Hello there.

[Carlcoops]

Hi all, my name is Carl and I'm a month into owning and learning how to play bass. I've never played any instrument before and took the plunge. I bought an epiphone toby deluxe iv (mustard coloured) along with a fender rumble 40 amp for a bargain £200 off gumtree both like new with leads and a boss tuner and gig bag. 

My main influences are the grunge and punk genres although I am partial to a bit of led zep or slipknot too. 

I started following a couple of YouTube videos but have since downloaded the songsterr app for my phone instead. Since then I learnt (to an extent) White Stripes '7 Nation Army' in a day and today had a go at Smashing Pumpkins 'tonight tonight' following the Bass tabs. 

I'm a little worried over picking up bad habits and also the fact that this is not teaching me notes, scales and other things. Am I better off learning scales and arpeggios and the theory side of it first or carry on with a 50songs to bass kind of way of learning. 

Any advice is much appreciated. 

Thanks in advance. 

[josie]

Welcome!

You'll find opinion is divided on learning scales & theory. Imho (and both my excellent teachers) it's essential - it's the only way you'll really understand what you're playing, *why* those are the notes that sound right, and how to improvise beyond the root notes. It will give you confidence in what you're playing and in going further. 

But, learning styles differ. It's like learning a second language - some peeps want to understand the grammar and others can just listen to the noises and make the right noises. I'm a grammar nerd 🙂 

I'm sure others will say the opposite. Just figure out what works for you. And  get a good human teacher if you can. All the YouTube videos in the world can't watch you playing, tell you if your left hand is at the best angle or your right hand isn't close enough to the strings to damp them.  Or give you the motivation to practice because you'll have to look him/her in the eye next week. 

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes! 

[bigsmokebass]

Wow, a month into playing and already onto the BassChat forum. It's taken some people here years to do so. So, welcome to the forum! 

 

Well done in all you've done so far and don't be too worried over bad habits, everyone has their own way of playing. There's many different techniques and stages. I'd recommend, if you can't afford a tutor, is to get yourself a tutorial book for beginners, ideally once with a CD/DVD (if not digital download now) and see how you get along with what they teach you. 

Main part.... Just enjoy it. 😁👍🏻

[Jimothey]

Welcome Carlcoops

I agree with @josie they are both important, except I lean more towards learning songs but start with scales as a bit of a warm up

If your into grunge and punk then Green day songs are a great place to start some are quite simple but enjoyable to play I started with Holiday and Boulevard of Broken Dreams then worked up to Longview 

Good luck!! 😁 

[Frank Blank]

Welcome. It took me forty years to get round to learning any scales and it’s beginning to pay off, both in note selections when writing and also in improving my dexterity. This forum has been an incredible resource for me, it’s an extremely reasonable community too, which I think stems from most members realising the forum’s worth. We have the odd spat occasionally, who doesn’t? But don’t ever be put off, it’s invariably solved reasonably and we all get on with contributing to and learning from a great site, enjoy!