Let's make me a good bassist... tips?

[(__Joonas__)]

The most recent albums I've played after running out of physical CDs:


Akira Yamaoka – Guadalajara Live (video, not album)
Amon Amarth – Surtur Rising
Astarot – Echoes of Mystical Forest
Dark Tranquillity – Atoma
Dark Tranquillity – Character
Dark Tranquillity – Construct
Dark Tranquillity – Damage Done
Dark Tranquillity – Haven
Dark Tranquillity – Projector
Dark Tranquillity – We Are The Void
In Flames – Sounds Of A Playground Fading
Make Them Suffer – Neverbloom
Make Them Suffer – Old Souls
Make Them Suffer – Worlds Apart
Raventale – Mortal Aspirations
Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe
Satyricon – Now, Diabolical
Savatage – Hall of the Mountain King
Trees of Eternity – Hour of the Nightingale
Type O Negative – Bloody Kisses
Yngwie Malmsteen – Trilogy



Today while playing a Make Them Suffer album I figured they weren't the traditional B minor scale I use as foundation, but their notes were C minor. Btw with this band I also figured some sections need you to pluck with three fingers, tips only, while pressing your palm against the wood. Don't know what technique that's called, but felt natural to me, cos it was some rapid tempo.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Great CD for ear training on bass, it's instrumental and sounds+mixing is dandy... Clear sounds means less challenge, of course.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I twitched the amp setup again, this time... 0 bass, 10 mid, 0 treble. Nice, clear and crispy for room playing. I usually keep the bass around 3 and altering mid and treble between 4-8.

I now started playing stuff over drum jam. Trying to figure out some stuff.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Ear training issue...

I'm not sure if listening to bass in music is the best way to train ear for bass... because it boils down to playing what you hear the guitars or keyboards play an octave lower. If you wanna learn to play in a band, that is, and not just learn to play ready songs. So would you attempt straight to figure the octave lower note of the guitars, or first find the guitar pitch and then jump the octave lower?

Today I tried this note audio practice, I tried to first find the lower octave of the note being played, and many times I found a note that was in between, maybe my ears made a compromise or it's the softer dissonance in that interval distance...

 

[ESA1996]

Ear training issue...

I'm not sure if listening to bass in music is the best way to train ear for bass... because it boils down to playing what you hear the guitars or keyboards play an octave lower. If you wanna learn to play in a band, that is, and not just learn to play ready songs. So would you attempt straight to figure the octave lower note of the guitars, or first find the guitar pitch and then jump the octave lower?

Today I tried this note audio practice, I tried to first find the lower octave of the note being played, and many times I found a note that was in between, maybe my ears made a compromise or it's the softer dissonance in that interval distance...

Most of the time playing the root note of whatever chord is currently being played is a good idea. If there is no evident root note the bass will most of the time play whatever the guitars play, just in a lower octave. Some bassists of course do some more experimental stuff but I don't think there's any tricks into learning those apart from being really damn good in listening to what they are playing.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I've been investing lots of time for slowly trying to crack the mystery of the Cycle of Fifths. So confusing. But slowly you start connecting tiny bits. Trying to grasp logical understanding of it and how to apply it's wisdom quickly to practice. It's like prying open a coconut with your bare fingertips. But I believe it holds a useful power and insight.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Hands down one of the best albums for training bass I've come across.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I can't believe it. I was going thru modes, comparing how they feel... and I combined two aspects I liked from two different modes, and came up with a scale that doesn't seem to exist. Did some searching and only found it appearing once as a certain mode of a certain scale. Can this be possible? Surely all possible scales have been invented? Or is there a theory limitation why certain combinations cannot work?

Oh I found a similar one, Javaneese / Pelog scale, some Indonesian stuff. It's also a phrygian mode of Melodic Minor, and I think a mixolydian mode of Hindu...

Anyway, it's:

Root – minor 2nd – minor 3rd – perfect 4th – perfect 5th – major 6th – minor 7th

I tried to come up with a 7 note scale that I'd find the most interesting to use and came up with this.

 

[ESA1996]

There's no real limitations to what can work and what can not. Certain scales are just easier to make work (Minor and Major are used for that reason). Some scales may be so odd that no one has bothered to name them, or, if they have, the names haven't become commonly used (AFAIK all the modes of melodic minor and all but one mode of harmonic minor belong in this category (5th mode of harmonic minor / phygrian dominant)).

The scale you came up with is indeed the 2nd mode of melodic minor (I'd advise you to call scales like these as Nth mode of X. I'm not quite sure if it's technically wrong to call them phygrian mode of X etc. but I think it might be. I can't remember hearing such names being used at least). I've never seen it used anywhere, but, considering it is a mode of melodic minor which is a very well known scale if not the most used one, I'm sure it's been used by someone somewhere.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Well apparently Indonesian people used it in their religious seremonies to connect with Buddha or something.

I now want to get into sheet music... reading and writing. And doing it for all instruments.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I need some music program where I can try drum beats... and would be nice if I could write all the stuff to it. Been doing it on paper. Tux Guitar wouldn't open on my laptop.

 

[ESA1996]

I need some music program where I can try drum beats... and would be nice if I could write all the stuff to it. Been doing it on paper. Tux Guitar wouldn't open on my laptop.

Sounds very strange as I've never had any problems with TG on any computer I've tried it with. Did it give any error messages? They would probably help in solving the problem.

If you're using Windows you need to have Java Runtime installed on your computer for TG to work. You can get that here: https://java.com/en/download/

If you have a Mac or Linux you need to make sure you've got the right version of TG. You can get different versions of TG here: http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/download.html

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Cool. Already testing stuff with different tracks. Just gotta dive into the mechanics of the program a bit, but seems more simple than I remembered. Soon I'll be composing if stuff works. On paper it's harder cos you can't feel the timings etc.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I almost have one song ready! I just fucking deleted a nice section accidentally.

 

[ESA1996]

You can always go back if you don't save it. Ctrl + Z is IIRC the default shortcut or going back (It's certainly what I have, I just can't remember whether or not it's like that by default). Ctrl + X is for going back forward.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Too bad I saved before noticing it. But no biggie.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Got my first proper song ready, it's black metal and I'm pretty proud of it. Took me 8 hours straight. Duration 3:30, it's got basically three sections I'm playing with. There's even orchestral hits and some choir. Just one riff progression I might try to improve.

 

[NewHewkas]

Got my first proper song ready, it's black metal and I'm pretty proud of it. Took me 8 hours straight. Duration 3:30, it's got basically three sections I'm playing with. There's even orchestral hits and some choir. Just one riff progression I might try to improve.

Upload it to some where

 

[CharIie]

Would love to here that as well.

 

[ESA1996]

I'd like to hear the song too. Ionce made a song based on your vision of a perfect song, but to hear one made by the visionist himself? Would be nice I'm not surprised at all that you have orchestra hits in it either. I used to put them all over the place in all my songs because I knew you'd approve if you ever heard them, but I've kinda grown out of it.