How many hours to learn bass?

[Frampton]

I'm going to be a little contrary to the consensus, but the 10,000-hour rule has merit. Of course, I'm not talking about a precise number, here, but I don't think mastery can be achieved short of thousands of hours of practice. Sure, you can learn to play and even become proficient in much less time, but greatness or mastery requires a much more significant level of commitment, whether learning bass, playing golf or practicing law or medicine.

 

[Tall Low End]

An hour or two, tops; maybe two and a half if you’re trying to master bebop at crazy tempi...

 

[Ian Lewis]

Whats your guess?

BTW, this article says it takes 10,000 hrs to learn to play sax.

Invalid Link Removed

Gigging 47 years and still learning. The article's rubbish

 

[Rune Bivrin]

To steal a phrase:

"A minute to learn. A lifetime to master."

 

[bottomzone]

It's a never-ending quest for me.

 

[Mark Ellis]

How long does it take to learn bass? How good is good enough for your goals? Having some aptitude and a reasonable will help greatly. I assume if you have a desire to play you are not a tone deaf musical moron. Here are some numbers that are a rough guide. For an average person...

• 1,000 hours of training and you will be amateur player in a local band.
• 2,000 hours and you can expect to get paid gigs in a covers band or similar.
• 4,000 hours and you will be good enough to be a professional musician.
• 10,000 hours to be in the top 5% of players in the world. Good enough to play with anyone.

The quality of the practice and training is very important. Stand on the shoulders of the giants that went before you.
One final point - ear training before pubity can give you a massive push along.

 

[Captain Comet]

It is like any other skill, like the ability to play baseball ... there is a hard work/practice component and there is a natural ability component. You will get further along in your skillset with an increase in either.

Natural ability tends to give you more feel for the instrument and allows you to be more expressive with it. The flip side of this is a guitar player that I know, who has worked his ass off, thousands of hours on the instrument, and plays really well, but always sounds "mechanical", for lack of a better word.

 

[JRA]

"10,000" hours may be a good way to conceptualize, but anyone who has put in that time knows that it's really a case of: the more you know = the more you know you don't know.

 

[lfmn16]

Gigging 47 years and still learning. The article's rubbish

+1

Bringing up people like Sonny Rollins is really just silly. I could practice 8 hours a day for 100 years and not touch Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker or John Coltrane.

There are so many variables that putting a number on the time it takes to master something is just asinine. Talent plays a huge part in it. I used to play with a bass player that put in a ton of time taking lessons, watching Youtube videos, practicing, listening, etc. but he just didn't have that spark. He always sounded very mechanical. He could play the correct notes, but something was missing. On the other side, one of my teachers went to a well known conservatory, told me he only practiced about 3 hours a day and within a few years of graduating was in the bass section of a major symphony.

All you can do is put forth your best effort and let the chips fall where they may.

 

[Manuel Bass]

the only thing I would say is if you put in 10000 hours of even loosely focused practice you should be a lot better than when you started, but that being said the virtuoso musicians that really leave a musical legacy are some combination of highly ambitious, dedicated, naturally talented and probably to some degree a little bit lucky.

Every body needs a little luck, just remembering, the most skilled guitarist in the world died poor, his family had no money to pay the funeral I’m talking about the one and only Allan Holsworth súper greatness musician
Unbelievable but true

Two, if you have natural musical ability. Bass is not difficult.

try to play Donna lee on the bass and then we talk agein

 

[Durham52]

Every body needs a little luck, just remembering, the most skilled guitarist in the world died poor, his family had no money to pay the funeral I’m talking about the one and only Allan Holsworth súper greatness musician
Unbelievable but true

try to play Donna lee on the bass and then we talk agein

Yes, Allan Holsworth was certainly an outstandingly talented guitarist. In a 1986 interview he talked about struggling to pay the rent each month, but said at least he made enough not to have to play music he didn't want to play. Allan certainly wasn't commercial and his music was often challenging, to the point as he said in interview, that he considered he played jazz, but that he couldn't get airplay on certain jazz stations.

 

[Manuel Bass]

Yes, Allan Holsworth was certainly an outstandingly talented guitarist. In a 1986 interview he talked about struggling to pay the rent each month, but said at least he made enough not to have to play music he didn't want to play. Allan certainly wasn't commercial and his music was often challenging, to the point as he said in interview, that he considered he played jazz, but that he couldn't get airplay on certain jazz stations.

Back to the OP , Allan spend 60 years developing his style and that’s the reason why nobody can play like him

 

[IamGroot]

My first Bach violin piece, the presto in G minor from Sonata 1 took 3 months.

My first Charley Parker piece - Ornithology- took 5 months to get down.

Now I can play their other stuff in much less time.