This has eluded me!

Not only could it be but it will be a wonderful journey.
By the way it is a lifelong journey. :slightly_smiling_face:
As long as you are enjoying yourself very little else matters and all it takes is time and practice, as you now come to appreciate :slightly_smiling_face:

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Gotta love James at eBassGuitar :joy:

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I only started Bass at the beginning of 2021 BUT I have been playing various other instruments for 60+ years and that helps tremendously but I am still learning.

If you want simple try this for a song in 4/4 time.

Assuming a 4/4 time signature.
1 - Get a lead sheet, showing the chords, for a song you want to play
2 - Just play the root note Once for the chord in each bar. Cannot get simpler than that.
3 - Next take the same song and play 4 root 1/4 notes for each chord in the bar. A little bit tougher but not much.
4 - Now try chugging with 1/8 notes. Now it starts to get more challenging.

Lastly do steps 2, 3 and 4 again using Roots and Fifths for each chord.

Bass can be as simple as that and playing chord Roots and Fifths is all some people want to do, and that is just fine. The bottom line is start simple and work up to your goal.

IMHO The Bass is not an instrument you would take camping and sit around a campfire for singing campfire songs, so complicating things is unnecessary really.

JUST HAVE FUN

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Steady on…

Seriously, I am doing the Music Theory for Bass Players cohort run by Ariane Cap. I’m only into it by 6 weeks (it goes for 40 weeks), but I have already learnt a heap and I can tell that if I stick with it for 40 weeks, many of my questions around the theory of this instrument will be answered. The next cohort will start after Christmas - you will have finished B2B by then right :wink:! Anyway, some food for thought for you. I got the book that goes along with this course, I found it a bit confusing to be honest and feel it really needs to be read in company with the online course. Good luck

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Danger!

This reminds me of similar sentiments from other students I’ve worked with. Any time you’re looking for the ‘trick’ or the ‘cheat’ or the ‘key’ to a way to immediately know anything, you’re going to be every YouTuber’s dream, but you’re going to get nowhere.

The way most western music works is melody + accompaniment.
There’s a chord playing, and then a melody is going on over the top.
If you know the notes of the chord (or chords) in the accompaniment, those are the notes that will make the melody sound lovely.

In classical music, there are some rules for how to move chords around, and - at the beginning - things tend to stay within a major key.
In pop and rock, there’s a tendency to stay within a key, but it depends on who you listen to.
Some writers just put whatever chord next to whatever chord that they think sounds good.

The rule that works for everything is: If you can identify the notes in the chord of the accompaniment, those are the notes to land on for the melody.

It doesn’t have much to do with modes or the circle of fifths as a basic concept.

As you analyze chord progressions that are commonly used or want to explain chord progressions to each other, knowing the numbering system is helpful (and brings you over to the modes, and how they are numbered 1-7) and understanding key signatures is helpful (which brings you to the circle of fifths).

Lemme know if anything there is helpful or if its rubbish and if there are any more questions that stem from it!

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So true but a lot of people just don’t get it.

I think a lot of bass players loose sight of this.

I often wonder what % of songs have the Bass player playing the accompaniment as opposed to the melody.

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The vast majority. Most bass players play the accompaniment. Relatively few take the lead and play the melody. Of course, some of our favorites do - Peter Hook is a great example - but it is rare.

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I agree 100% and that is why I do not understand why so many Bass players feel they need to learn a ton of theory to play Bass well. Yes they need some but probably not as much as they think they do…
This may be going off topic and I think I will start a new topic on this :slightly_smiling_face:

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Because even in the accompaniment there is room for improvisation :slight_smile:

Plus, Jazz. For people so inclined.

Not to mention, Peter Hook is my hero :slight_smile:

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That is only true for a very limited set of genres (punk, perhaps, and maybe country), or if you entirely rely on written out accompaniments.

Even for doing just a little flourish here and there, you better know the notes that “belong” to that chord or, at minimum, know your pentatonics. But, the more you know, the more informed your choices are and the more interesting your bass lines will be.

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That’s news to me :rofl:

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And here I just said something nice about Jazz :slight_smile:

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I don’t think we actually feel we need a ton of theory to play well. Its more that us newbies fall for all those YouTube videos and links to sites with their catchy video titles.

I saw that :wink:

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Perhaps a better answer is that “the accompaniment” is not a one-size-fits-all thing. There’s various levels of it, ranging from whole-note-root-chords up through complex countermelodies.

The fact of the matter is that as the bass, we are playing the lowest-tonal notes. These generally form the basis, the backbone of the song in most genres, which by default means in many cases “the accompaniment.”

But it doesn’t have to. And even if it does, that can mean many things of various musical depth.

If I were to think of an area of intermediate music theory that I am lacking that would be useful for bassists, it would probably be fundamentals of Harmonization (i.e., reharmonizing existing melodies, chord substitution, etc) that came out on top. I should fix that someday (for my keyboard skills as well, I have always just kind of winged it.)

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No, you don’t need a ton of theory to play music - lots of people do that and have lots of fun!

But, you will hit a ceiling at some point. Now, you may be OK with where that ceiling is, but if not, then digging deeper into theory is almost your only way forward/upward/through that ceiling.

I winged it a lot in my earlier musical life, and somehow always felt frustrated about my limitations. I was still too lazy to do anything about it, or the threshold to get started was just too high.

This time around, I want to know more, and I accept that it’ll take time to learn more. I am also more than accepting that I will likely never reach the level of some YouTubers etc, but that is not really relevant.

There is a good Jordan Peterson quote which says: “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today” - that is really more relevant than those YouTubers :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Just a note, the vii chord here in the key of G should be F# diminished, not F.

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Not necessarily…all you need is a lot of time, drive, and maybe a bit of talent.

https://musicmayhemmagazine.com/10-great-musicians-who-didnt-even-study-music-theory/

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I don’t know about you, but the reason I want to learn theory from a teacher is that it is a f*ckton easier than figuring it out for yourself :slight_smile:

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Yes, sure, there are people like that… but, I am sure you’d need more than “a bit of talent” to be successful like they were/are.

I still think there is lots to be gained by learning more about theory (and it has never been “easier” than perhaps in our day and age), but, of course, as almost everything: it is a choice!

@howard put it very succinctly :grin:

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