Let's make me a good bassist... tips?
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I like to take a CD from my metal shelf and put it in my player, then try to play over it with no power on. So far I've done these albums:
Something Wild
Hatebreeder
Follow the Reaper
AYDY (half)
Blooddrunk
Halo of Blood
Relentless
IWC (half)
Doom VS - Aeternum Vale
Skid Row
Swallow the Sun - New Moon
There so much exciting albums waiting, I aim for one album per day. There's no shortcuts to developing the ear, it's become brutally clear. And gotta dive into learning chords soon.
Something Wild
Hatebreeder
Follow the Reaper
AYDY (half)
Blooddrunk
Halo of Blood
Relentless
IWC (half)
Doom VS - Aeternum Vale
Skid Row
Swallow the Sun - New Moon
There so much exciting albums waiting, I aim for one album per day. There's no shortcuts to developing the ear, it's become brutally clear. And gotta dive into learning chords soon.
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ESA1996
Active Member
You don't really need chords with a bass. Knowing the theory behind them can help in figuring out some stuff but knowing scales should be more helpful I think.
Yea, I read stuff about chords taking too much sonic space with bass. But I read it's more important to learn chords than scales, as you need to recognize the chords you hear so you know which root note to play or what chord notes to play.
ESA1996
Active Member
That's exactly what it's useful for. Problem is that recognizing chords, especially once you get to stuff that are not just normal majors / minors (Add a 7th, a 9th an 11th etc.) and then, to make it worse, start encountering chords were the root is not the lowest note (E G B from down to up would be an E minor. So would G B E and B E G and if some wants to get fancy, E B G etc), is ridiculously hard. Being able to recognize the scale a song goes in and then using that knowledge to figure out what to play is far easier though not quite as useful.
What I've been doing at times is finding the melody note on the highest string, then jumping two down & two left to find the same note one octave lower... and sometimes from there jumping one down and seven left to go another octave lower... if I can't figure at all what the bass is playing.
More albums I played along to. All taught me something, but Symbolic was especially useful.
Swallow the Sun - New Moon
Mgla - Excercises In Futility
Death - Symbolic
Swallow the Sun - New Moon
Mgla - Excercises In Futility
Death - Symbolic
Works0fheart
Active Member
What do you mean played along to? You learned all of the songs on them on bass or you just sort of sounded your way through them?
I described earlier how I discovered a fun way to practice ear and learn stuff, by trying to play over an album. I think this is only possible with bass. Playing albums I've listened to many many times helps. Just following tabs is such a detour, and there is no shortcut to one day figuring that stuff on my own.
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About bassists' low self-esteem about importance in a band, fucking amazing 
1:40 -> and 2:55 -> fucking epic.
1:40 -> and 2:55 -> fucking epic.
Works0fheart
Active Member
I get what you mean, but you're also taking a detour by not properly learning the songs. Anyone of any skill level with an instrument can usually sound out a key and plunk along a few notes. I highly advise you to try learning some parts of tabs here and there at least for sake of getting used to things such as changes in riffs and things of that sort. Children of Bodom songs and most melodeath the bass is fairly simplistic, but bands like Death that you mentioned, have very interesting bass and skipping out on learning that material is really only hurting yourself in the long haul.
44:50 - I tried finger picking on this song, cos I knew it would fit the feeling. Try it out, you can play from almost all around the fretboard. First section is from the highest on the bass and next is the lowest.
This legendary song takes me back to '99 when this was made, as the theme of this album back then real romance still existed, before it eventually vanished forever due to smart phones / female hypergamy. Today as a man you simply do not exist to women unless you have a supermodel's face. You can hear the pain and euphoria of love on this song, it's the ending track of the album but there's some extra shit on this video. There's male goth vocals and female chants, deep atmosphere and emotion.
May Satan doom that tragic day when smart phones were invented and romance ripped away from men.
This legendary song takes me back to '99 when this was made, as the theme of this album back then real romance still existed, before it eventually vanished forever due to smart phones / female hypergamy. Today as a man you simply do not exist to women unless you have a supermodel's face. You can hear the pain and euphoria of love on this song, it's the ending track of the album but there's some extra shit on this video. There's male goth vocals and female chants, deep atmosphere and emotion.
May Satan doom that tragic day when smart phones were invented and romance ripped away from men.
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My process has been severely hindered because I've suffered from a degree of tenosynovitis on my left thumb the past month. Seizeless lifting at work, at gym, playing bass with wrong thumb technique, playing playstation, and so on, apparently the joint got inflammation... considering cortisone injection... So I can't use my left thumb on the neck at all. I hope it heals and won't become chronic, that would be devastating, as I found this hobby great for calming my mind.
I'm gonna take a plunge of faith and file my nut wider so I can fit lower strings in. See, I've tuned to BEAD, so I want the strings to be equally the thickest 4 strings of a 5-string bass.
Any tips I should take into notice while filing? I heard confusing details about angles and stuff.
I'm gonna take a plunge of faith and file my nut wider so I can fit lower strings in. See, I've tuned to BEAD, so I want the strings to be equally the thickest 4 strings of a 5-string bass.
Any tips I should take into notice while filing? I heard confusing details about angles and stuff.
ESA1996
Active Member
If you're going to do it, do it very slow and very little at a time. Common sense really, but you don't want to accidentally take away too much material from the nut.
About the angles. I've never done such things myself but, assuming that you really do need angles, I'd say that you want the nut to be higher on the neck side and lower on the headstock side to prevent fret buzz. If it's the other way around the string might buzz against the nut which is not good. You might want to take the bass to a guitar luthier though. They tend to know what they're doing.
Got everything done nice, except for a slight albeit hideous buzz at the open E. It sounds right when I press down the string with my finger at the nut. The trail matches the string seemingly perfect on the sides, so I suppose the buzz has to do with height. I didn't make the bottom any lower. When I look very carefully I think the string doesn't sit at the bottom of the trail, you could fit a hair in there. Maybe I should lift the string and file the sides at the bottom so the string would sink in better? It's sorta V-shaped when you'd want a U. But I'm not sure, maybe it's too low??
The thicker strings in the low tuning sound glassy and evil as fuck, like funeral bells. I have this effect on POD-2 (chorus 1 and some weird shit, I don't even know how to use it) and the tone sounds exactly like this from Slayer. Then again even here is buzz, starting 0:38, this is coincidentally open E. So what is going on?
The thicker strings in the low tuning sound glassy and evil as fuck, like funeral bells. I have this effect on POD-2 (chorus 1 and some weird shit, I don't even know how to use it) and the tone sounds exactly like this from Slayer. Then again even here is buzz, starting 0:38, this is coincidentally open E. So what is going on?
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ESA1996
Active Member
1. The strings are too low and are hitting the frets when you play the open string. You can try to playing very softly and see if it still does it. If it still does it, it is probably something other than string height. Also, if you do not have fret buzz on the lower frets this is probably not the case.
2. The nut is too low and the string is hitting the first fret. Check to see if there is a gap between the string and the first fret. You can also try lowering your string height slightly and then try to play the open string. If you are still able to play it (It is not permanently fretted at the 1st fret with the lower action/string height) it is most likely not this either. Remember to raise the action back to where you want it.
3. The string is rattling around in the nut. Filing the nut a bit more might work for this though if the buzz is caused by cause #2 it will make the situation even worse so be careful with it. Put a rubber band around the neck just past the nut (On the headstock side) to squash the strings firmly against the nut. If this removes the buzz it should be cause #3.
4. Your neck is back-bowed. Press down or put a capo (Or just tie it down with a string as you most likely don't have a capo. At least I don't) on the 1st fret and press down on the E string on the 15th fret. Check to see if there is a tiny gap between the string and the 7th fret. There should be a tiny gap (Less than 1mm). You can try pressing the string down with a finger too to feel the gap instead of looking for it. If there is no gap you need to loosen your truss rod by turning it counter-clockwise. Be very careful when doing this and do it slowly. Don't adjust it more than 1/8th of a turn. See this on more details on how to do it (http://www.guitarworld.com/news-blogs/eds-shed-how-adjust-your-guitars-truss-rod/11653).
That's all the causes for fret buzz I can think of atm. Good luck.
2. The nut is too low and the string is hitting the first fret. Check to see if there is a gap between the string and the first fret. You can also try lowering your string height slightly and then try to play the open string. If you are still able to play it (It is not permanently fretted at the 1st fret with the lower action/string height) it is most likely not this either. Remember to raise the action back to where you want it.
3. The string is rattling around in the nut. Filing the nut a bit more might work for this though if the buzz is caused by cause #2 it will make the situation even worse so be careful with it. Put a rubber band around the neck just past the nut (On the headstock side) to squash the strings firmly against the nut. If this removes the buzz it should be cause #3.
4. Your neck is back-bowed. Press down or put a capo (Or just tie it down with a string as you most likely don't have a capo. At least I don't) on the 1st fret and press down on the E string on the 15th fret. Check to see if there is a tiny gap between the string and the 7th fret. There should be a tiny gap (Less than 1mm). You can try pressing the string down with a finger too to feel the gap instead of looking for it. If there is no gap you need to loosen your truss rod by turning it counter-clockwise. Be very careful when doing this and do it slowly. Don't adjust it more than 1/8th of a turn. See this on more details on how to do it (http://www.guitarworld.com/news-blogs/eds-shed-how-adjust-your-guitars-truss-rod/11653).
That's all the causes for fret buzz I can think of atm. Good luck.
Fixed. It was the 3. as it played fine when I pressed down at the string behind the nut. So I filed a little more and the buzz got cleaned off. Quite a difference in sound these thick strings make, it sounds like banging a church bell with a fist, now they're what they should be in this tuning.
Obviously it looks like a leftie here because I have no 'mirror horizontally' option...
Obviously it looks like a leftie here because I have no 'mirror horizontally' option...
Attachments
These thick strings really demand fingertip power to get clear notes. But it sounds beautiful.
Where the fuck is everybody?
Can someone share their idea of a chronological list of things one should study & practice?
I will devote more time to it when my summer vacation starts shortly. I can still become a MUSICIAN one day, so I can play shit not just by tabs but actually know what I'm doing. It's not just about me tho, I'd like any guys with bass/music understanding to share ideas here.
Chords, scales, ear training... come on, share something. Is it enough I practice the b harmonic minor scale or should I memorize some others? I then need to discover what kind of chords exist within that scale? But one should recognize what scale a band plays a song in, to grasp how to play it, or is it possible to separate notes from the muddy mess by ear?
Where the fuck is everybody?
Can someone share their idea of a chronological list of things one should study & practice?
I will devote more time to it when my summer vacation starts shortly. I can still become a MUSICIAN one day, so I can play shit not just by tabs but actually know what I'm doing. It's not just about me tho, I'd like any guys with bass/music understanding to share ideas here.
Chords, scales, ear training... come on, share something. Is it enough I practice the b harmonic minor scale or should I memorize some others? I then need to discover what kind of chords exist within that scale? But one should recognize what scale a band plays a song in, to grasp how to play it, or is it possible to separate notes from the muddy mess by ear?
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