What Next?

[Woogy]

Im only starting bass. Ive learned technique, major scales, and a few starter songs. Can anyone guide me as to what I should learn next?

 

[Chris K]

Try to play simple melodies by ear to train your hearing, especially for intervals. Childrens songs, Happy Birthday To You, the like. New song every day. Sing/hum along with your playing to link your internal ear to your playing. Mind that you have to cover some ground compared to players on 'melodic' instruments who do that stuff all the time (if they have enough talent for it).

 

[cassanova]

Chords, arpeggio's, and notation. As stated above, you need to train your ears to hear the intervals. The scales, chords, and arrpeggios will help you with this, the notation reading will help you see how they relate to each other. It's also a good thing to know too.

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

Figure out how different chords are structured (Maj7, Minor, etc.)...This will lead you to different scales, different sounds. If that's over your head, then I suggest checking out

http://www.studybass.com/

Ear training, what they said.

Also, if something is easy and you've got it down, don't stay on it, move on.

Make sure to review your technique and that you are doing what is safest for your body with your left and right hands.

Jam with other musicians. You don't need to form a band, just get playing with others, as this will give you experience and will help to show you what you need to work on.

When you are playing, every once in a while, take a step back and review what's going on in the exercise/song that you're playing--What is the function of each of the notes, the rhythms, and how/why does it work? This'll keep you from going into what I call "robot mode"--just kind of going through the motions. This is not a very productive state.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Jam with other musicians. You don't need to form a band, just get playing with others, as this will give you experience and will help to show you what you need to work on.

The Internet is now full of backing tracks - next best thing to playing with live musicians. I like this site.

http://www.datamusic.org/video-jazz/359-video-jazz-jam-tracks-1

http://www.datamusic.org/video-country-jam/361-video-country-jam-tracks-1

Next find some tracks that do not show you the chords, i.e. find the key and make up a base line that works with the song.


I hear E.......

Yes - to showing you what else you need to learn.

Have fun.

 

[DudeistMonk]

+1 on chords/arpeggios...They are related to scales so once you understand them, you'll have a better idea of how the song as a whole works...once you understand chords and concepts like playing the Root, 3rd and 5th you'll be able to look at a chord chart know what to play

studybass.com = the holy grail