[Nibile]

ok, this is the first time I share this, but today I'm feeling particularly shameless and I'm fairly sure I'll regret it! I know I'm quite poor, but for sure I'd like to hear other UKB'ers. I think Falling Down must be quite a beast with banjo, bass and guitar? Who else?











advices are welcome.

[cheque]

Zebra bass strap 

I played guitar and bass, wrote and produced music avidly for 15 years and regularly played bass onstage for the last four of them. I barely play any more although my bass is actually in the living room with me now, 'cos I've recently been learning to slap and pop which was never part of my style.

Something I do nowadays which I haven't done since about the first 18 months of learning is play other people's songs- I made a pact with my mate that we wouldn't learn other people's stuff in order to write totally original music when I was about 16 and didn't break it until we stopped playing music together three years ago! Consequently I've always been a total dissapointment to people when they get me to play at parties etc...

Advice-wise, keep playing! Like climbing everything, you just get better the more you do it and you pretty much accidentally reach a point where you almost don't realise that what you're doing effortlessly is difficult or impossible for most people if you love it so much that you're always at it.

On a more practical level, playing with a drummer is the key to becoming a solid bassist as the bass has at least as much in common with the drums as it does with the guitar- you wanna think of it like the bridge between the rhythm and the melody and keep your guitar technique totally seperate from your bass one. Use as many fingers as possible, too- I discliplined myself to only play the lowest string with my first finger, second with my second finger, etc. and eventually reached the point where I could play entire sets staring into the crowd (or empty pub, depending on the gig...) which not only feels totally badass it's also essential for avoiding the back/ shoulder problems most bassists get. Styles are very personal, though- as I say, I never learnt to slap or pop properly and I never really made music in the style you're playing (although I love the Clash and RATM ), but the more fingers you get involved on each hand the better in any style- work the pinkies!

I got into climbing about a year before my music fell apart and was interested by the effects the two have on each other- the skin hardness each give you translates well for the other activity and I find that having stronger fingers from climbing and training makes certain aspects of bass and guitar easier (even when I used to stay up all night playing I couldn't quite do the repeated Hendrix-style hammer-on/ pull-off trills- now I never practice and I can pick up any guitar and do them) so, as someone with 1 billion times my finger strength you should have great potential!     

[GCW]

Similarly, I used to play guitar/ bass and recorded loads of metal stuff, plus stupid tunes. I haven't done much for years.

I was classically trained, did the grades, practised for 3 hours a day but then moved across to electric guitar.

The Doc plays piano well, but I've never been keyboard savvy. It's inspired me to try to learn.

[Nibile]

  hey thanks for the advice.
I am completely self taught and it shows. I know I should engage more fingers esp. of the right hand, but my coordination is pretty bad and also with just index and middle I struggle to produce the very same note and intensity. Also, I often lack the necessay precision on the strings.
Basically I think I suck, but playing bass had always been a drem of mine since teenage, and when I bought my first bass I was 35 or so... But it's great just to play along with the music, slower tunes that I can play better really give me the psyche!
I have the deepest admiration for the talented ones that can pick a random instrument and play it like bosses!!!

[gremlin]

As a semi-pro drummer with more than 20 years experience playing music of all styles I know very little about music. I just spent all my time drinking beer with musicians and demanding to be paid! 

[Nibile]

That's what one's supposed to do! 

[tomtom]

Hey Nibs,
I play (or more to the point played) Bass... I was classically trained (Double bass) and played in a few pretty good orchestra's in my yoof.. then got a Bass got into a couple of bands and etc... In the end I got fed up with band politics of who I was about/with and stopped playing, but still have the bass at home.

Cheques right, bass and drummer should play almost as one - if you find the right drummer you can get a really good chemistry between both, and can play some fun games/competitions during songs that go way over most folks heads The hardest thing I found coming from playing double bass, was that with DB you never use your ring finger - first, middle and little only - to get the correct spacing on the fingerboard (bugger - probably a correct word for that!) so on Bass I was always shifting my hand about like a loony instead of training myself to use all four.

[Nibile]

Hey thanks again!!! I understand, I have to move my left hand a lot, it seems that my finger span is not good to cover four notes, esp. The lower ones that are more spaced apart. I can't use my pinky a lot, but sometimes I am forced to do it, as in London Calling, and when it works it's great and gives me an entire new range!!!