What was it like for you being a bass beginner?

[Gomez68]

Hi guys, ok this has probably been a thread on here and nothing new I guess. I was sat with my bass learning my material and the usual fumbling and uncoordinated and flying fingers etc were more noticeable tonight than any other. I know I'm a beginner and I appreciate its not an overnight thing to be able to just play at an exceptable level. My question is what was it like for you guys learning bass and all the thoughts and feelings that kinda crept in as you try to learn ? At the moment it's like il never get my fingers to do that and il never have the feel etc ! But then if music was easy we would all be musicians ! Anyway what's your story?

[Lozz196]

It was extra exciting. Starting out playing in the early 80s, The Sex Pistols were my fave band, and I was able to learn their songs quite quickly which made me even more enthusiastic about it. There are still many things I`m yet to learn and this too is exciting, though I have to admit I generally only learn something when I need it - aside from playing with fingers rather than a pick. This was always something I`d lagged on, so a couple of years ago I set myself the task of only using a pick when with my band, when at home messing around only play fingerstyle. I`m quite proficient now, wouldn`t play my current bands material like that but with most covers no problems.

[Gomez68]

Ah that's a nice story about learning Sex pistols material. Did you find bass easy ie did you have already musical instrument experience?

[Bobthedog]

I am an 9 month long newbie of 53 years of age working my way through the Rockschool grades with a weekly tutor. I started at the debut level and thought, gosh I will never be able to get my fingers to work at that speed. I am now on the third grade and yes I find it tough, but am amazed at what I am able to do since picking up the bass for the first time. I practice every night for approx 45 minutes without fail. There are players who start and are apparently gigging within 3 months so. They are obviously gifted. My aim is to get to grade 5 at some point but also be able to play one number with one of the bands at a party next year.

I am slowly remembering patterns for chords, arpeggios and the notes on the frets. I am slowly being able to sight read easy tracks away from the exams and, yes I get frustrated, but I am improving. Tonight started well but ended badly. I will pick up again tomorrow and the night after and the night after (see the pattern emerging? ) until I get it right for me. Not to compare with others but to compare how I did the week / night before.

I get a real pleasure and despite only a couple of hours to myself each night, the bass always comes out and always make me smile. That's all.

I learnt to play trumpet and drums as a kid, but I have really started again, especially the reading the music bit.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Bobthedog

[Lozz196]

Ah that's a nice story about learning Sex pistols material. Did you find bass easy ie did you have already musical instrument experience?

No, none at all. I went to lessons at school to the point where I was taught what/where the notes were on the neck. From there I bought the songbook to Never Mind The Bollocks and taught myself. I also around the same time, maybe 6 months after, bought an electric guitar, found a book on chord shapes, sussed out what an E bar-chord was and learned the same songs at the same time on guitar.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Lozz196

[Drax]

Is it's not a rude question, how old are you Gomez ?

[blue]

Me,I'm 61 and started playing bass and gigging in 1964 and gigging in 1965. It was exciting and fun.

Playing an electric instrument and being in a band was still a novelty. I had listened to some of the early Beatles albums and knew I wanted "in". The week after The Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan show on American TV to 70 million people, well my mom purchased my 1st electric bass for me that week.

Back then all the kids were starting bands in my neighborhood, you could hear bands rehearsing in every other garage and or basement.There was so much competition you were forced to practice and get good. We all wanted girls and we wanted to gig.

I consider myself so lucky to have started playing in the mid 60s because it was the start of one of the most prolific time periods for rock and roll in terms of the songs written and the bands playing. And being 15 minutes outside of Manhattan I had access to seeing all the great bands of the time.

If it wasn't for what was coming out of the UK I probably would never have started playing.

Unlike most guys my age I still have the same bright eyes, energy, enthusiasm, excitement and passion for playing/ gigging and continuing to learn as I had at 12 years of age.

Oh, and by the way, I have no intentions on stopping gigging anytime in the near or distant future.

Blue

Edited December 16, 2014 by blue

[miles'tone]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1418687740' post='2632445']
Me,I'm 61 and started playing bass and gigging in 1964 and gigging in 1965. It was exciting and fun.

Playing an electric instrument and being in a band was still a novelty. I had listened to some of the early Beatles albums and knew I wanted "in". The week after The Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan show on American TV to 70 million people, well my mom purchased my 1st electric bass for me that week.

Back then all the kids were starting bands in my neighborhood, you could hear bands rehearsing in every other garage and or basement.There was so much competition you were forced to practice and get good. We all wanted girls and we wanted to gig.

I consider myself so lucky to have started playing in the mid 60 because it was the start of one of the most prolific time periods for rock and roll in terms of the songs written and the bands playing. And being 15 minutes outside of Manhattan I had access to seeing all the great bands of the time.

If it wasn't for what was coming out of the UK I probably would never have started playing.

Unlike most guys my age I still have the same bright eyes energy, enthusiasm, excitement and passion for gigging and continuing to learn as I had at 12 years of age.

Oh, and by the way, I have no intentions on stopping gigging anytime in the near or distant future.

Blue
[/quote]

Nice one Blue, inspiring story!

[dadofsix]

I knew that I wanted to be a bass player the first time I heard Paul McCartney play. Then I despaired of ever being a bass player the first time I heard John Entwistle play. lol Then I decided to sound like me and never looked back. It's been a delightful journey.

<><Peace

[blue]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1418687740' post='2632445']

Oh, and by the way, I have no intentions on stopping gigging anytime in the near or distant future.

Blue[/quote]

Mainly because it's the only thing I know how to do.

Blue

[lojo]

Loved my early days , learning Hendrix , Doors , Iron butterfly songs and jamming with mates

Still I'm no more than a beginner as I have no theory , just many years experience playing covers at functions

[ubit]

My early days were filled with listening to records and moving the stylus back until I'd learned the parts. With modern technology, it's so much easier for people to pick up an instrument, but it still takes hours of hard work.

I'm taking guitar lessons at the moment because I could always strum a few tunes but wanted to get better. It's amazing how much I miss the teenage years when I had time to sit in my bedroom for hours practising. It's harder as an adult to find this time, which is absolutely essential to develop muscle memory.

The rule is play something a thousand times till you learn it, then play it a thousand times more just to get it perfect!

[Gomez68]

[quote name='Drax' timestamp='1418684091' post='2632419']
Is it's not a rude question, how old are you Gomez ?
[/quote]

[Gomez68]

I'm 46 ! It's a hobby to keep me out of trouble ha! Frustrating but also therapeutic !

[DaytonaRik]

I made the switch from guitar to bass when our bass player quit (I was purely a vocalist at that point) so the transition was pretty straight forward for me...the fret board and scale knowledge had already been done.

Edited December 16, 2014 by DaytonaRik

[CamdenRob]

I got my first bass when I was 12 as we were forming a death metal band at school and all the other instruments had been taken... I didn't even know what a bass was really. We were OK actually (for death metal) played all the dodgy old London metal venues when we were 13...

Asides from a long hiatus (damn career) I've only played bass ever since. I tinker with guitar at home every now and then but I've never really had the desire to play anything else in a band

Didn't really enjoy being an absolute beginner as i hate being sh*t at anything so i just practiced relentlessly untill I was good enough to play in bands.

Edited December 16, 2014 by CamdenRob

[Thunderbird]

am still a newbie I am learning how to play for the second time (long story lol) and I am finding it harder this time but it is all about enjoying it but it is so hard to find any spare time to practice when you have a young family but just do what you can dont beat yourself up if you cannot play something put the bass down go have a brew and go back to it

[Froggy]

I'm still a newbie too, at almost 40 I've been playing around a month now. I've been working on scales and arpeggios with my tutor, but we both think I'm frustrated because I don't see any improvement. He says there definitely is, and to show me that he's got me learning The Chain. Sometimes mixing it up a bit can show you that you're doing better than you think.

[neepheid]

Wish I could tell you - I was born a bass virtuoso. As a baby I would play the bass lying down, fretting notes with my toes as I lacked the arm span to be able to do it the regular way.

Only kidding. As a beginner, I bought a bass because it looked pretty, puddled about with it infrequently for 5 years while being way more interested in how they work than how to actually play the damn things. Then my fiancee (now wife) basically dragged me up on stage to play bass in a ska/2 tone covers band hastily cobbled together for a birthday party. Only 3 rehearsals before, 1 on the afternoon before the gig. Talk about doing your homework on the school bus on the way in. Got stuck into being in bands after that, which taught me a lot, playing alongside people you respect and feel know a bit more than you really raises your game. Had setbacks of course - nearly jacked it all in when someone way better than me had a shot of my bass for the first time. Definite turning point for me was having some lessons. It put names and gave reason to the things I did and didn't know why I did them. Tightened up technique. Since then, I think I'm nae bad on bass and I've started songwriting in the last year, which I'm pleased to say I think is going well.

[Bloodaxe]

I was living abroad & got dragged down to a fully-equipped rehearsal space when I was 18 by a mate who was a drummer. Apart from an abortive period at school where I failed to learn guitar I had no experience with any musical instrument. As I don't sing & my mate had got a guit player to tag along that just left one option... Bass. For some reason I took to to it like the proverbial. That first session I 'learnt' a 12-bar (root notes in A:D) & that was it... hook, line & sinker.

Bought a bass (a month's pay) & set about learning stuff. I can't say what I learned first, but Quo (12 Gold Bars), AC/DC (If You Want Blood) & Deep Purple (Made In Japan) were all on heavy rotation back then. At first it was straight root-note follow-the-changes but then other bits crept in - nothing fancy, just pentatonic stuff (without actually knowing what a pentatonic was).

Back to the UK & that was when I got properly stuck in. There were three people on the scene who were waayyy better than me - two slap-crazy fusion-istas & one progger - but for some reason that never bothered me as I was quite happy to plough my own furrow in Blues/R&B/Classic Rock. My influences have been the likes of Leo Lyons, Neil Murray & Jack Bruce (although I'll never forget Alan Lancaster & Cliff Williams for getting me started), rather than Geddy, Mark King or Jaco.

32 years later & nothing has really changed. OK I know more than I did, but there's vast acres of musical knowledge that I'm utterly blank to; I'll explore those as & when (& if) I feel the need.

My advice FWIW... Don't sweat it, Don't over-think it. Lock in with the drummer & lay it down. The fumbling, uncoordination and flying fingers will settle down in time, & some days it seems as though nothing works - that's normal, when it happens knock off for the day & come back to it.

Dadofsix sums it up I reckon:

[QUOTE]Then I decided to sound like me and never looked back.[/Quote]

Pete.

[Paul S]

I played guitar from age 15 to around 22 then packed it in. Mainly due to my first wife being a controlling witch.

Fast forward 25 years, mid-life crisis hits, I bought a Peavey bass starter package. Played it every day for a fortnight. Then once a week for a month, then it sat in the corner gathering dust for a couple of years.

Then I thought 'do something in that potty or get off' and started to practice again whilst scouring ads for bassists working on the theory that learning on the fly within the context of a band was the best way forward. I already had a rudimentary grasp of playing a stringed instrument, just had to adapt it to bass. Joined a few jams, then a couple of bands, learning the while time. Had my first public gig at 50. Now in 3 bands, still learning.

Have to say it feels like that small piece of me that was missing during the 'wilderness years' of not playing has finally fallen back into place.

[DogHammer]

My friend started the drums when we were all about 13. My other friend played the guitar. Another friend played keyboard. I also had been playing keyboard for a few years but wasn't excited by it and wanted to play something more rock and roll, so bought myself a jazz bass copy from the local music shop.

Band was born. It was terrible. We played wild thing over and over again as well as some other uncreative noise.

Then I quit playing till about the age of 24. Never looked back. Wish I hadn't wasted all those years on drugs and alcohol and was playing bass instead!

[Adrenochrome]

I learned violin until into my mid-teens (hard work!) and taught myself to play guitar using a nylon string classical guitar as guitars weren't an option when I started. As a guitarist I got to the stage of jamming at parties etc but never joined a proper band. When I got handed a bass to try for the 1st time aged 25 I found it really easy but I was used to playing guitar with fingers and thumb, I knew where the notes were and as a big lump I found the bass fitted me very nicely. I've very rarely played guitar in public since but feel completely at home on the bass

[Geek99]

[quote name='Gomez68' timestamp='1418718717' post='2632531']
I'm 46 ! It's a hobby to keep me out of trouble ha! Frustrating but also therapeutic !
[/quote]
I had no other training and sucked at music in school. I don't get a lot of practice time due to small children but I read a lot and think my way through it as s substitute for real physical practice. It's slower but you can resolve issues by thinking them through. I've played an open mic night now

I have two lessons for you to consider :

It's important to remember that you will have good and bad days, and to be able to bounce back from the bad days

Practice is more important than flash gear

[Geek99]

[quote name='Thunderbird' timestamp='1418720763' post='2632561']
am still a newbie I am learning how to play for the second time (long story lol) and I am finding it harder this time but it is all about enjoying it but it is so hard to find any spare time to practice when you have a young family but just do what you can dont beat yourself up if you cannot play something put the bass down go have a brew and go back to it
[/quote]
This...