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Tips on going from Bass to guitar?

Bass-desires

Bass-desires

Oct 25, 2008
297
2
El paso, TX
#1
Hey guys, I picked up an electric guitar for cheap to start learning it, and wanted to know if you guys can give me some advice?

Its crazy how small those strings are....wow. Its like they are not even there. :rolleyes:

Haha can you tell I started on a bass?

Thanks yall
 
#10
It wouldn't hurt to get at least one lesson in with a GOOD teacher. They are out there if you look hard enough. One of the nice things about the instrument is playing over a large range in a single position. Learn the minor pentatonic first and bada-bing, you can automatically have fun playing blues. It can be weird going from G to B because that major third throws you off from the usual 4th interval, but some practice you'll be fine. Learn your open chords, then barre chords and then you'll be set!
 
#12
Lobotomize yourself? (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
+1 on getting a teacher. EVERYONE should have a teacher, and most pros I work with do - if nothing else, it's someone to check your form. I'd get a classical or Spanish type accoustic and work with that to start, it'd be more familiar to you than say, a Stratocaster or whatever.
 
#13
That electric will do fine, you already have an amp. Chords first. Chords and some fake chord sheet music will get you going -- let the melody (single note stuff) come from your voice ----- Sing and accompany your vocals with your chords. After a while, sure, work in some single note melody lead breaks, take it one step at a time. Most that start with melody end up being able to play parts of 20 songs. Who wants to listen to only part of a song? Starting with chords first and singing the melody you will be playing whole songs in no time.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4RNWE_enUS310US310&q=fake+chord+sites
 
#14
MalcolmAmos said:
That electric will do fine, you already have an amp. Chords first. Chords and some fake chord sheet music will get you going -- let the melody (single note stuff) come from your voice ----- Sing and accompany your vocals with your chords. After a while, sure, work in some single note melody lead breaks, take it one step at a time. Most that start with melody end up being able to play parts of 20 songs. Who wants to listen to only part of a song? Starting with chords first and singing the melody you will be playing whole songs in no time.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4RNWE_enUS310US310&q=fake+chord+sites
Click to expand...

+1 to that
+1 to getting a teacher if only just learn basic stuff.

When I'm writing guitar music, the riffs and solos are 99% based on the chords and the scale of what key the song if in.

I stopped having lessons a few years ago, but I'm always learning new things, I recently learned to do 2 handed tapping solo without dropping my pick...
but my old guitar teacher is still my "go-to" guy whenever I'm stuck on anything, plus now we aren't student teacher relationship more like buddies, he teaches me stuff for free, hahaha!

A good teacher and a lot of practice will catapult your ability on guitar pretty quickly.
 
#15
THand said:
Get an acoustic so you will actually learn to play. :hmm:
Click to expand...

That's actually a good bit of advice. I was where you are at about a year ago. I picked up guitar just to understand better the role I play as a bassist.

Anyway, it's easy to get sidetracked with intense distortions and noise, it can indeed be a lot of fun. I've been playing with an accoustic now for 3 weeks and it's so beneficial.

The strings are harder to play because they're bigger, which in your case might not be so bad. Learn barre chords too, those are tricky technique wise, but I've noticed it's helped my bass playing, I'm more swift and smooth.

Alle die Beste!
 
#16
lowregister said:
Learn barre chords too, those are tricky technique wise, but I've noticed it's helped my bass playing, I'm more swift and smooth.
Click to expand...

I was taught bar chords are easier than open chords (open as in the route note is on the nut.) Or did I just find them easier, the girl in our band struggles like it's the hardest thing in the world and me and the lead guitarist have to show her how to play it open, or the nearest thing to open, and on one song that very fast it's E B A B, which in bar chords you barely have to move your fingers where as in open to be accurate you near enough move your whole arm....

What I used to do a lot was learn and play open chords as much as possible and go over the the major and minor pentatonic scales in different positions. I find this has helped me with speed, guitar vocabulary, understanding the neck, and playing by ear.

I hate switching from playing bass to guitar, after being a while i get used to the wider frets and string position, then on guitar i really have to watch what I'm doing.
 
#17
I play some rhythm guitar. I suggest you find a pick that's comfortable. Start with a medium. Pick a couple of easy songs to learn and sing a long with the chords. Do that a 10 or 100 times and you'll make great progress. Keep extending your knowledge of chords and the fretboard.

It will take time but the more you know about music, the more it will help you bass playing. Especially when you can look over to the guitar player and tell what chord he is playing so you can run your lines like you know what you're doing. :D
 
#19
Like most have said, learn open chords, then gravitate to barre chords. On an electric guitar barre chords are much easier to play than on acoustic. Most people I know that have started on acoustic find that electric is much easier to play for them.

Learn lots of different strum patterns and internalize them so that the strumming becomes second nature. It'll help a lot of you want to sing and play. I played bass first, and this was and still is a little difficult for me. I will often try to make my playing more complicated rhythmically than it should be while playing, which will throw off my singing.

I'm not very good at guitar at all (not that I say I'm all that good at bass either!), but I enjoy playing. I know a ton of people that play guitar and I'm one of the few people who really like playing bass, so I've never been hugely motivated to practice guitar as much.
 
#20
I play bass in our band, but dabble on guitar. 90% of my guitar playing is done on an acoustic. If you can play a song on an acoustic, it will be a breeze on an electric. As everyone else has said, first learn the open chords so you can play them all cleanly without fret buzzes, and then work on barre chords.
 

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