MaggaraMarine

So first you played guitar for seven years and then bass for a year? Guitar and bass share the same techniques. The only thing you really need to learn is to play the right things in right parts. If you are a guitarist, you can play bass (technique-wise). You just need to learn to be a bassist, they have different roles in a band. So I think it's pretty obvious that you got good at bass in only a year because you had experience with guitar before that.

But yeah, a teacher can tell if (and how) you could improve your technique. He sees what you are doing wrong.

TS, seems like you should have told the teacher that you don't know what a hammer/pull off means. A teacher should ask you if you understand what he is saying but if you don't say that you don't understand, it's your own fault. He's teaching it for you and you should decide how fast you can learn stuff. If the teacher is teaching too fast for you, tell him about it. The teacher might have assumed that you are better bassist than you really are. Tell him to slow down and that you don't understand everything he's saying. Playing by ear is a good thing though (of course you can't remember the riff instantly, but really tell him about that too and he'll play it slower and you'll figure it out). I would maybe try to take another lesson and if it's like the same and he can't explain things so that you understand them, then it's time for another teacher. I would maybe first get a bit acquainted with the instrument before taking lessons. Learn some basic stuff before starting to take lessons.

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Spaz91

Just a quick though, ignore if its already been said.

Learning on your own can lead to horrible technique which can lead to tendinitis, RSI and death. I learnt to play with my hand at a forty five degree angle to the strings, rather than ninety; it's a wonder how it didn't **** me up.

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Hooker84

Yes, you do! Buy a good technique book and exercised every day consistently

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Dario Hooker Di Marco

Bullet-Rule

Self-taught for around 6 years. I'd say I'm pretty decent, but not known to blow my own trumpet (so I may be better?)

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John Swift

What many don't seem to be aware of is that technique was never on the agenda way back in the late 50s early 60s and onwards.
I played guitar for about 18 months and decided to change to bass using the knowledge of chords that I'd learned on guitar.
Ask Andy Frazer, Jack Bruce, Macca if they had lessons in technique, don't think Bill Wyman or John Entwistle did.
I bought my first bass on Saturday and played my first gig the following Friday and in no time at all we were gigging 4 to 5 times a week.
None of my contemporys in Sheffield at the time studied technique, some of whom played on Woodstock with Jo Cocker.
I may have been lucky but bass playing seemed logical and natural to me with the most important part being able to get into the groove of the genre you are asked to play in.

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Robbgnarly

But TS wants to actually play the bass, SV was a horrible musician. I love punk, but the Sex Pistols suck.

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pxige

wow i didn't expect so many responses lol. thanks.
i quit the teacher though, he really was terrible, there were a couple other bad things he did during the lesson that i didn't mention in the first post, he just wasn't a good teacher at all. i'm going back to piano lessons (i can only afford one type of lesson) so i've decided to try bass on my own! i think i can get the basics down, i know how to position my hand and stuff, and if i screw up then it probably won't matter that much cus i'm just doing it for fun anyways, it's not like i'm aiming to be in a band.

i have another question though! what should i start to practice first? the teacher started to show me the C major scale so i'm gonna keep practicing that and other scales, but what else should i do? there's gotta be more technique kind of practicing i can do.

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food1010

Learn to play the major scale in all 12 keys. Also, learn chord construction. It may sound like the guitar player's job to know chords, but a bassist has to understand the chord progression in order to play a good bass line.

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splitvocal1

hey, i taught myself, i consider myself fairly apt, not the best but far from the worst

i bought the bass for dummies book, and worked through the first chapter one week, then week two did chapter one and chapter two, 1st chapter now being easy, then third week chap 1, chap 2, chap 3, and so on and so on until id finished. probably about 1 to 2 hours a day. i was pretty keen

after about 2 months i started playing with a band, you learn all sorts by doing that, timing, adf feeling for the music. and most importantly a bit of confidence hearing yourself playing with others.

and after 3 years im just starting on the theory side. not as interesting to me so taken a lot longer than the practical side of learning to play the instrument

good luck

John Swift

Then you'll know why don't get minor 5ths

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MaggaraMarine

I didn't practice any scales or techniques until recently (though I already knew theory because I have been playing trumpet since 2001). I only played songs that I liked and they all used techniques that I learned by playing them. And I liked to play the guitar because it kind of was my fun instrument. I could just play the songs I wanted to play and didn't need to play those boring scales up and down and practice technical etudes that weren't musically any interesting. But now I have got more interested in learning technique so I started taking lessons on guitar. Guitar and bass are pretty logical instruments and easy to start playing by yourself. (And what I mean by logical is that each fret is half steps, same as in piano, every key is half steps. Also, you don't need to know any technique to get a sound out of guitar. Compared to trumpet or some other wind instrument guitar is very easy to start. You can instantly play all the notes, you don't need to learn any technique before being able to play the high or low notes. My range isn't that great on trumpet, even though I have been playing for over ten years.) Maybe start taking lessons after you have learned the basics. Some basic songs/riffs and some playing technique. And if you are still interested, then start taking lessons. But the sooner you start taking lessons, the better your technique will be and you won't be wasting years to correct your bad technique that you had learned ten years ago. The teacher can notice bad technique immediately and you don't need to waste your time to fix your technique.

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My motto: Play what the song needs you to play!

Gear:

Charvel So Cal (MIJ)
Digitech RP355
MXR Micro Chorus
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Tokai TB48

John Swift

One of the main reasons budding guitarists learn scale is because it is an easy route to soloing, hence when you go from pub to pub (bar to bar) these days when younger bands are on you hear virtually the same guitar solos, loads of notes very little music.

The chord structure of a piece of music is more important than the scale.

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Sudaka

This a million times. I highly recommend NOT TO learn any scale, but chords and how they are created...

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OtamotPuhctek

Quote:
Originally Posted by John Swift
The chord structure of a piece of music is more important than the scale.




It's all related.

Sudaka

I know it's all related, but learning as chord formation implies learning where the notes come from, and what are they supposed to do, while learning scales is just play this notes on the fretboard so you can be in key... That's why I think the scale approach is more limiting than enabling.

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John Swift

Agree 100%, I could give loads of examples to explain what I mean but the usual comeback is "I don't like that genre of music" which is not the point being made, which is, that the instrument should compliment the song.

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450 watt 15" powered sub bass cab
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corrda00

Being self taught does work. However lessons are good for some things.

If you want to read music, or prepare yourself for post secondary study a teacher is a must. Also learning proper technique is important to avoid injury. Also it gives you motivation and goals, such as learning a new peice by next week, or getting you to learn peices you wouldn't normally learn (like classical repitiore)

It also depends how serious you are about it. If you want to make bass playing your life, then lessons are important. If you just want to do it for fun self teaching is probably the way to go.

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John Swift

I taught my self Bass, after 4 years (1962/6) I still couldn't read a note of music but I'd played all over the UK on average 4.5 gigs per week during early Beatlemania (our singer worked with Jo Cocker).
In 1966 I joined the British army and arrived in Cyprus to join my regiment, my brother (already serving) told regimental band senior NCO that I played Bass and had played throughout the Beatlemania explosion.
I was invited to join the regimental band, this was initially to get a Beat Group (that's what they called them back then) formed from band members.

For military band duties I took up Saxophone which included a 1 year coarse at 'Kneller Hall' (The Royal Military School Of Music).
Google 'Kneller Hall' it's very impressive.
So yes studying does help but it is not written in stone.

__________________
G&L L2500
Squier Affinity Jazz Bass 5
Ashdown RPM pre-amp
Ashdown Little Giant 1000
300 watt 15" powered cab
450 watt 15" powered sub bass cab
2x10 + horn
1x15x10 + horn

FatalGear41

So...who won the toss?

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