Is Playing Bass By Shapes Cheating?

[greghagger]

Recently, I had a call with a bass student who wanted to know if they should move on from 'playing by shapes', as they felt like a bit of a fraud and didn't feel like a real bass player. 

 

This was an interesting question that lead me to think deeply about the mental process of playing bass. 

 

There are many parts to becoming a good musician and I certainly use shapes to help me to remember series of notes or particular scales and arpeggios. But this is only part of the puzzle.

 

So, I decided to make a YouTube lesson on this topic, where I discuss my process for learning and remembering bass lines, and also outline other methods for improving on the bass guitar.

 

You can check out this video by clicking the link below. There’s a link to a free bass cheatsheet under the video.