would never LEARN with a drum machine
once learned
more FUN practicing with a drum machine
Alesis provides MOTIVATION
once learned
more FUN practicing with a drum machine
Alesis provides MOTIVATION
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Is a drum machine really necessary to learn bass?
- Thread starter Cycleops
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Yes, some of these generic beats are not authentic, but they often get the pulse in the neighborhood. Just a taste. Then the bassist can play around and leave the kick to itself, or the snare. I like to play around and within different rhythms from around the world, often not playing "notes" at all, but playing percussion. The electric bass guitar to me is half drum/percussion and half harmonic. It straddles. That's why I play bass guitar.
I'd like to revise my earlier remark. Drum machines and electronic grooves are not needed, but it is a great learning tool to gain fluency in a few dozen types of pulses that can be communicated with the bass, with vocabulary, or as often an expression like, boom cha cha boom cha cha boom cha cha...
I have a beatbuddy pedal, and while it's no live drummer I enjoy using it when playing at home. I play tighter with it than without it. Frankly I spent years playing stringed instruments never once using a metronome, but I could play to a drum beat. The first few times I was introduced to a metronome it honestly screwed me up but I eventually started using one more often so it wasn't "weird" to me.
I have to give some credit to listening to metal growing up helping me develop my sense of rhythm. Just trying to play along with it, as well as tapping my heels and toes and annoying the crap out of my classmates in highschool mimicking metal kick drum beats and rap beats went a long way to internalizing timing.
Playing to a beat is a good idea. Syncopation is fun.
I have to give some credit to listening to metal growing up helping me develop my sense of rhythm. Just trying to play along with it, as well as tapping my heels and toes and annoying the crap out of my classmates in highschool mimicking metal kick drum beats and rap beats went a long way to internalizing timing.
Playing to a beat is a good idea. Syncopation is fun.
All advice is autobiographical, so...
It seems to me that you can learn to play the slow way, or the fast way.
When I was a kid, I hated practicing with a metronome, and so I didn’t, and I got better slowly.
Now I am much older, and I have kids, and dammit, every second of practice time counts and needs to get results as efficiently as possible, so I use a ‘nome almost all the time.
Here’s what I do:
I spend somewhere between six and ten minutes clapping with a ‘nome each practice session. I lock in with the ‘nome. I lock right on the beat. I clap ahead of the beat. I lean back, and clap behind the beat. I run subdivisions of the beat - eight notes, triplets, swung eighths, quarter note triplets, three against four, six against four, other variations.
With my instrument, I play mostly with a ‘nome. I record myself and listen back to see how well or badly I am doing. Not everything, but after a half hour of particle I’ll record a minute of myself playing a tune a ‘nome, then listen back to. This is the punishing truth. It tells me what I need to work on for the next half hour. (I’m about to start experimenting with a looping pedal with the ‘nome and my bass signal, for even quicker and easier feedback.)
I will play some with drum loops. I don’t use a drum machine specifically, but I do use an app called ‘Drum Genius’ which has jazz specific samples and is really great.
I spend as much time as I can playing with a drummer and/or other musicians. Sometimes this has been three hours a week. Sometimes even more. Lately it is less.
If I were giving advice it would be:
Play most of the time - 60-70% - with a metronome, and record small samples of your playing and listen back, and use that feedback to decide what you need to work on next.
Play some time - 30-35% - with recordings or drum loops or a drum machine or something that is more sophisticated than just a ‘nome.
Spend as much time as you possibly can playing with a real, living drummer, who wants to practice the same stuff as you. If you can get a drummer who will play with you more, let it eat into the other time.
It seems to me that you can learn to play the slow way, or the fast way.
When I was a kid, I hated practicing with a metronome, and so I didn’t, and I got better slowly.
Now I am much older, and I have kids, and dammit, every second of practice time counts and needs to get results as efficiently as possible, so I use a ‘nome almost all the time.
Here’s what I do:
I spend somewhere between six and ten minutes clapping with a ‘nome each practice session. I lock in with the ‘nome. I lock right on the beat. I clap ahead of the beat. I lean back, and clap behind the beat. I run subdivisions of the beat - eight notes, triplets, swung eighths, quarter note triplets, three against four, six against four, other variations.
With my instrument, I play mostly with a ‘nome. I record myself and listen back to see how well or badly I am doing. Not everything, but after a half hour of particle I’ll record a minute of myself playing a tune a ‘nome, then listen back to. This is the punishing truth. It tells me what I need to work on for the next half hour. (I’m about to start experimenting with a looping pedal with the ‘nome and my bass signal, for even quicker and easier feedback.)
I will play some with drum loops. I don’t use a drum machine specifically, but I do use an app called ‘Drum Genius’ which has jazz specific samples and is really great.
I spend as much time as I can playing with a drummer and/or other musicians. Sometimes this has been three hours a week. Sometimes even more. Lately it is less.
If I were giving advice it would be:
Play most of the time - 60-70% - with a metronome, and record small samples of your playing and listen back, and use that feedback to decide what you need to work on next.
Play some time - 30-35% - with recordings or drum loops or a drum machine or something that is more sophisticated than just a ‘nome.
Spend as much time as you possibly can playing with a real, living drummer, who wants to practice the same stuff as you. If you can get a drummer who will play with you more, let it eat into the other time.
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What did people do before they invented the wheel.... Sorry couldn't resist! Just funnin ya.
A drum machine/app is fun, but not needed. Playing with your new toy will also take time away from the bass.
A metronome would work just as well, and is much easier to deal with/program. I would recommend a metronome over a drum machine.
As far as actually needing/using either one... I haven't used one in decades, but in the distant past, when I was still learning, a metronome helped my timing a lot. Mainly by ingraining tempos in my brain. When I see a sheet saying 120 bpm, or 80, my brain automatically starts "hearing" the properly timed(?) tick tick tick tick.
- A metronome is enough but it's boring
- There are nice drum videos on youtube (eg : drum 100 bpm - YouTube )
- A cheap Zoom B1xOn or B1ON : there's a built-in metronome and drum box (not the the best but usable for practice)
- There are nice drum videos on youtube (eg : drum 100 bpm - YouTube )
- A cheap Zoom B1xOn or B1ON : there's a built-in metronome and drum box (not the the best but usable for practice)
A well known myth. Lots of bass players out there who are not into rhythm or time. Just play like on guitar, only lower.
I would say that you will become a much better player if you practice with a drum track of some kind. It’s much more fun than a basic metronome click and you can choose different genres. If you are just learning the basics of course I think you’ll be fine without any beat reference just concentrate on learning the neck and develop your right hand, but at a certain point playing to actual drum beats will take your playing to the next level.
I don’t think you need a dedicated drum machine personally. If you have a pedal or amp with an Aux in you can easily use your phone as a drum machine these days.
I use a phone app or the drums in my amp plug. I like to have a beat to work with when writing songs 
or just locking in on the pocket playing.
or just locking in on the pocket playing.
Well, Leo had the design for the first bass ready to go in the 50's, as we all know.
What most people don't know is that the delivery of the first bass guitars took nearly two decades.
Why, you might ask. Well, how could anyone sell an instrument no one could learn?
Eko remedied that sour spot when they released the first drum machine, the ComputeRhythm in 1972 and acutally made it possible for aspiring bassists around the world to finally learn the instrument of their dreams.
What most people don't know is that the delivery of the first bass guitars took nearly two decades.
Why, you might ask. Well, how could anyone sell an instrument no one could learn?
Eko remedied that sour spot when they released the first drum machine, the ComputeRhythm in 1972 and acutally made it possible for aspiring bassists around the world to finally learn the instrument of their dreams.
