[Closed] Online learn to play Bass options

Fender play is decent for beginners and currently have a 3 month free subscription:

https://play-support.fender.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041201531-3-Months-of-Free-Lessons-Offer-FAQs

I’m using Fender Play for guitar, it’s a bit simplified, haven’t looked at the bass options yet; for bass I’ve been using talkingbass.net

I've just bitten the bullet on my first year with Scott's Bass Lessons. Did the 14 day trial and realised there's a lifetime worth of lessons, practicing and exercises there. I'll never get through it all but I'll always have something new to do. They also have a busy forum and group exercises which I haven't gotten into yet. He's also constantly uploading new content.

Between that and YouTube I've learned more in the last year than in the 20 before it. If I had these resources the first time around I might have actually learned something when I was young enough to do something with it.

I'm also waiting for an Orange Crush practice amp that I've had my eye on for about 5 years. Ordered from a dealer with incorrect stock levels so now I'm in limbo but sticking with it. Could land any day now.

I've just started (I already play a bit of guitar) and this guy strikes me as no-nonsense and pretty straightforward.

Funny, I've picked up the bass again, used to play in the 80s, self taught by playing along with records (as most people did).... Recently watched a few online things, they just showed me how much I was doing wrong! Great time to learn from scratch. 🙂

Thanks all, I think I'm going to try the Fender play subscription - nothing to lose for 3 months and then I'll supplement with some you tube stuff.

Might take a look at Scott's bass lessons.  Tries some other stuff before, free and paid, but in the end it comes down to playing all the time to get better.  It's fun though

Might take a look at Scott’s bass lessons

For me, knowing I've just paid over a hundred quid for it is motivation enough to pick it up and do something most days.

By the time I have to pay again I'll either be flying along and loving it or know for a fact I'm a lazy time waster.

Going back to work will be the killer for me.

I'm also with SBL but on monthly pay.

Had a couple of 'Aha!' moments already (no, not the bass line to Take on Me) which has made a difference quickly, and I'm enjoying the theory a bit more that I thought I would too.

How does SBL work? Do you buy sets of lessons or is it a monthly fee for whatever you want. It's another of these stupid sites that isn't up front. That alone is usually enough to put me off

You pay an annual fee of around $120 and get access to everything as far as I can tell. And there's tonnes of it, being added to constantly. I was a bit put off by lack of obvious pricing and stuff but I got over it so I can learn something instead of staring at the wall. They also hammer you with emails and ads on social media, most of which I've blocked now that I've signed up.

I find the theory is sinking in as well. You learn so much just from listening to people conversing and putting things in context.

My first attempt at playing was me alone in a room with a bass guitar and no one around to answer questions or demonstrate anything. I used to get stuck constantly. Don't have any of those excuses these days.

Might have to look in to some of these. Played bass for years, but a long time ago now. When I moved and had nobody to jam with I stopped. Definitely worth finding a drummer to play with if you can in my opinion. Makes it ten times more fun and I reckon you’ll progress quicker too.

Just checked (put in a just email address) and the next step gives you the price.  It is either 30usd/month or 174usd/year (140ish gbp I guess).  Says that gives you access to the full library.  Might have to fire up the trial and see

Don’t skimp on the theory side. I learnt to play six string by patterns rather than understanding much of the theory and sort of learnt roots of chords up and down the neck. As a bass player you can get away with patterns but knowing why certain notes work in certain keys will give you a much wider palette.

Just signed up for Fender play for free, so 👍

Perfect timing for a grounded airline captain!

Definitely worth finding a drummer to play with if you can in my opinion

There's a really good drummer in my street but I don't want to hassle him yet until I can muddle my way through a few tracks.

Also the SBL site has a 'groove trainer' which has a programmable metronome and a drum looper with dozens of drum tracks on it. Rock, blues funk etc. and some weird time signatures. Pretty good for bumbling along to once you've learned a few chord shapes.

Definitely worth finding a drummer to play with if you can in my opinion

My son plays drums - not sure how cool he would rate jamming with his dad.

If you’re looking for Jam tracks, YouTube is your friend. When you’ve got up and running there are any number of bass cover tracks where you can read the tab or the stave and watch the player if that’s how you learn best.

Boss have an online resources library of wav files including drum tracks, but you may have to have made a purchase. I’ll look for the link when I get home.

Are the Fender lessons exclusive to guitar or whatever or do you get access to everything? Daughter has a Ukulele and missus has a guitar languishing in the loft. I sold my 4K years ago after not having the time or inclination to properly learn how to play it.

Lots of drum track available as apps on phone (assuming you can input into your amp). If iOS then Garageband is good and have a good drummer feature where you can easily make your own drum loops, control tempo etc,.

Been doing the bass ones on Fender Play, right from the beginning. They are very good - their whole system is actually.

I started playing bass in a band thinking it would be easy since I've been playing guitar for years. I was wrong!

I am also really scared to look at the guitar lessons and find out what I've been doing wrong all these years!

I've subscribed to the Fender Play freebie too. As ourguitarhero says, there are techniques to bass playing that don't translate from guitar to bass, but knowing how a fretboard works gives a bit of a headstart. So far bass playing has got me thinking far harder about scales and individual notes. Who knew how hard fretting a 105 gauge string with your little finger would be when you're used to slinky 9s......

Are the Fender lessons exclusive to guitar or whatever or do you get access to everything? Daughter has a Ukulele and missus has a guitar languishing in the loft. I sold my 4K years ago after not having the time or inclination to properly learn how to play it.

I'm pretty sure you get the option to choose Ukelele.

starting to get the hang of chord shapes, majors, minors, diminished 7ths and so on but haven't yet had that lightbulb moment of how to get them into an improvised bass line around a song's chord structure. Sort of like having a good vocab and knowing the endings of verbs, but I can't write a decent sentance that conveys meaning AND sounds interesting.

I also had a question, I know chord shapes for the 4 main chord types by patterns on the fretboard, but what if your root note is an open string? OK, you could come down to 5th fret on the string below but what if for example I wanted say an Emaj chord; the third would be -1 fret on the A string by patterns, which OK is 4th on the E but that's then a new pattern. Do you learn new patterns or go to the E an octave up?

(same if the pattern takes you on to a 'fifth' string for example)

Might be dumb / may be covered in a future lesson but hasn't been yet.

I also had a question, I know chord shapes for the 4 main chord types by patterns on the fretboard, but what if your root note is an open string? OK, you could come down to 5th fret on the string below but what if for example I wanted say an Emaj chord; the third would be -1 fret on the A string by patterns, which OK is 4th on the E but that’s then a new pattern. Do you learn new patterns or go to the E an octave up?

(same if the pattern takes you on to a ‘fifth’ string for example)

Might be dumb / may be covered in a future lesson but hasn’t been yet.

I haven't covered bass chords, but the E major chord pattern on 6 string is Open E (E=root), second fret A string (B= fifth ) second fret D string (E=octave) first fret G string (G#= maj 3rd) :::::::::: open B (B=fifth) and open E (E= another octave).

So your maj 3rd G# is first fret on the G string.

So a perfectly workable Emajor chord is Open E, fret 2 A string, fret 2 D string and fret 1 G string. This is a pattern burned into 6 string players' minds as it's movable and is the basic shape for all major barre chords with roots on the E string.

Also, if you drop the first fret on the G string you flatten the third and create the minor chord.

Try not to think of all your chords stacked in order. The way the guitar works means that you haven't got enough fingers, so many of the shapes are inverted chords, but still sound great.

Electro acoustic bass any good for a beginner?

Can’t think why not. Saves you buying an amp until you know where you’re going.

Electro acoustic bass any good for a beginner?

I’d probably just get an electric. Acoustic basses aren’t really loud enough to jam with an acoustic guitar. You can still practice on a electric bass unplugged or get a cheap headphone amp. I did look at get an acoustic bass a while back but after reading up on it I came to the conclusion most bassists thought they were a waste of time.

Ref online lessons..., SBL is good, but he does waffle on a bit so it can take 5 minutes or so before he gets down to the nitty gritty. Prefer Mark from talkingbass.net. Both put out tons of free stuff on YouTube so you can work through this first before deciding which to spend money on.

I took up the bass about 3-4 years ago and my playing really improved in the last year when I joined a band and started gigging, so I’d push yourself to do this as soon as you can.

Ive played bass and guitar in bands since being a teenager. Never learnt properly as it all looks a bit too dull and like hard work. I just learned how to read tab (which is very very easy) and jammed along to songs i like.

For me if its hard work i tend to jib it off very quickly. Music is more about fun.

i really rate SBL. i have played bass for about 20 years, and a year or so doing various courses on SBL has really improved my technique. i've learned an awful lot of other stuff too that's pretty useful to my playing.

theotherjonv - what I took away from SBL's teaching about the "chord shapes" is that you need to get really good at linking them all up on different parts of the fretboard, and at switching between them (even halfway through them or whatever). next up you should look at the scales, which are another layer of melodic information that you can use along with your chord shapes. that's the melody side.

but the main part of making improvisation (or bass playing in general) sound interesting is the rhythm. that's the key to it. and he has separate lessons for that.

I haven’t covered bass chords

Chords, on bass? Keep your six stringed ways away from the bottom end 😃 they just sound weird on a bass and a bit wrong.

My son plays drums – not sure how cool he would rate jamming with his dad.

So does mine, and it was him that persuaded me to buy a bass and start learning so that we could play together.

But deep down I know that he just wanted a bass guitar 😀

Chords, on bass? Keep your six stringed ways away from the bottom end 😃 they just sound weird on a bass and a bit wrong.

Tell that to Lemmy (RIP)

Chords, on bass? Keep your six stringed ways away from the bottom end 😃 they just sound weird on a bass and a bit wrong.

Also, he doesn't really mean playing them as chords, rather as arpeggios.  Knowing the chords gives you an idea of the best set of notes to be using to reinforce that part of the song

Signed up for the 14 day trial for SBL (the fender one isn't available in Belgium - I'm guessing because of the rights issues with the backing tracks they have).  SBL is surprisingly good.  His waffle is a little annoying but it's also part of the 'style', it sort of draws you in.  I think I've learned as much from other things but SBL seems more enjoyable and he does push experimenting rather than purely learning the riffs that he has set up for practicing various techniques.  I liked the video on setting up the guitar, one of the better ones that I have seen on that subject.   It's got me back into practicing which might be worth it on it own but lets see when the 14 days is up

not chords, chord shapes; eg: major chord shape is root, 3rd, 5th and 7th, and any of these will work against that chord (as in not be discordant, won't necessarily sound 'right')

Is that an arpeggio then? I remember them from school but didn't put the two together.

have a look at rocksmith, its a great sysytem of dynamic tab with a massive song library. has lessons and stuff as well. just plug your bass or guitar into any pc ps4 of xbox via and away you go.

I’m pretty sure you get the option to choose Ukelele.

You can but that wasn't what I was asking. Is it an either or, or can you jump between disciplines?

Been playing since the mid 90s. Is Scott less long winded / waffly in the subscription vids than the free ones?

 Is Scott less long winded / waffly in the subscription vids than the free ones?

Just watched a couple of YouTube vids and they seemed similar to the paid stuff. It takes him 3 or 4 mins to get going each lesson and it's not 'concise'.  You get used to it I think

I forgot to mention before but one of the fun things is the forum where people post their own playing for the pros to comment on.  It's strangely good.  A mixture of some great playing and some other stuff that makes you think you are not so bad.

Tell that to Lemmy (RIP)

That’s kinda proving the point 😉 would rather tell it to Claypool or Tim Commoford. People that can really play the bass. Each to their own though.

Knowing the chords gives you an idea of the best set of notes to be using to reinforce that part of the song

Learning scales and playing with others will see you in good stead. Never learned a single chord and played for years. Not knocking it, they’re just not really needed. Your ear and playing with others will pretty much cover it.

les clypool uses loads of chords in his repertoir, particualry firzzle fry and sea of cheese era stuff.

You can but that wasn’t what I was asking. Is it an either or, or can you jump between disciplines?

Think you need a different email address to get another code, and the site asks you to create a user profile.

Sorry using Lemmy as an example threw me 😂 never knew that about Claypool so I stand corrected. Only really learned to play Winonas Big Brown Beaver though.

I mainly played funk stuff (surprisingly) and still stand by the fact that chords aren’t necessarily needed for learning bass. Not widely used by the majority in groovy stuff either. I learned loads of stuff from early Sabbath through to Sly Stone and Kyuss. Stuff with groove and never came across a single chord. Must’ve just been lucky or avoided tunes that used them. No Motörhead for me 😉

have a look at john the fisherman, chord tastic groovea from the claypool

Will take a look 👍🏼

I think that I am going to give learning bass a go as well.

Given that I have my 2020 holiday budget to blow on something else now. I can afford something reasonably decent. What do you think is the best option, go cheap until I decide I like it and then commit. Or get something bottom end proper (like a fender player jazz bass) that I could probably sell on for a decent amount if it spends the next 12 months gathering dust? Does that price point retain decent value? (ignoring the fact that there could be a glut of second hand guitars on the market next summer).

I'm not a bass guitarist, just learning it, but from playing acoustic guitars it is much more fun to learn on something nice rather than bottom end.  Think of it a bit like bikes - you can get by on a BSO but it's much nicer on something a bit more mid range and you are more likely to pick it up and play.  Fender Player Jazz looks a good option but I think you can go cheaper and still have a good time before you get to the real bottom end. There are some real bass players on here that will know better.  I've got a cheaper Yamaha which plays nicely but the electrics have never been fantastic - the jack socket and pots are a bit noisy.  Easy enough to fix though and that's the only problem I've had with it.

I had a Fender Jazz, sounded lovely but went out of tune if you’ll looked at it wrong. Go all out and get a Musicman Stingray, lovely bass. In all seriousness though get something cheap in a package with a decent practice amp to start with.

a 2k bass is too much, but on the other hand I don't really want to go cheap, I want something that is at least sellable if I don't take to it rather than becoming landfill.

I def agree with buying something decent, but you don't have to go mad for a first go particularly if it's on a bit of a whim.

If of any interest I have a Talman TMB100 just like this one (same colour) that I'd sell for £80

New price is around £150; I've had it a year but I struggled with a shoulder problem and a full scale bass hurts it reaching to the low frets (I didn't realise that it was hard until I went into a shop and played a short scale and found it SO much more comfortable) - so now I have a Squier Mustang.

Only issue with it is that one of the knobs is a little sticky; in the review there's an inner and outer and on one of the two sets they both move together. You can move them separately by holding one still and maybe someone with more nouse could easily fix it. Otherwise, unmarked.

For anyone looking for bass kit, worth having a look at Ashdown Engineering website during the lockdown they are having a warehouse and workshop clearout.
They have put a lot of items on their B-Stock page.

Don't forget your stance. This boy has nailed the STW aesthetic to a tee. The hair (now a skullet), those stacked heels, the keenly pressed jeans with pin sharp crease.

You can almost smell the heady mix of melted Crocs, Hai Karate, old leather, damp canvas and mildew caravan.

I’ve just bitten the bullet on my first year with Scott’s Bass Lessons. Did the 14 day trial and realised there’s a lifetime worth of lessons, practicing and exercises there. I’ll never get through it all but I’ll always have something new to do. They also have a busy forum and group exercises which I haven’t gotten into yet. He’s also constantly uploading new content.

FWIW I've just done the same.  I can't remember what I first tried years ago but this seems way better.  The lessons are very similar to other courses in that it's a mix of technical skills mixed in with music theory and timing.  It's not very 'linear' in that there isn't a path you go through and you come out as a great bass player.  Rather there is a group of courses that you will probably go through a good few times and each time you will spot something you probably didn't before.  Really what they want you to do is get up and running and then try and play along to stuff you know, either copying or making your own lines up.  The inspiring part is in the forums seeing what other people are doing and it motivates you to want to try it yourself.  Some of the other stuff I had tried was a bit dry and you went through the course but it never really made you want to play.  It seems like a lot of the life is in the forums, especially the monthly thing where he looks at what other people are posting and asking questions on.  There are clearly a bunch of people who can really play but there are enough others to make it not too show-offey

Likes

After a stuttering start, I've just resubscribed to the fender play course and loving it. Looks a though the free trial has been extended - I just needed to use a different email address to sign up again.

Nathan King, of Andertons All About The Bass videos, brother of Level 42 bassist Mark King and guitarist in Level 42, all round fantastic musician is doing online lessons for all abilities. Find him on Andertons YouTube channel, social media, etc.