Any bass players here?

[TOK]

Extreme newbie looking for guidance. 

My daughter is very young, but fascinated with keyboards. I'm thinking about getting her lessons in about a year. In the meantime, I thought I'd try to start something and bass is most appealing to me. If I could lay down a bass line while she's smashing the keys, it'd be fun for both of us. Haven't really thought about lessons yet because I'm a rank amateur. I've been watching the Dave Marks lessons on Youtube, since they go nice and slow and show bass lines for specific songs.

Just wondering if anyone could recommend some books/videos (web or DVD) that I could watch. I'll consider lessons after I the very basics down. All I'm concentrating on now is not starting off with bad habits like a bent wrist.

I can play Stargate, I should have the coordination for this, right? 

[ChadTower]

Get some superglue.  You'll need it.

[mpm32]

I play a little;

[Lutus]

I moonlight as a studio musician.  Been playing around 12 years or so.  I play 5 or 6 instruments.

I would suggest looking into learning how to play the "nashville number system".  That way you wouldn't have to learn how to read the notes in music, and when the song had a key change all you would have to do is play the same exact patterns but the starting "root" note would be in a different key.

Very simple.  That way it is all about the fun and not about struggling to learn to read music.

Simple little overview.... http://www.charlierichjr.com/music_articles/numbers/

[TOK]

Thanks Lutus. When I went to the page, I remembered this thing being on an infomercial years ago. You know what sucks? I actually learned to read music in middle school. At the time I didn't really care and have pretty much forgotten all of it.

I'm reading up based on your suggestion now, thanks.

[Lutus]

If you have any questions I can take pictures of some of my studio charts and go through them and explain them to you if you want.  (probably no time today) but that's only if you want it.

 

No need to buy anything, I should be able to tell you what you need to get started.

[Lutus]

Alright TOK.

Pick any song.  If you want to stay pretty simple, pick a country song.  (even if you don't like country, it is the easiest to explain it on.)

I will then chart out the song using the Nashville number system, post the chart and also post a picture of the neck of the bass guitar and point out the pattern used to play this song.  That is the easiest way to teach the number system.  Pick a song that is not real "heavy" so you can hear the acoustic or the piano and the bass clearly.

I am playing two songs tomorrow evening and saturday at a wedding on the acoustic using this system.

Let me know what you pick TOK.


EDIT:  You can post it here, no one will make fun of you for it!!

[TOK]

You can actually choose a song which you feel works well if you don't mind. I don't care about the genre at this point, I just want to get some fundamentals down. I don't really like U2 at all, but since With Or Without You might be the easiest bass riff of all time I'm playing it.

Smells Like Teen Spirit would be cool because its not real complicated but has 3 different parts.

Anything though... It could be Barry Manilow at this point, I'm the rankest of amateurs and all I'm doing is playing around and learning technique. 

[javeryh]

You mean like the fish?   

I play guitar a little and can play bass on a very rudimentary level kind of by default...

[Shape D.]

If you're completely new to it I'd recommend this book

http://www.musicroom.com/se/ID_No/010650/details.html

It's really basic and is good for getting somebody started. I'd also recommend taking a lesson or two just to make sure you're using proper technique.

I started out teaching myself, it went really slow, and eventually took a few lessons from a friend of mine. After showing me the best way to position my hands, it was a lot easier to learn on my own. Also the longer you play with bad technique the harder it is to correct it.

(if you take lessons make sure you take them from a bass player and not a guitar player who also teaches bass though.)

[Lutus]

I totally disregarded this topic.  My bad.

I will pick a song tomorrow, and chart the puppy out for you guys, and kind of give a run down or the number system.

[TOK]

Shape, thats for the heads up on the book. It looks good. I was on the basstalk.com forums and one of the posts recommended the Bass For Dummies book. Terrible title, but supposedly good content.

I'm picking this up at a bad time, as I'm kind of busy to be making time for lessons. 

[Lutus]

Alright, I rounded up some of my studio charts and session .mp3's.

I will post an easy one and a more difficult one this afternoon sometime.  Got to find that camera..... 

[Spaz Monkey]

Watch any 70's porno to get a song with a good bass line.  Explain to your wife that you're only not looking at the actors, but listing to the music.   

[TOK]

Watch any 70's porno to get a song with a good bass line.  Explain to your wife that you're only not looking at the actors, but listing to the music.   

The Moon Patrol music is definitely on the list of things I want to learn, and it always reminded me of old porn music.