Re: I want to learn bass

Xenocide Geek

I want to both bump and hijack this guys thread.

I just acquired a bass (woot birthday) and I'm trying to learn how to play it.

So far I've just played some super basic stuff, since I literally got this tonight.

Only one person really gave good advice in this thread, and since I already own a bass, I was hoping people could give some more suggestions on how to play the bass, song choices, etc.

I've been learning the bass line from Snow (Hey Oh) by RHCP, and that's been a ton of fun, so I'll probably continue surfing my RHCP discography for stuff to play.

Pheezer

Don't be a stupid asshole. It's against the rules to jack threads here and there's no shortage of new threads on the Internets. Next time just make your own.

James

To start, learn where different notes are? If you can play by ear, just play along with the songs you listen to, and don't be embarassed when you mess up.

Other than that, you might consider lessons.

DynamiteKid

I'd suggest that since Flea is arguably one of the best bassists in rock, learning his songs as a starter isn't a wise move. Snow is one of the easier ones, but a lot of his stuff is pretty tricky.

Do you know the notes? Do you know the keys? Do you know what notes go in what keys?

Xenocide Geek

I play by ear - that's the only way I play any sort of music.

I'm starting to learn the notes/keys (no name association or something, just where a certain sounds comes from where).

I think I'll just play simple bass lines to songs/artists I like, and just do that to get technique and stuff down.

EggyToast

What are your goals with bass? If you just learn how to play other people's songs, then, well, you end up just able to play other people's songs. It can work for a lot of people, and that makes a good chunk of musicians happy, but that depends on where you want to go with your music playing.

James

You should learn which notes are what and where if you plan on playing in a band of some sort.

Murago

As a bassist myself, i can give some advice.

Learn the notes you are playing. This doesn't mean you have to learn sheet music, but if you're planning on starting or joining a band, it would be good to know where G is when someone says to play G.

Learn progressions of notes. A lot of songs (this is mostly mainstream) are simple loops and progressions of chords, or in your case, notes. When playing a song, you'll learn these -- and its also very important for you to know the 5ths and 7ths of these notes. Note: by prgression i mean G - C - D / or C - F - G. Hundreds of songs are based off of these simple progressions.

Learn songs that YOU like. This is a very important part of any instrument imo. When i started guitar, i was playing stupid shit like mary had a little lamb. No one starts playing guitar to learn how to play that. Yet instructors start you off with simple shit like that. The problem is that you lose interest, b/c its childish. Learn some Nirvana songs, or w/e band your into. Once you figure out a song you like, it'll just suck you in.

Learn Tablature. Its a poor man's sheet music. This will help you learn songs by artists you like. Though it can be hard to come by since they have made it illegal. Though there are still places on the internet that are savvy enough to supply it.

Have fun!

YosemiteSam

For the love of god, take a month to learn proper technique and to learn how your instrument works, along with a little bit of theory. So many people make bass (or guitar) way harder than it needs to be because they won't take a second to think about what they're doing. Regarding the theory, how much of a background do you have? If you want to just chill and play rock music, you don't need much (and that's totally cool), but if you want to be a musical bassist and be able to play fills and not always play what's written on the page and that kind of thing, you'll want to know some basic theory.

Regarding technique, it's hard for me to describe left hand technique unless you know theory, but get good at shoving those strings into the fretboard, because it's really hard to get a consistently good tone on a bass without a lot of finger strength. For your right hand, you can use a pick, but that's kind of lame unless you're playing metal or something and you need a hard articulation. Generally you want a fatter tone, which you get from using your fingers. The technique is that you put out your index and middle finger straight and push through the string. Make sure you're using the main flesh of your fingers, not the tip, so the tone is wider (I have marks on my fingers about 3/8 of an inch in from the strings). It's okay to bend your fingers when you play, but they definitely shouldn't a lot. Again, think about pushing through the strings, not plucking them. You have to keep your hand kind of high so that you can keep your fingers fairly extended. I rest the tip of my thumb on the higher pickup to hold my hand up.

redimpulse

I'd say definitely start with something less hardcore and technical than RHCP. Flea is arguably one of the best bassists (as stated earlier) and even after playing for 8 or so years I have some trouble emulating the guy. And I've tried, hard.

Some music that has good clean bass lines and easy progressions, such as Creed (yeah I know, but the bass is good for learners), most any country music (it is simple progression but can also teach you some minors), Nickelback (older stuff), 3 Doors Down (older stuff, good for learning syncopation) are some good places to start.

Yosemite has some good points on technique (everyone that's posted does, really). Picking is good for quick, articulate sounds, but it takes a lot of practice to get something not tinny out of a picked bass. Although multiple finger technique is a little more technical, it does offer a lot more versatility. Some people start (or play regularly) with just their thumb, and it does well for them. It's a matter of finding what works best for you and sticking with it. Stress balls and those little finger workout compression springy thingies work WONDERS for building the dexterity in your left hand. Typing quickly and correctly will do well for learning quick, correct placing ability too.

YosemiteSam

I forgot to make it clear that you're supposed to alternate picking with your index and middle finger. If you're playing slowly, you may find it convenient to sometimes repeat fingers, but generally alternate, and always alternate when you switch strings. Also, if you have an ear for music, I would recommend against using tablature, because you're not learning anything about the notes you're playing and they aren't always done well (both in terms of their accuracy and in terms of technique). On the other hand, they often are accurate and written with good technique, so you can start to learn basic patterns, but you still have no idea what notes you're playing or what finger should be doing what, so I still think it's a bad idea. Ideally you want to learn songs by ear (which isn't at all difficult for almost all rock if you know a little bit of theory and scale patterns and you listen closely). Although we can't talk about scale patterns without knowing how much theory you know.

Xenocide Geek

I know very, very little music theory.

So far today I've just been dinking around with some basic stuff - learned part of the bass line for Moby Dick, and I've been having fun with that.

I didn't know alternating middle finger/index finger, so that's what I've started doing now - thanks for the tip there.

I don't really plan to become a professional bassist or something, but I do want to know proper technique and stuff.

YosemiteSam

Do you want to put in the effort to learn scales (both how they work in music theory and how you play them on your instrument) and keys if it means that basic rock and pop music will be really easy to play? Frankly, we could probably teach you the basics online, or direct you to a website where you could learn them. If you don't want to bother with that and you just want to learn some songs, that's cool, but I probably can't help you much more because that's how I've always played. Not that it doesn't take a while just to get proper right-hand technique down anyway.

redimpulse

You really need to learn what fret on what string produces what note, not just what sound. Major scales at the least is also a must if you're going to advance past novice.

Xenocide Geek

I'm willing to learn all that - I had always planned to, just because... it's important. I could use some resources or... something, though.

redimpulse

http://www.bassplace.com/BE061.html

The Hal Leonard books are a good resource if you can't take lessons. These books take things pretty slowly though. They are a pretty good substitute for a teacher in the beginning.

Of course don't forget about your friend the Internet. Googling phrases like "bass fretboard notes" or "bass scales" or "bass technique" can lend you some pretty good online resources for learning the notes, scales, and progressions. You can only learn so much from these resources though.

I'd suggest finding someone who plays bass well in your area. A friend, or maybe a local band member. It's been my experience that if you express enough interest in a local band and become friendly with the bassist, he/she may be willing (some are actually quite happy) to give you pointers, small lessons on their free time or even have jam sessions.

YosemiteSam

Okay, here's a pretty good diagram that has the major and minor scale patterns I use all the time. The top left one (labeled Ionian, but don't worry about that for now) is major. The black notes are the key you're in. For example, if you put your middle finger on the third fret on the second lowest string (the A string) and you play this pattern, you're playing a C major scale because the third fret on the A string is C (each fret is a half-step). As you can see, the scale works really well because you only have to have access to four tabs in a row, so you can use one finger for each tab on each string and work your way up the scale.

The other very useful scale on this page is the minor scale, in the middle on the bottom row (labeled Aeolian). With this scale your index finger is on the tonic (the first note of the scale). So to play a C minor scale, put your index finger on the third fret of the A string and play this pattern. These scales might seem hard at first, but work through them slowly.

When you can play scales pretty easily, rock will come really easily because pretty much all of it is covered by these two scales (or different scales that come from either omitting notes in these scales or mixing these scales). The really convenient thing about bass or guitar is that these scale patterns work for every key, you just have to make sure you start your scales only from the E string or the A string. If you're playing pretty much any song, just figure out what key it's in and if it's major or minor, or possibly a mixture of both (it's probably major) and you'll be golden because all of your notes are going to be in that scale, and they're all right there without you having to move your hand. Then if you get a good ear, learn some theory, play with people, and practice every once in a while (30 minutes a day on average is plenty), all of a sudden you're going to be extremely competent on rock bass. Really, if this stuff was more complicated than that then everyone wouldn't do it.

You're going to want to learn some common chord progressions too, which you can either read about on theory websites or just learn by learning chords to songs (a mixture of both is probably best). When a chord comes, all you need to do is play the root of the chord (meaning, if the chord is C major, play C). Eventually that will get boring, but that's all you need to do. Learn how chord progressions sound, both with the full chord and with just the root. You want to be able to know whether or not you're playing the right note, both when you're performing a song you know and when you're jamming and some guy just starts playing chords.

You'll notice people who don't bother learning this stuff doing goofy things like playing on only one string, moving their hand all over the place. That's working way too hard, plus you're going to sound bad. If you can play scales you're going to have a leg up on all of these bassists, and it's not even hard to do.

Let me know if you don't know what I was talking about with the theory.

Xenocide Geek

O_o

I didn't even know there were people who actually considered moving along one string a valid way of playing.

Maybe I should clarify a bit: I thought I didn't know very much theory, but actually I do.

I understand all of what you're saying, and I already play on multiple strings. Both my brother and my father are self-taught guitarists, with my brother having some lessons under him, so... I have a pretty strong background in music.

I actually know my scales pretty well from playing the piano... so, I'll just work up and down those with relevance to bass.

YosemiteSam

Xenocide Geek wrote: »

O_o

I didn't even know there were people who actually considered moving along one string a valid way of playing.

Maybe I should clarify a bit: I thought I didn't know very much theory, but actually I do.

I understand all of what you're saying, and I already play on multiple strings. Both my brother and my father are self-taught guitarists, with my brother having some lessons under him, so... I have a pretty strong background in music.

I actually know my scales pretty well from playing the piano... so, I'll just work up and down those with relevance to bass.

Oh, I didn't realize you had that good of a background. You probably have enough of an ear that you'll be able to play rock really easily as soon as you learn your scale patterns really well and develop your finger strength (particularly in your left hand). Then you'll probably be at the point where I am, where you can do that stuff fine and you don't know where to go next. I do goofy things like run altered dominant scales because I'm bored when I play and I don't have enough knowledge of what real bassists do. I'm going to be taking jazz lessons in the fall. For now I just get ideas by listening to other bassists, which I'd recommend if you don't want to take lessons (or even if you do, frankly).

By the way, as I'm sure you know from guitar, guitar and bass are the easiest instruments to play by ear since you can transpose everything and just know what you're playing by scale degree rather than actually knowing the specific notes you're playing. The most important things are to get your technique down; you'll be able to play for any local band or whatever as soon as you can do that without having to ever take lessons unless you want to.

But yeah, regarding the one-string playing, the worst example I can think of recently was when I went to a Ratatat show and the bassist did not know how to play his instrument at all, moving his hand all over the place for the simplest bass lines. And you can always recognize the crappy guitarists who think "oh, if I can play guitar then bass is easy!" because they always play with a pick when it's not called for and they're moving all over the place using only their index and maybe middle finger on their left hand.