Natural aptitude for playing the bass......

[Damonjames]

This topic comes up a bit, whether it be playing bass, academia or sport. While I firmly believe that some people a blessed with a distinct advantage and ability to do something, without hard work and dedication, they will NEVER reach greatness.
The David Beckham's and Jaco's of this world have had to put in hours and hours of dedicated practice to achieve the levels they did. There is no substitute for repetition.
You could argue, and probably win, that not everyone can achieve the same level with the same amount of practice without having a natural tendency towards something, but at the end of the day they will still be vastly improved on where they started.
I aim for greatness with my playing, and may die before achieving it. The fact is with hard work I will be better than I was yesterday, and that's enough to keep me going. I think back to where I was 2 years ago, and I am a completely different player now, but still pushing on.

All that aside, ENJOY playing your bass, and welcome to the elite group of REAL musicians ;-)

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='jazzyvee' timestamp='1389909434' post='2339549']
Yep I go along with that although I think some who "play bass" can still exert some creativity in how they interpret the bass lines they copy.
[/quote]

Very true. Often it's how you discover there is any talent at all.

Edited January 17, 2014 by Ou7shined

[risingson]

[quote name='Absolute Beginner' timestamp='1389908074' post='2339525']
Thanks all for your comments.

I really appreciate it.

Although, I love playing my Viola bass, I'm not overkeen on the whole neck dive issue, or the fact that it leans forward quite a bit if playing when standing up.

In some ways now, I'm not sure whether I should have opted for one of my other bass choices though, ie:

Epiphone EB3
Squier Vintage Modified Jazz

Just out of interest, does anyone own one of the two basses ? If so, would you recommend them, or do they suffer from the above issues ?

I must admit, given their relatively low cost, I could be tempted in buying one of them once I have developed and feel more confident.

Thanks again,

Fraser.
[/quote]

My own advice if you were to look for a second instrument would be to go for the Squier. I doubt it will suffer from neck dive and generally speaking it will provide you with a better blueprint on which to practice as a lot of the bass guitars you'll encounter through time will be Fender-derived to some extent (not all, just of lot of them). Both instruments you mention have a 34" scale length which if you've been playing a short scale instrument like your Viola bass will take a bit of getting used to at first, but it won't take too long to adjust.

[JamesBass]

[quote name='Absolute Beginner' timestamp='1389908074' post='2339525']
Thanks all for your comments.

I really appreciate it.

Although, I love playing my Viola bass, I'm not overkeen on the whole neck dive issue, or the fact that it leans forward quite a bit if playing when standing up.

In some ways now, I'm not sure whether I should have opted for one of my other bass choices though, ie:

Epiphone EB3
Squier Vintage Modified Jazz

Just out of interest, does anyone own one of the two basses ? If so, would you recommend them, or do they suffer from the above issues ?

I must admit, given their relatively low cost, I could be tempted in buying one of them once I have developed and feel more confident.

Thanks again,

Fraser.
[/quote]

In my experiences all Gibson derived basses suffer from more neck dive than fender derived ones, so on that basis and my personal experience I'd opt for either the Squire P bass or the Jazz, try both and see how they feel!

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='achknalligewelt' timestamp='1389878759' post='2338996']
I tell all my bass students, the most important thing you need is to want to practice, and to not be put off by not being very good for what feels like a long, long time. Bass is good for this, as learning to bash out a line of root notes in 8's along to a Clash track is a pretty attainable target for a beginner, and very quickly you'll feel like you can actually play the thing. Then come scales, then the Beatles, then ultimately, the world's your oyster.

If you practice. And practice. And practice.
[/quote]

Frankly, this is a most sensible post.

For myself, I would question the notion of 'musical aptitude'. I mean, we don't talk about 'eating aptitude' or 'walking aptitude'. Performing a musical piece is simply a combination of training one's motor skills to perform certain actions and learning which actions to deploy at any given point in a song.

So - dear OP - don't feel that any sense of a 'lack of aptitude' might stand in your way. Just do it.

As for the practising thing. Don't race up that mountain and don't take it [i]too[/i] seriously at this point. This is all meant to be fun. Yes, practising is good, but don't overdo it in the early days. When your hands start hurting and your head's aching with incomprehensible stuff about modes - step away from that bass and take a break.

Tiny steps, easy victories. Once you've established some basic competence you can think about where you go next

[Colonel36]

All good advice.
There's one thing you may like to do and that's video yourself, practising what you practice. It's nice to look back in 12 months or so on the progress that you've made because sometimes it feels like there's no improvement, but when you see where you were initially, it makes you feel good.

[foal30]

took me 20 years to learn how to practice

get stuck in, hard work sorts 99% of life's issues.

[Mr Fretbuzz]

I was a complete novice two years ago. Stick with it, put in lots of practice, get some books from amazon on bass, get a really good bass teacher and watch out for guitar teachers who try to teach bass. Keep going when you feel like smashing your bass up the wall. Take a break from it now and again. Buy a Jazz or P Bass . Look back in two years time and think ooooo I'm not a complete novice anymore :-)

[xilddx]

[quote name='foal30' timestamp='1389944517' post='2339717']
[b]took me 20 years to learn how to practice[/b]

get stuck in, hard work sorts 99% of life's issues.
[/quote]

Wise words.

[discreet]

[quote name='foal30' timestamp='1389944517' post='2339717']
...hard work sorts 99% of life's issues.
[/quote]

But it's important to know which is the 1% where you do nothing.

[Mark Dyer]

I think the key piece of advice here is find yourself a bass tutor, a 1hr lesson per fortnight will be sufficient, a good tutor should also set homework tasks for you to practice and achieve before the next lesson.

Key points a tutor will give you:

Stop you from developing bad habits, hard thing to break if you have been playing self taught for a long time, I speak from experience.

Progressive scale lessons that will make you familiar with terms like Triads, Arpeggios, Chords, Tones, etc... This knowledge will speed up your ability too work out and play songs and pieces of music that will seem impossible to you right now.

Train your ear. I think musicians like Mozart or Bach may have had a natural aptitude for this, who knows, but for us mere mortals it also needs training? And this is another important area where your tutor will help you.

Technique. This goes hand-in-hand with point 1, bad habits. Learn the best way to place you fingers on the fret, where to start and finish. Muting, timing, feel, rhythm. Start with the correct way to physically play your bass and your ability will progress rapidly.

There are of course many good online bass tutors around these days who offer very competitive rates, I won't name any as they are pretty easy to locate.

Oh, and practice, practice, practice.