beginner at bass

[nicefff]

just started playing bass guitar, justwondering about any hints and tips from people, as iv literally only just started learning any instrument, just would like to know some more simple songs and things that help to play bass thank you

[josiep]

i bought one for xmas...also bought a book with dvd.

they are so pretty in the corner

[nicefff]

haha i got a brilliant book with mine, has helped me progress alot atm

[Crazzzy]

Alot of Bass players who first start out want to bust out solos like Flea or Les Claypool from Primus. If you try to go that route you will be met with frustration (like sprinting before learning to walk)

It's important to remember that the Bass Player is probabley the most important person in the band, but is the least appreciated. The reason for that is because you are the glue between the Drummer and the Guitarist (the two that want to solo the most) and then all three of you must learn to lay off to allow the Vocalist to come through. You can't have everyone solo at once. If you keep that in mind, your life as a bass player will be alot easier.

It's the bass player is who gets people moving/dancing, so if you and/or the Drummer don't mesh, you will mess up your audience's rhythm and no one will like what your doing. It's important that you can hang with a drummer. Since you're just starting, you probabley don't have a drummer... this is a GOOD thing!

There is no better drummer on the planet than a Metronome. You can get a simple metronome from a guitar shop for around $20. All a metronome does is make clicks at the interval you set it to, it will just click, or beep, to the tempo you set. It's never off (unlike your friend who says he can play drums). Get one of those to practice with. I recommend you use the simple kind of Metronome first to get used to the idea of playing with it. If and when you go to Record and Album, you will have to play to a "Click Track" which is a metronome. You can get fancier metronomes that are actually beat machines. These are better to get creative juices flowing for songwriting, but overcomplicated for practicing. Remember, Walk before you sprint.

When you play a note by pushing down on the string, you always want to push the string down just in behind of the fret you are playing (the actuall piece of metal sticking up on the fretboard). If you push down directly on the raised portion of the fret, it will cause an unwanted ring, and will kill the note you are trying to play. This happens when you put your finger to far back of the fret too. So as long as you are pushing down just behind the fret, the note should ring out for a long time and not just die out. Play around with that to see what I mean. It's easier with the frets further up the neck (and by up i mean where the frets get smaller). Those you can pretty much just play them in the middle, but the wider frets you will want to stay closer to fret (to the left of the fret if you are playing a right handed bass and you are looking down at it while playing)

As for your hands you must work them out. The best thing to do is to play every single fret on a string with your fingers alternating (1234, 1234, 1234) until you get to the 12th fret, and then go back down to the 1st fret doing the same alternating. Then go to the next string and repeat. It doesn't sound cool at all, but does jogging on a treadmill look cool, no, it's your body that looks cool afterwords. These are known as "Spider Excercises". You can find all sorts of different ones to do on youtube. Of cousre as you do these excercises, make sure you do them in time with a metronome. If you can't keep up with the tempo, just lower it down and work your way up to a faster tempo day by day.

Also get a guitar Tuner. Rely on it at first, but when you get more comfortable playing harmonics (a way that you can create a sound without pushing the string down onto the fret board, but instead you softly touch it with your finger, the 12th fret on any string does this the best), learn to tune using the "5th fret method". There are lots of videos on youtube on how that works.

Your final decision to make is "To Pick or not to Pick". Personally, I think learning to play without a pick is better. You can use your thumb like a pick, and you still have 4 other fingers you can use in conjunction to play other strings. HOWEVER, a pick has a much more crsip sound that can really punch someone in the face (like Emmas playing does). But Emma plays both with a pick and without, which is why she's a baddass

This is enough to get started with. After that you go into what's called Music Theory (or sometimes called Scales or Modes). This is not as confusing as some make it out to be. It's just patterns of the notes on your bass. There are only 12 notes on a Bass, and 7 of them are considerd whole notes (A,B,C,D,E,F,G). These are the white keys on a piano. The other 5 notes are the black keys, which are known as Sharps/Flats. Sharp means the note you are playing is higher than it's Whole note, and Flat means is is lower than it's whole note. So in a row the notes go:
A
A Sharp / B Flat
B
C
C sharp / D Flat
D
D Sharp / E Flat
E
F
F Sharp / G Flat
G
G Sharp / A Flat
A again (this A is higer sounding than the A you started with, otherwise known as A's Octave).

When you play the first sting on your bass with out holding down any frets and you play the same string but you push down the 12th Fret, you are playing the same note, just at different Octaves. Then of course you could go up one more octave by playing the 24th Fret (if you have one, not all basses do... and I've seen some basses with a 36th fret, but that's just ridiculous )

The way you determine whether or not you call something a sharp or flat is in relation to the Key Signature of the song. The Key Signature is only something you will get into once you start writing your music out in musical notation, so you don't really need to know that for the moment. The big thing to remember is that there are two sets of notes that don't have a sharp or a flat IN BETWEEN THEM (B and C, and E and F). Technically they do, but again, that's when you are dealing with Key Signatures, which you don't need to worry about. Just for example, if a song is in the Key of C, and the musical notation tells you to play a C Flat, you're actually playing a B, but according to the Notation and Key Signature, it's a C Flat. Kinda silly, but classical muscians in orchestras have to deal with that

As I said before music theory is studying the patterns of How you go from A to A's Octave, and then how you go from C to C's Octave. Learn those two because they are the most common Scales (or Modes) you will play. These are only WHOLE notes, you don't play any sharps/flats. So they way you would play A B C D E F G A, will be a different pattern than the way you would play C D E F G A B C. The way you play A to A is called a minor Scale, and the way you play C to C is called a Major Scale. When you play the Minor Scale in A, it sounds kinda sad, where as the Major Scale in C is a little more Happy sounding. The idea of music theory is that you could play a C MINOR scale. When you do that, the scale of going C to C sounds sad, because you are playing the same patteren as A, and when you play that pattern on C you end up playing some sharps/flats. The same thing would happen if you played a A MAJOR scale, you would have sharps/flats. So now it's a numbers game. Playing A to A sounds different from B to B, C to C, D to D, E to E, F to F, and G to G, even though you are playing the same 7 notes, and when you apply the pattern from one to another, you get a scale that has sharps and flats, some more than others. A to A (or A Minor) is by far the easiest to play.

This is how a A Minor Scale looks like in TAB (an alternative to learning musical notation). TABs are a great way to learn how to play a song, but as you can see, it gives you no idea as to how fast to play it. Just what frets are used.

The number corrisponds to the fret you play:

A MINOR scale (Your fingering goes 1,3,4, then 1,3,4, then 1,3. (1 is index, 2 is middle, 3 is Ring, 4 is Pinky))

G--------------------------------
D----------------5-7-------------
A---------5-7-8-----------------
E --5-7-8-----------------------

This would be a A MAJOR scale (played 2,4 then 1,2,4 then 1,3,4)

G------------------------------
D--------------4-6-7-------------
A-------4-5-7--------------------
E---5-7--------------------------

You also might notice that you don't necessarily have to play these scales using the finger position I'm showing you. There are two ways of playing a scale, closed position and open position. Open position is a stretch where you cover more area, whereas closed postion keeps your fingers to one fret:

Example of open poasition A MINOR ( 2,4 then 1,2,4 then 1,2)

G----------------------------
D---------------3-5-------------
A--------3-5-7------------------
E----5-7-----------------------

So the open position is a lot more of a stretch because you are jumping 2 frets between fingers, whereas closed position you basically have a finger per fret. When you play Scales from A to A to A, you will play the closed postion first into the open position so that you can play up to A's 2nd Octave with out having to shift your hand left or right... but that will be later on (not to mention you'll need a 5 string to be able to do that)

This should be enough to melt your brain: So I will show you one more thing to melt it even further:



As far as songs go, anything by Rage against the Machine is a plus, especially their early stuff. Most of Rage songs are very dependant on the Bass, or in other words, the bass is the instrument that is making the "Riff" of the song.

Rage will help you alot with timing, which for a bass player, IS EVERYTHING!

That's enough for now I'm sure, sorry if it seems like a lot. But to tell you the truth, everything that I have learned that I think is useful is in this post. Any questions, feel free to ask

[RenzoN]

@Crazzzy well done!! i'm not a good player of bass or guitar and i'm still learning, but i think you forgot a very importend thing. If you use TAB's, you read it from the bottom to the top, so you see that the E string is on the bottom of the tabs and it is on your bass the top string (the thick one).

And i have to say that your tip's come in handy, thanx

[Crazzzy]

[RenzoN]

your welcom Crazzzy

[nicefff]

i think my main area needs to be on learning fret notation and the scales tbh, i have learnt alot of the basics and by looking at what you have put crazy i have recaped my knowledge as i have been told by some good bassist friends of mine, you cant get anywhere without the basics so thank you and your help on the scales is good, a lil confusing but il keep going over it hehe, iv got quite a play list at the moment

muse - Plug in baby, supermassive black hole, bliss, undisclosed desires (so a lil slap bass hehe)
RHCP - Californication
White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
Chris Cornell - You Know My Name
Blur - Song 2, Beetlebum
Bloodhound gang - Ballad of Chasey Lane
Puddle of Mudd - She hates me
Anderlin - Ready Fuels
Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood, Dare, Feel Good Inc


I dont think iv gotten to a bad start i just feel i need to do something more to progress, i have only been playing since the end of April/start of May, and the book has been teaching me fret notation and scales but it isnt sticking, i have got to admit iv used an A minor scale as a fill in a few songs where the bass is blank, but it just sounds basic, i dont want to be sounding like im rushing as i understand you have to be patient and i can see i have progressed especially for saying iv been playing 3 and a half months but im just wondering if you have any other tips

[Crazzzy]

Ok, so here's a prelim of this worksheet I am making. This will ultimatly end up as flash cards once I have them all done, but to get you started, this is what I got so far:



This file is pretty big, but it is meant to be the size of a normal sheet of paper, so you can just print it out. Let me know if it's too small to write in. Also, since the Forum resizes it,

This is a grid concept that I came up with that can give you a visual representation of your fret board. This was made for a right handed person, so if you're a lefty, then you'll have to wait

The idea of this grid is to see the bass as you see it when you play it, so the fattest string (E) is on the bottom of the grid (which will seem goofy because it's the top string... but not when you have it in your arms and you are looking down at it.

You will notice numbers along the bottom of the grid that will represent your Fret Markers (the dots on the fret board that help you know where you are, starting on the 3rd Fret). You will notice I put 12 and 24 in red because once you get to the 12th fret, you are playing the octave of the "open string" (when you play a string with out pressing on any frets). So 0 is Open, 12 is the first octave, 24 is the 2nd octave. Essentially from 0pen to the 11th fret is the exact same as 12-24th fret.

The "White Keys" are notes that are the white keys on a piano, which is just ABCDEFG repeated over and over again. So once you get to G, the next note is A.

The "Black Keys" are notes that are the black keys on the piano. These are a little bit weirder to grasp because you are dealing with the Sharp (which you will see represented by #, as in A#, which means A Sharp), or the Flat (which is represented by ♭, as in A♭, which means A Flat). Sharps means the pitch of the sound is higher. Flat means the pitch is lower. When you look at this sheet, the Sharps are listed first and the Flats are listed second. For instance, the first Sharp/Flat note on the E string is F/G, meaning that note is both F# and G♭(F Sharp and G Flat). You will notice that there are no notes in between B and C, and E and F.

Here's the best part about learning scales... you don't play sharps and flats! So if that last paragraph confused you, never fear!!

So the idea is to take this sheet and try to pencil in the notes so that you get used to the idea of where the notes are on your bass.

As far as scales go, I haven't made grids for those yet. However, as I said before, Scales are based on the pattern you get from going from One Note to it's Octave (A to A, B to B, C to C, etc). There are 7 different patterns, one for A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. You are playing the same 7 notes in each scale, but they sound different depending on where you start (A to A sounds kinda sad, whereas C to C sounds kinda happy, even though it's the same notes). I'll get more into that later. For now, just fill out these sheets to get you going on memorizing where the notes are. I'd start with writing the White Keys over and over again.

Good Luck!

[nicefff]

you are an absolute legend

[Crazzzy]

[PushyGirl86]

You should make us beginners a video! Lol

[Crazzzy]

[PushyGirl86]

[nicefff]

im just trying red hot chili songs atm like desecration smile but im getting to bit thats are stupidly fast lol

[*J*]

Omg Crazzzy, you are my hero!

[Crazzzy]

Time for the next installment:


SCALES, or a.k.a. Modes.

There are 7 different scales: Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, Ionian, and Dorian. Here is a bass grid to show you what they look like:



You want to play the notes in order from it's lowest octave, to it's 3rd Octave (i.e. A to A to A), and then backwards until you reach the original note (the root note). Playing one note per click on a metronome is the way to play them faster, by slowly increasing the Beats Per Minute (BPM) everytime you practice the Scales. You also want to play them in order too, starting with Phrygian (E) forwards then backwards, move up to Lydian (F) forwards then backwards, and so on, until you go through all 7 Scales forwards and backwards. That is something you will end up doing as a warm up before a show to help strech out your fingers and warm them up.

As far as your fingers go, you must USE ALL OF THEM! Your pinky will be one of your most used fingers so just get used to it!

The First scale I would practice is Locrian (B). You will notice that all of the notes are contained with in 4 frets. This will allow you to have a fret for each finger. BCD and EFG are all played with the index, middle, then pinky. Then the following ABC and DEF are played with the index, RING, then pinky. Obviously once you get to the top you have to shift over to play the rest.

To put this into contrast, look at Mixolydian (G). Those notes are really spread out. GAB goes over the span of 5 frets, and so do the subsequent CDE and FGA. When you play notes that are that spread out, you still play them with your Index, Middle, and Pinky. You never use your ring finger for these because your middle finger is longer and can be used as a "pivot" to get your pinky over to that 5th fret.

So, again, when 3 notes, on one string, in a scale, span 4 frets, you will use the finger that corresponds to that fret (i.e. 1st fret = Index, 2nd Fret = Middle, 3rd Fret = Ring, 4th Fret = Pinky). However, if it spans 5 frets, you only use Index, Middle, Pinky.

Good luck for now and let me know if you have any questions

[curly]

Crazzzy ur lesson r really good!! They're really helping me with playing!!

[Crazzzy]

[nicefff]

any tips on playing 16th notes ? as im doing desecration smile by rhcp and i am just stuck on doing 16th notes, since there alot faster than anything eles