United States

If you really want to play bass, I would suggest getting a drum machine with various patterns and learn to lock into the kick and snare drum, its really an art form that some people dont seem to understand.

Good Luck

That is awsome advice

Metronomic is the key wrd. Get a metronome. Vary the speed of it and play along with it until it's second nature. Turn on your favorite radio station and play along with each song. Don't worry whether you're in tune with it, but DO worry if you're keeping good time with it. The right notes will come later. Become a rhythm machine on bass first. Get that down and the rest will take care of itself quicker.

I thought everybody used a
click track now days?

I thought everybody used a
click track now days?

A metronome is portable , which means you can take it anywhere. A click Track is slave to a studio hook-up... Studios are very hard to take with us in a phone booth for privacy )

I can set my cheap old Yamaha
synthesizer to any bpm you want
and it will play the click track, in 4 or
5 different tones.

I Spoke to soon...There are digital Metronomes available in the market... They are pocket sized and can pace a meter under any circumstance, except when the battery runs down...

Get yourself a few fluorescent, tight mesh shirts and all different color spandex and don't forget to throw a stuffed sock in your drawers and jump your ass right up there on stage a few weekday nights until everyone within a 25.9 mile radius is talking about you and only you!

Be sure you stuff the sock in the front of your spandex pants

It does feel better to be praised.

Years ago I did a gig at a very nasty prison in MD (Jessup's Cut - yep...)

Some rather imposing looking prison archetype stood up and demanded, "Let that bass man do his thing!"

Tough room? You bet. Go home feeling good? Darn right.

I agree with your comment about hitting it on the beat. The rest is important but the beat owns us - we can trash a song pretty easily.

I've played an upright bass a few times and you certainly can't beat the sound. It's also a bit difficult to get exactlyl right on an amp. The lack of frets is an issue for me. Markers would do and we don't have to look at the strings that much anyway after a while. But's it's nice to have an anchor.

Good luck with your playing. I did it when I was young and I still do it - it can be the one constant in your life and the medium you use to consder things as it all unfolds.

Talbot

This is in answer to the OP's question:

You're good enough to play out when you can play the songs your band is playing. It's as simple as that. You don't have to be a great improvisor to be a musician. It's good, but not totally necessary when you first start out.
You can learn songs note for note to play in a band, but to be a real musician, you need to know how to create your own bass lines with the chord progressions in the tune.

You must learn every note on that instrument and where it can be played, even more than a guitarist. And you'll need to learn chord construction, in other words, what notes make up a chord and why.

But you should be learning something new on your instrument every day.
I've been playing guitar for 45 years. I'm still playing and am in a classic rock band, and I try to learn something new every day...a new lick, a new song, a different way to play a chord or arpeggio, and new scale pattern, or even a whole new style. After 45 years of playing rock and blues, I'm teaching myself classical.

Keep one thing in mind, no matter how good you think you are, there's always someone better than you out there. Nothing will hurt a musician's reputation faster than an overinflated ego. Be confident, but not arrogant.

And this isn't part of your question but it's good advice. Have fun, but treat music as a job. Be on time. Show up sober or straight. Know your part before rehearsal. But above all remember, even when the gig sucks, and the crowd is ignoring you, and your tired and po'd...you're doing what you love and getting paid for it which is a lot better than most people who have to slave 60 hours a week at a job they hate.

I started playing (keys) w/ some older cats...THREE WEEKS after I got my first keyboard. I had a manuscript paper book which listed ALL the chords and inversions, key signatures, scales, etc. THAT was my "Theory" book. *snicka* The guys I played w/ taught me finger stretching exercises, and had me practicing Charles Earland and Oscar Peterson, even though we were only playing Top40 gigs. To this day, I thank them for pushing me like that.

Now, I wanna add Bass to my "mix"...so I'm going to take advice I read in here, and get "metronomic"! Thanks for THAT info. ...and btw, I don't think I can do the sock down the front of my pants thingy, but I'm gonna be on the lookout for frontmen who do. LMAOOOO



I play to write. I SING to LIVE!

[quote="joi471453"]I started playing (keys) w/ some older cats...THREE WEEKS after I got my first keyboard. I had a manuscript paper book which listed ALL the chords and inversions, key signatures, scales, etc. THAT was my "Theory" book. *snicka* The guys I played w/ taught me finger stretching exercises, and had me practicing Charles Earland and Oscar Peterson, even though we were only playing Top40 gigs. To this day, I thank them for pushing me like that.

Now, I wanna add Bass to my "mix"...so I'm going to take advice I read in here, and get "metronomic"! Thanks for THAT info. ...and btw, I don't think I can do the sock down the front of my pants thingy, but I'm gonna be on the lookout for frontmen who do. LMAOOOO

i've gotta take exception w the advice of "becoming metronomic".

it's important to have rock solid timing and be able to lay down a groove...and hold a groove...but no one should strive to be "metronomic".

i've been lucky enough to play w a lot of fantastic drummers. all the best ones have an "elastic" time feel that expands and contracts.....one that breathes. i don't mean speeding up and/or slowing down....i mean sometimes you play on the beat or a little ahead, sometimes you lay back.

you can work on that kinda stuff to a degree w a metronome (or drum machine, or click) and there are definitely advantages to prct that incorporates that but i gotta say sounding "metronomic" is nuthin' to shoot for!

good luck going for the bass. if anyone ever told me i could only play ONE instrument...hands down, no contest, it'd be bass!

i've gotta take exception w the advice of "becoming metronomic".

it's important to have rock solid timing and be able to lay down a groove...and hold a groove...but no one should strive to be "metronomic".

i've been lucky enough to play w a lot of fantastic drummers. all the best ones have an "elastic" time feel that expands and contracts.....one that breathes. i don't mean speeding up and/or slowing down....i mean sometimes you play on the beat or a little ahead, sometimes you lay back.

you can work on that kinda stuff to a degree w a metronome (or drum machine, or click) and there are definitely advantages to prct that incorporates that but i gotta say sounding "metronomic" is nuthin' to shoot for!

good luck going for the bass. if anyone ever told me i could only play ONE instrument...hands down, no contest, it'd be bass!

So u don't agree w/ the "metronomic" aspiration...even for the beginner who isn't ready to come out to play, yet? I understand that music lives and breathes, and that I will always have to allow for that when I'm playing bass and locking w/ the drummer...but doesn't it breathe for ALL instrumentalists? Don't we ALL have to "feel" it, or risk becoming "Musicians by Cubase/Pro-Tools/unameitcomputersoftware"?

Btw, I think bass is pretty cool, too!

Put the metronome in your spandex. lol