learn to play the bass guitar

In a very fortunate turn of events it turns out that I am going to be sharing a house with a bass player as of next week. A friend is moving into the spareroom who just so happens to be a bassist in a rock band and also a sound engineer. He came round to rearrange the room tonigt and have his tea and we’ve already planned the house band and the make-shift recording studio we’re going to construct upstais. I haven’t mentioned about him teaching me the bass or about me maybe borrowing his amp yet. However I think we all know that this is an unspoken condition of him living here. It’s times like these when I just feel so lucky!

Mostly because I have no amp (and no lead) and no teacher. Two years ago my stepdad gave me an old electric bass he’s had knocking around the garage for years. It turned out to be a 1970’s Rickenbacker and I was mighty grateful. However it’s not in pristeen condition, in fact it’s pretty battered and someone has tried to modify parts of it including the scratch plate and the winding pegs. Still, it’s a pretty mint present!
I’ve been thinking recently that I either need to play this or sell this as it’s not fair on the guitar and me to just have it hanging around my music room not being played. I took it to band practice the other week so I could find out if the electrics still worked inside it. They do, the bassist from my band had a go on it and it’s got a beautiful, warm, sexy sound. So now I want to learn to play it properly and give Manny the life he deserves.
I know that you can get quite good music instrument tutorials off You Tube and stuff, but the way I like to learn is initially face to face with someone, I like the physcial hands on tuition, even if it’s just a few lessons to get the basics upon which I can build.

So, as I’m completely skint I’m pondering the following ideas
- Can I swap something for a bass guitar practice amp? What do I have that someone might want? A Mandolin perhaps as I’ve given up on that. A load of DVDs erm…. I’m looking fruitlessly around my room here for something that might be swap-able.
- Can I swap skills for skills? Maybe if I can find someone to teach me bass guitar I could do something for them in return like ragtime guitar lessons (it’s a long shot though that I bassist is going to want to learn ragtime guitar). Other music lessons – i.e. notation, voice, theory. Or maybe knitting lessons or crochet lessons, cake making tuition…. Or maybe I could just do their hoovering or ironing in return for tuition.
I like the idea of a skills swap. I guess it’s just a case of finding someone as skint as me with the right skills.

I have wanted to do this for a long time but for the wrong reasons. I want to be able to do it (so I feel closer to certain groups of muso friends)but don’t actually enjoy trying to learn.

This makes me sad becasue I love music. It is a big part of my life but I just don’t seem to have that something where I can learn. I can read music now too but I just can’t tell if I’m doing it right, I have no understanding of timing etc and have eventually come to the conclusion that its not me and there is no point in forcing it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t give up easily at this sort of thing but I just think that if I never ever feel like picking my bass up and trying something and its always because I ‘should’ rather than want, then its not enjoyable to me.

I am happy to accept being a music lover in a listening and dancing sense :-)

This is still on the back-burner because even though I am now living in my own house (where my bass is), I do not have access to the internet at home, only at work, and I don’t have the time at work to concentrate on learning something properly.

This goal will be looked at again once I get home broadband sorted.

I am adding this to my list as I really do want to play eventually. However seen as my Bass is not where I am it will have to be put on the back burner for a while.

I have had a few lessons which I enjoyed but didn’t feel were quite the direction I wanted to go in. Also I had to stop as I couldn’t afford to pay for them anymore.

So I’m adding this as a ‘in the future’ goal but in the meantime am going to look at some of these ‘learn online’ sites and see if I think those would work for me.

I have had my bass for almost a year, and never was motivated enough to ‘teach myself’

I have finally booked in a lesson and cant wait to get into it!!

I got my bass guitar for Christmas – a Peavey Rockmaster with a teeny tiny amp. It’s bigger than me. I learned some fingering exercises so I’m just messing with that for now.

I know how to play 3 songs on the bass now…. so I’m relatively happy with this goal… I love the sound you get from a bass… but I don’t play the bass as much as my acoustic guitars…

I can play it now… Just not well.. does this count as done??

I guess I should get around to buying that bass I so desperately want to learn to play. I dunno, but it seems to me that trying to learn to play the bass without a bass is like trying to swim in a desert.

Next Step: Save Money…. (Easier said than done)