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10 Things EVERY Bass Player Should Know (L#172)
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A few weeks ago I published a lesson called “The 6 Common Mistakes Made by Bass Players and How to Avoid Them”… and to say the response to that lesson has been amazing would be an understatement!
In just 4 weeks it had reached over 150,000 views on YouTube, and had 100’s of great comments too.
So, I thought it’d be fun to put another spin on this style of lesson and create “The 10 Things Every Bass Player Should Know”.
Lesson Summary
1. Groove and great time over everything else - make sure you’re working constantly on your own rhythmical development.
2. To get better you need to practice, but - you need to practice practicing - i.e. it’s not easy when you first start out - you need to build this into your routine, and more importantly it needs to become a habit!
3. You need to know exactly what to practice - this is like having a map. Wherever you are in the world, you could get to my house if I simply gave you my address. Now, if I asked you to get to my house but didn’t tell you my address, or even which country I lived in - it would be impossible, or at least take you 10,000 times longer. Practising an instrument is the same - you need some sort of map and goal - without it, you can literally waste years practising the wrong things.
4. You need to know how the instruments within a band interact with each other - for bass players, knowing how to interact with a drummer is paramount.
5. You need to know every note on the fretboard - no excuses.
6. You need to have a good knowledge of functional harmony - scales, arpeggios, chords.
7. You must know that your ears are your most valuable tool.
8. You must know that transcribing is a huge part of your development as a bass player.
9. You can’t know a song well enough - know the bass line, know the structure of the chords, know the melody - don’t just learn the bass line and leave it at that.
10. Mindset is absolutely key to everything you do on the bass! If you don’t have the right mindset, turning up to the shed every day will be incredibly hard.
Your Homework
Ok, this is what I believe are the top 10 - but, what do you think I’ve missed out?!
In the comments below let me know what would be in your “Top 10”!
As always, see you in the shed…
Scott :)
