Thinking of jumping into the deep end

TheOtherDennis

I've plucked away at the root notes of a few things before now, but I'd like to do a bit more. While I'm not trying to hit Norman Watt-Roy/Mark King levels of difficulty, I'd like to do a bit more than just hit the root note in time to the rhythm.

So what advice would anyone give me on where to start? I've looked online for bass courses and they're as many and varied as guitar courses so I'm a bit baffled.

And is there the same "ya gets whats ya pays for" thing when it comes to buying a bass as in guitars, or are the lower priced ones not as bad as some of the lower priced guitars?

monquixote

I wrote a series on Bass for Easy Ear Training:

http://www.easyeartraining.com/learn/series/bass-tone/

It's more about the sound than playing, but hopefully there will be something useful and I did a podcast so you can enjoy my dulcet tones

TheOtherDennis

Ta for the link, I'll have a look at that later

ThePrettyDamned

It might seem advanced, but the Flea master series is worth watching.  Some of it is artistic wankery talking (interesting nonetheless), some is mega slap, he explains a couple of riffs, and it shows him and Chad jamming a few times, covering fast funk to much slower, more mellow styles.  I learnt a lot - mostly, how best to interact with the drummer, but also about note choice.  For example, the riff to skinny sweaty man is explained and it sounds daft slow, but when it's at speed its a great 7th chord thing going on.  I think (not watched for a while!).

IanSavage

In terms of instruments, at the lower price point I GENUINELY think there's little to beat Vintage in terms of bang-for-buck; although the Squier CV and VM series are also superb, and if you can put up with the looks (I hate them, personally) Yamaha's BBs are some quality instruments.

TheOtherDennis

Well as it turns out, simply asking the question got my juices flowing and before I knew it, I'd bought this -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201049202753?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

ThePrettyDamned

Nice that'll do the trick!

Now get a Muse or red hot chilli peppers tab book and get to work

UnclePsychosis

Welcome to the right side of the tracks :-)

Have a google for Scott Devine's online bass lessons - they're free and very useful indeed.

Drew_TNBD

Find a band in your genre you love. Learn their bass parts. Apply those techniques to your own playing. Do the same with about three or four other bands over the course of 3-4 years. You'll have your own style.

Or just play guitar riffs on the bass. Works too.

TheOtherDennis

I'll check out Scott Devine, ta for the tip.

Otherwise it occurred to me earlier I could just do some practice on Rocksmith - that works for bass, too, so it would give me a reasonable start. It's a start, anyway (till the lag starts driving me nuts cos the game thinks I've missed a note when I haven't).