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When you first started to learn songs...

Discussion in 'General Instruction [BG]' started by Ljorges, Jul 9, 2013.

  1. Jul 9, 2013 #1
    Ljorges

    Ljorges

    May 26, 2013
    Hey Guys,

    So I am currently taking bass lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. I'm actually in Bass 2 class.

    I have a question for you guys: What technique did you use when you first started to learn songs?

    Let me explain. In Bass 1, we learned notes on the fretboard and some very simple songs and played them just using root notes. So while playing the song, in my head I was like "G C D G C D." Of course after a while muscle memory took over and I really didn't think too much about it.
    In Bass 2 we are exploring scales and triads and the songs are getting more complex. So now we are playing songs in a particular scale, say in "A" using more than root notes.
    I find that it is easier to get the song down by remembering the numbers in the scale (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii) as opposed to remembering the actual notes (A, Bm, C#m, D, E, etc).

    What worked for you?

    Les
     
  2. Jul 9, 2013 #2
    Roscoe East

    Roscoe East

    Aug 22, 2011
    Doing both enough so that they eventually became both interchangeable and second nature.
     
  3. Jul 9, 2013 #3
    MalcolmAmos

    MalcolmAmos

    Jul 18, 2009
    Deep East Texas Piney Woods
    On acoustic rhythm guitar I played using note names, but, when I went to the bass I changed over to using Nashville numbers, i.e. the numbers instead of the chord name.

    Acoustic guitar you form a chord fingering and strum, with the bass you are not strumming, instead playing roots and assorted notes of the chord one note at a time, i.e. R-3-5-b7 and I like the Nashville number system, for that.

    I like to use fake chord sheet music as it has the lyrics and chord name, but, I change the chord names into numbers. I need the lyric word to keep up with when and where the chord changes are coming. So lyrics and numbers seem to work for me. I play Country and Praise. Country is easy to keep up with the chord progression, however, Praise may use all seven of the chords in a key in one song and I sometime forget that the Em is a 3 in this progression, but, if I see the 3 I know where that root note is. It's always from the root one string up and back one fret.
    Code:
    Major Scale Box. 
Code:
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string
    Here is fake chord:
    And here is the same with Nashville numbers:
    Good luck.