Is There A "Correct" Way To Play

[discreet]

8 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Too many people get hung up on honing technique rather than making good music

This, too. They also get hung up about 'tone', amps, basses, strings and what other people think. Before I joined BassChat I was perfectly happy for nearly 35 years with one bass and one amp. I didn't even think about 'technique' and certainly not 'lessons'. I did what I did and enjoyed it immensely. Now I've been through a period of extreme GAS, extreme expenditure and extreme wasting of time, as my post count will verify. So I'm going back to basics and concentrating on the music. New band, new outlook.

'So what are you doing on here talking about it, you idiot?' I hear you ask. Good point. Gotta go, BYEE!!

Edited April 16, 2018 by discreet

[chris_b]

12 minutes ago, discreet said:

This. It's also about confidence, sense of rhythm, timing and that indefinable element we call 'groove'. Either you can play the bass, or you can't. How you actually play it is entirely up to you. If you're not confident, then get some lessons. That is all.

And what are lessons going to do?

Maybe, correct the mistakes and short comings in your technique?

[discreet]

7 minutes ago, chris_b said:

And what are lessons going to do? Maybe, correct the mistakes and short comings in your technique?

Yes, and increase your confidence. If you're not feeling confident about your technique, that is.

[Coilte]

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

 Too many people get hung up on honing technique rather than making good music

I think we need to differentiate between "safe" technique and that of simply finding a new and different way to sound notes. The former can be learned fairly quickly if a person learns it as a beginner, because he/she knows no better. It can be a lot harder to unlearn an unsafe technique.  General playing technique is an ongoing "journey" of discovery that some like to take. Nothing wrong with that. After all, it is our technique that gives us our signature sound.  The trick is to try and be sure it is not going to cause injuries over time. 

 

[Bilbo]

I find this a challenging thread because I agree, in principle,  that the answer is no but my experience tells me that the best players I have ever worked with tend to be those with massively deep training on their instruments. We all can reference the occasional savant but, in terms of advocating an approach,  I would always recommend the tried and tested route.

 

[Happy Jack]

For someone like me, the best time to start studying music properly and learning to play bass properly is roughly 50 years ago.

I'm well aware that the next line is supposed to go: and the next best time is now.

But actually I'm not convinced.

With any luck, I'll have another 15 years of active playing ahead of me. I really don't fancy devoting maybe the first (and best) five of those to playing scales and arpeggios, and studying modes.

That would almost certainly improve my playing (I'm setting the bar low here) by making it possible for me to do all sorts of things which I cannot now do and ... erm ... can't honestly say that I miss much.

Techniques like slapping, tapping and sweeping are of less than zero interest to me. Playing bass solos strikes me as one of the least attractive aspects of rock music. Pinch harmonics? In 1970s pop music? I don't think so.

How many great rock songs are in the Phrygian mode? Somebody start a list would you.

I'm not sneering at musical knowledge or study. I'm simply pointing out that there are far too many people out there - and here on Basschat - who declaim as a matter of proven fact that it is always better to study music.

Bollocks.

Horses for courses, and moderation in all things.

 

Edited April 16, 2018 by Happy Jack

[discreet]

12 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Bollocks.

[Barking Spiders]

18 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

For someone like me, the best time to start studying music properly and learning to play bass properly is roughly 50 years ago.

I'm well aware that the next line is supposed to go: and the next best time is now.

But actually I'm not convinced.

With any luck, I'll have another 15 years of active playing ahead of me. I really don't fancy devoting maybe the first (and best) five of those to playing scales and arpeggios, and studying modes.

That would almost certainly improve my playing (I'm setting the bar low here) by making it possible for me to do all sorts of things which I cannot now do and ... erm ... can't honestly say that I miss much.

Techniques like slapping, tapping and sweeping are of less than zero interest to me. Playing bass solos strikes me as one of the least attractive aspects of rock music. Pinch harmonics? In 1990s pop music? I don't think so.

How many great rock songs are in the Phrygian mode? Somebody start a list would you.

I'm not sneering at musical knowledge or study. I'm simply pointing out that there are far too many people out there - and here on Basschat - who declaim as a matter of proven fact that it is always better to study music.

Bollocks.

Horses for courses, and moderation in all things.

 

I'm pretty much with you all the way there , except for the slapping bit.  Sweep picking and tapping? god forbid. Those should've been left back in the  80s when shred guitar (thankfully) died.

[oldbass]

Not really. Bass guitar is such an easy instrument to play it doesn't really matter what you do.  But try twanging a violin/cello with wrong technique and you ll soon come unstuck. 

Having said that the one thing that has improved my playing, tone and general happiness by a gazillion miles is learning to play with a floating thumb. Huge improvement.

[discreet]

43 minutes ago, oldbass said:

...Bass guitar is such an easy instrument to play...

Really? Then you'd think there'd be fewer crappy bass players about.  Personally I find guitar easier but thats just me, I suppose.

Edited April 16, 2018 by discreet

[Twigman]

16 hours ago, lurksalot said:

Errrrr , no ...until the next dude finds you used a cheapo AF set and rounded  the heads on every bolt on the motor , thus rendering further improvement a total PITA 

 

Or that when polishing the ports in the cylinder head you broke through from one port to the next and resorted to rebuilding the wall with araldite.....(this is based on a true story...ahem)

[Twigman]

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

 

How many great rock songs are in the Phrygian mode? Somebody start a list would you.

 

 

I do know of one huge EDM hit that was : Barber's Adagio for strings

[peteb]

5 hours ago, Bilbo said:

I find this a challenging thread because I agree, in principle,  that the answer is no but my experience tells me that the best players I have ever worked with tend to be those with massively deep training on their instruments. We all can reference the occasional savant but, in terms of advocating an approach,  I would always recommend the tried and tested route.

 

I would say that is not necessarily the case with the best players I have come across (in a very different genre), but the main things they have in common is decent technique as well as a very good ear. 

I don't think that you need to be a technical monster to be a good musician, but surely it helps if you have a serviceable technique and a basic working knowledge of musical theory. 

[Twigman]

28 minutes ago, peteb said:

 surely it helps if you have a serviceable technique and a basic working knowledge of musical theory. 

Often the best music comes from breaking the 'rules' - i suspect a knowledge of the rules might prevent one from being as creative as one might be if one didn't know the rules?

[Dad3353]

4 minutes ago, Twigman said:

...if one didn't know the rules?

Yes, that's how I play football. 

...

I don't often get picked to join a team, though. 

[Happy Jack]

7 minutes ago, Twigman said:

Often the best music comes from breaking the 'rules' - i suspect a knowledge of the rules might prevent one from being as creative as one might be if one didn't know the rules?

Which is why Lennon and McCartney chose - consciously - not to study music during the 60s.

[EssentialTension]

22 hours ago, LeftyP said:

I have tried the one finger per fret but even on my short scale bass I struggle at the lower end of the neck. 

 

I don't use OFPF (except maybe if i get up around fret 7 and beyond); for lower frets I use Simandl. Is this not correct?

 

22 hours ago, LeftyP said:

 I do use two alternate fingers to pluck the strings.

 

I don't. I use one finger whenever I can; I only use two fingers if I really have to. Is this not correct?

 

 

 

 

[Twigman]

Just now, EssentialTension said:

 for lower frets I use Simandl

 

 

 

 

???

 

Isn't English the accepted language on this board?

[EssentialTension]

1 minute ago, Twigman said:

???

 

Isn't English the accepted language on this board?

Have you not heard of him?

[FinnDave]

21 minutes ago, Twigman said:

Often the best music comes from breaking the 'rules' - i suspect a knowledge of the rules might prevent one from being as creative as one might be if one didn't know the rules?

A nodding acquaintance with a few rules can help you get back when the creative urges depart mid song and you're suddenly lost.

[Twigman]

1 minute ago, EssentialTension said:

Have you not heard of him?

Should i have?

[Dad3353]

From the Wiki on the bloke...

Franz Simandl (August 1, 1840 – December 15, 1912) was a double-bassist and pedagogue most remembered for his book New Method for the Double Bass, known as the Simandl book, which is to this day used as a standard study of double bass technique and hand positions.[1]

His approach uses the first, second, and fourth fingers of the left hand (the third and fourth operating together as one digit) for stopping the strings in the lower register of the instrument and divides the fingerboard into various positions.

...

[peteb]

3 hours ago, Twigman said:

Often the best music comes from breaking the 'rules' - i suspect a knowledge of the rules might prevent one from being as creative as one might be if one didn't know the rules?

I would suspect that's nonsense and if you want to break the rules it helps to have at least a vague understanding of the rules that you want to break!

[Twigman]

2 minutes ago, peteb said:

I would suspect that's nonsense and if you want to break the rules it helps to have at least a vague understanding of the rules that you want to break!

I've never had a music lesson in my life. I don't know any 'rules'. Hasn't stopped me making 9 albums.

[bazzbass]

9 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

From the Wiki on the bloke...

Franz Simandl (August 1, 1840 – December 15, 1912) was a double-bassist and pedagogue most remembered for his book New Method for the Double Bass, known as the Simandl book, which is to this day used as a standard study of double bass technique and hand positions.[1]

His approach uses the first, second, and fourth fingers of the left hand (the third and fourth operating together as one digit) for stopping the strings in the lower register of the instrument and divides the fingerboard into various positions.

...

thanks for sharing, I never bothered to look it up. As it happens the 1 2 4 technique is what came naturally all those decades ago when I started this journey

I use 1 2 3 4  if needed, usually for fast chromatic lines