highwayman Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 I'm about eight months into my bass journey and have made some decent progress: I grasped playing with a plectrum pretty quickly, then (hiding my plectrums) I've developed my (two) finger technique in the past six weeks. I'm working my way through both Hal Leonard and Stuart Clayton books and can now read music notation a bit - though when a piece is written in notation above and tab below, I can't help my eyes from going to the tab every time! Since December 15th I've been keeping track of my daily bass practice in a journal, noting what I've done and for how long. I've also recorded days off. Today I was (unusually) fed up, as I feel I'm no closer to understanding [i]why[/i]? When the books do touch on theory I find it really dry, & my brain switches off. Right now I feel like I'm getting just ok at copying and that's it. Is there a way of learning bass guitar theory for kids? (not that I am one), as sometimes such teaching methods are the best. I feel like I'm hitting a wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKenrick Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Theory is dry. Unfortunately, there's not a lot that you can do to 'dress it up'. What [i]isn't[/i] dry is the application of theory, i.e. [b]making music[/b]. After all, that's why most of us got into playing, right? It's easy to get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of things and lose sight of the bigger picture; you can learn theory until you're blue in the face, but if you can't apply it in a playing situation then it's pointless. (I say this as someone who suffers from this exact problem - I understand many things on an intellectual level but can't apply them in real time on the instrument). If you could share what you've been practising and (more importantly) what you want to sound like then it'd be easier to advise on a course of action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highwayman Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 Thanks for showing an interest: so far I've really just been playing the exercise pieces in the books, oh & I've learned the lick to Michael McDonald's 'I Keep Forgetting', which I play far too much! What I'd like to do is know how to build some cool cinematic grooves, nothing too complex. I think that the times when you feel like giving up on something are when you're on the cusp of moving forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Bay Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 I have been playing fir less time than you and have found playing with others to be the biggest help. So far it has been adapted covers, well known tracks but always tweaked one way or another. At first it was the much more experienced guitarist saying trybthis or that but increasingly I will know what to do to make it sound right. I can't put my finger on why, but I just seem to know when it sounds right. I would love to know the theory behind why but for know I am just enjoying playing. I also mess about with sections I know and try to blend them with other things or add my own twist. Sometimes it works well, others not so much..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highwayman Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 Looking at trying a couple of books on the subject: - Theory For The Comtempoary Bassist by Tracy Walton and - Essential Music Theory For Electric Bass by Robert Garner Both get praise (Amazon etc.) for their comparative clarity, has anyone read either of them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GonzoBass Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 [url="http://wheatsbassbook.com/"]http://wheatsbassbook.com/[/url] Go at your own pace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osiris Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Try and get your hands on a copy of [url="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bass-Guitar-Dummies-Patrick-Pfeiffer/dp/1118748808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485275192&sr=8-1&keywords=bass+guitar+for+dummies"]Bass guitar for dummies[/url] by Patrick Pfeiffer. Someone bought me a copy of it for Christmas a few years back as a so called novelty gift, but it actually turns out to be one of the best, non-dreary theory books that I've ever used. Up until that point I'd been playing for about 20 years and been through though quite a few theory books. Like you I found them to be mostly dry and uninspiring, whereas this is simple, straight forward and to the point. It manages to get the key points across succinctly without blinding you with science or making you lose the will to live. For example, like a lot of people, I'd spent years struggling to grasp the concept of modes. This book covers modes in a sentence or 2, which once I read it, I thought to myself "is that it, is it really that simple?" And yes, it is. It's just that everything I'd read about modes to that point had made the subject seem like an unnecessarily complex, esoteric mystery. Like all dummies books, it can get a bit [i]Sesame Street[/i] in places, but if you can live with that it's a superb book. It may not be the most thorough, but I think that's what stops it getting tedious. However it covers the important, fundamental principles in an easy to understand way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louisthebass Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 [quote name='TKenrick' timestamp='1485196867' post='3222026'] Theory is dry. Unfortunately, there's not a lot that you can do to 'dress it up'. What [i]isn't[/i] dry is the application of theory, i.e. [b]making music[/b]. After all, that's why most of us got into playing, right? It's easy to get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of things and lose sight of the bigger picture; you can learn theory until you're blue in the face, but if you can't apply it in a playing situation then it's pointless. [/quote] This. I'm afraid the theory thing is all about putting the work in and learning your chord tones / applied harmony and how it works in various musical situations - in that respect, it isn't "fun" - it's work. The "fun" part of it is (as TKenrick pointed out) when you apply it in a playing situation - then what you've learned actually comes out of you via the instrument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basexperience Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 I'd like to thank you guys for discussing this. I've played for 27 years now and theory has always been a huge turn-off. I'll be checking out some of those books: I can read dots but actual applied theory is something I just don't do at the moment. As a result, I've got chops but if someone gives me a chart, I've got to go through it with actual music to play against. I'd like to change this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bassman7755 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 [quote name='basexperience' timestamp='1487624493' post='3241356'] I can read dots but actual applied theory is something I just don't do at the moment. [/quote] Learning theory is much easier (in terms of sheer man-hours) than learning to read dots in real time so youve really already done the hard bit. Only caution is that its more "lumpy" to learn, you often need to know several interrelated things before you can see how its applied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 Seek out an enthusiastic teacher! Find someone who really loves their instrument and is excited about teaching you the dry stuff in an informative and engaging way. Just recently a student told me that she'd manage to learn more about theory in one hour than in six lessons of extra school coaching! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 [quote name='dood' timestamp='1487705232' post='3242057'] Seek out an enthusiastic teacher! Find someone who really loves their instrument and is excited about teaching you the dry stuff in an informative and engaging way. Just recently a student told me that she'd manage to learn more about theory in one hour than in six lessons of extra school coaching! [/quote] In my experience finding such a teacher can be harder than learning it from a book. But maybe that's just me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChazNoName Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 I stumbled across this today... http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/music/introduction-music-theory/content-section-0 Might be worth checking out?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krispn Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Ariane Cap's book just landed through my door and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in this coming week on night shift. She has a wall chart due out soon with a lot of the main theory points set out. I'm keen to increase my knowledge and this book appeals as it's written using theory, useful fretboard 'box' diagrams and from a bassist perspective. I only just realised the circle of 4th/5th correspond to the bass strings (I've a 5 string)yet I've know that it's tuned to 4th's just never thought to apply it. What a fool! Wall chart link! https://arisbassblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/17553662_10154978685176125_7416220937550081880_n.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassjim Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 (edited) I learnt the first part of the mode thing (aeolian, Lydian, phyrigian ect) in a parrot fashion style. The guy that taught me got me to learn these modes in both C and for contrast Ab. It didn't do anything for me to begin with. It was just a load of scales. Then one day like a penny drop light bulb moment it started fitting together. I set about trying to relay this new found knowledge to a band mate but realised because I had done what the teacher had told me would happen, Id made my own sense of it, the universal way of teaching it was already a reasonable way of explaining it. I didn't have the advantage of the internet at the time so missed out on any alternative or possibly better ways to learn it. But however you learn it and eventually process it, its a valuable addition to your journey. Edited April 11, 2017 by bassjim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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