Another newbie

[gallowayphantom]

Hi all
My kids bought me a bass guitar, a Harley Benton standard series and basic amp and fancy giving this a real go. Also came with a couple of books Hal Leonard bass method and bass guitar for dummies. Unfortunately live in an extremely rural location and their are no teachers or classes anywhere near me, I've looked and asked. So its me the books and youtube. So where do I start?????
I've a liking for Jazz especially ones with a heavy bass sound like Dave Brubeck's take 5, Oscar Peterson's Night train. All of which somewhere in the music feature a good bass section (double bass)
So do you learn tabs or notation, advive on good youtube sites etc
Any help, info would be greatly appreciated
Rob

[darren]

There are lots of good bass tuition videos on YouTube. Search for Scott's Bass Lessons for example. Also check out some bass set up videos as it will be easier and more enjoyable to learn if your bass is well set up.

[discreet]

+1 for Scott's Bass Lessons on YouTube.

[lowhand_mike]

+1 for Scotts Bass Lessons, http://www.scottsbasslessons.com/ just wish i had time to go through it all but his teaching style is excellent he also has the academy which gives you access to more tutorials (for a small fee) but loads of stuff is on there for free. Joe Hubbard is quite good to.
The Hal Leonard stuff is good to start think that was one of the first things i had
Wouldnt worry too much to start with with reading tab or notation but if you really want to go for it and have the time then learning notation would be the way to go according to purists, tab doesnt really lend itself to reading timings to well. But saying that i learnt everything i know from tab and listening to songs i wanted to play and i get by (not saying im good or anything though)

oh and practice practice practice

[tobiewharton]

I can recommend Richie Blake's teaching on music college tv on YouTube. In my estimation he is both a great technician and a gifted teacher and will get you started with technique and theory extremely well.

All the best,

Tobie

[Number6]

I find YouTube excellent.....some good stuff posted there. Josh Fossgreen, Scott Whitley etc.

[SpondonBassed]

Welcome Rob. If you have no fixed ideas of where to start you could do worse than have a dabble at more than one method. I find it helps to round me off a bit more.

Sometimes I buy play-along books of tablature with a CD that does each tune with and without the bass part. I have had a go at the tutor method but eyesight problems made that a no go. I self learned tab and had a smattering of primary school notation but for reasons already mentioned, I don't sight read. Youtube furnishes clips of tunes that I fancy having a go at and sometimes the tab can be had from the 'net too.

Best of all, find a play mate or mates and do ensemble if you can. Living musicians are far better to learn with than play-along recordings.

Good luck, keep us up to date.

[josie]

Welcome Rob! +1 for Scotts and Hal Leonard. You could also consider looking at the RGT Preliminary and Grade 1 syllabus - even if you don't have a teacher and don't plan to take the exams. It's well designed - everything in there is there because you need to know it to play well, and the booklets and CDs make it easy to follow and learn from. I found both the structure and the content very helpful.

If you can find even one local musician to muck about with, it will bring you on no end. And fooling around and jamming can be a lot more fun and more rewarding than trying to cover the awesome basslines on your favourite recordings. Whatever you do, enjoy!

[bottomofthebarrel]

Welcome Rob!

As a fellow newbie, I've found this chap very useful: https://www.youtube.com/user/constantine2112/videos A good mix of songs and notation/tabs for all of his later playalongs.