I got an SX BG2K LPB Bass Guitar and Amp Package for Christmas. It came yesterday; I was allowed to open it and set it up. I tuned it and played a few riffs from Come Together.
The color is actually a deeper metallic blue.
I have a long way to go to become proficient; I feel like Dorothy when she first stepped onto the Yellow Brick Road. :lol:
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
Whooo, you're on your way. Congrats! An early Christmas blessing that's not hard to take, or actually very easy on the eyes. And a CD or instructional DVD, and you're on the road to Oz, that is news! :D
Like a bird on the wire,
like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free.
I was taking live lessons (guitar) but I felt I wasn't getting much out of them. I've been learning more from sites like this, Justin Guitar and other on-line sites than I did in live lessons. I was going to switch to bass in live lessons for a while, but withdrew this week.
Anyway, I've been scarfing up sites and books from all over the galaxy. I have Guitar For Dummies, Rock Guitar For Dummies, Bass Guitar for Dummies, and last but certainly not least, our very own David Hodge's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Bass Guitar. Not to mention all kinds of bookmarked YT vids. Can you say "obsessive compulsive disorder"? :lol:
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
Well, at the end of the yellow brick road is a wizard. You've got a good start, David's book is top class.
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Very good! I skimmed it briefly when I got it months ago, in preparation for the day I got a bass. Now I'll delve into it.
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
Welcome to the low end :D Be careful, some of us ventured down the yellow brick road and never returned to the land of tiny strings. I still use my guitar to write and record demos, but when asked what I play, I respond w/ "I play bass." Something about a low E note pumping through a 300 watt amp and 15" speakers reaches down into your soul.
Ahahaha Someone else said something similar, about my guitars gathering dust. Better not, I've got my Yamaha 12-string on layaway. :lol: I love all kinds of music (except rap :roll: ), and am now beginning to appreciate what all goes into a performance. Some day down the road I will get a small electronic keyboard to noodle around with.
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
Hey Frank nice bass, good luck with the new toy. So did I read your post correctly you stopped taking lessons? Any particular reason?
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Hey Frank nice bass, good luck with the new toy.
Thanks. :D
So did I read your post correctly you stopped taking lessons? Any particular reason?
Indeed, you read correctly. I'll tell you why I withdrew...
Again, as in the past the lessons were going nowhere fast. They were turning into the Song Of The Week Club. I had to keep coming up with ideas of what to work on (i.e. subject matter). I have a list of songs I want to learn, that could choke a horse, but I can learn them on my own. I wasn't looking forward to having to come up with a lesson plan every week.
Now, when I signed up I stated that I wanted to learn music: theory, techniques and so on, not just songs. We did scales and keys, basic chord theory, triads, 7th chords. When I asked about CAGED, transposing keys, etc. he told me none of that was really useful in what I wanted to play... the songs were already written. So here we were, back to what I didn't want to do... learn songs by rote, as 90% of his students (kids) wanted.
In the past week or two I've gotten into studying transposing, CAGED, modes, major and minor triads, and such. Can I take a quiz? No, not yet, but I'm getting to understand the concepts and theory. And I can keep going over the material and videos to reinforce something. I just started looking at reggae yesterday, and last night I was playing Bad Boys, albeit a little rough. Over the weekend in a few hours I cranked out Blue on Black, and am getting ready to give Crying and Stand by Me a go. A few weeks ago I did Runaway Train in a few hours. Sure, they are easy songs, but an example that I don't need to pay $85/month to learn that.
Well, I'm rambling now. :oops: But I think it speaks to the fact that some learning methods work better than others for different people.
I watched a little of the dvd that came with the bass package, and listened to an mp3 example of a shuffle pattern over A and E chords.
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
I hear you and I understand, struggle with that myself to but right now I can afford the lessons, it gives me something to work on and I'm learning a lot of songs.
I guess I look at things slightly different, to me learning the theory part is something that you can do on your own by just reading. Sure at some point you'll want to put that knowledge to practice but I don't think a teacher is that neccessary to learn that.
So I guess I'd be the opposite i'd keep a teacher to work on songs and not for theory but that's me. I struggle sometimes rationalizing whether the money is well spent.
The songs I play and the ones you listed are for the most part pretty easy songs and yes you could learn to play them without a teacher but as the difficulty level increase that's where I think a teacher will bring value, at least if they are any good.
I've mentioned this before but I've become so used to his style of tabbing a song that I can't stand using anything else and I'm not sure which I hate more the incomplete 99% wrong internet tab or the ridiculous tabs in the books you buy. The notation is so busy and sometimes not much better than internet tab spread over 12 pages that can be written on 1-2.
So for me I can take one of his tabs, come back from a lesson and usually play the song in an hour or so tops sometimes the first time through. There are some songs that might have a difficult part that may take a bit longer and those are the areas I need to work on.
But I also seem to have this addiction to learn a new song constantly it's almost like I enjoy learning the song but when I finally have learned it I'm ready to move on to something else immediately.
That has been the biggest problem for me because I also want to spend more time developing my lead playing skills which I basically don't practice much on it's own. I mean I am still working on leads to covers I'm learning but I'm not developing my own ability much with the way practice is structured but that's my fault because I pretty much call the shots.
If I had the money I thought about doing two lessons a week, one to work on songs and the other just strictly technical/lead playing.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Yes, I weighed the pros and cons of going it alone regarding learning more difficult songs. I still have trepidation about tackling some songs that I think right now are beyond me. But where there's a will, there's a way. I wanted to learn Bad Company, and found a cover which I observed and copied. Sounds pretty good. But I also figured out the original recording (Ebm, 1/2 step down), which I can play along with. Sometimes watching someone's cover can get you through the song. Of course there are covers out there that are no better than most tabs and chord sheets.
My latest thing is taking piano songs and converting to guitar. Magic Mirror by Leon Russell, which he plays on piano, is out of print. Cannot be found for love or money. I didn't think I would be able to convert it to guitar by myself, but after I saw how my teacher did it, I thought "well geez, I could have done that". Not to sound cocky now, or arrogant, but it's a matter of listening and thinking outside the box, and setting limits. That is, if you know the song, you hear a single note riff played over the chords in the intro and between the verses.
He asked me if I really wanted to do that. At the time I was undecided, and settled for just the rhythm chords. But yes, I do want to play it that way... or as close as possible. It won't be exact, of course. What I'm going to attempt is to work the riff notes into the chords.
Could It Be Magic is going to be a bit of a challenge and come out to be my own cover. It's based on Chopin's Prelude #20 in Cm.
When we did the 7th chords, for example, we spent 2 or 3 sessions on them, but I spent as much time as I had in those 2-3 weeks to understand them and chart them (I love charts and cheat sheets, then I visualize). What I did with the rest of the basic theory I mentioned is just what you said... read up in books or pages on the interwebz.
I agree that the tabs and chord sheets on the web suck big time. I've taken them as a basis and reworked them. Even published sheet music you find at Musicnotes.com or Sheetmusicdirect.com is sometimes awful, and not worth the money.
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
That's cool whatever works for you. I think one of the main reasons I am sticking with my teacher is because I'm playing in this "garage" band or better yet "basement" band and I don't like being the last one to learn a song. when we agree on adding a new song by the next practice I like to be ready to play it. Unfortunately our bass player doesn't have the same idea and it ususually ends up to be 2-3 weeks before he learns a new song, which for me gets frustrating because I never know what to work on during those weeks with my teacher. It takes forever to "agree" on new songs so I end up learning 3-4 songs we will probably never play for every one that we do end up playing.
We decided to play three Cars songs about a month ago so I went and learned them and now here we are a month later and all we are playing is one of them oh well.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
That's cool whatever works for you. I think one of the main reasons I am sticking with my teacher is because I'm playing in this "garage" band or better yet "basement" band and I don't like being the last one to learn a song. when we agree on adding a new song by the next practice I liek to be ready to play it.
Ah well, there you go! You have a coach, rather than a teacher, as I see it. And you have a good one from what you've written over time. That's actually what I've wanted. I want to have a more experienced person coach me, and jam with me. Maybe I'll find that if I look hard enough.
Unfortunately our bass player doesn't have the same idea and it ususually ends up to be 2-3 weeks before he learns a new song, which for me gets frustrating because I never know what to work on during those weeks with my teacher. It takes forever to "agree" on new songs so I end up learning 3-4 songs we will probably never play for every one that we do end up playing.
We decided to play three Cars songs about a month ago so I went and learned them and now here we are a month later and all we are playing is one of them oh well.
Ouch! No doubt that's frustrating.
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
Yea probably coach is a better description but here's where I know I'm not using him to the fullest. I rarely play for him because there isn't much point he tabs out the rhtym and then solo's and any fills and I go home and learn it. Since we already have a lead guitarists I haven't tried to learn every solo so for a lot of songs it's the rhytym and some lead fills.
But I rarely have a problem with that so I don't go in and play for him all the time. If I do have an issue it's more likely with the notes or the rhythym he wrote out. He has helped me out with fingering issues at times but that has really been minimal.
I think getting back into lead playing what might do a bit of jamming during practice but right now we don't do much.
There's no doubt in my mind that I have improved dramatically since being with him, now would I have made the same progress on my own I doubt it but I still am probably not getting the most value out of him that I could be.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Yea probably coach is a better description but here's where I know I'm not using him to the fullest. I rarely play for him because there isn't much point he tabs out the rhtym and then solo's and any fills and I go home and learn it. Since we already have a lead guitarists I haven't tried to learn every solo so for a lot of songs it's the rhytym and some lead fills.
It sounds like you get a full sheet to learn and play from. I never got that from any of my teachers. I got basically shorthand that I had to go home and improve upon, usually with the help of YT covers or some tutorials, or comparing his transcription to UG tabs or chord sheets.
There's no doubt in my mind that I have improved dramatically since being with him, now would I have made the same progress on my own I doubt it but I still am probably not getting the most value out of him that I could be.
I may have said it before, and if I did, it bears repeating... you are very lucky! ;)
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
