Okay I am a bass player that is just starting out. I know like fifteen songs. Mostly Green day, All American Rejects, and some jazz and older rock. Do any of you have any suggestions for songs I need to learn? Any advice or playing, practicing, basses, amps? I do not know anyone who plays and I am self taught so I am just trying to get some help. Anything will be appreciated and I thank you ahead of time.
Have you checked out ActiveBass yet?
In a nutshell, learn as many songs as you possibly can. Every time you learn a new one, you also learn a little more about song structure, and it also increase your vocabulary.
If you have the ability to take lessons, and can find a good teacher in your area, you will progress faster. Being self-taught isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there are some great self-taught musicians out there. A teacher can get you reading though and learning about music theory. They can also help with technique, so that you aren’t falling into bad habits.
It is in your best interest to learn how to read because it opens a massive amount of musical compositions, ideas, and exercises.
Question: How many song do you know how to play if you are proficient reader?
Answer: All of them. 
I don’t know anything about playing the bass, but I do know some bass-player jokes:
Q: What do you call a bass-player who breaks up with his girlfriend?
A: Homeless.
A garage band is playing a gig. They take a break, and a gentleman comes to talk to them. He says he’s from a record label, and wants to sign them for a contract as soon as possible. The band is overjoyed; they go back to do their next set, but can’t help thinking about what they’re going to do when the money starts rolling in…
The guitar player is happily playing along, all the while thinking: “New car…new car…new car…”
The keyboard player is pounding away, and thinking: “Bigger apartment…bigger apartment…bigger apartment…”
The drummer is grooving to the beat, but thinking: “Hot chicks…hot chicks…hot chicks…”
The bass player is thinking: “A…A…A…A…D…D…D…D…E…E…E…E…”
Guitar player here. I play bass - badly.
I’ll second everything Club 33 says. Having a (good) teacher will speed up your learning a lot. Even if you don’t take lessons try to pick up some music theory and learn to read the dots, it may not seem cool in the short term but it’s incredibly useful.
Learn some basic chords and scales on a keyboard, it’s much easier to see how key signatures and chord sequences work on a keyboard than on a bass (or guitar).
I know your just starting but 15 songs is nothing. If you can’t figure something you want to play by ear get hold of the music (there’s loads of tab on the net, some of it good), but keep learning new stuff, you won’t learn much by playing the same stuff over and over (says the guy who has muscle memory of the practically whole Zeppelin catalog).
Play along with the TV. Videos, Ad’s, theme tunes. Even if all you get is the key it’s good ear training.
I’ll leave the gear advice to real bass players, but you need to say what type of music you want to play.
Good luck.
That’s funny.
Oh, and to be helpful, ditto what everybody else said about a teacher. I’ve been playing bass for almost 10 years (wow) and I didn’t realize I sucked until I joined the most recent band. The guitar player is a recovering bass player who started when he was five and actually went to school for music. I’ve improved 500% in the past 6 months listening and trying things he’s shown me compared to what I was doing for the past 10 years.
In most things in life, you don’t get better until you get with someone who is.
Learn the classics that ‘everyone’ knows, like Free Bird, Paranoid, Iron Man, Smoke on the Water, etc. All simple, but if you’re getting together with a new group you’re almost garaunteed they’ll know these songs. At least, in my experience…
For personal gratification, check out the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Yes for songs that should challenge you a little.
As far as gear goes, practical concerns come first!! You can have a $1500 Spector bass and god-only-knows-these-days Mesa Boogie amp, but you can’t do anything with those that you can’t do with $200 Yamaha and $200 Hartke.
If you’re buying new stuff, get a bass that’s comfortable to hold and play. Get an amp that suits what you’re doing - if you’re going to be carrying it around, make sure it’s light or has wheels. If you’re going to be leaving it in place, well, I guess those aren’t important.
They make a ton of effects rigs for bass these days. You don’t need them. Effects are most often used to cover up poor playing. Get good first. Get effects after that.
Go to it, and good luck.
The Usenet bass group compiled a list (links at the top) of what they considered essential bass lines which you might find helpful.
Beyond that, I think all rock musicians should be familiar with the Beatles stuff. It’s virtually the canon of rock n roll.
grisham,
Stick with it. It takes patience and time to become a good player. I have been playing for about 15 years now, and I still have to practice to make myself better.
I don’t think anyone mentioned the most important advice: Find some guys to jam with!!! You will learn a ton by making a bunch of mistakes. Playing with other people also forces you to to play cleanly.
Work on the following all the time: Timing (get a metronome), Scales, Training your ear, and muting the appropriate strings when needed.
It may not be great fun, but playing the scales back and forth 50 times a day is great practice. If you have a metronome, then you can try playing the scales at different speeds.
Learn how to play with at least two fingers on your picking hand. It is harder when your first start off, but will pay huge dividends later on when you want to play really fast runs and so on. I can play with 3, and I am working hard on 4 right now.
Listen to lots of different styles of playing, and check out the great ones like Mike Watt, Les Claypool, Victor Wooten, Charles Mingus, and so on.
Have fun man, and let us know how everything goes.
The almost true bass player joke:
As a birthday gift, a father decided to get his son a bass guitar and some lessons.
After the first lesson, the boy’s father asked him how his lesson went. “It went great, Dad. I learned to play on the first 5 frets on the top string!” The father praised his son’s efforts.
The next week, his father asked about the second lesson. “It was cool, Dad. Today, I learned to play the first 5 frets on the second string!” His father once again applauded his son.
The following week, his father again asked about the lesson. “I’m sorry Dad, I had to blow it off… I had a gig!”
The Police had some great basslines. I’m a big Police fan and pretty much learned to play bass by learning those songs. It’s easy to hear the basslines, and most of the classics are pretty simple. Plus, the reggae influence will help you with your rythmn and tempo, which are Job 1 for the bass player. Say what you will about Sting these days, but he was and is a really good bass player.
Some good ones to learn:
“Walking on the Moon”
“Bed’s Too Big Without You”
“Driven to Tears”
“When the World is Running Down…”
“Canary in a Coal Mine”
“Demolition Man”
“Rehumanize Yourself”
“Too Much Information”
“Voices Inside My Head”
I guess it sounds like I should track down a teacher. My problem with that is though that previous searches have yielded nothing. Seems people only play guitar up here.
I learned to play bass before I learned to play guitar. Even though I knew how to read music playing trumpet before that, with guitar and bass I learned to play almost strictly by ear. I did try lessons once, but the clown they had teaching at the local music store was a wanker. Everything I learned was from listening to, and trying to play the stuff I liked to hear. An important concept of ear-training, IMO, is recognizing the intervals between the notes you’re trying to play and remembering them when you try to play anything else. A lot of the good licks have much in common.
Pop songs are pretty easy to play along with, especially the bass lines.
If you love it, play it.
The Police is a blast to play bass to. “It’s alright for you” and “Bring on the night” off of Regatta de blanc are a couple of favorites.
I’m don’t ask’s joke in the flesh. I learned to play bass under fire. I bought a bass and got some basic techniques down. After many years playing drums seriously and a few years farting around on guitar it didn’t take long. I then hooked up with a guy and we jammed a little bit, then he got this gig playing in a country band at Cheyenne Frontier Days and they needed a bass player. Oh, and the gig was in 2 weeks. After being read the riot act (learn this stuff or we’re all screwed) I buckled down and learned a few dozen country/Elvis/rockabilly tunes (old school stuff, it was all pretty similar) over the next couple of days and voila, I was a bass player in a country band. We got paid $3500 in $5 bills for a week’s work. My first and last exposure to the carny scene. After a while I sold the bass and went back to just playing drums.
Anyway, my enjoyment of bass playing has not waned and what I do now is just plug a CD player or computer and bass into a little mixer and play along to whatever I feel like at the time. I burned a CD of songs I like to play bass to:
The Wild Wild Sea by Sting
Stranger in Moscow by Michael Jackson (easiest bass line in the world, but very powerful)
Non-fiction Burning by PM Dawn, Airto and Flora Purim off the Red Hot & Rio CD
Little Light of Love off of the Fith Element soundtrack (it’s the song they play at the end of the movie)
A couple songs off of Parliament’s Mothership Connection
A couple songs off of Lonnie Liston Smith’s Cosmic Funk
A couple songs off of Jean Luc Ponty’s Tchokola
A couple songs off of Salif Keita’s Folon
A real mixed bag but lots of fun and I can hardly play half of it.
I have a G&L P-bass and a Fernandes Jazz bass that cost like $300 but the neck is to die for. As long as it stays true (no truss rod), that is.
It’s good to have either a CD player that you can loop passages with (I have an old Denon that for some reason has a looping function) or have software on your computer that you can do loops with.
Like others have said, playing with a band will whip you into shape real fast. The tighter you are with the drummer, the better. You can’t dilly-dally like the guitarists and singers. You are the rock!
I think everyone in this thread is wondering the same thing…
Q. What is the definition of a bass player?
A. Half-way between a drummer and a musician
How many bass players does it take to change a lightbulb?
- None. They let the keyboard player do it with his left hand.
- Don’t bother. Just leave it out–no one will notice.
- One, but the guitarist has to show him first.
- Six: one to change it, and the other five to fight off the lead
guitarists who are hogging the light.
How do you make a bass player turn down the volume?
Put a chart in front of him.
What does it mean when a bass player is drooling out both sides of his mouth?
The stage is level.
Did you hear about the electric bass player who was so bad that even the
lead singer noticed?
Q: Did you hear about the bass player who locked his keys in the van?
A: Took him 3 hours to get the drummer out.
All the jokes aside, the thing you need to understand about bass is that it is an amazingly versitle instrument. You can play low-end or high-end, slap, pop, chords (if you have the hand strength) tap, and even harmonics. Don’t limit yourself to just one kind of song group; learn everything you can. I sucked at bass when I started playing just…well, just the bass-line. When I started learning slapping, I really took off (I’ve been playing for seven years now).
Aside from playing with others (which I hardly do; bass is more like a meditation for me), the best thing to do is to take some high-power pieces and look up the tabs for them online. Learn to play those songs and get an appreciation for the way the artists move all over the damn fretboard (or, in a fretless case, the neck). Here’s my playlist for practicing, and I really suggest that you get these songs. The way the guys play is simply amazing. (Anything with a star by them indicate you can find the tabs online).
*Running the Gauntlet - Les Claypool’s Frog Brigade. Relatively easy piece for Claypool, and great fun to screw around with.
Good Groove - Dennis Chambers. Good 80’s funk deal.
Portrait of Tracy Tribute to Jaco - Marcus Miller. Low-key, slow, but amazing.
Power Bass Fusion Crunch Time - Claypool and Stanley Clarke with dueling basses. This is definately a more advanced song.
*Sinister Minister - Bela Flek and Victor Wooten. Good bass in the first part, relatively easy, with a mind-blowing solo in the middle.
*Power - Marcus Miller. A song that’s nothing but a bass solo. More jazzy, relatively hard to learn, with chords.
*Silly Putty - Les Claypool. Claypool’s version is better than Clarke’s. Difficult, especially since it’s uses a lot of the upper notes on the neck, but fun.
*We Supply - Easy, and a great funk song.
I hope those help.
I bought a second-hand bass in the early 90’s and was going to learn to play, but one thing led to another and I never got around to it. I pick it up once in a while, but I still can’t play. My kid likes to give the strings a whack, so maybe he’ll play it when he gets older, or I’ll fiddle with it again as I get more free time.
Until then, I’m gonna get a set of drums and whack away at them.
I just picked up the bass again after not having played it for about ten years. I am a classical guitarist by training and have played for quite a while. However, I only picked it up to finish off an album I am currently working on. I have to say that my bass style is markedly different now that I understand better how chords and melodies work together. A good teacher can help you along there but in absense of that a book about chord theory would do.
Remember when playing a bass, you are the foundation. You can get away with only playing the root notes of the given chords (I refer to this as the “cheese bass”) but with a little creativity you can make a very nice melodic bassline that actually sounds like a bassline rather than a “hair rock solo.” In the bass it is usually better to be more restrained.
The OP asked about other songs to learn and such. Stylistically, Sting rocks. He is a very good rock bass player. All of the suggestions are pretty good, but when it really boils down to it, even if you can reproduce everything those musicians are doing flawlessly, if you don’t understand the reasoning behind it you will fall short on your own. Check out a theory book from the library, if you can understand it right off, great, if not, find a teacher or a friend who can explain it to you better.
Yeah, what they said.
A couple things I’d emphasize: Try and take some lessons. If you’re not too impressed with a teacher, find another. Be sure to try and get an hour a day minimum in. Two if you want to be pretty darn good. If you get ambitious some day, it’ll be more like six hours plus. Whatever your goals, as you get better, it will be more fun putting in the time.
Second: first and formost, it’s all about groove. Keeping good, steady time and creating a compelling, propulsive rhythms, even on slow songs. You can be brilliant in every other aspect of your bass playing, but if you can’t groove, if you can’t swing, if your time is noticably uneven, you will always sound sloppy at best. Get a metronome. A cheap drum machine is better yet, but even then set up a metronome click, maybe using a cowbell and bass drum setting.
Always spend dedicated practice time listening to that metronome click, click, click. When you play a note that falls right on the beat, learn to strike the string exactly when the click sounds. That means you begin the movement to strike the string an instant before the click. If you do it right, the click will sound a little softer because your bass will be sounding at the same time.
LISTEN to the click, get metaphysical and become one with it, learn to always hear the click in your head when you play. Later, imagine the click in your head when you play to some of the patches on your drum machine. After a while it becomes automatic, and it will be more than just a click you hear but something you feel.
When I play bass, I mostly focus on the drummer, and I find it most efficient to try and image what tempo I think they’d be hearing the click at, rather than only focusing on the beat I hear off the drum set. Moreover, rather than only playing along to the drummer, sometimes you can compromise and synchronize the click in your head to where it feels best between the drummer’s part and what the rest of the band is doing. That’s how you create a pocket. That’s when you start becoming a valuable bass player.
The other big thing, besides the groove is to learn to have a big, bold, clean tone. Just make the bass sound big and fat and strong, make every note “sing” a little, and with solid rhythm skillz you’ll be in demand even over players that are flashier but not as solid. Part of playing bass is keeping it simple, playing the same part over and over, kind of a hypnotic thing that’s sometimes required of the instrument.
DO challenge yourself and work towards complex stuff, that’s fun too. But the great thing about bass is that “simple, solid and grooving” will always be in demand and will get you playing with good players quicker. And then you’ll have everything you need to move on yo the flashy stuff and you’ll learn it in half the time it would take you otherwise.