Starting to play with other people

[ZBirdV8]

Learn your open strings and the first four frets on each one. Know what those notes are, and know where they are.

From there have your friend tell you what chord progression the song is, or what chords you are going to jam. If he can't do this, you are trying to play with an idiot and it's flat not going to work, sad but true. Assuming your friend is not an idiot watch his hands so that you know what those chords look like and you can change with him.

Next have him play a bit of it for you so that you can learn the strum pattern/rhythm of the song. Without it you are lost.

Finally simply play the roots in time with his changes, DO NOT IMPROVISE UNTIL YOU CAN DO THIS WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT. As you become comfortable with the changes and the timing you can start to ad little flourishes.

That's as basic as jamming can possibly be.

 

[Rogatien022]

Lotsa booze and lotsa blow help more than you can imagine. Bring a lot, enough to feed the whole band.

Joke aside, everyone on this board was a beginner at some point. Heck, I still suck. Playing with others is priceless experience, you will learn a lot more by doing so. Other musicians in the band may even give you tricks or hints, encourage you to keep on playing. Never be afraid to play with better musicians: they will make you better.

Go have fun, young padawan, enjoy yourself!

 

[J Gold]

Memorize the notes on the fretboard and learn enharmonics (those notes that have 2 names, like D sharp is E flat, aka the black keys on a piano).

 

[jeepsk8]

After a few starts and stops with guitar and one time with bass, I finally decided to give it a serious go at the age of 47. I picked up the bass for real this past November just trying to learn it on my own in my man cave. My buddy is a really excellent acoustic guitarist and he kept telling me "you just gotta play the thing!" I started going to his church in December where he plays on the praise team and I was really enthused by the team and the music they were playing. It just so happens he rides to work with me, a commute of about 50 minutes each way. He says one day "we need a bassist on the praise team, you need to come check it out." Of course I was excited and scared to death since I had, up to that point, only been playing for a couple of months. I went to their rehearsal one night and I was like "I got this!" and asked if I could bring my bass the following week to play along with them. Of course the worship leader was enthusiastic in saying yes, lol. I have been on the team ever since (January of this year) and man o man have I grown exponentially. I take it pretty serious by listening to the song and marking up my sheet music, making notes and writing down basic rhythm patterns etc. Most modern praise music is root notes but there is room to explore stepping out of that rut for sure, which is fun. I highly recommend playing with other people, you will learn so much more by playing and messing up in a live context than you ever will in your bedroom. Be nervous, be scared, but play out and have fun. Btw, almost nobody realizes the bassist messed up unless you lay a truly large egg

 

[MakoMan]

You'll have a blast. I started out a few years ago exactly the way you are. One thing I found out was that good guitarists often prefer bassists who keep it simple and bad guitarists don't know the difference. I've been keeping it simple ever since

 

[MalcolmAmos]

.............. I take it pretty serious by listening to the song and marking up my sheet music, making notes and writing down basic rhythm patterns etc. Most modern praise music is root notes but there is room to explore stepping out of that rut for sure, which is fun.

Had good luck purchasing "piano sheet music" real books, treble and bass clef on Praise & Worship music. Books of 50 songs for $25 is about the going rate. Look at the published bass clef and see if you can take some of the bass clef fills to your bass lines.

What I found is there are fills that can be inserted, IF, someone else is not already filling that space. Run it by the group at rehearsal and if no one wants that space it can belongs to you.

 

[Benny the Finger]

Make sure you are both properly in tune, and have fun...

 

[40Hz]

+1 to all the above advice.

To which I'll add: if you want to get truly good, make it a point to try and play with people better than you. That's how you get to be a better player. Guys and gals with more technical and musical ability than you can serve as your inspiration as well as your education. And nobody who's actually good minds helping somebody along - unless it's on a paying gig and you misrepresented your abilities to get the job. I haven't run into too many players who didn't respond at least tolerantly to somebody asking a question or to be shown how to do something if they were truly trying to learn. Most of the people who are really good got that way by doing the same thing at one point or another.

We're all perpetual students and lifetime learners when it comes to music - if we're wise. Nobody out there ever knows all that there is to be known.

 

[jeepsk8]

Had good luck purchasing "piano sheet music" real books, treble and bass clef on Praise & Worship music. Books of 50 songs for $25 is about the going rate. Look at the published bass clef and see if you can take some of the bass clef fills to your bass lines.

What I found is there are fills that can be inserted, IF, someone else is not already filling that space. Run it by the group at rehearsal and if no one wants that space it can belongs to you.

Finding space is the problem with 2 fiddles, 2 acoustic guitars, keys, mandolin and drum kit. I asked keys to not play with her left hand thougg, lol. Thanks for the advice!

 

[buldog5151bass]

Talk to him and try to get a list of songs he wants to try. As long as you are honest, nothing wrong with not being a pro. Nothing improves you faster than playing with better musicians. Relax.

 

[Shortie]

Make sure you know the basic chord changes, play cleanly, in tune and with good time. Don't try to show off or impress. If you just play roots and fifths with good time and a good clean sound, you will sound good. In many cases, that's all you need to do as a bass player - less is more. If your friend doesn't like it, tell him to hire someone...

Go for it and don't worry - everybody has to start someplace.

 

[Ron Johnson]

I'm sure this guitarist, regardless of his skill level or yours, will be glad with however the jam may go. When I was a beginner I jammed with tons of more experienced guitarists and they were always happy with it. Musicians are generally supportive I think. Perhaps ask him if there are any songs he wants to cover, and then learn them. Perhaps some improvisation will come out of those covers and you'll get more comfortable with "jamming".

 

[Shortie]

Memorize the notes on the fretboard and learn enharmonics

Sorry, IMO that's not what he needs to know now -overkill. That's not going to prepare a young person to play some stuff for the first time with a buddy.

 

[seanm]

Lots of good info here. You should definitely go for it!

A couple of tips:

Unless you are playing prog , I have never once had anybody complain if I only played roots. So never be scared of root notes.

Don't stop! When playing with a band you can't "stop and play it over again". That is a cardinal sin.

 

[LanEvo]

It's always going to feel better if you start off playing common songs that everyone knows. Pick a few songs you both like and work out the bass parts on your own ahead of time. Then it's just a matter of figuring out how to lock in together.

Trying to come up with new bass lines on the fly is a whole other skill set. It may be better to leave that for a bit later...after you've already had some experience playing with others.

 

[AshInAmsterdam]

Just get on and do it. There's always a first time for things, we aren't born able to walk or feed ourselves or make use of a toilet - and despite what you may think when you stare misty-eyed at your favourite musicians, they weren't born playing an instrument.

I found playing to CDs useful. Learning as many songs as possible, even if not perfect to the recording, teaches you a lot of little things to use. 12-bar blues songs are great (due to their predictable, fixed patterns) to practice different patterns and to learn to pick out a key more easily.

 

[Wolfenstein666]

Be honest about your skill level, and DO NOT LET THE OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY WITH SOMEONE GET AWAY. That is one of the largest, if not THE largest thing I regret about learning to play, is that I never had the confidence in myself to go play with someone else. Once I finally did and realized that I could do it, my playing shot through the roof. I learned more in a year of playing with people than I did in four years of playing by myself. Do it.

 

[RedHatter]

I created a very similar thread here not long ago as I am in the same situation that you are: been playing for a little less than a year, time is extremely limited to practice (two small children, work 60+ hours a week), and just began playing with others. I got some really great advice from the folks here and things are working out well.

My thoughts on this: Pick a couple three songs that you're interested in playing and, maybe most importantly, that you believe aren't too far above you. Have the other guys/gals you're playing with practice their parts in their own time while you do the same thing. Learn your pieces of the song(s) on your own and then when you get together with the others try and put them together. It can be difficult at first, but if you work at it you will be amazed at how well things will -eventually- fall into place. This is the method that I've been doing with the people I play with and while it was a bit daunting at the beginning, our efforts have really begun to pay off.

Good luck!

 

[Remyd]

Practice along with the radio, close your eyes, and pretend you are playing with other people.

If you want to take that to the next step, there are "jam tracks" available on YouTube and other sites, which are designed specifically for students such as yourself to practice jamming with other musicians.

wikiloops.com | Free Backing Tracks | Online Jamsession is my favorite.

 

[Genomatic]

PREPARE. RELAX.HAVE FUN!