Or any of the other 5 or ten suggestions people have taken time to offer. Not sure I heard you ask for anything from those who've read your post. Or, on the other hand, if playing bass isn't fun, quit doing it.
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Thinking about giving up on bass
- Thread starter BassMoley
- Start date
well of course that would be nothing! you were watching DVD! that doesn't make sense. practicing, even the most mechanical things require a lot of concentration.
And I know that feeling of not being able to catch up with speed or whatever you're trying to play. But that's just stepping way too ahead. Learn some easy stuff first. Speed up slowly... you need to approach slowly. 1 year is nothing for musician - NOTHING.
My teacher's been playing on bass more than 25 years. Not including his 7 years of piano school. He improvises over jazz themes and can do really rare rhythmic sh... that many drummers won't be able to feel and he still gets shy when you call him "musician".
You know what Pablo Casals said when he was asked why is he still practicing so many hours a day in his 90s? He said "'I'm beginning to notice some improvement..."
I started with Pink Floyd. Feel Feel Feel. Find the root, stay there. There's nothing wrong with that. Then I understood what was going on around the guitar/keyboards.. Feel the beat. Feel the Rhythm. Feel where the melody is going. Feel where drums are and stay there, stretching out only when necessary. Now I can put the bass in the gaps they can't cover. Still cover the "tone" of the kick drum.
Mastered that, which means I learned to understand/imitate. Learned about Rush. Found out that you can do all of what I had just learned (feel, expand, feel, lock in, feel, dance a bit around the melody, but most importantly FEEL) you can be a "lead" bass player if you understand the role of the bass in a song. Because the song dictates who does what. You don't need a hundred notes a minute sometimes. It took me a long time to learn that.
Stick with it. Learn to understand what is needed. The rest will be icing.
Mastered that, which means I learned to understand/imitate. Learned about Rush. Found out that you can do all of what I had just learned (feel, expand, feel, lock in, feel, dance a bit around the melody, but most importantly FEEL) you can be a "lead" bass player if you understand the role of the bass in a song. Because the song dictates who does what. You don't need a hundred notes a minute sometimes. It took me a long time to learn that.
Stick with it. Learn to understand what is needed. The rest will be icing.
Have FUN. You won't play baseball like a major leaguer in a year, but you sure as hell can have fun trying!
And what's even more fun than trying alone?yep, you got it.
I think you,sir, win the thread. If you aint having fun, what's the point?
Dude, I feel like giving up almost every week and I've been playing for ten years. Persist. fight through the negative thoughts.
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
- Jan 21, 2006
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- fEARful Kool-Aid dispensing liberal academic card-carrying union member Musicians Local 72-147
By solving the problems you are now having, you will earn permission from yourself to improve and grow. If you don't solve those problems on bass, they will be back in the next worthwhile thing you undertake.
Dont worry about not playing to your own standards. I never play as well as i'd like to. The reason I still play bass is that everyone else who hears me loves what I do and that's what makes me happy. I think that if you always find room for improvement you will keep getting better!
Dont worry about not playing to your own standards. I never play as well as i'd like to. The reason I still play bass is that everyone else who hears me loves what I do and that's what makes me happy. I think that if you always find room for improvement you will keep getting better!
Amen!! I play awesome some days. Then others, I play horrible. You're only human, to quote Billy Joel.
You'll never be as perfect as you'd like to be. Even Victor Wooten says that and he's the closest thing to Bass Jesus I've ever heard!!
The best we can do is do our best, then try to do a bit better tomorrow.
You can give up if you want, lots and lots of other people have before you. No shame, becoming a musician takes lots of dedication and practice and its frustrating and not for everyone.
But if you decide to stick with it, you should consider enrolling in 3-months worth of lessons, about a 1/2 hour long once a week. Thus will give you direction and you will see progress and hear encouraging words-that's a promise that will come true if you apply yourself.
After this brief 'last chance" re-assess your dreams, and possibly sign up for another three months. It may seem like money that you shouldn't have to spend, but if you do make it work out, isn't a lifelong skill worth a few hundred bucks?
Think about it.
But if you decide to stick with it, you should consider enrolling in 3-months worth of lessons, about a 1/2 hour long once a week. Thus will give you direction and you will see progress and hear encouraging words-that's a promise that will come true if you apply yourself.
After this brief 'last chance" re-assess your dreams, and possibly sign up for another three months. It may seem like money that you shouldn't have to spend, but if you do make it work out, isn't a lifelong skill worth a few hundred bucks?
Think about it.
+10 To the OP, sounds like you may be learning incorrect habits which can make your attempt to learn to play very frustrating. My suggestion would be to find a working pro or semi-pro with a good educational background who teaches and schedule some lessons. Learning incorrectly can be a killer. Playing along with recordings only helps with what notes are being played, not with the technique needed to play those notes so you won't cause injury or develop bad habits.
Lloyd Howard
Don't practice while watching tv. Mindless practicing doesn't do much good, and if anything just builds bad habits.
Don't quit! I started playing bass in 1978 and after our garage band dissolved a few years later, I stopped playing. Life took over, etc.
Fast forward 30 years. My brother gets the core of the band back together (minus me because now I live 2000 miles away) and I start playing again on my own. I use Scott's Bass Lessons, MarloweDK and Paul Wolfe with all the Youtube covers out there and am getting better. I get to jam with my old band when I am back home when they are rehearsing for a gig and it's a joy I embrace and they get a kick out if it, too.
I'm no virtuoso, I am still learning the notes on the fretboard and learning my arpeggios and scales, but with all the backing tracks out there and and whatever, I am having a blast. A couple of guys at work are learning guitar and I will be jamming with them soon.
Hang in there. Please.
Fast forward 30 years. My brother gets the core of the band back together (minus me because now I live 2000 miles away) and I start playing again on my own. I use Scott's Bass Lessons, MarloweDK and Paul Wolfe with all the Youtube covers out there and am getting better. I get to jam with my old band when I am back home when they are rehearsing for a gig and it's a joy I embrace and they get a kick out if it, too.
I'm no virtuoso, I am still learning the notes on the fretboard and learning my arpeggios and scales, but with all the backing tracks out there and and whatever, I am having a blast. A couple of guys at work are learning guitar and I will be jamming with them soon.
Hang in there. Please.
Great advice here, I must say Morbid Angel is quite the high standard for the first year. I have played thrash/death metal since 1990 and there are some MA songs I still have to really be on to nail them. Most on this board dismiss this genre of music as crap/ garbage/ noise. I also would think that 95% of those people would not be able to play one full Morbid Angel song. My advice practice it really slow, learn the finger positions using all four fingers. The changes are way to complex and fast to be using one or two fingers. Good luck, I hope you stick it out.
Dont worry about not playing to your own standards. I never play as well as i'd like to. The reason I still play bass is that everyone else who hears me loves what I do and that's what makes me happy. I think that if you always find room for improvement you will keep getting better!
You still play bass because everyone that hears you loves what you do ?
DUDE !!!!! HA! You must have offers coming over the phone like a Rhinestone Cowboy !
There is a lot of advice flying around here. Some of it is great. However, I think we need to know a little bit more about you before we can really help. Look at it this way guys....
Scenario 1
BassMoley is 13 years old, lives in a field outside of Nowhere Nebraska (population 12 with no other musicians within driving distance) with his uncle Zeb, has no money, no car, and no patience for anything (much less bass), and loves very technical death metal.
Scenario 2
BassMoley is 30 years old and single, lives in the heart of NYC, does well financially, took up bass on the advice of his therapist to relax, and loves punk rock and three chord classic rock songs.
I would advise Scenario 1 to quit and take up sling shot shooting. I would advise Scenario 2 to relax, have some fun, get a private teacher, and join a band of equally terrible musicians so they can all earn together.
My advice for those two situations is completely different.
Scenario 1
BassMoley is 13 years old, lives in a field outside of Nowhere Nebraska (population 12 with no other musicians within driving distance) with his uncle Zeb, has no money, no car, and no patience for anything (much less bass), and loves very technical death metal.
Scenario 2
BassMoley is 30 years old and single, lives in the heart of NYC, does well financially, took up bass on the advice of his therapist to relax, and loves punk rock and three chord classic rock songs.
I would advise Scenario 1 to quit and take up sling shot shooting. I would advise Scenario 2 to relax, have some fun, get a private teacher, and join a band of equally terrible musicians so they can all earn together.
My advice for those two situations is completely different.
Scenario 1: Learn to play. Run off to the big city to live out your dreams.
Scenario 2: Learn to play. Move back to the land to live out your dreams.
Scenario 2: Learn to play. Move back to the land to live out your dreams.
I'll pile on the advice to play with people - nothing ever, ever improved my playing so much as diving in and playing in bands, especially with people who were just a bit better than I was (not so much that there was no way I could hang with them, but enough that they pushed me hard to keep up).
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