Is This “Wrong”?

[mambo4]

Can you tune your bass by ear ? Not get the strings exactly EADG but get them tuned correctly relative to each other? That’s the first pitch ear training skill you should master: learning what two pitches sound like when one is lower, higher, and identical.

can you identify which beat is the 1 ? Hearing the first downbeat of a measure is the first rhythmic ear training you should master

after that maybe book a gig lol

 

[ComeHomeShane]

A good and simple thing you can do to develop your ear:

Take a song, melody, riff, or any thing you already know how to play, and figure it out, by ear, in all 12 keys. If that doesn't make sense, simply take the bass part, and start one fret up or down from where you're comfortable with. Treat the new starting point the same way as your original first note, and use your ear/finger patterns to make the music sound the same in relation to the starting note.

 

[HolmeBass]

I think you’re doing fine. Learning songs from recordings is a time-honored tradition.

Besides, the tabs are almost all wrong anyway.

 

[J R Knots]

Hi Everybody,

I have been trying to learn by playing tabs for the last few months, but looking to up my game, specifically looking to get better at learning by ear.

Since I’m VERY much a visual learner this is going to take a lot of getting used to for me (if I were to be honest I’m somewhat intimidated by taking off the tab training wheels, but I also feel a little more comfortable with basic fretboard knowledge and playing than I was).

My question-Is it a bad idea to only play along to songs as a method of practice.

Apologies if this is kind of a stupid question-My fear is that since my hearing isn’t as sharp as it could be that I’m going to learn songs the wrong way.

I realize I can always mix it up by doing both-Just wondering how some other people practice/learn beyond playing along to Songsterr or other tab apps.

I think someone mentioned on another thread that they practice by playing along to songs on Pandora or iTunes...I’m kind of intrigued by this idea as I’ve tried this a few times, but idk how “right” I’m playing songs when I do this.

Would you please be able to give me some advice on other ways to learn beyond tabs?

I’m just curious how other people practice and how you measure your progress.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks! \m/

A lot of good ideas in this thread.

I started playing when there really weren’t bass instructors, music that was written correctly, tabs, internet etc....

Most of my generation were self taught and we compared notes with others in our communities.

Obviously, what you are currently doing is working for you but if you want to add some ear training as another option of learning, why not?

I think playing by ear helps when someone has written an original and is asking you to contribute. I generally hear bass lines in my head and reproduce them.

Playing along with records tapes, cds etc... is where a lot of us started.

I have gotten better looking at chord charts and sheet music over the years.

Anything you do will require practice but it just helps us to grow.

 

[Bill Murray]

Hi Everybody,

I have been trying to learn by playing tabs for the last few months, but looking to up my game, specifically looking to get better at learning by ear.

Since I’m VERY much a visual learner this is going to take a lot of getting used to for me (if I were to be honest I’m somewhat intimidated by taking off the tab training wheels, but I also feel a little more comfortable with basic fretboard knowledge and playing than I was).

My question-Is it a bad idea to only play along to songs as a method of practice.

Apologies if this is kind of a stupid question-My fear is that since my hearing isn’t as sharp as it could be that I’m going to learn songs the wrong way.

I realize I can always mix it up by doing both-Just wondering how some other people practice/learn beyond playing along to Songsterr or other tab apps.

I think someone mentioned on another thread that they practice by playing along to songs on Pandora or iTunes...I’m kind of intrigued by this idea as I’ve tried this a few times, but idk how “right” I’m playing songs when I do this.

Would you please be able to give me some advice on other ways to learn beyond tabs?

I’m just curious how other people practice and how you measure your progress.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks! \m/

Tabs are almost always incorrect (at least in my experience). Ear training can seem intimidating but it is a necessity.

playing along with songs is great even if you already know the tune because your building your ear. Playing scales is important too, it will help you pick up notes quicker (play along tracks for these are easy to find on YouTube).

I also recommend playing along drone notes (again easy to find on YouTube). Just mess around with different notes and hear how each one reacts differently when played against the drone (which would be the root).

It takes a lot of time to develop a great ear. My best advice is shoot for songs with simple and repetitive bass grooves (Think: Smells Like Teen Spirit, One Drop, What I Got, Take The Money and Run, My Girl, lots rap/hip hop is great for this too) dont feel like you need to learn the whole song either, just grab what you can when you can. Focus on finding the groove first, even if you have the wrong notes you’ll slowly correct yourself one note at a time.

Another helpful tool is an App called the amazing slow downer that allows to create loops and slow down the song. Transcribe is another one, I think if you pay for YouTube you can also do this on there.

Ditch the tabs, look up what key the song is in or try to find a chord chart if you get stumped.

 

[micguy]

I taught myself to play bass by turning on the radio and playing along. The radio specifically because you don’t know what’s coming - you learn to figure out what’s happening fast and how to join in without any knowledge other that what comes in through your ears.

One day, you’ll find yourself auditioning for a band where someone will launch into a song you don’t know. What you learn from playing along with tunes you don’t know is invaluable in that situation.

Folks that learn to play via other ways may discount this way of learning. That’s fine - I don’t have time or the desire to argue. I’ve got a lot of gigs to prep for.

 

[Slevage]

Playing along with recordings is a great way to develop your ear.

Visual learner? There is nothing more visual than learning standard notation—
It works everywhere in the world.
I highly recommend anyone add it to their toolbox.

 

[OogieWaWa]

Also really important for visual learners; positions of notes on the neck. Eventually you'll start to recognize that songs always have patterns that they follow. These correlate to chord progressions.

Pluck the fretting below the fifth fret of the second string, down to the third fret of the first string, the third fret of the second string and then the fifth thread of the first string, and back. You made an hourglass shape (one version or iteration of a box song for obvious reasons.). Congratulations, you've just played about half of the songs written in the 90's, in D this time. Same pattern can be used anywhere on the neck.

Plus you really need to know where all of the notes are on each of the strings, visual learning will help with that a LOT. You've probably figured out that moving up two strings and up two frets and you're an octave higher than where you started. Also figure out where the thirds, the minor thirds (down one from the third), the fourths, fifths and all of the 'ths are in relation to the first root note. Recognizing what is used and therefor what can be used opens up a lot of possibilities.

Music is all about patterns, and visuals are typically very good at seeing patterns. Use that to your advantage, because it is one!

 

[Flatwound]

Tabs are ok as an aid to learning. I occasionally use hem to learn new songs, particularly if I want to play it like it is on the record. But if there’s a note in the tab that sounds wrong, it probably is. A lot of the chord charts on the internet are wrong too. So you need to develop your ear.

There’s a lot of good advice in this thread. Try some of the suggestions, and find what works for you. Check out some of the bass covers on YouTube. Learn chord structure, and how to arpeggiate chords.

And, if you can learn to read standard notation, you’ll be way ahead.

 

[El_Charro]

————
Eh...Er...Kinda???...I mean I’m trying harder and harder to listen to if the song is going up and down in pitch—I mean-Does that really even count???...

It’s like I can’t always hear the bass line in the song so I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing...Shouldn’t I also be listening to the other instruments???...

This might be a stupid question, but isn’t one of the jobs of the bass player to sorta foster synergy to the rest of the band???...And if so, can that be done by feel/emotion alone??? (Maybe I’m intellectualizing something that is more primal and I just need to learn to relax and stop trying so hard???)...Also-It’s probably different when playing with other people???

Even then I’m not always sure bc I can usually tell when I’m playing the wrong notes (occasionally I can tell I played the right note even when I know it was dumb luck and I just stumbled into doing something right (hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day)...

I also worry I’m out of rhythm so I sometimes find my mind wandering and find myself slapping the open E string to the beat to try to figure out how to keep time...Maybe I’m overthinking it and just need to try to play by “feel”???...

What was weird was that tonight when I didn’t use tabs and just played along to an album it sorta felt more like I was playing for “real” and not just trying to play Bass Hero on my iPad...(Maybe that’s a good thing???)

So, in summary-I’m sorry but it’s probably obvious if you made it this far into reading this rambling post that I’m not even sure I know the answer to that question myself bc I fear my hearing isn’t sharp enough but wouldn’t playing without tablature like that end up honing my listening skills over time???

(Additional feedback would be appreciated)...

Thanks! \m/

There’s something called Bass Hero?

You needn’t worry about playing along to songs... in my opinion it’s a very effective way of practice, both for technical skill and ear training.
I’m not sure from your post if you’re saying your actual hearing is impaired, or you feel your music “ear” is in need of sharpening up, or both, but you can never go wrong playing along with music. It’s the closest thing a lot of us have to playing with real people anyways, and it’s always fun!
Try playing/ listening through over ear headphones with your bass in the mix of the music, and you’ll hear the basslines much easier.[/QUOTE]——
———————
Lol-Well...I meant my musical “ear’ needs sharpening...

I mean-I’m sure listening to Metal for the last 24 years probably hasn’t helped me much, but I meant more hearing specific notes, not going deaf (fortunately not an issue for me yet)...

Thanks! \m/

 

[BrotherMister]

Hi Everybody,

I have been trying to learn by playing tabs for the last few months, but looking to up my game, specifically looking to get better at learning by ear.

Since I’m VERY much a visual learner this is going to take a lot of getting used to for me (if I were to be honest I’m somewhat intimidated by taking off the tab training wheels, but I also feel a little more comfortable with basic fretboard knowledge and playing than I was).

My question-Is it a bad idea to only play along to songs as a method of practice.

Apologies if this is kind of a stupid question-My fear is that since my hearing isn’t as sharp as it could be that I’m going to learn songs the wrong way.

I realize I can always mix it up by doing both-Just wondering how some other people practice/learn beyond playing along to Songsterr or other tab apps.

I think someone mentioned on another thread that they practice by playing along to songs on Pandora or iTunes...I’m kind of intrigued by this idea as I’ve tried this a few times, but idk how “right” I’m playing songs when I do this.

Would you please be able to give me some advice on other ways to learn beyond tabs?

I’m just curious how other people practice and how you measure your progress.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks! \m/

Learning from recordings is an important part of the process so keep doing that. It gets easier and the process gets faster so ditch the tabs and trust the process. That's just one aspect though, there is a whole wealth of ear training to delve into both sonically and rhythmically. It's a life times struggle and something that needs worked on every day, but the good news is you don't need your instrument to work on it. Actually so much of it is best done off your instrument! Get into the habit of singing, you don't have to be Luther Vandross or Frank Sinatra, you just need to be able to match the pitch enough to sing the movement.

Adding the visual element to it is easier if you use notation. Why? because it's a visual representation of music. Notation gives us pitch, duration, time, rhythm, dynamics, harmony and lots of information. Tab tells you a specific fret, but if you know the notes on your neck and you can read then why would need someone to tell you to play it as 6th fret on the A string when in the context of the music 1st fret on the D string makes more sense? So again, notation gives us more information to make better decisions.

Improving your knowledge of theory allows you to label the sounds more accurately. If you are using Here Comes The Bride as the example of an ascending Perfect 4th then without any theory you'll just think of it is 1 to 4, or C to F to give it context, because that's what the interval charts teach you. However, using a knowledge of theory we can correctly label it as an ascending 4th, but it's ascending from 5 up to 1 so from G up to C. Sure, a perfect 4th sounds like a Perfect 4th but being able to hear that the note is ascending up to the root makes like a whole lot easier.

Get working on them both. Every day!

 

[mambo4]

Just want to echo the recommendation to start learning notation and ditch the tabs. Harder to learn? Yes. Better to learn? Yes.

 

[El_Charro]

Thanks everyone for responding...Wanted to give an update on this...

So this morning I tried this again and thought it went a little better than Friday evening...

Maybe it was bc I was playing slower songs (focused today on songs off of Black Sabbath’s first three albums whereas on Friday I was trying to play along to songs on Master Of Puppets)...

I have been practicing Sabbath tabs for a while, so maybe this gave me a leg up in terms of knowing what area of the fretboard to focus on...

I think this is going to be the way to go long term even though it was pretty intimidating to not have a visual crutch to lean on...

The one part of N.I.B. that I really know felt good just playing along to the song even though there were plenty of other times I felt out of tune/hitting the wrong notes...I suppose this was to be expected and will probably be an issue for a while after taking the training wheels off...

Other observations-I felt less like I was thinking about what I was doing a few times and tried to also rely on instinct which was admittedly kind of freeing (when I play tabs I’ve noticed I sometimes overthink bc I’m so focused on trying to be accurate)...I’m also thinking I need to focus on slower songs to work on my listening skills...

A lot of music I like is supposed to be played at pretty much break neck speed, but that probably is making it a bit harder to figure out what’s going on with the song musically (gotta learn to walk before you can walk and all that)...

Anyway, really appreciate the suggestions mentioned here...

I can map out the fretboard by memory in standard tuning when I think about it after making myself write it out every day for a few weeks last Fall, but I need to get better at the music theory side...

Just need to get better at learning fret relationships for chords (if that makes sense).

Knowing you can play the same note on the next string 5 frets down was a good start, but probably need to learn some addition chord patterns/relationships (apologies if that isn’t the right term).

Thanks! \m/

 

[mambo4]

Just need to get better at learning fret relationships for chords (if that makes sense).

Knowing you can play the same note on the next string 5 frets down was a good start, but probably need to learn some addition chord patterns/relationships (apologies if that isn’t the right term).

You're talking about arpeggios and their fingering pattern shapes
Study bass has a web app for that enter the chord (or scale) you want, print the chart
But the lego bricks of chords are the intervals, so make sure you know those shapes first

also keep in mind on a bass any interval / scale /chord arpeggio can be fingered in multiple ways.
the trade off is that once you know the shape for a chord it is movable
the shape of a B minor triad is the same as a C minor triad - just starting on a different fret