Bass for Beginners: Play Bass in 8 Days
Have you noticed that everyone around you is wondering why you have chosen the bass as your instrument of choice? Do your friends ask you why you didn’t choose the electric guitar if it was so much cooler? Do you feel pressure from your friends and family because of this choice you have made in your life that really makes you happy? The reason for all this pressure from your family and friends is that a bassist is not considered that important when you think of a band. He thinks of a band for a second. You don’t think about the bassist, but about the lead vocalist and the lead guitarist. A true bassist has a totally different attitude about music than a lead guitarist.
In fact, the bassist knows that he is responsible for keeping the rhythm and not so much for creating a show for the audience. As a beginner bassist, you should learn that you don’t need to be loud or showy to be a great bassist. Just learn to play the bass correctly and practice as much as he can.
In order to become an established and accomplished bass player, you will have to be not only stable, but also dependent. It doesn’t matter what kind of band you’re in, that band will depend on the bassist and drummer to set the mood of the band and determine what kind of band it is. Your band can be good or great depending on how well you keep the beat.
One thing a beginner bassist should keep in mind is that the bass is not the easiest instrument to learn to play. Sometimes it’s hard to learn enough notes to play a song, and that can be frustrating for a beginning bassist. However, don’t let this stop you from practicing and make you stop playing. Keep up with your lessons and keep practicing as much as you can, because you can do this and it will pay off in the long run.
Lessons needed for beginner bass include learning which pick-offs and hammer-ons. We’ll start by learning what a hammer is, which is basically what it says it is. To hammer-on, you’ll strike an open string, such as G, strum that string, and then firmly strike the fret with your finger. When you do this you will automatically hear two very different notes, if you have done it correctly.
Next up is how to do pick-offs, which is basically removing your fingers. To do this correctly, place your fingers on the second fret of the G string as you did when you tried to hammer-on. Now, as you remove your finger, you will actually pull the string at the same time as you remove your finger in a downward motion, producing a note. Both techniques will take a bit of practice to get used to, but they will be vital for you to become a top-notch bassist.
