THE BASS LANGUAGE (BEGINNER TO INTERMEDIATE):
WHAT SHOULD I PRACTICE?

by Rod Goelz

Hi friends. The question of what to practice is an important one. Of all skills the first year bass student must develop, developing your musical ear is the most important. The general “LEARNING HOW TO PLAY BASS” ability is best learned by DOING—playing real songs as opposed to exercises. As soon as possible, you’ll need to be playing along with records, and learning to copy what you hear (again, a teacher can help you with this). Insofar as lesson materials go, the beginner bass player is in luck. Modern rock radio is filled with easy bass lines played by marginal players (there are a few exceptions)—all of which can be used as lesson material, all ideal for the beginner. Study with a good teacher if one is available. A good teacher has "been there" hundreds (if not thousands) of times in the students that teacher has taught. A teacher will help get you there quicker and help provide a deeper in understanding of what it means to play the electric bass.

Better players with a little more experience are capable of making up there own lines to these same songs. This act of creating your own lines “on the fly” is a sought after skill the intermediate player must develop. Better players aren’t necessarily committed only to what’s current—there are many great players who don’t make it to the radio or MTV.

OTHER AREAS OF MUSICAL FOCUS (ASSORTED IMPROVEMENT AREAS).

1. ATTITUDE—It’s a fact, there’s not a lot of great bass playing on the radio nowadays, SO YOU SHOULDN'T LIMIT YOURSELF TO ONLY THOSE WHO ARE POPULAR AT THE MOMENT. There’s a history to the electric bass, and with that history there are also many great players. In your quest to be a better bass player, seek out good musical role models from every era. Develop your own list of favorite bass players, and find out who those players listened to when they were younger—those were the influences that helped shape their playing and ideas about the bass. Don’t stop at the electric bass, our instrument evolved from the upright bass—go to the source and learn from upright masters as well. ABOVE ALL ELSE…KEEP AN OPEN MIND!!!!

2. SCALES/ARPEGGIOS/RUNS—These are undeniably important. But to make the best use of these musical materials, check out how the really great players make use of these building blocks.

3. MUSIC THEORY/EAR TRAINING—As stated before, the bass player’s job is to improvise low-frequency melodies. The act of improvisation is like composition—only instantaneous. To make intelligent decisions in your improvisations, you should understand how music works like a composer would. Consciously thinking about how music works is called the study of music theory. In this study, we learn principles that govern all musical instruments within a band setting. Theory can also be specialized—theory as it applies to bass line construction, for example. Once you’ve grasped the textbook understanding of how music works, listen and steal from great players who make use of these ideas—DEVELOP YOUR EAR. The best way to broaden your understanding of theory and application is to learn by musical example. The more you hear, the more you can sample. In this search for new ways to approach, check out my page of Essential Bass Players: http://www.rodgoelz.com/bassplayerlist.htm.

4. THE BLUES—Become a student of the blues and the 12-bar blues form. There’s an infinite amount of lessons to be learned from studying the blues. All great bass players can play the blues (it’s part of what makes them great). The blues are about theme and variation. Listen to (and incorporate into your lessons) many different players. Note how different players with different styles (or the same style for that matter) approach the same musical skeleton—the 12-Bar Blues—that’s when the REAL education begins. Remember that great players and great musical ideas sometimes have to be discovered and searched for. Great bass players are often times not the star of the band, so you'll have to search these players out (http://www.rodgoelz.com/bassplayerlist.htm).

5. GENERIC STYLES—Each style of music has a different set of rules, rhythms and other characteristics that give that style its FLAVOR. Expose yourself to as many different styles as your brain can hold. Don’t be a musical elitist. That will only narrow the number of sounds you’re capable of using. A sampling of generic styles include: Swing, Bossa Nova, Rock, Country, Funk, Reggae, Ska, Punk, Heavy Metal, Polka, Samba, Zydeco, Blues, Motown, and variations and subdivisions of each.

6. READING—Learn to read. It’s not that hard, and the payoff is tremendous. Once you’ve mastered the basics, reading music can be fun. Get to the point where reading is not a chore. It takes discipline, but there’s a payoff!!

That's All Folks!

That's it for now. As always, if you have any questions or comments concerning anything at all, you can get in touch with me by email: rod@bassesloadedonline.com Be sure to check back to bassesloadedonline.com for future lessons.