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

[(__Joonas__)]

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.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

About bassists' low self-esteem about importance in a band, fucking amazing 1:40 -> and 2:55 -> fucking epic.

 

[Works0fheart]

Just following tabs is such a detour, and there is no shortcut to one day figuring that stuff on my own.

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.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

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.

 

[NewHewkas]

 

[(__Joonas__)]

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.

 

[ESA1996]

Any tips I should take into notice while filing? I heard confusing details about angles and stuff.

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.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

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?

 

[ESA1996]

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.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

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...

 

[(__Joonas__)]

 

[(__Joonas__)]

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?

 

[ESA1996]

Natural minor is far more useful than harmonic minor so you should practice it first. Everything but Black Metal uses primarily natural minor. In BM it's probably around 50/50. Not too sure as I don't really listen to any BM. Anyway, chords are useful after knowing a scale, especially for guitar. For bass it's more of a case of you recognizing the chord and it's root note (Bass often plays the root note of a chord). It is possible to separate notes from the muddy mess by ear but it's really damn hard. Once you recognize the scale a song goes in it gets a whole lot easier as you are suddenly facing only 7 notes per octave instead of 11.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

I just realized it's not a big deal to memorize natural minor instead of harmonic minor, only difference is natural includes A while harmonic includes A#, other notes are the same.

 

[ESA1996]

I just realized it's not a big deal to memorize natural minor instead of harmonic minor, only difference is natural includes A while harmonic includes A#, other notes are the same.

Yup. Harmonic minor has an augmented 7th, otherwise they are identical.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

What is this thirds and fifths and sevenths stuff I keep hearing all the time?

 

[Inceptionist]

Yeah, learn natural minor scale first

What is this thirds and fifths and sevenths stuff I keep hearing all the time?

Let's say you're playing an A minor scale, A B C D E F G, and you're playing the C major chord from this scale, there's three notes in it. C is one (root note), E is the third (c,d,e), G is the fifth (c,d,e,f,g). It has to do with the interval between the notes. Sevenths follow this same pattern. Like stated above, bass usually plays the root note.

Chords aren't too big for bass, but a good general understanding is that a chord is at least 3 notes made up of two "third" intervals. So in the above example, the C chord (C E G) is a C major. C to E is a major third, E to G is a minor third. That's basically a major chord in a nutshell. Root note, major third, minor third. A minor chord in this case is A C E, that would be root note, minor third, major third this time instead.

The difference between a major and minor third is the number of semitones between one note and the next (interval). So, from A to C, a minor third, there are 3 semitones, which you can basically think of as moving up 3 frets. From C to E, it's a major third, or 4 semitones (4 frets).

 

[ESA1996]

What is this thirds and fifths and sevenths stuff I keep hearing all the time?

SCALES

B Minor:
B C# D E F# G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The 7th note of a B minor is called the 7th, the fourth note of a B minor is called a fourth etc. Similarly the seventh note of an E minor is called a 7th and the fourth note of an E minor is called a 4th. It doesn't matter which scale it is, it always works the same.

CHORDS (In the scale of B Minor)

Bm
C#m-5
D
Em
F#m
G
A

Bm
B D F#
1 3 5

Similar to the scale stuff here. The difference is this:

Em
E G B
1 3 5

Although E is the 4th note of a B minor, when talking about an Em chord it is the 1st note of said chord and thus a 1st. G is the 6th note of a B minor but as it is the 3rd interval from the E chord it is a part of it is called a 3rd when speaking about chords. Same thing with the B. It is the first note of a B minor scale yet it is called a 5th here as it is the 5th interval when counted from E, the root note of the E minor chord.

 

[(__Joonas__)]

Should I practise a scale on the fretboard from left to right, right to left, or are there a bunch of positions, like first chunk of notes is while I have my fingers spread on 4 or 5 frets, next position I have my fingers spread on the next 4 or 5 frets? This is still a mystery.

 

[Inceptionist]

Should I practise a scale on the fretboard from left to right, right to left, or are there a bunch of positions, like first chunk of notes is while I have my fingers spread on 4 or 5 frets, next position I have my fingers spread on the next 4 or 5 frets? This is still a mystery.

It's up to you how you'd like to practice them, you can try them starting with a different finger on the root each time, like:

Index
G l ------------------------6-7-9-7-6-------------------------
D l -------------------7-9--------------9-7-------------------
A l ----------7-9-10------------------------10-9-7----------
E l -7-9-10------------------------------------------10-9-7-

Middle
G l ----------------------6-7-9-7-6---------------------------
D l --------------5-7-9--------------9-7-5-------------------
A l ------5-7-9------------------------------9-7-5-----------
E l -7-9---------------------------------------------9-7-5-7-

Pinky
G l --------------------4-6-7-6-4---------------------------------
D l ------------4-5-7---------------7-5-4------------------------
A l ----4-5-7-------------------------------7-5-4----------------
E l -7-------------------------------------------------7-5-3-5-7-

You can do the same starting these scales on the A, D, or G string as well. Memorizing these fingerings, or "shapes" you can think of them as, helps you play in different keys easier. All of these B minor scales start on the B note, so if you are ever playing a song in E minor, all you have to do is play this fingering starting on an E note and you'll be playing in key.