bass

[SADUDE]

That's the WORST advice I've ever heard.

Lessons, even if it's just a few of them, are the BEST way to start learning a new instrument. Someone to guide and correct you is the best thing you can have.

As much as I am pained to say this I will anyways...Maybe some people just don't have the natural ability to play music. I couldn't compete in olympic track if I trained 24/7 or if I cared. I have taken lessons with at around 5 instructors. I learned more by myself. A good teacher I guess can tell you what you need to do, but only you can do it. Most teachers will happily waste your time for $20-25/ half hour. There are some many sources where you can get the same information cheaper or FREE(see the internet, you ar using it now) Maybe a few lessons. The serious musician will improve to their limits. I can say that I would be where I am had I not taken lessons. I would've save a shitload. This advice applies most definitly to metal where technique is of a higher priority than harmony or rhythm. Most everything you are going to learn from metal you will learn from just playing ir anyways. I've learned boatloads of music theory by myself and most of it metal doesn't even begin to embrace. IF you have a high motivation to learn classical or jazz lessons don't seem as wasteful. But I do classical, and I do not see the necessity. Some people like to get ripped off. Lessons are way over-priced. Besides they will probably criticize metal in a direct or indirect way and try to force their musical tastes upon you as if their tastes were superior. A lot of them think they are god because they wasted over 30k a year at berklee. Berklee trains you in being an egotistical elitist from what I've seen. If I study music further with aid it wouldn't be at a place like Berklee. Maybe a good state school. Trust me I have more than 3 years of lessons and about 4 of playing.

 

[SADUDE]

I'd say for the most important advice a beginner should give is probably to learn songs they like(to avoid boredom), play things that are uncomfortable but take a break when any discomfort turns into pain.

 

[Bryant]

As much as I am pained to say this I will anyways...Maybe some people just don't have the natural ability to play music. I couldn't compete in olympic track if I trained 24/7 or if I cared. I have taken lessons with at around 5 instructors. I learned more by myself. A good teacher I guess can tell you what you need to do, but only you can do it.

---snip---

That's a good post. The main reason I think lessons for the beginner is important is not what he/she learns to do, but rather what he/she learns what not to do. There are too many bad habits to pick up as a beginner. Hell there are enough as an intermeddiate or advanced player as well, but especially as a beginner. You never know what kind of person you will get as an instructor, but it's worth a shot trying.
Lessons do not have to be paid for... find buddies that have been playing longer than you and read websites, magazines etc. I learned my picking style (guitar) from my hero Wolf Hoffmann, though he didn't fly to my house and show me. I read it in a GFTPM mag.
While I am getting into a guitar tangent, it applies to bass as well. I emulated my favorite players from the start, then created my own style from combining what I learned from others.

Bryant

 

[NoneSoVile]

You also may want to learn some bass lines from some of the following bands:

Dream theater - John mayung is my idle (metropolis bass solo aint too hard but very fun to paly so try that if u know how to tap)
Weather report (Jaco [bass god on fretless]) - This is jazz but its has some of the best bass lines ever in my opinion.
Cryptopsy - Eric Lanlois is fast as hell and adds some cool slaps and pops (slit your guts bass fill).
Billy sheehan -The tapping master
Spastic ink - They have various bassists but its always top quality stuff.
Spiral architect - Their bassist is called Lars K Nornberg (sp) Who is on tour with satyricon atm. This stuff may give you a head ache after a while but will give you some cool ideas to try when playing bass.
Finally give victor Wooten a listen as he is considered the new jaco atm , and if you get a chance maybe give the bassist from Symphony X a listen as he does a few cool fills and solos.

A mamber called Coypu has a web site up for bassist so give it a look www.bassistsofdeath.cjb.net (i did the intro tab for Phobopile and more is on its way!)

 

[JACKO]

im finally getting my bass tommorow, its gonna be an Ibanez BTB300BGWNF
it looks like this

what do you think?
and im gonna need a beginners bass book of some sort, anyone know a good book they can suggest for me?
cheers,
Jack

 

[SADUDE]

Get a book called Bass Fitness for your technique...
you need to get your hands comfortable before anything else.

 

[TekChef]

all those naysayers....
Lessons can be good or bad, depending on who is teaching you, and the approach they take.

Ex. when I started playing the guy who taught me for a few years was a rock/metal guy, who first learned to play country and jazz.
He plays like eric johnson and Satriani, and can do the high speed, country finger picking thing(HARDER to do than you think!..see The hellcasters!)
His approach worked well for me, and I take it to all students I have ever taught. He never said "this is the way", he simply showed me what was the common ways to do things, and encouraged me to put my own spin on it, how to use some Jazz methods in rock/metal and he gave me direction on how to improve my skills.

Now that is the way to teach.

I would say to not take lessons from anyone who says "thisi s the only way".
and like someone said-lessons can also be picking good player's brains around you.

 

[JACKO]

i got "bass fitness" book today
about the lessons, a couple of my mates are gonna teach me all they know about bass for a few months, then probably next year i will get proper lessons

 

[SADUDE]

bass fitness is great... self explanatory and can be easy or impossible obviously depending on the tempo(speed)

 

[Deandre]

http://www.guitartabbooks.com/freelessons.htm

There is a free online Slap-pop technique lesson here.

 

[Listener1254]

Fingerstyle is much easier to play faster than using a pick, shredding with a pick is too clumsy with those giant strings.

Nothing wrong with playing with a pick, but fingerstyle makes you more of a REAL bass player.

Does this mean Rancid's bassist, who shreds with a pick, is more talented than the average bassist who plays with his fingers?

 

[Listener1254]

correct?

 

[Kate Bush Rules!]

Weather report (Jaco [bass god on fretless]) - This is jazz but its has some of the best bass lines ever in my opinion.

Oh, does jazz not usually have great basslines?

Yes get lessons. You will be a better player. Those who say it will stifle your creativity are fools. Look at all the technically good players... most of them are also very creative.

 

[Listener1254]

Oh, does jazz not usually have great basslines?

Yes get lessons. You will be a better player. Those who say it will stifle your creativity are fools. Look at all the technically good players... most of them are also very creative.

Punk has great basslines, they take influences from jazz and ska.

 

[Poison Godmachine]

A lot of them think they are god because they wasted over 30k a year at berklee. Berklee trains you in being an egotistical elitist from what I've seen. If I study music further with aid it wouldn't be at a place like Berklee. Maybe a good state school. Trust me I have more than 3 years of lessons and about 4 of playing.

Bah, I start at Berklee this semester. The extra pressure behind me just for the placment audition alone has already got me practicing twice as hard. By being expected to learn things you can't do at first adds to the motivation to better yourself. Don't jump on the anti Berklee bandwagon, uncool. If anyone here is close minded, it's not Berklee kids about music, it's you about berklee. Trust me i have 8 years of leasons and 9 years of playing...

No offense just my oppinion, you are entitled to yoour own.

 

[zeb_carter]

Bah, I start at Berklee this semester. The extra pressure behind me just for the placment audition alone has already got me practicing twice as hard. By being expected to learn things you can't do at first adds to the motivation to better yourself. Don't jump on the anti Berklee bandwagon, uncool. If anyone here is close minded, it's not Berklee kids about music, it's you about berklee. Trust me i have 8 years of leasons and 9 years of playing...

No offense just my oppinion, you are entitled to yoour own.

Heh. My experience with Berklee isn't from going there, it's from working at the Store 24 across the street for a year. And no, Berklee doesn't _make_ you closed minded about music, but it certainly encourages it, at least to judge from some of the people who I worked with who went there. But, at the same time, any musician who goes there can take a lot away from it, you just have to fight off, "Coltrane! Coltrane! COLTRANE!!!" for four years.

As for myself, I took sax in third grade, but I never did my schoolwork, so they never let me go to practice, just took my money and yelled at me when I didn't know my parts at rehearsal. Took guitar in sixth grade, but the guy was a complete jazz snob, and refused to teach me any song or riff until I knew the whole chord chart. I just wanted to learn a Motley Crue song, dammit! So I dropped that after three months. The I got my bass the summer after eigth grade, and learned a Nirvana song, and then a Metallica song. After that I got tips from a guitar player who was just crazy talented, which helped me a _ton_, but I resisted learning any theory, or playing with my fingers, for the entire ten-year scope of my bass playing career. Then I hit the wall, creatively and physically - I realized I didn't have the tools I needed to compose music, and I reached the top of my game playing with a pick, at least as far as playing death and black metal cleanly. I spent a week in a hotel room with a guitar encyclopedia my girlfriend bought me, and just this week bit the bullet and started learning to play with my fingers. Ten years of un-learning to do, but luckily the Borknagar site has bass tabs done by Tyr himself, so that's a place to start. I plan on getting a few lessons for technique, but luckily I know a bass player who's beyond amazing, who plays with his fingers on a six-string in a million different styles, and will probably smoke me up while giving me free lessons. So that helps.

My point? Don't be afraid of lessons (or theory) just make sure you're getting what you want out of it, and you're probably better off getting personal lessons from someone you have something in common with than paying someone to do it. Just my two cents.

\m/ (oo) \m/

P.S.: Oh, and Rancid sucks balls, but Matt Freeman is _amazing_, no doubt.