Teaching and early experiences

[Witters]

Ok you wonderful people, could I trouble you for your thoughts, please?

As you may know  I am a guitarist, primarily, but I enjoy bass enormously and am hungry to learn.  I’ve been teaching many years and playing for longer, consequently I have a fairly extensive knowledge of repertoire across a good few styles.  I can also remember most of the struggles I had when learning which helps both myself and the students, hopefully, when they face similar problems.

However, I don’t have this experience as a bassist even though I can happily play my way through most of the grade syllabus (apart from the slap pieces which I’m working on) and some arrangements of classical pieces.  All good fun but not much use to an eleven year old struggling with basic technique!

Can you remember your early bass experiences?  What issues did you face and how did you resolve them? Are there any good books available?

There are a few “must have” guitar books, but only a few....Ralph Denyer’s Guitar Handbook; Solo Classical Guitar volumes 1 and 2 by Frederick Noad; The Acoustic Guitar Bible by Eric Roche; Creative Guitar by Guthrie Govan. They cover technique from zero upwards.  They also cover theory, scales, chord construction and pretty much everything you need for each style of guitar, and they are well written.

I’m looking for advice and thoughts on early experiences, however, all thoughts etc are always welcome.

Many thanks for your time.

It’s Friday and Rich is kindly loaning me a fretless!  What better way to end the week? 😁🍺

 

[Rich]

What better way? Beer AND fretless

[dmccombe7]

I took lessons for 12-18mths if i remember right. The hardest part for me was first finger first fret 2nd finger 2nd fret thing. I was only 16 and just found the stretch difficult at top of the neck. 

Time-keeping was something i worked at to make sure i could hold the beat even if drummer was not great and at that tender age most musicians i knew were more or less beginners like me.

Then taking basic songs (my first was Little Old Wine Drinker Me) and adapting what i learned to try and play Deep Purple songs 

Dave

Edited October 20, 2018 by dmccombe7

[TheGreek]

I have known a few starters who struggled because of their thumb position - some were mediocre guitarists who used the "thumb over the neck" technique..never going to be a good thing. Others used the thumb perpendicular (right angle) to the neck...a lot of us played that way. I think it was Scott Devine who recommended the finger running up the neck technique like violinists/cellists technique - this was a Eureka moment for me - moving around the neck became so much easier.

Everybody else count in 4/4 time when they walk? 

Using 1 finger per fret is NOT compulsory.

A looper pedal and drum machine are great additions to your rehearsal tools. Almost like playing with a band.

[BreadBin]

Some great advice given already -  @TheGreek has already said about 1 finger 1 fret, in my experience players who use that technique are actually in the minority. 

[dmccombe7]

33 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

Some great advice given already -  @TheGreek has already said about 1 finger 1 fret, in my experience players who use that technique are actually in the minority. 

The guy that was giving me lessons was a guitarist right enough so probably a lot easier on a guitar. I could never manage it properly altho i still try every now and again just for fun. 

[NickD]

15 hours ago, Rich said:

What better way? Beer AND fretless

Worst. Combination. Ever! 🤣

[PawelG]

I just sit there and play until it sounds good. Then play some more. 

[Rich]

I was entirely self taught. As a consequence, 36 years down the line I still have all my self-taught faults. (And yes, my thumb positioning sucks. I'm a baseball bat player, and I have to work to stop myself doing it.) I should have spent more time learning scales and modes and less time learning to slap. Slap was more fun though