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What Media Did It For You...InThe Beginning?

crios

crios

Feb 14, 2017
333
395
60
Miami, Florida
#1
What Media, as you began your early journey as a bass player, set you firmly on the fundamentals; launching your growth toward maturity?

For me it was a Hot Licks video lesson titled, The Lowdown With Glenn Letsch. (I highly recommend this video to all who are currently beginning their bass journey. Sadly, it's hard to find today since it has be discontinued.)



Name the media that did it for you in the beginning of your learning. THNX!
 
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#2
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#7
It has always been books for me. The first was a seriously ancient Hal Leonard "Electric Bass" book with a plastic record in it and pictures of a guy that clearly had shag carpet and wood paneling in his house.
After that I learned from tab books for bands I liked, which was hard because the selection of printed books for bass notion of metal bands has always been terrible. I'd play Ride the Lightening or Master Of Puppets all the way through.
DVDs were never that useful for me. Often the instructor's yammering would get in the way of me trying to get the information I wanted. I had the Jaco VHS and an early Wooten VHS, but I mostly watched them just to see the players play. I didn't learn much from them.
YouTube seems like it might be useful, but I'm at a point where there isn't much instruction like that can do for me. Same with Skype\Facetime sessions. Having a tutorial session with a bass player I actually admire would be fun, even though the questions would be "Where does your music come from, and how do I steal some of that" or "How do I make more time to practice when I'm tired all the time and my day job eats up all my time?"
 
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#8
I had a teacher and he just encouraged me to listen closely to stuff I wanted to play. This was circa 2004 so the only real new tech I invested in was one of those Tascam slow-down CD players. It was such a pain in the rear end to use, however, that eventually I scrapped it. By then I was in full iTunes mode. Now I use Spotify and generally find I don't have to slow stuff down to hear the bass the way I want to. Sometimes I'll use the slow-play feature on YouTube, which can be helpful.
 
#12
It wasn't until Guitar Player Magazine came out (early 80s), that I learned tabs, and all the secret licks to famous guitar leads. Then it was the internet and YouTube. Prior to all this, I just watched others play, and stole licks and tricks.
 
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#15
Well, in the beginning it was having the basic theoretical and practical knowledge already from playing guitar.
What got me to get good was playing in a band that forced me to, since they used a lot of unusual rhythms, odd meters and complex song structures.

For me by far the best way to learn to play an instrument proper is being forced to create yourself by being in an originals band that challenge your comfort zone.
 

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