I am doing it all wrong, but it works for my purpose

[Shenron]

Reading around the forums, I am getting the idea that the most common approach people have with learning to play the bass, is to study how to create the bass part for a song. Maybe start from playing roots, then adding octaves and fifths, learning standard grooves and walking bass, gradually memorize more scales and arpeggios, learning theory and practicing improvisation.

I've done something like that a long time ago when starting on guitar and going to lessons, but since I started playing the bass two years ago, I've been completely ignoring this process on the bass, and instead my approach has been just learning a lot of songs note-by-note. It works for me because I have zero interests in improvising or composing at the moment. My current purpose is just to play as many cover songs as possible, if not with my band at least by myself. While doing this I expect anyway to discover hundreds of grooves and learn what bassists come up with in order to fulfill their role in lots of songs. The other approach is too slow and open-ended to suit my purpose.

This doesn't mean I stop myself from studying other stuff like scales and patterns if I feel like, but it's not my main way of studying right now.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to share what works for you instead!

 

[Tommy Sparks]

If it works for what you’re trying to accomplish than it’s all good.

 

[Krakmann]

Salud!

To each, their own.

I think the way to learn "as many cover songs as possible" (in my case, quickly learning a setlist for a sub gig in 10 days, for example) is to have an understanding of what you're doing, theory wise. Barring signature parts and having ample time to properly nail something (if that's at all desirable), I just have to number-note the chords/structure, jot down the basic groove (or something like "walking triads") and key signature, and repeat.

But if that works for you, great it is.

 

[Supadope]

I started the same way. I was working 2nd shift so there wasn't a lot to do when you get home from work at midnight. So, I threw on some headphones and learned a new cover by ear almost every weekday. I took notes on paper and after a year I was a legit player with a binder of over 200 songs.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I think the vast majority of bass parts in pop and rock were made up with no thought whatsoever about music theory, scales, arpeggios, etc, just made up by the bassist in reponse to a guitar line, drum pattern, etc. All the background musical knowledge in the world won't guarentee you come up with a great bassline, but it sure doesn't hurt either. I started learing bass late, around 17, and sort of "bounced off" learning to read music several times, so I'm entirely self-taught, by ear, learning as you did, trying to play stuff I liked note for note. It's a valid approach, and it's a lot easier these days with the ability slow down and loop parts. In my day that involved picking the needle up and setting it down 10,000 times on my fragile LP's. If your goal is to play accurate covers of songs, and your ear is good enough to pick out the bass parts, go for it. I still have my slightly crappy Tascam Bass Trainer, but there are lots of great software alternatives out there. My old turntable had a strobe speed adjustment on it, always surprised me how much bands would mess with A440 tuning in the studio, or during a mix. I kept the bass in tune and fiddled with the speed control. Now you can have the software do that automatically, amazing stuff.

 

[Minimalist]

Reading around the forums, I am getting the idea that the most common approach people have with learning to play the bass, is to study how to create the bass part for a song. Maybe start from playing roots, then adding octaves and fifths, learning standard grooves and walking bass, gradually memorize more scales and arpeggios, learning theory and practicing improvisation.

I've done something like that a long time ago when starting on guitar and going to lessons, but since I started playing the bass two years ago, I've been completely ignoring this process on the bass, and instead my approach has been just learning a lot of songs note-by-note. It works for me because I have zero interests in improvising or composing at the moment. My current purpose is just to play as many cover songs as possible, if not with my band at least by myself. While doing this I expect anyway to discover hundreds of grooves and learn what bassists come up with in order to fulfill their role in lots of songs. The other approach is too slow and open-ended to suit my purpose.

This doesn't mean I stop myself from studying other stuff like scales and patterns if I feel like, but it's not my main way of studying right now.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to share what works for you instead!

That's not wrong. Why do you think this is wrong?

 

[retslock]

Reading around the forums, I am getting the idea that the most common approach people have with learning to play the bass, is to study how to create the bass part for a song. Maybe start from playing roots, then adding octaves and fifths, learning standard grooves and walking bass, gradually memorize more scales and arpeggios, learning theory and practicing improvisation.

I've done something like that a long time ago when starting on guitar and going to lessons, but since I started playing the bass two years ago, I've been completely ignoring this process on the bass, and instead my approach has been just learning a lot of songs note-by-note. It works for me because I have zero interests in improvising or composing at the moment. My current purpose is just to play as many cover songs as possible, if not with my band at least by myself. While doing this I expect anyway to discover hundreds of grooves and learn what bassists come up with in order to fulfill their role in lots of songs. The other approach is too slow and open-ended to suit my purpose.

This doesn't mean I stop myself from studying other stuff like scales and patterns if I feel like, but it's not my main way of studying right now.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to share what works for you instead!

I started as a guitar player and took up bass to fill that role for a soul/funk band a friend and I were starting. I learned songs note for note mostly back then. Our chosen genre was quite niche in Australia in 1973 so I had to put a lot of time into getting the phrasing and feels right to provide something distinct from the ubiquitous rock - think AC/DC - of the era. It was a steep learning curve taking on people like James Jamerson, Jerry Jemmott and Chuck Rainey first up. I was intent on making it feel right. Expanding my knowledge of the instrument and its' pertinent theoretical approach came later.

 

[MattZilla]

The “start with the root, then add the fifth” thing is for the poor souls who only start learning music with a bass guitar instead of something implicitly polyphonic like a piano or guitar.

You already progressed beyond beginner at least to novice before you got a bass, so you’re good to go. You’re just learning Bass Parts of music you already understand on an instrument very similar to one which you already learned how to use.

 

[factory presets]

Reading around the forums, I am getting the idea that the most common approach people have with learning to play the bass, is to study how to create the bass part for a song. Maybe start from playing roots, then adding octaves and fifths, learning standard grooves and walking bass, gradually memorize more scales and arpeggios, learning theory and practicing improvisation.

I've done something like that a long time ago when starting on guitar and going to lessons, but since I started playing the bass two years ago, I've been completely ignoring this process on the bass, and instead my approach has been just learning a lot of songs note-by-note. It works for me because I have zero interests in improvising or composing at the moment. My current purpose is just to play as many cover songs as possible, if not with my band at least by myself. While doing this I expect anyway to discover hundreds of grooves and learn what bassists come up with in order to fulfill their role in lots of songs. The other approach is too slow and open-ended to suit my purpose.

This doesn't mean I stop myself from studying other stuff like scales and patterns if I feel like, but it's not my main way of studying right now.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to share what works for you instead!

If you've been playing guitar for years without number, you probably know plenty of theory, in your head if not your muscle memory, anyway. Learning how more experienced bass players come at that theory is probably the logical thing to learn next. If you find that is leaving glaring holes in your technique, you most likely already know how to fix it.

 

[brianrost]

I was once at a Jeff Berlin clinic and he said that if you want to be a rock bassist, going to school is a waste of time. His suggestion was to get a list of the greatest 100 rock albums of all time, get a copy of each album and learn all the songs on each one by ear. That’s because that’s how the majority of rock musicians learned to play. I’m sure he would have said the same if the genre in question was blues, country, etc.

He felt that dedicated study was mandatory for classical music and helpful for learning jazz.

 

[Spectre Gunner]

There’s nothing wrong with learning songs note by note and playing songs is where the fun is. Studying theory takes time and a commitment to practice and implement but can be boring and takes self discipline especially when learning on your own. However, once you have a decent understanding of theory learning songs becomes much easier because you intuitively know where you should go next on the fretboard . Also, you have a better idea of what will work and what won’t.

I find that the most difficult songs to learn note by note are those with a walking bass line. For example, try learning “Moon Dance” by Van Morrison note by note and you’ll find it’s difficult to replicate that. But if you know theory and can read chord charts then you simply create your own walking bass line and it can sound just as good as the original.

 

[FullumMusic]

Reading around the forums, I am getting the idea that the most common approach people have with learning to play the bass, is to study how to create the bass part for a song. Maybe start from playing roots, then adding octaves and fifths, learning standard grooves and walking bass, gradually memorize more scales and arpeggios, learning theory and practicing improvisation.

I've done something like that a long time ago when starting on guitar and going to lessons, but since I started playing the bass two years ago, I've been completely ignoring this process on the bass, and instead my approach has been just learning a lot of songs note-by-note. It works for me because I have zero interests in improvising or composing at the moment. My current purpose is just to play as many cover songs as possible, if not with my band at least by myself. While doing this I expect anyway to discover hundreds of grooves and learn what bassists come up with in order to fulfill their role in lots of songs. The other approach is too slow and open-ended to suit my purpose.

This doesn't mean I stop myself from studying other stuff like scales and patterns if I feel like, but it's not my main way of studying right now.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to share what works for you instead!

You're not doing anything "all wrong," or really all that unusual. Many players learn by learning to play note-for-note what's on songs they love.

And if it achieves your musical goals, then what's the problem?

 

[mambo4]

Theory and repertoire are both paths to a vocabulary.
You're not doing it wrong.

 

[Killing Floor]

How can it be so wrong when it feels so right?

 

[mrcbass]

If it works, don't fix it. But...

Having a fundamental understanding of how those bass lines (that you are learning) are functioning, makes it easier to dissect future bass lines. I'm sure you've already noticed a lot of similar things in the songs you have learned and understanding the structure of those lines, will make it that much easier to recognize new lines as they happen.

 

[InhumanResource]

Reading around the forums, I am getting the idea that the most common approach people have with learning to play the bass, is to study how to create the bass part for a song. Maybe start from playing roots, then adding octaves and fifths, learning standard grooves and walking bass, gradually memorize more scales and arpeggios, learning theory and practicing improvisation.

I've done something like that a long time ago when starting on guitar and going to lessons, but since I started playing the bass two years ago, I've been completely ignoring this process on the bass, and instead my approach has been just learning a lot of songs note-by-note. It works for me because I have zero interests in improvising or composing at the moment. My current purpose is just to play as many cover songs as possible, if not with my band at least by myself. While doing this I expect anyway to discover hundreds of grooves and learn what bassists come up with in order to fulfill their role in lots of songs. The other approach is too slow and open-ended to suit my purpose.

This doesn't mean I stop myself from studying other stuff like scales and patterns if I feel like, but it's not my main way of studying right now.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to share what works for you instead!

It’s generally accepted that learning repertoire is one of the best things you can do!

 

[Jogobass]

Learning lots of songs is a great way to add a lot of ideas to your vocabulary. You'll know when your done with that and want to learn to improvise with your own voice.

 

[GodPlayedBass]

This is a good way to learn how different bass is from guitar. a lot of guitar players tend to play bass as if its a guitar so id say youre technically going in the right direction

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Reading around the forums, I am getting the idea that the most common approach people have with learning to play the bass, is to study how to create the bass part for a song. Maybe start from playing roots, then adding octaves and fifths, learning standard grooves and walking bass, gradually memorize more scales and arpeggios, learning theory and practicing improvisation.

I've done something like that a long time ago when starting on guitar and going to lessons, but since I started playing the bass two years ago, I've been completely ignoring this process on the bass, and instead my approach has been just learning a lot of songs note-by-note. It works for me because I have zero interests in improvising or composing at the moment. My current purpose is just to play as many cover songs as possible, if not with my band at least by myself. While doing this I expect anyway to discover hundreds of grooves and learn what bassists come up with in order to fulfill their role in lots of songs. The other approach is too slow and open-ended to suit my purpose.

This doesn't mean I stop myself from studying other stuff like scales and patterns if I feel like, but it's not my main way of studying right now.

Let me know what you think, and feel free to share what works for you instead!

Well, I wouldn’t say you should neglect learning how improvise or coming up with different bass parts if you plan on playing in a band. The problem is, in most cases in a band , you aren’t playing with the musicians on the record, the ones your are playing with may not be covering parts note for note. Further, the over all instrumentation of your ensemble may be different which is different musical environment and the original bass part may not fit.

That said, the tools you learn coping other bassists note for note can be very useful, so keep working on it.

 

[Pings Bass]

There's more than one way to skin a cat. That said, learning parts is quicker and easier if you've already learned fundamentals (scales, intervals, chords/arpeggios). Because guess what every bass line is made up of.