Mastering The Fundamentals

Geddy Lee (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whether you’re just starting to learn how to play bass guitar, or if you’ve been playing it already for years this is a lesson well worth paying attention to.

You want to master the fundamentals of being a bassist.

There’s a saying about becoming a master martial artist which goes something like this: you don’t become a master by practicing 8,000 different moves once or twice – you become a master by practicing only a handful of moves 8,000 times!

So how does this apply to bass playing as opposed to kung-fu fighting?

Take scales and modes – you could get your hands on a book of scales and run through all of then in an hour and feel good about yourself. Chances are, unless you have a masterful sense of recall – you won’t be able to remember each scale the next time you pick up your bass much less apply them in a real playing situation.

The alternative is to pick one or two scales; one or two techniques and focus only on them until they become effortless for you to apply.

[Note: I’ll be sharing some of the different ways to do this without driving yourself crazy.]

Becoming a master is also an elusive goal – there is always something more to learn and even guys like Victor Wooten admit that they don’t know everything about bass playing.

There are often plenty of frustrations that come along with learning a new instrument or technique. These usually come from our own ego because we feel like we should be better than we actually are.

My advice is to not put any added stress on yourself. Focus with a dash of patience will get you far. There are no shortcuts to becoming the best bassist that you can be, it’s a lifelong journey – so enjoy the ride.

Nobody wants to be limited to only playing the root all the time as a bassist, but apply the same thinking to drummers – who would your rather work with? The drummer who can perform a 20 minute solo while smoking, twirling sticks and standing on their head? Or the drummer who can hold down a steady beat that you can lay a monster groove on top of?

Master the fundamentals. Focus on one thing at a time until you can apply it ideally in real time in a playing situation; and move from there. Some things will come easily, others won’t. You will get frustrated along the way – which we’ll talk about in the next issue of bass tips.

Thanks for reading!