could play bass, smoke it, and be in a really kick ass band. It was soon after that I wound up playing bass. And I was right.
I know. A lot more than you were askin for.
I started out with lessons for a year with a guitar player as my teacher.
He told me about Rush Hemispheres being a tough tune to transcribe on bass so I went ahead and decided to start figuring it out on my own. I was picking it up so fast that my teacher told me that it was almost impossible for him to teach me how to play it because I was figuring out more in the song than he was. It was going like that for everything I was learning and after awhile I stopped with the lessons and decided to be self-taught. My decision was made final when I handed a piece of sheet music to my sister (who can read) of the bass solo in La Villa Strangiato. It was from a Rush music book and was transcribed wrong. That one thing made me stop with the reading music part of my bass playing experience and from that point on I was learning everything by ear. I knew that not being able to read would take me out of other opportunities in the future, like making a living being a session bassist, but since my bass heros were self taught and pretty successful, then I decided I'd take that route.
The part about my bass heros being successful in terms of being in huge bands and making albums with tons of great music was the part that I didn't quite match though.
Perhaps if I were around ten years earlier I might have had a better chance at that part of a life in music playing the stuff that I like but starting out in 1981 and wanting to play stuff that was already becoming 'old' made me think that the musicians from the late 60's trough the early 80's had the best deal as far as being able to play what THEY wanted, not some record company and management.
I also like the attitude that Rush had when they decided to stuff 2112 down Mercury's throat when they were up against a wall to produce an album that would sell better than Caress of Steel. That's having some balls and calling your own shots.
And risk takers usually end up the most successful and happy.
I would have never made it in a band if I had to listen to some stuff-shirt record company executive tell me what notes to play and when.
He told me about Rush Hemispheres being a tough tune to transcribe on bass so I went ahead and decided to start figuring it out on my own. I was picking it up so fast that my teacher told me that it was almost impossible for him to teach me how to play it because I was figuring out more in the song than he was. It was going like that for everything I was learning and after awhile I stopped with the lessons and decided to be self-taught. My decision was made final when I handed a piece of sheet music to my sister (who can read) of the bass solo in La Villa Strangiato. It was from a Rush music book and was transcribed wrong. That one thing made me stop with the reading music part of my bass playing experience and from that point on I was learning everything by ear. I knew that not being able to read would take me out of other opportunities in the future, like making a living being a session bassist, but since my bass heros were self taught and pretty successful, then I decided I'd take that route.
The part about my bass heros being successful in terms of being in huge bands and making albums with tons of great music was the part that I didn't quite match though.
Perhaps if I were around ten years earlier I might have had a better chance at that part of a life in music playing the stuff that I like but starting out in 1981 and wanting to play stuff that was already becoming 'old' made me think that the musicians from the late 60's trough the early 80's had the best deal as far as being able to play what THEY wanted, not some record company and management.
I also like the attitude that Rush had when they decided to stuff 2112 down Mercury's throat when they were up against a wall to produce an album that would sell better than Caress of Steel. That's having some balls and calling your own shots.
And risk takers usually end up the most successful and happy.
I would have never made it in a band if I had to listen to some stuff-shirt record company executive tell me what notes to play and when.
Took piano lessons and messed around with guitar first. Played sax and french horn in school. Completed a music major as a part of my college studies. Started on bass when I was 45, but was into guitar for several years prior.
Most people I know who can read a bit, can't go from hearing to playing as fast as people I know who can't read.
- Dec 13, 1999
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- Chuck Sher publishes my book, WALKING BASSICS:The Fundamentals of Jazz Bass Playing.
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,939
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
I joined the high school chorus in 9th grade. At the time I was a rock guitar player. The choir/orchestra director said "we need basses in the orchestra. YOU-(me)- come down Monday for a lesson.
Me..."what's a bass?"
Teacher..."come down Monday and find out!"
So I did. He said to me "this is a bass, here is a bow, this is rosin, here is the book, I'll be back in an hour." Four years later I played in the New York All-State Orchestra.
Me..."what's a bass?"
Teacher..."come down Monday and find out!"
So I did. He said to me "this is a bass, here is a bow, this is rosin, here is the book, I'll be back in an hour." Four years later I played in the New York All-State Orchestra.
I told dad I wanted to play bass, he took me upstairs and handed me the DB and said 'There you go!'. Not exactly what I had in mind being a McCartney fan, but I was required to learn the DB before my parents would invest in a BG for me. I played in the orchestra in high school, then didn't touch the DB for 25 years. I took posession of the same DB I learned on and have had a couple of lessons, but retained most of the info all those years. Meanwhile I had learned a lot about bass playing, and music through playing BG all those years.
Hi.
Excactly what I was thinking as well while reading the replies.
Cool stories though.
WOW, what great parents You have.
If I had kids, and they wanted to learn how to play, it'd be a well setup cheapo slab before even my crappy ply DB.
As for me, I'm totally self taught in DB, something that's entirely by force, not by choice.
I'd love some lessons, but even arco teachers are very hard to find over here, and quite frankly, I couldn't care less about learning arco.
Regards
Sam
Excactly what I was thinking as well while reading the replies.
Cool stories though.
WOW, what great parents You have.
If I had kids, and they wanted to learn how to play, it'd be a well setup cheapo slab before even my crappy ply DB.
As for me, I'm totally self taught in DB, something that's entirely by force, not by choice.
I'd love some lessons, but even arco teachers are very hard to find over here, and quite frankly, I couldn't care less about learning arco.
Regards
Sam
I took cello lessons from 4th grade through high school, and played electric bass in the school jazz band during that time as well. The summer after I graduated, I was given an old Kay in pieces, and restored it myself. Through college and even grad school, I followed the strange pattern of playing classical on upright and jazz on electric. Today, upright is my main instrument in both areas.
Each of these stages was just a matter of circumstance. My parents encouraged me to take classical lessons, and I chose the cello, because my brother was already making progress on the violin. I started bass because the middle school band teacher recruited me.
When I went to college, I opted out of majoring in music, because I fell in love with math, computers, and electronics. I played in the college jazz band, and took upright bass lessons in the music department.
I'm grateful for the classical background and the chance that I was given to learn jazz.
Each of these stages was just a matter of circumstance. My parents encouraged me to take classical lessons, and I chose the cello, because my brother was already making progress on the violin. I started bass because the middle school band teacher recruited me.
When I went to college, I opted out of majoring in music, because I fell in love with math, computers, and electronics. I played in the college jazz band, and took upright bass lessons in the music department.
I'm grateful for the classical background and the chance that I was given to learn jazz.
My high School jazz band teacher knew I played a little upright. When I auditioned for his band, he put a card in my hand for the best bass teacher in town. Her name was Monty Montjoy, and she played in the Edmonton Symphony for years. She taught everyone, including great players like Dave Young, George Koller and John Taylor (who sits assistant principal in the ESO now). A very lucky day for me. . .
I started with BG, I took lessons for 4 years before I auditionned to enter the music degree in college. There I learned to play classical DB and jazz on the BG. I learned for 3 years, plus every other class they had in the program : Solfege, Harmonization, Classical and Jazz Choir, played in the college orchestra, composition, history.
In the last 5 years I played in a band where I explored a lot then for 3 years I took a break from music, everything in the BG pissed me so much I couldn't bear to play again. last summer I bought a electric DB and started to play again and I feel way much at home in this instrument.
In the last 5 years I played in a band where I explored a lot then for 3 years I took a break from music, everything in the BG pissed me so much I couldn't bear to play again. last summer I bought a electric DB and started to play again and I feel way much at home in this instrument.
My brother taught me the basics, and then a oboe player taught me how to do everything else(?????). and then after about 3 years of going off of the oboe players education, I decided to take private lessons and then I got a lot better 
my technique isn't as bad as you would think, though.
my technique isn't as bad as you would think, though.
When I started music, I had no idea I would be playing bass in orchestras across Canada. My love of music started with listening to records when I was about three and singing along with musical kid's shows.
I started piano lessons (Leila Fletcher method) when I was about 8. I didn't have a piano but a small, spinet Hammond organ. (It had three different sounds for the top keyboard, two for the bottom, one for the pedal, no drum machine or auto accomp, but it did have a vibrato and reverb option!)
After progressing as far as I could without a damper pedal, the piano teacher told my parents I either needed to get a piano or start organ lessons.
So, I took organ lessons for about 4 years through a local Kawai dealership. I really learned a lot about music theory and how the bass part works in accompanying various styles of music. The left foot played the bass pedals and the left hand played the chords on the off beats. (Boom, chuck, chuck for a waltz for example, and so on.)
Meanwhile in school, I grew up with the Kodaly system in grade school (the Dartmouth/Halifax Nova Scotia area being one of the first areas in North America to have it) so lots of singing and learning musical theory plus playing recorder. In grade 6, I started on tuba/baritone.
In grade 10, I taught myself guitar because my English teacher played Mother from Pink Floyd's The Wall in class as part of a lyric/poetry unit. The first thing I taught myself was The Trees by RUSH. I did this by buying the printed music, learning it on organ, then translating every note to the guitar. There were also chord symbols in the music, so I learned those and because of the chord theory taught in the organ lessons, voila, I was an (almost) instant guitar player.
I should say that most of the rock music I listened to was stuff with interesting bass lines and well arranged background accompaniment - Rush, Beatles, Police, Tears for Fears, etc.
Also, I joined Air Cadets when 13 and joined their band playing glockenspiel in the glock'n'drum band. I went to the summer band camps a few times and ended up being on staff and eventually became the 2nd in command. I arranged pieces, conducted the band, put together marching drum shows, organized parades, etc., etc., etc.
Back to school. In grade 12, our music teacher put together a jazz band and I played the bass lines on tuba. The music teacher said there was a bass guitar in the storage closet, I said OK and tried it. Thanks to being able to read bass clef from piano & tuba and the bass had the same strings as the bottom 4 strings of a guitar and doing bass parts on organ, I could apply all these to playing the bass guitar and presto, instant bass player.
Later that year, I was at a rehearsal in the city's music building, I was putting my tuba away and there was a double bass sitting at the back of the storage room. Hey, that's what Sting sometimes plays! I picked it up and tried it. It was physically harder to play than bass guitar but I could play it decently.
I found a teacher who used to be a student of Gary Karr and she gave me some lessons (I still have the Simandl book) and rented me a plywood Hofner.
Near the end of grade 12, the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra got a new conductor and he wanted to have the hugest orchestra possible so if you could hold an instrument, you were in. I joined and went to their summer camp. We played all kinds of bombastic orchestral music. Stuff I had zero experience with (except listening to Hooked on Classics and loving movies with John Williams soundtracks) and was completely blown away by the music.
With the NSYO, I played Beethoven 5, Brahms 2, Shosti Festive Overture, part of The Planets, William Teel Overture, Adagio for Strings and so on. It made all those rock albums seem so immature in comparison.
I started university on tuba but quickly realized I played double bass after 6 months than I did tuba after 6 years, plus looking at future work prospects, bass seemed more lucrative (and I'm really rolling in it now!
), I re-auditioned on bass and started taking real lessons with Lena Turofsky of Symphony Nova Scotia.
She eventually told me if I want to get anywhere in music, I would need to go to Toronto to study with Tom Monohan so I did. After graduating there, I studied privately with Ed Tait, also of TSO. While attending UofT, I played with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada during the summers - more amazing music and travel and meeting new people. I was addicted and wanted more.
I was just starting to free-lance gig around Toronto when everything ground to a halt with repetitive strain injury. It's a long, sad story that I don't want to go into details here but I ended up selling all my stuff and moving to London, Ontario with my wife to retrain to be a music teacher. (What was I thinking that I could be a music teacher without using my hands?!?!)
Anyway, it turns out one of the top chiropractors in the world lives here and I got a grant from the Services for Students with Disabilities of University of Western Ontario to get adjustments 3 times/week. So, after 10 years of that and various exercises, I was pretty functional if I was careful with my hands.
I sang in a high quality church choir for a few years to do something musical (although I couldn't even listen to music for several years as it was too painful to do). Then about 10 years ago, the church decided to start a string orchestra and the person directing it hears I used to play bass. I was rather reluctant but i gave it a try.
He brought in a school instrument from his daughter's school for me to play. Fortunately, it was well set up and easy to play. It went OK. And singing in the choir really improved my tuning!
One week, I decided I would take the bass home and play the crap out of it to see how my arms would hold out. They held out OK so I thought I'd try to give bass playing a go again. Just then, the local bass luthier Peter Chandler, was peaking at making basses and he allowed be to rent-to-own a bass from him.
I rented that and 6 months later I did a recital playing Bruche's Kol Nidre and Rossini's Duet for Cello and Bass as the big pieces. A few months later, one of the regular extra basses of Orchestra London quits and I get invited to play with them. I became their regular 4th player in the Masterworks and Pops shows for several years until they shrank the orchestra.
Since then, I've played in many of Southwestern Ontario's orchestras and am busy most weekends with some kind of gig somewhere. Outside of playing bass, I supply teach in the local schools. When doing neither of those, I am hiking.
So, from reading the other replies and talking to other bassists, we all seem to have had some strange journey.
I wonder if other instrumentalists have the same experiences or if it is just common for bass players? Personally, I find it strange when I hear about a violinist who started at 3 years old and just kept playing violin until they get a position at 23 and are still at it 20 year later.
(Zheesh, I didn't realize this would become such a novel, sorry about that.)
I started piano lessons (Leila Fletcher method) when I was about 8. I didn't have a piano but a small, spinet Hammond organ. (It had three different sounds for the top keyboard, two for the bottom, one for the pedal, no drum machine or auto accomp, but it did have a vibrato and reverb option!)
After progressing as far as I could without a damper pedal, the piano teacher told my parents I either needed to get a piano or start organ lessons.
So, I took organ lessons for about 4 years through a local Kawai dealership. I really learned a lot about music theory and how the bass part works in accompanying various styles of music. The left foot played the bass pedals and the left hand played the chords on the off beats. (Boom, chuck, chuck for a waltz for example, and so on.)
Meanwhile in school, I grew up with the Kodaly system in grade school (the Dartmouth/Halifax Nova Scotia area being one of the first areas in North America to have it) so lots of singing and learning musical theory plus playing recorder. In grade 6, I started on tuba/baritone.
In grade 10, I taught myself guitar because my English teacher played Mother from Pink Floyd's The Wall in class as part of a lyric/poetry unit. The first thing I taught myself was The Trees by RUSH. I did this by buying the printed music, learning it on organ, then translating every note to the guitar. There were also chord symbols in the music, so I learned those and because of the chord theory taught in the organ lessons, voila, I was an (almost) instant guitar player.
I should say that most of the rock music I listened to was stuff with interesting bass lines and well arranged background accompaniment - Rush, Beatles, Police, Tears for Fears, etc.
Also, I joined Air Cadets when 13 and joined their band playing glockenspiel in the glock'n'drum band. I went to the summer band camps a few times and ended up being on staff and eventually became the 2nd in command. I arranged pieces, conducted the band, put together marching drum shows, organized parades, etc., etc., etc.
Back to school. In grade 12, our music teacher put together a jazz band and I played the bass lines on tuba. The music teacher said there was a bass guitar in the storage closet, I said OK and tried it. Thanks to being able to read bass clef from piano & tuba and the bass had the same strings as the bottom 4 strings of a guitar and doing bass parts on organ, I could apply all these to playing the bass guitar and presto, instant bass player.
Later that year, I was at a rehearsal in the city's music building, I was putting my tuba away and there was a double bass sitting at the back of the storage room. Hey, that's what Sting sometimes plays! I picked it up and tried it. It was physically harder to play than bass guitar but I could play it decently.
I found a teacher who used to be a student of Gary Karr and she gave me some lessons (I still have the Simandl book) and rented me a plywood Hofner.
Near the end of grade 12, the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra got a new conductor and he wanted to have the hugest orchestra possible so if you could hold an instrument, you were in. I joined and went to their summer camp. We played all kinds of bombastic orchestral music. Stuff I had zero experience with (except listening to Hooked on Classics and loving movies with John Williams soundtracks) and was completely blown away by the music.
With the NSYO, I played Beethoven 5, Brahms 2, Shosti Festive Overture, part of The Planets, William Teel Overture, Adagio for Strings and so on. It made all those rock albums seem so immature in comparison.
I started university on tuba but quickly realized I played double bass after 6 months than I did tuba after 6 years, plus looking at future work prospects, bass seemed more lucrative (and I'm really rolling in it now!
), I re-auditioned on bass and started taking real lessons with Lena Turofsky of Symphony Nova Scotia.She eventually told me if I want to get anywhere in music, I would need to go to Toronto to study with Tom Monohan so I did. After graduating there, I studied privately with Ed Tait, also of TSO. While attending UofT, I played with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada during the summers - more amazing music and travel and meeting new people. I was addicted and wanted more.
I was just starting to free-lance gig around Toronto when everything ground to a halt with repetitive strain injury. It's a long, sad story that I don't want to go into details here but I ended up selling all my stuff and moving to London, Ontario with my wife to retrain to be a music teacher. (What was I thinking that I could be a music teacher without using my hands?!?!)
Anyway, it turns out one of the top chiropractors in the world lives here and I got a grant from the Services for Students with Disabilities of University of Western Ontario to get adjustments 3 times/week. So, after 10 years of that and various exercises, I was pretty functional if I was careful with my hands.
I sang in a high quality church choir for a few years to do something musical (although I couldn't even listen to music for several years as it was too painful to do). Then about 10 years ago, the church decided to start a string orchestra and the person directing it hears I used to play bass. I was rather reluctant but i gave it a try.
He brought in a school instrument from his daughter's school for me to play. Fortunately, it was well set up and easy to play. It went OK. And singing in the choir really improved my tuning!
One week, I decided I would take the bass home and play the crap out of it to see how my arms would hold out. They held out OK so I thought I'd try to give bass playing a go again. Just then, the local bass luthier Peter Chandler, was peaking at making basses and he allowed be to rent-to-own a bass from him.
I rented that and 6 months later I did a recital playing Bruche's Kol Nidre and Rossini's Duet for Cello and Bass as the big pieces. A few months later, one of the regular extra basses of Orchestra London quits and I get invited to play with them. I became their regular 4th player in the Masterworks and Pops shows for several years until they shrank the orchestra.
Since then, I've played in many of Southwestern Ontario's orchestras and am busy most weekends with some kind of gig somewhere. Outside of playing bass, I supply teach in the local schools. When doing neither of those, I am hiking.
So, from reading the other replies and talking to other bassists, we all seem to have had some strange journey.
I wonder if other instrumentalists have the same experiences or if it is just common for bass players? Personally, I find it strange when I hear about a violinist who started at 3 years old and just kept playing violin until they get a position at 23 and are still at it 20 year later.(Zheesh, I didn't realize this would become such a novel, sorry about that.)
