New user full of questions.

[BurnOut]

I started on guitar and switched when a band I joined needed a bass player. It was REALLY hard and took some time to switch modes. It's really a different way of thinking. Both have strings and are tuned the same, but what and when to play is much different.

This was very much the case with me. Took probably a good year for me to shift gears, and I was primarily a rhythm guitar player.

One of my college roommates played guitar. He told me that he never really noticed the bass in music, until he heard me practice my bass. Listening and noticing the bass is a good start. Ignore the guitars.

This was the hardest thing for me after a lifetime of listening to the guitars.
One of the first songs I had to learn was Gimme Three Steps, about drove me insane. I just wasn't used to listening to the bass, plus Ed King is laying down a pretty busy bass line.

Give it some time, listen to the bass, Welcome to TalkBass.
Peace N Chicken Grease

 

[JimmyM]

Brother, I think that the quote provides lousy advice because it is crude, reductive and simple-minded. Advising new players to mandatorily place notes according to one part of a complex instrument that is working within a larger rhythm section within a larger band — without any regard for genre, feel, instrumentation, dynamics.... it’s just not impressive advice to me. There are thousands of better pieces of advice all over TB, including most of this thread.

I don't buy into rigid placement of the bass with the bass drum either. However, I think it's a great skill for a longtime guitarist slumming on bass to learn right off the bat. Reductive synthesis. A lesson in the percussive aspects of playing bass with major focus on only that for a few days, then daily drilling on it for a few minutes a day with lots of listening to simple but great bassists. I hate to use the term "locking in," but that's really just keeping good time and knowing where to place the bass on the beat for maximum percussive effect, and some music demands it. Attempt to play as very few notes as you can. Do it with both fast and slow songs. And THEN once you get that, work in how to overplay effectively and stay off the bass drum like a mofo! But you'll have a solid background in why those of who went from guitar to bass fell in love with it, and why that approach often needs a little tempering of the lead guitar approach. Very powerful in a secret way, bass. That's how you open up that power.

 

[LowRick]

Less is more:

Bootsy's awesome.

Maybe it would be a good idea for the OP to look at some other guitar players who picked up basses. I don't know if this is actually true but when i got to learn pink floyds-Money my bass instructor said 2 things about it: it's awesome because it's in 7/8th and it can be considered as a typical guitarist bass riff. Same goes for the Beatles Come Together. It's ever repeating riffs with some alterations here and there, but actually nice to lay under there and start to get that bass feel.

 

[La Faro]

I linked the Scott's bass lesson, because he suggests when the drummer is playing busy, play simple, and when the drummer is playing simple, then you can play busy. Following Sheehan's advise with a busy drummers part seems quite overwhelming for a beginner. I count myself as a beginner BTW. Adding Scott's part as an extension of Shehans, rather than an argument against, seems to give a good rounded starting point.

 

[JimmyM]

I linked the Scott's bass lesson, because he suggests when the drummer is playing busy, play simple, and when the drummer is playing simple, then you can play busy. Following Sheehan's advise with a busy drummers part seems quite overwhelming for a beginner. I count myself as a beginner BTW. Adding Scott's part as an extension of Shehans, rather than an argument against, seems to give a good rounded starting point.

Scott's master classes with top players are called master classes for a reason Fun to see how they do it and often very informative for beginners, too, but they all had to crawl before they could run.

 

[La Faro]

I didn't link a master class.

 

[brianrost]

Bass is a guitar.

A bass guitar is the love child of the electric guitar and the double bass.

They operate in a different range, that's all.

I think DB, tuba, piano, organ and synthesizer players might disagree with you. Bass is a function, many instruments can provide it.

 

[JimmyM]

I didn't link a master class.

Oh, I thought for some reason that Sheehan was doing a class for Scott's channel. That'll learn me not to watch.

 

[Cage]

Yeah, this is a tough one to explain in text. Billy Sheehan once said in an interview that he tells new bass players this one line and it usually blows them away.
"Listen to the drummer. You hear every time he hits that really big bass drum? You need to be playing a note every time he does that. Every time, no matter what."
It's all about locking in to the groove and providing the foundation for the song. I think a lot of players forget that, because flashy stuff looks really cool on social media and it gets all the "likes". But at the end of the day, it doesn't help the song.

Bass is just bass the ♥ of the song every thing else falls in to place

 

[Vinny_G]

A bass guitar is the love child of the electric guitar and the double bass.

Absolutely not. Everything in the design of the bass guitar testifies to its parenthood with guitar: the horizontal position, the frets, the bridge, the scale length, the way it is played, etc. The only thing it has in common with the double bass is its tuning. But the same can be said of other instruments. The problem is that since it exists, some musicians have constantly wanted to bring it closer to the double bass, as if this new instrument was a kind of monster that should never have existed (jazz snobs ).

I think DB, tuba, piano, organ and synthesizer players might disagree with you. Bass is a function, many instruments can provide it.

That's exactly what I said: bass guitar is a kind of guitar whose function is to play lower notes than a conventional guitar. In the same way that there are bass flutes, bass saxophones, bass violins (double basses). Hence its name of bass guitar. Whether you like it or not, I'm not the one who invented this terminology.

 

[brianrost]

Absolutely not. Everything in the design of the bass guitar testifies to its parenthood with guitar: the horizontal position, the frets, the bridge, the scale length, the way it is played, etc.

The scale length? I've owned exactly one 25" scale bass, an old Supro Airline, often called a "Pocket Bass". Carvin also made 25" scale basses. Neither were successful.

The P bass 34" scale was chosen because a 40" scale would be cumbersome on a guitar-based instrument. When Gibson brought out the EB-1 to compete, it was schizophrenic...a 30" scale and an attachable peg so it could be played vertically like a string bass.

While the P-bass was intended for guitarists who needed to double on DB, the closest thing to a true bass guitar would be the 6 string bass as designed by Danelectro and followed by both the Fender Bass VI and the uber-rare Gibson EB-6. All were what we now call short scale, 30" give or take. They had tight string spacing and were tuned E to E. They were all market failures.

As far as the way it is played, other than few BGs being bowable, a lot of players approach the BG like a DB. At times, I do so myself.

 

[IamGroot]

Play bass to serve the music and not your ego.

 

[Vinny_G]

The scale length? I've owned exactly one 25" scale bass, an old Supro Airline, often called a "Pocket Bass". Carvin also made 25" scale basses. Neither were successful.

The P bass 34" scale was chosen because a 40" scale would be cumbersome on a guitar-based instrument. When Gibson brought out the EB-1 to compete, it was schizophrenic...a 30" scale and an attachable peg so it could be played vertically like a string bass.

View attachment 3587652 View attachment 3587653

While the P-bass was intended for guitarists who needed to double on DB, the closest thing to a true bass guitar would be the 6 string bass as designed by Danelectro and followed by both the Fender Bass VI and the uber-rare Gibson EB-6. All were what we now call short scale, 30" give or take. They had tight string spacing and were tuned E to E. They were all market failures.

As far as the way it is played, other than few BGs being bowable, a lot of players approach the BG like a DB. At times, I do so myself.

View attachment 3587657

View attachment 3587655

View attachment 3587654

Yes, that's fine, it's the magic of this instrument. We can play it as we want. In fact, we can play any instrument as we want.

 

[Kro]

Play bass to serve the music and not your ego.

 

[HardNHeavy]

To OP, try tying your pinky and 3rd finder together and just play with your index and ring finger for a while. It'll drive ya nuts for a bit...but ya won't be playing like no guitar player and will trains your fingers to play more like a bassist imo....lol

 

[pie_man_25]

 

[Kro]

I hope that the OP has enough experience with guitar forums and the internet in general to be able to sort the wheat from chaff here.

 

[Bassic Needs]

I too have some experience playing guitar and although I still play it, I have picked up bass and I'm really liking it. For me anyway, I thought it would be good to start at square one so I could ingrain good technique and playing habits. My right-hand technique is starting to come around but I am still better with a pick at this time.
Bass is a different beast to be sure, but in a good way.

One thing I've noticed is that many great players (guitar or bass) have taken inspiration and technique or sounds from other genres of music, so listen to them all. Don't limit yourself to one type. There's something that can be learned from any style of music so be open to it even if it's not your cup of tea.

Enjoy the ride!

 

[CallMeAl]

Learn walking bass! Even if you have no interest in jazz, this will improve your knowledge of the fingerboard, timing, and role as a bassist. Takingbass.net, or walkingbasslessons.com are some good sites; plenty of good books out there too

 

[GreyBeard]

The fact that you can hear on playback that what you are playing isn't working is 99% of fixing the problem. As a bass player, when I listen to music I usually listen to the bass part 1st and how it integrates with the rest of the instruments.