What bass lesson or tip changed your life.

[baileyboy]

The one lesson that helped me immensely is playing "neighbor" notes around the the root notes.

 

[4dog]

listen to and get the feel of all those awesome 70s disco bassists...and cop their feel...changed everything

 

[Dana R Gregory]

Two things come to mind. First, when playing finger style, don't strike the string with the whole finger. Bend it at the first knuckle and play light. It will give better control, especially when playing 16th notes. This lesson worked wonders for my then sloppy playing.
Second, learning to play with a pick, Dee Dee Ramone downstroke style. That opened up a whole new style of playing for me.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

also...

2) practice slowly, and with a metronome

and

3) you need mids if you want to be heard in a mix

 

[thabassmon]

A big lesson was simply from many many comments about bass gear from a chap who was 64 at the time been playing since his early teens. He used to rubbish flat wounds, nickel or any one that played anything other than an American fender jazz. He kept telling me that you need to be using certain gear to get "the sound" you need stainless steel strings, and a fender jazz. I kept wondering why he played no gigs, I asked him and found out that he barely practices and kicked out of every band he has ever been in. Lesson l learnt from that is

No matter how good your gear is, how long you have played, how much experience you have, none of that means a damn thing if you are no willing to put the time in to practice and improve your playing.

Same guy enrolled in the same jazz degree as I did, because of his apparent experience he was accepted without audition. Never successfully passed first year even after repeating it three times. For his first recital he asked me to play guitar, he chose the tunes and even though it was his recital I had to teach him how to play because he didn't know how to play them.

Later he got a '66 Fender Jazz which had been converted to fretless and after many comments from other musicians about him playing out of tune, he asked me to intonate it. I said "it's fretless move you finger to where the note is", but I did agree to intonate it. It was only ever so slightly out because he had already had a Luthier look over it when he bought it. I played it, really easy to play in tune, gave it back to him and he was immediately out again and claimed I didn't intonate it properly. I asked him to play it and found he was following the dots that were still there from it's life as a fretted bass. Easy mistake to make for a beginner but for someone who had played for a half a century ***.

 

[Jhengsman]

I will second Victor Wooten's teaching, video in my case, that you are never more than one fret away from a good note.

 

[InhumanResource]

I got a few!

Technique: Consistency! 1 finger per fret, alternating fingers to pluck. Practice everything in all keys, run all exercises/arpeggios in full octaves (preferably 2) up and down with a metronome.

Tone: Don't be afraid of the tone knob, a dark mellow tone works almost all the time. Leave the bass and treble controls alone, shape everything with mid boost/cut/sweep.

Gear: Be practical, use a small rig and work with your band to get a PA that handles the FOH.

Tunes: Play for the crowd, not yourself. That's what the garage is for.

Theory: quit obsessing over all those scales and modes, learn how chords/harmony work. If you understand the harmony you don't really need the scales.

 

[soundsupport1]

"Remember to breathe."- Victor Wooten

Peace,
SoundSupport

 

[MoeTown1986]

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Someone told me that like 15 years ago when I was a teenager. I learned to focus on “the pocket” and playing the groove to make hips move.

 

[Blind owl bass]

learning/transitioning to an upright bass player. having started playing bass on fretless it was an easy switch in theory, crazy hard on my hands and body. but I feel anyone who has never played upright and call themselves a bassist/ bass player, needs to try one.

 

[rashrader]

Well, staying off of the internet bass forums is a good start.

 

[Rfan]

The II shall always precede the V7.

 

[George Dennis]

In the spirit of "you teach best what you most need to learn," these five things have recently improved my playing and appreciation of bass:

• Picking up a five-string

This let me follow of the Circle of 4ths/5ths at every fret and made sense of chord tones

• "Serve the song"

Though told years ago, I still remind myself:
"the performance is the song, not the artist"

• The zen pursuit of "the pocket"

That my "prime directive" is to time my notes to give the kick drum's punch a tonal voice

• Using "Sustain"

While great sustain is indicative of a quality instrument, this has limited value when playing percussively in a band's rhythm section

• Keys and Roman numeral system

That a song's Key are the notes that have been agreed to play and that the Roman numeral system represents the tonal qualities of each note within the Key (and its associated triad)

 

[theduke1]

Play scales every day
My first and only bass teacher
Circa 1965
Duke

 

[redwood]

Play for the song, not yourself.
Always keep an eye on the bass drum and lock in with it.

 

[SasquatchDude]

Spent one full lesson just playing assorted 16th note groupings over a metronome with my first teacher.

i.e., 16th-16th-16th-16th | 16th-rest-16th-rest | rest-16th-16th-16th | etc.

If you're working on soul, funk, or really anything with R&B roots, it's a great way to internalize a feel for syncopated 16ths in any permutation. That exercise alone brought my fill game to new levels.

 

[HolmeBass]

It’s only music, no one died.

 

[James Collins]

 

[Mannyinnewyork]

My epiphany came while playing with my band - I was high as a kite on mescaline (1970) . I visualized the notes I was playing as notes or beats on a conga drum. As long as I played in the correct key and transitioned between the dominant notes of the chord , I was good to go. It was a transformational experience and changed the way I played from that moment going forward. It gave me a percussive, melody approach to playing. In that moment , and it was no more than a moment , my ability rose to a higher level. Everyone in the band asked “what came over you.? You sound so much more professional ”).

I’m not promoting drug use, just stating my experience. Some times you just have to open your mind.

 

[Mark Ambler]

I got a few!

Technique: Consistency! 1 finger per fret, alternating fingers to pluck.
.

Disagree with the 1 finger per fret. Higher up the fretboard, fine, but not so much at lower positions. Alternating fingers, yes, but not necessarily always.