make me into a remarkable bassist

[HelloJerk]

also, pointing out the blatantly obvious, like "practice more" is less helpful, funny, or worthwhile than you'd think.

Well, there you go.

 

[Slaine01]

Go and find a teacher that scares the %$&# out of you by their reputation alone.
You can even do it online now through some good reputable Music Schools.
Get them to sit with you for 5 minutes (webcam) and watch what/how you play and then ask them for suggestions on becoming a "better" (subjective term I know) player.
It doesn't matter how long you've been playing - a good/fresh teacher does wonders for snapping you out of that comfort zone we all slip into time to time.
My 2 cents

 

[Inverness]

This thread has been informative and comical all at the same time. What the heck, I'll jump in.

The most important thing I've ever done (and I wish I had started doing it sooner) is, after you find a lesson or a song to play, record yourself and listen back. You can sort of listen for feel if you'd like, but I'd be more interested in the technical stuff. Are there any strings ringing, do you hear some muffled or slurred notes, etc. Billy Sheehan always advised to break licks down piece by piece, find the weak part, and then hammer it home until you can play it smoothly. If you hear some problems, then you can adjust your hands accordingly.

Now, as far as learning a bazillion songs and expanding your musical vocabulary, I'd hold off on that. I'm only starting now to learn to play guitar leads on bass (the song "Mourn" by Miika Tenkula of the now-defunct Sentenced, for example), but back when I started, I only wanted to play bass for heavy metal. No frills. I played music that was fun yet challenging - Iron Maiden. So, to you I say, listen to bands whose style matches yours. Extrapolate from there - it's a start.

 

[HaVIC5]

slowly
i don't know the song, but probably
not note for note, and depends on the song, but i'm usually there within a few bars
no, and yes, badly
yes

Good, you see? By asking yourself these questions, you can see your weak points and where to improve. Being painfully honest with yourself is the best way to go about this. For example, sure you can play a three octave lydian #9 scale, but can you do it in thirds? fourths, fifths, sixths sevenths? And how fluidly can you make those shifts? How many fingerings can you come up with for the three octaves? Coming up with ways to practice material is the way the greats get great, not by having an instructor spoonfeed every single exercise into you. A good book for developing this kind of mindset is "The Advancing Guitarist" by Mick Goodrick. I guarantee you that this book will give you years of things to explore.

For the record, I very much doubt you, or anybody for that matter, could credibly sight-walk an bassline to Countdown at tempo. The late great Mr. Paul Chambers couldn't - the changes are so difficult and so complex that on the Giant Steps recording the rhythm section doesn't come in until the head out, and even then, PC is pretty much doing root notes. Have you ever shed Giant Steps? Countdown is Giant Steps in three different keys at a faster tempo. Jazz musicians (including myself) will regularly do nothing for a month except for practicing Giant Steps, and that's easier than Countdown.

 

[Stumbo]

Practice 10,000 hours
Listen to 500 hours of recorded music
Learn 500 songs
Listen to 500 hour of live music
Write 10 songs
Rehearse 1000 hours
Play 100 gigs

All's you need it time.
There's no magic to this stuff.

A month in the basement really won't get you there.
If you don't have the time...oh well.....

 

[Edinburgh_Bass]

sorry to anyone who helped. i don't really care about the rest of you.

Which is well matched.

 

[Michael Case]

Well brothertupelo, I was just having some fun with you. I see you got some really good advice here. Honestly I believe that asking questions online about getting better as a musician is kind of futile. No two people will have the same advice, plus you never really stated your goals. Is the CD you want to record a rock CD? Is it jazz? Funk? Blues? Free improvisation?

To log onto an internet forum and ask people who HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU CAN DO to make you a better bassist is a JOKE period. And if you get annoyed by the practice more advice, then you're pretty far off the mark. All the advice given to you requires PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

Plenty of people have given you good advice, now go and start working.

 

[DocBop]

It takes about ten years of playing and practice to become a musician. Then being a pro musician is like any job and you need to put in about 40 hours a week. Twenty hour of gigging and twenty hours of practice.

I would say after about ten years of playing and at a musician level your practice is more about composing and experimentation and your instrument(s) practice is more part of the tools of composing and experimentation.


If the OP has played guitar for 15 years he should of been able to answer this question himself. Reading the OP's replies the line from Planet of the Apes comes to mind... Don't ask questions you don't really want the answer to.

 

[HaVIC5]

As amusing as it is to take sage advice from a 70's science fiction movie, +1 to DocBop.

 

[lomo]

One thing that's helping me a lot is using a looper to make my own tunes. Pick a chord progression, either from a tune or your your own head. First play the chords high up on your bass, either plucked in unison or individually in a cool rhythm, then add a beat by layering ghost notes (plucked or slapped), then let the loop play and improvise your baseline underneath it. This is fun because you're making your own tunes, and will make you practice many facets at once. Limitless possibilities...

 

[jhan]

If you send me five thousand dollars, I'll turn you into a remarkable bassist.

 

[jonster]

Listen. Practice. Learn. Relax. (repeat)

Jon Liebman
Author, "FUNK BASS," "BASS GROOVES" and other books
Invalid Link Removed

 

[Jeff Constantine]

Why don't you just apply the methods you put into the other instruments you learned how to play and put it into terms with bass? Take a song you already know on guitar and play the bass part. Try playing the guitar part (melody) on bass. I've been playing & gigging for 20 years & still know there's plenty more to learn. There's only one way to learn something and that's with the basic fundamentals. Ya dig?

 

[Jim Carr]

i have an ok ear from other instruments and i've been around for long enough that right now i can get by as a fairly uninteresting stand-in, but i don't do anything that well. turn me into a human god, a funky sex machine, a virtuoso, and a snazzy dresser.

go.

It will never happen. Your entitled lazy mentality ensures that. But don't feel bad about being a lazy mediocrity, really! Your competition loves people like you. You are appreciated after all!