So I was looking the college catalog and noticed that they offer a Degree Audit service that would tell me what required credits I have yet to fill to complete my 2-year degree. After the audit I noticed that I would need not only three “Lifetime Wellness” (aka: Phys. Ed.) credits, but also an “Activites” credit.
The P.E. credit is easy: Archery, Tai Chi and Qi Gong. Boom, boom and boom. Hell, If I take some time I can knock them out in a single quarter (though I probably won’t).
The activities credits are, let’s just say, more artsy. Painting, pottery, poetry reading, Drama. etc. Oh, sure, you can take a credit in “going for a walk” in a Geology class. But I checked into what times those classes are held and my work schedule would absolutely not be compatible. That, and it requires an instructor’s permission.
Looking, looking, looking and I see a music credit for “private instruction”. Now, I don’t play an instrument, or even read music, and that has long been on my list of things I need to remedy. So I figured that if I can both check that off my list and get my employer to pay for it, I must choose that one.
And that led to this last Saturday.
Scott, who is musician of some competency, and I went to the local Guitar Center chain store after swinging through one of his favorite local gun shops. I’d been looking through their site for the better part of the week trying to get a feel as to what they might have in stock and what was of decent quality for my price range.
After suffering through the madness that is Guitar Center, I walked out with this:
A Yamaha RBX170 4 string bass guitar. It came with an Fender 15watt bass amp, Korg tuner, strap and a 15ft cord.
And now, having spent 36 hours with the thing, I can say two things: I’m glad I picked this up, and damn, my fingers are sore.
As usual, I stuck to my night schedule over the weekend. I stayed up Saturday night and watched The Song Remains the Same. During the 23+ minute rendition of “Dazed and Confused” I figured out a goodly portion of the bass line. On Sunday, after reading how to restring a guitar online, I tackled The Wife’s old Squire Telecaster and gave it a good cleaning of all the dust it collected in the closet. After which she showed the only thing she remembers how to play, “Smoke on the Water”.
I don’t start actual classes until Fall Quarter, but I wanted to learn a little bit between now and then so I don’t end up flubbing through “Mary had a little lamb” in front of the juries. If’n any of y’all know a tune that wouldn’t be too difficult for me to figure out between now and then, feel free to leave it in the comments.
Scott has given me his list. Some of that might have to wait a while.
In the mean time, \m/
Scratched that itch, eh? I’ve thought about it, but what I want to do is take some music theory, so I can UNDERSTAND music, and not just listen to it.
I’m a bass player myself. I have 4, 5, and 6 string basses (including Yamaha. The slightly higher end predecessor of that RBX as one of my four strings. My other is a neck through body ESP).
So, the question is, do you want something challenging, or do you want something that’s good general practice.
Try Money by Pink Floyd, pretty much anything by Yes (to dislocate your fingers), anything by Cream, the Chilis cover of Higher Ground, Sweet Child of Mine and Paradise City, pretty much anything by Sly and the Family stone…
Jesus I could go on forever.
Oh and if you don’t have one, get a metronome, and a drum machine or keyboard that can be a drum machine.
Trust me, you’ll need them to practice properly.
If I get a drum machine, I’ll end up just making D&B tracks. So I think it’ll have to be a metronome. And “good general practice” would be better than challenging at this point in my learning.
I personally find it easier, more useful, and a lot more interesting, to practice with a drum machine; but all you absolutely need is a metronome.
What you need to do is to learn to lock in the groove; and get your right hand (I presume you’re playing right handed) used to plucking with the first two (or three if you want to play metal) fingers, and your thumb (if you want to play funk and soul, and some jazz) in time.
You can’t do that without an outside rhythm, because your body naturally wants to speed up as you play.
The most useful exercise you can start off with, is playing scales and intervals (3rds, 5ths, and 7ths) to the metronome, and then making bass lines out of them, again to the metronome.
You’ll find that most bass lines for most basic rock and blues songs, are just simple intervals to a rhythm.
The four string bass is tuned in even intervals (five and six string bases are generally, but not always tuned the same, with a lower and a higher string respectively; but not always) , so you can transpose any two or three string pattern to any higher string, and maintain consistent intervals and fingering up and down the entire neck, and across all four strings. It makes it very easy and natural to run these basic interval lines, and key changes are very easy.
In terms of songs, you can’t go wrong learning to play bass with motown (and classic soul and r&b in general), classic rock, and punk. Motown runs from slow and simple, to medium paced and somewhat complex; but it always has a solid groove. Classic rock tends to be simple but a little faster, until you hit the real bass demons like Entwhistle (they didn’t call him thunderfingers for nothing) and Jones. Punk is dead simple, but fast as hell.
Then there’s prog rock and metal, which are for the most part “advanced”.
Some of the best songs to learn on, are white english bands covers of black blues and soul tunes. McCartney doesn’t generally get a lot of credit, but he was actually a pretty decent bass player.
Oh and it’s not absolutely necessary, but I HIGHLY recommend you snag a bass headphone amp, or something that can act as one; preferably with an input jack for your mp3 player.
I personally use the Line-6 Pocketpod (which is a digital multieffects processor AND headphone amp), and I load it up with bass programs; but you don’t need to spend that much ($100 to $130). There are small plugin bass headphone amps from DEan, ctec, Jim Dunlop, and Vox for $40-$80.
It’s really nice just to sit somewhere with no amp, and still be able to practice properly, and hear your tone properly, with the headphones plugged in; and with an input jack, you can play over tracks.
Good luck and I meant that sincerely! I can’t even play a Ukulele, I have spazz-notic fingers that just say “No!” to finding strings…
That’s awesome! Rock on, dude! I know nothing about guitar, but I’ve always presumed that AC/DC’s “Ride On” would be an easy start.