Trade Secret To Learning Bass Guitar

If you start browsing on the Internet looking for creative bass playing, it may take you quite a while to find some original players, as most aspiring bassists today are all just imitating what has gone before. Musicians don’t seem to want to create their own original pieces of music.

After making music for many years, you notice a lot of young bass players don’t have an understanding of rhythm and time, it seems to be a dying art. I am not talking about sight reading or music theory, I am talking about building unique bass lines while keeping time. All musicians have timing to varying degrees, but are not conscious of the fact of timing, they just feel it man. This attitude will keep you happy in the beginning, but if you want to progress as a bass player to be taken seriously, you will need to have a solid understanding of rhythm and time.

A lot of bassists seem to just learn impressive licks from their preferred players without ever really creating anythng new for themselves. Plus, when that bassist joins a band, they play the same material without adding their inspiration to the mix.

Bass instructors always suggest students to practise with a drum machine or metronome, for the same reason James Brown told Bootsy Collins to give him ‘the one’. Learn where the one is, and you develop confidence in your playing.

If you want to play like the bass players that you admire, you are going to have to develop your timing skills. The easiest way to increasing your sensitivity to timing is to get yourself a pair of drum sticks and air drum to music that you like, you will hear the music differently. Regular practise with sticks will help you understand how all the music fits together.

Remember that timing is for life, not just for christmas.

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