GrooveBassman
New member
This is just my take on playing and learning to play Bass. A little mini history on myself. I began as a guitarist in middle school. I was alright for my age I guess. I was into a bunch of older stuff Zeppelin Hendrix and the like. When I hit high school I had an oppurtunity fill a spot playing bass in a garageband (ok we really practiced in a storage shed). At almost the same time I had a chance to join a summer jazzband for county highschoolers. These 2 things started me on the darkpath to being a bass player.
So I of course made all of the guitarist gone bassist mistakes. I started with a pick. I soon was corrected by a friend who gave me this advice "picks are for pussies". So I dropped the pick and started playing between my first finger and thumb. Mistake two. After taking some lessons and spending literally hundreds of our hours playing with a METRONOME I developed a solid two finger pattern. I approached like a drummer learning rudiments even though my paterns weren't as complicated. I'd play eigth notes, triplets, and 16ths. I'd start with my first on the downbeat then I'd go to second finger on the down beat. Any patern I could think of. Do it with a METRONOME. The right hand is critical to playing with that feel. And having a good even meter.
Next lesson is left hand technique. What can I say scales, scales, scales. Position playing like an upright isn't the same as with electric playing. Use all four fingers. Play chromatic runs. learn the neck. Be able to play any note any where on the neck. Oh yeah don't ever roll off the trebble to get rid of fret noise. Develop your technique to get rid of fret noise.
But here it comes the secret to being a great musician. LISTEN. If you want to be a bass player listen to great bassist. Now when I say listen to Jaco I don't mean you should play Donna Lee or any thing but you should be inspired by his tone. I don't care what style you play Motown is required listening. Tower of Power is a good one. Flea if your a slapper. Wooten is awe inspiring. Any thing in the jazz idiom from swing to bop to whatever. Blues are an essential. And believe it or not but U2. That bassist is solid and nobody can take that away from him. The point build a huge and diverse pool of influences to draw from.
Uh oh Feel. That mystery substance the world is made of. The following is just an opinion please take it as such. To me feel is a combination of command of the instrument, internalizing the beat, and knowing the style. When you get profficient you'll be able to play the line you want and even vary the tone with your right hand. These days I'm playing a hartke 3500 head and a couple of different cabinets in the 210 to 410 and 115 range. And this usually depends on the gig. I tend to carry the least a mount of speaker I can. But the point I use a pretty flat EQ setting with a slicht push on the low end and a slight push on the trebbles. Like maybe 3db or someting. Most of my tone control comes from my right hand. Fingers straight through the strings gives me the attack i want. If i play towards the neck I get a fat smokey blues club sound. If i play at the bridge I get a trebbely sound. You can even duplicate a picked bass sound by playing close to the bridge.
The beat. It is god and everything to the rythmn section. The best description I've ever heard for what a good drummer is as follows, man that drummer was good. I bet if he got up and left his kit the beat would somehow keep going. To me that's what being a rythmn section is about. If the groove is so tight that it seems unstopable that's where i want it. The only way to do that is have good time. More note are fine but less notes in time is always better than more out of time. Be concious of where you play in the beat. You can lay back on the beat as in like blues. Or you can play right top of it ala punk. Neithter is right or wrong. They're just 2 different feels. That's why knowing the style is important.
Lastly the most important thing is LISTEN. If you have to block out someone mentally because their playing or style is that bad you shouldn't be playing with them. These days I'm just into playing for fun. And I want to be able to enjoy what everyone around me is doing.
Oh yeah my personal deffinition of a good drummer is this. Excellent time. And playing with a good drummer is like coming home it's just comfortable for some unexplained reason. Never use ability to play fills as a benchmark. I have no problem with them but I've heard and played with guys who can't come out of a fill at the same tempo they started it at. Remember time is everything.
OK if you've read this far I'm sorry I was just inspired by one of the other post. Sorry about the rant.
So I of course made all of the guitarist gone bassist mistakes. I started with a pick. I soon was corrected by a friend who gave me this advice "picks are for pussies". So I dropped the pick and started playing between my first finger and thumb. Mistake two. After taking some lessons and spending literally hundreds of our hours playing with a METRONOME I developed a solid two finger pattern. I approached like a drummer learning rudiments even though my paterns weren't as complicated. I'd play eigth notes, triplets, and 16ths. I'd start with my first on the downbeat then I'd go to second finger on the down beat. Any patern I could think of. Do it with a METRONOME. The right hand is critical to playing with that feel. And having a good even meter.
Next lesson is left hand technique. What can I say scales, scales, scales. Position playing like an upright isn't the same as with electric playing. Use all four fingers. Play chromatic runs. learn the neck. Be able to play any note any where on the neck. Oh yeah don't ever roll off the trebble to get rid of fret noise. Develop your technique to get rid of fret noise.
But here it comes the secret to being a great musician. LISTEN. If you want to be a bass player listen to great bassist. Now when I say listen to Jaco I don't mean you should play Donna Lee or any thing but you should be inspired by his tone. I don't care what style you play Motown is required listening. Tower of Power is a good one. Flea if your a slapper. Wooten is awe inspiring. Any thing in the jazz idiom from swing to bop to whatever. Blues are an essential. And believe it or not but U2. That bassist is solid and nobody can take that away from him. The point build a huge and diverse pool of influences to draw from.
Uh oh Feel. That mystery substance the world is made of. The following is just an opinion please take it as such. To me feel is a combination of command of the instrument, internalizing the beat, and knowing the style. When you get profficient you'll be able to play the line you want and even vary the tone with your right hand. These days I'm playing a hartke 3500 head and a couple of different cabinets in the 210 to 410 and 115 range. And this usually depends on the gig. I tend to carry the least a mount of speaker I can. But the point I use a pretty flat EQ setting with a slicht push on the low end and a slight push on the trebbles. Like maybe 3db or someting. Most of my tone control comes from my right hand. Fingers straight through the strings gives me the attack i want. If i play towards the neck I get a fat smokey blues club sound. If i play at the bridge I get a trebbely sound. You can even duplicate a picked bass sound by playing close to the bridge.
The beat. It is god and everything to the rythmn section. The best description I've ever heard for what a good drummer is as follows, man that drummer was good. I bet if he got up and left his kit the beat would somehow keep going. To me that's what being a rythmn section is about. If the groove is so tight that it seems unstopable that's where i want it. The only way to do that is have good time. More note are fine but less notes in time is always better than more out of time. Be concious of where you play in the beat. You can lay back on the beat as in like blues. Or you can play right top of it ala punk. Neithter is right or wrong. They're just 2 different feels. That's why knowing the style is important.
Lastly the most important thing is LISTEN. If you have to block out someone mentally because their playing or style is that bad you shouldn't be playing with them. These days I'm just into playing for fun. And I want to be able to enjoy what everyone around me is doing.
Oh yeah my personal deffinition of a good drummer is this. Excellent time. And playing with a good drummer is like coming home it's just comfortable for some unexplained reason. Never use ability to play fills as a benchmark. I have no problem with them but I've heard and played with guys who can't come out of a fill at the same tempo they started it at. Remember time is everything.
OK if you've read this far I'm sorry I was just inspired by one of the other post. Sorry about the rant.
