Mael

nope, not those bass players, i'm looking for tfp'ers who play bass...

i'm going to be getting together with a band (sans bass player) and i may become the bassist for the group... the thing is, i'm relatively new at it...

so i've got a bass, had it for a long time, and tool around with it... i can play some stuff, but nothing all that fancy... sabbath's iron man, scorpions alien nation, etc. i can slap a bit, can't pop, pick and fingers pretty good. i can move around on it pretty well, i just don't know a whole lot.

is there any tips, tricks, things that might help me out for when i meet up with the band? i'm working on memorizing the major, minor, pentatonic and blues scales, but which is the one that i should make sure i know best?

thanks!

Tophat665

Blues. Learn how to blues walk, and you will be ready for 90% of rock and roll and pop and funk.

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shred_head

Yeah you should definitely try to learn how to play a walking bassline and just try to stay with the chords. The bass and drums usually set the foundation of a song so the bass part is very important. So you shouldn't be worried about playing some fancy lick or anything, just keep on top of the chord changes and stay in key.

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wilbjammin

In my opinion, the best thing you can do is to just work on timing and articulation. In my experience with rock music, you want the bass to match up with the bass drum and the guitar. The more you can blend in the better it will sound. Most rock music isn't about virtuousity, it is rhthym and melody based.

Learn from listening, learn songs by figuring them out on your own rather than getting tabs or anything. Nothing is a better tool than having good ears.

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costello

oh man is that ever true. i learned how to play about 10 variations of a 12 bar blues and its probabaly been the greatest help to me. also, i learned how to read music at http://www.cyberfretbass.com/ . it has many interesting tips and techniques to learn, plus its free! great learning tool and i highly reccomend it. good luck

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