learning bass guitar naturally

so in the past year i have been playing bass guitar i taught myself all i know i can play but im nothing speical... :/
i was wondering if i get my bass and just play with it everyday for a few years on the road will i maybe just learn to play faster and better naturally? or do i have to take lessons or look up new stuff...

 

lol,,, yea dude,,, you have to read a book and watch a dvd documentary before you dare even attempt anything in real life,,,, As mama always said,, "Sonny,,, the way that humanity has always progressed, is by doing exactly as the last generation has told us to do,,, stay in the comfort zone,,, the tried and true;;;

 

I learned how to play by ear and became quite good in a few years. At some point, I naturally transitioned to learning the theory, and it came quite easily to me, as learning by ear kind of taught me my own form of theory. I am now a competent active jazz musician who can also play progressive rock well.

 

Money by Pink Floyd. The easiest Bass prog you can get..

 

You wanna be a great bass player... understand that the bass is part of the *rhythm* section. If you can nail the rhythm and carry the groove you as a bass player have accomplished 60% of your duty. I've seen bass players make great strides from learning a bit of drums. I've seen bass players fail miserably and bring bands down because they are determined to play a lead or simply follow the melody and detach from the drums. The bass bridges the drum to melody, it is unique in this quality and must be treated as such... a proper bass dissapears but still defines the song.

IMO theory is very useful, but please, my god PLEASE do not fall into the line of thinking that because I am @ this fret on this string I am playing THIS note... LISTEN!!!! LISTEN!!!! PLEASE LISTEN!!!! You can be on the correct fret, on the correct string, but sound like total horses ass. How? You hold the string too hard/soft, you pluck the string to hard/soft, you pluck the string in the wrong location, your instrument has generally poor intonation, there is a horrible rattle coming from your amp, string buzz... all of the above and more!!! LISTEN to what is going on, blind faith is best left for those who think sky daddy's gonna bring them salvation.

And stop saying your nothing special. Dude, your special, your YOU and NOBODY else is! One of a kind = special... embrace this, put it into all you do (bass too) and the world will thank you in ways unforeseen.

A great bass player can make any bass sound good, a bad one will make any bass sound bad... as long as what ya got works, work it. Learn the inner workings of your instrument, learn some string theory, some electronics knowledge is also helpful to resolve various sonic issues that may arise.

But really... just play and have fun

 

Haha yes, except that it's in 7/4 time.
That took me ages to figure out. Which seems silly to me now.

You should find people to play with, once you have a basic grasp of the instrument. That was what accelerated my guitar playing immensely. Just hang out and jam and stuff, or play songs that you all know, just for fun. Even if you don't really know what you're doing, you will most likely get into it very soon. And it's great fun, if they're cool people. Or you could play along with songs, that helps too.

Elbow was right on the money with the rhythm and feeling the groove and stuff.

 

play alot
listen alot
watch alot

its as easy as that

 

The simpler stuff ends up sounding the best anyway.

Playing with others is what accelerates your learning better than anything. With bass that means drums and guitar.

So, The greatest challenge for me early on was finding a guy whos parents/neighbours would let him play drums, and a guitar player that wasnt a complete dickhead

 

we're about to go onstage but we cant find our bass player...i thought i told you to keep an eye on him....someone saw him going across the street....isnt there a liquor store over there?....find the guitar roadie because he is gonna have to stand in....this is the last time this asshole is coming on tour with us....last night during the encore he was playing a different song than the rest of the band...i've had it..he always breaks our ''no shitting on the tour bus'' rule too......he's fired