Jumping back to a 4 to "learn".

[Baloney Balderdash]

22 hours ago, tauzero said:

It's quite easy to slip into concentrating on playing what the tab says, and not manging to get it to match the music .I finish up like that sometimes, and I've found that what is needed is to listen to the bassline as a melody and hear the tune, and become familiar with it. When you know what you're trying to get to as a musical piece rather than a series of numbers on a page, it's easier to get there. I probably haven't expressed this very well, I know what I'm trying to say but I don't know whether I've conveyed it well.

A good point, and I think formulated excellently as well. 

 

Listening definitely is the key, not only with learning to play stuff, but in all aspects of playing, whether that be learning new tunes, writing new songs or parts, improvising, or playing stuff you actually already know.

 

If you don't know how it sounds you are kind of shooting in the dark and will definitely not perform optimally.

 

It seems obvious when you say it but listening really is what music is all about.

 

I'd go as far as to say if you just listen learning theory will be secondary (which in my opinion is really where it belongs hierarchically anyway), if you just notice what it sounds like when you strike a certain fretted note eventually you will learn it and know instinctively where to go to on the fretboard.

 

You should hear what you are playing inside your head as you play it.

 

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[lozkerr]

@Acebassmusic nailed most of what I was going to say. Yes, scales, arpeggios, modes and theory can be seriously boring, but a grasp of them all is pretty much essential if you're going to progress. Switching to a four-string will pull you out of your comfort zone and make progressing that much harder. Don't beat yourself up.

 

The only thing I would add is learn to read music. I don't mean having to become one of those nauseatingly talented people who can glance at a page covered with so many dots that it looks like a spilled ants' nest and instantly give a virtuoso performance. It takes years, sometimes decades, to be able to do that.

 

What it does mean is seeing notes on a page and being able to translate them into your most comfortable fretboard position instead of blindly following fret numbers. Almost every tab on tinterwebz will be written for a four-string, with detuning instructions being added as needed. The only person I've come across who has done five-string tabs is Becky Baldwin, and even then she only does them for songs she plays. You don't need to detune or fit a Hipshot to a four-string bass - on your five, you have Eb/D# right there on the fourth fret of your B string and low D one fret below. Why make things complicated and mess up your fretboard patterns when you already have the notes to hand?

 

A simple example is CCR's Up Around The Bend. The verse is a four-bar phrase, repeated once. The last two bars need a bit of jumping about to hit all the notes on a four-string, and the tab will show that, but on a five you just need to drop down to the B string to find all the notes you need without changing position. A four-string tab won't tell you that, but knowledge of the dots and where they are on the fretboard definitely will.

[itu]

One box that can be considered as an effect is a looper. While training, you can use a looper to check how your playing really sounds against your belief while playing. It is really helpful tool to train for example legato playing: are there long, tied notes, or does it still sound like staccato playing?

 

You don't have to buy a studio to hear yourself play. Try one, you may love it... or hate it after hearing the outcome.

[ARGH]

Watch a few of the Jeff Berlin Short vids on Youtube. He is blunt.

 

Take lessons, don't bother with flash technique, and learn MUSIC, if you actually want to improve, reading, taking musical lessons, and listening, will improve your playing END OF.

 

String numbers do not matter, Tab only teaches how to play a piece in the position it's written in, and that is often an incorrect transcription anyhow...

[Geek99]

On 18/07/2023 at 22:25, Leonard Smalls said:

Get a 4!

If it's good enough for Jaco...

Etc etc

😁

 

 

Yes, and it must be made of the right wood… 

[chris_b]

You learn piano on a regular sized instrument. All 88 notes.

 

You learn to play drums on a full kit. You don't start with the bass drum then add the others at a later date.

 

You need to lean on a 4 string bass? Nonsense!

[tauzero]

7 hours ago, ARGH said:

String numbers do not matter, Tab only teaches how to play a piece in the position it's written in, and that is often an incorrect transcription anyhow...

 

I can't read music. I use tab to tell me what notes to play but not where to play them, and subsequently correct any errors by playing along.

[KingPrawn]

On 18/07/2023 at 20:52, karlbbb said:

As I reflect on nearly 20 years of bass playing, I realise that almost all of it has been spent on 5-strings of various quality and pickup layouts etc. I've played in bands in the past but I'm mostly a bedroom player now. But here's the thing... I'm ****. Like, really, still quite a bit ****.

 

I've never bothered to "learn" bass properly, instead hunting for tabs and then being insanely critical of myself that I can't figure out or play every note exactly how it is in the recording. I still can barely slap a single note. Most of my first few years were spent in the 2000s pop-punk era of 8th or 16th root note plodding style basslines. I don't know my way around the fretboard. I can't move around in a song. I'm currently listening to "Inside Out" by Imelda May, and what must be the simplest of walking basslines would take me a couple of days to get all the notes down through sheer, brute force trial and error.

 

The conventional wisdom is that one should learn on a 4. Is this really the case? I have those 4 strings on my 5 string, there's just another one there to add into learning modes and other shapes. Should I be picking up a nice cheap Harley Benton jazz clone and start learning properly?

I love your honesty.  You may be overthinking this. If you are happy where you are, that's enough. If you're not, then the number of strings won't change your ability to learn. Spend your time learning the songs you like regardless of the timeline. When you've nailed it you've nailed it. When I watch the really accomplished players talking about keeping things simple. I often think it's easy for them to say that as they are so accomplished. They have been there and done it. They have the 10,000 hours under their fingers.

 

Ive always felt like an imposter in every band I've been in. Always felt like the weak link. Its all about confidence

[alyctes]

I have met at least two players who started with fives and one of them had never played a four-string.