Tuesday 10 November 2009

Online Bass Lessons: Be Aware Of Your Potential

By Kelly Stover

There is little that proves more daunting for young bass players than realizing just how physically demanding it is to play bass. As novices watching our favorite bassists on video we think, "That doesn't look so hard! I can do that!"

Take a regular guitar (which is tuned from the thickest to the lowest string- E - A - D - G - B - E) and exclude the two thinnest strings at the bottom and what is left is basically a bass guitar with thinner strings. Bass playing is usually note-oriented and not chord-oriented. This means that single notes are hit more often in bass playing and this scheme is the essential element of bass playing, one should be familiar with the tunings and the notes in a regular guitar to be able to decently play the bass guitar.

A bass guitar is heavy and cumbersome to carry around, because of all the supporting gadgets that come with it, not to mention the long cables that accompany all of the gadgets. Bass guitars are expensive to purchase, and also tough to learn. But these are indispensable in any pop or rock band. A bass guitar can indeed be the most prized possession of a devoted bassist.

Bass players want to be able to play the type of leads, licks and arpeggio runs that the pro players are doing, yes since most bass players have a really poor knowledge of their fretboard patterns and their application of them is so limited that it becomes a set back to their ability to play more and do more with their instrument. Not only do they need to know the right pattern to use and how to execute them in many different ways, but they also need to know how to practice with them. Regular practice with the proper set of fretboard patterns is a necessary component of becoming a seasoned player, time must be spent with practice, but it is important to know how to practice so that hours a day are not spent with insufficient result.

Learning how to play slap bass and incorporating slap techniques into your bass playing will not only make you a better bass player, but also a more versatile one. To learn slap bass is not as hard as some people may think. You just have to keep with it and you will get it.

When you hear the term learn slap bass, what it refers to is learning how to play certain techniques on the bass guitar. No matter what the other instruments in a band sound like, the bass guitar is crucial and is really the glue that holds the whole thing together. Slap bass is a way of playing the bass guitar.

The next link in the chain would be the choice of bass guitar. A $10 flea market bought bass would sound radically different from a $1000 Warwick, so choose which one suits the music wisely. Choice of strings (roundwound, flatwound, etc) also influences the resulting sound and character of the bass, as well as its behavior in interacting with the bassist's fingers.

Learning your bass patterns from alternate views of music theory and fretboard theory will result in a large impact on your bass playing skill, which is what being a great bass player is all about. For example traditional patterns, modern patterns, in position and out of position patterns need to be an integral part of your bass lessons.

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