no bass tutorials??

[jim_branning]

awww, it's only got 4 strings, how can you need a tutorial?

[ibanezgav]

ouch ur sorely misled there not all basses have 4 strings im a 5 string bass player myself and six string basses are very popular again i use john myung from dream theatre as an example. i really believe that all bass players should learn how to play guitar and all guitarists should learn how to play bass as although they are musically different they do compliment each other when learned along side one another. i noticed someone said that that they werent sure how to do harmonics on the bass finger style well all u do is rest ur picking hand thumb on the string and pluck it with ur finger but just as u pluck it u lift ur thumb kinda off and over the string it takes a bit of practice but once u get it just right the pinch harmonic rings out loud n clear. if any of u guys try it let me know how u get on id post a vid of me doing it but i dont have a web cam or anything at the mo so that ones out maybe if any of u guys pull it off u can post a tutorial on here for the benefit of everyone else.

[jim_branning]

yes I know that as i'm a bass player, and 5 or 6 strings are basicaly just for people who cant play good bass parts so they need extra strings to compensate for the fact and they think it gives them more range/ability, it doesnt, it just means they have 2 more strings to play aweful crap on. You might as well say you can make better synth music or dancemusic with with 88 keys and not 76

the bass is a much misunderstood instrument imo outside of jazz. Great basslines should be playable with 4 strings, and great basslines make or break a track.

[jac79dj]

[quote=ibanezgav;113945] dream theatre as an example. i really believe that all bass players should learn how to play guitar and all guitarists should learn how to play bass as although they are musically different they do compliment each other when learned along side one another.

as a dj i encomass many different styles of music and instrumentation to create my own stuff but due to having a trapped nerve in my left arm disabling me to change chord fingering fast enough to play six strings effectively i decided to learn bass and for me now i would consider it my primary instrument and i have put alot of patients into it and practice and ive gotten to what i would consider a reasonable standard.
my point is that while there are benifits for sure in learning the two side by side surely you are only giving the learning experience 50%

ps another vote for bass lessons

[ibanezgav]

well said jim yeah i do believe that any great bass line should be playable on a 4 string bass but since my band is a metal band (who incidentally show influence from lots of styles) i really like my 5 string bass and yes i do use the low B string a fair bit but i use all of my strings but i think what im getting at here is that good bass is a good bass player regardless of whether he plays on 4 5 or six strings that is just a matter of preference but yeah i do get what ur saying in that a lot of bass players cant play a 4 string so they assume that they can play better or falsely that they have a bigger range and therefore will play better basslines this is not the case at all in my experience in my case i just prefer my five string esp for legatto runs, chord voicings (using two handed tapping) and for the funkier slappin n poppin but ill happily still pick up my 4 string precision and play around on that

jac yes i get what ur saying but i think for me that was the best way to learn i remember when i first started on my learning three years ago i was unemployed and had finished uni so i had bags of free time and i remember i would sit n play for like 9 n ten hours at a time every day between the two instruments so i found that it helped me a lot cos without the bass i would just play a Gminor 7 chord on the guitar and that would be it but the bass forced me to learn right a Gminor 7 chord is compsed of a G Bflat D and Eflat ill arppegiate those in different inversions and see what i come up with etc etc and that in turn leads back to knowing what im doing with arppeggios on the guitar if u get me but hey we all learn and think in different ways and have to figure out the best way for ourselves your way of learning bass is best for u (and i dare say lots of others) while mine was the best way for me (and also hopefully lots of others) so respect to u dude

[SaucyMentality]

Bass tutorials please!

[chrispy108]

I'm primarily a bassist, and would definatly appreciate some bass lessons.

[ibanezgav]

oops i woke up this morning and realised id made a huge mistake i said in my last post that Gminor7 consisted of G Bflat D and Eflat like a dum dum (in my defence tho ive got a 4 week old boy who had me and my fiance awake most of the night before so i was very tired ok lol) anyway to correct myself a Gminor7 chord is composed of G Bflat D and F there i think i got my correction in before u all laughed at me too much...did i? .... please tell my i got it in on time lol

[jim_branning]

lol ibanezgav - they dont have a 'winding you up' avatar sadly, heh heh

thing is, seriously for a moment... what is a 'bass lesson'?

usualy it's very rooted in musical theory, because there's this whole 'coming from jazz' thing where the emphasis is on a full understanding of harmonicaly related patterns, and roots & progressions and all the rest of it

but it is that a 'bass lesson' or a music theory lesson? my issue is, that it becomes like music college GIT/BIT etc.... and those players stand out a mile because they have absolutely nothing original about their playing whatsoever.

You can tell the GIT/BIT players within 30 seconds of them plugging in at an audition, and when you say to them "Did you go to GIT/BIT?" they always say "Does it show that much?"

well, yes it does sadly, cos you just sound like everyone else. But as a true bassist, what might make the track really come alive is NOT playing at all for the first half of a verse and then thundering in a power chord riff for the second 8 beats.

'Tutored' players often dont think like that cos they've been conditioned to a certain way of playing which is about notes/scales/theory/technique.

so I always ask the question - what really is a bass lesson? (in the spirit of possibly generating an interesting discussion)

[fretmeister]

Originally Posted by Fretwired

They could prove to be popular as there's no dedicated mag you can buy.

Other than The Bass Guitar Magazine then?

It is a good mag but - it is effectively subs only because no-one stocks it, and it is bi-monthly.


I've been playing bass for 21 years now and there are some things I'm good at, and some things I still suck at.

So I'm all in favour of lessons.

I;d like to see something on solo bass pieces a la Steve Lawson / Michael Manring etc