[Bass] To enjoy the bass for a long time - Lets start with the bass clef

Hello. This is Yoshitaka posting here.

This time, I'd like to write a little from my experience for those who are thinking of changing instrument from guitar to bass, or considering starting the bass.

1. Changing (or starting) an instrument is a chance to improve your ability to read music.

If you've been playing the bass for a long time, you might be familiar with the bass clef score (for the bass part) or score in C (with melody and chords), not tab.

At first, I started with the guitar, but since I was only playing singing folk music, I couldn't play the melody or solo sight-reading even if I knew the chords to some extent. In such a situation, the bass player of our band suddenly left, so we needed a bassist and I started playing bass. Of course, at first I could only played chords with a root note and fifth.

When changing instruments, the band was a combo band that included wind instruments, so I was given the bass clef score for the bass part. I wasn't able to read it at all since it was the first time since the Beyer instruction book I used in elementary school. But I worked on it together with the bass, and my reading ability improved.

I personally think music reading skills will improve faster if you start with an instrument. When starting a bass or changing instrument from guitar to another instrument, I think it's better to familiarize yourself with the bass clef instead of tab.

2. Knowing the rhythm pattern and bassline help you to be flexible.

After that, I came across a good instruction book. It's a book about the rhythm patterns and phrases.

8-beat, 16-beat, samba, swing, beguine, rumba, bossa nova, etc. were introduced in the book according to each rhythm pattern. I was able to play to a certain degree in a band with vocals using the score in C and rhythm patterns that I learned thoroughly from the book.

At the same time, I became addicted to jazz and bossa nova, so I came to understand the chord composition and progress little by little. Today, we can obtain a lot of information from videos on the internet. However, as a result, plain training such as finishing one instruction book start-to-finish and working on the bassline with chord book led me to enjoy playing bass for a long time.

Of course, I can't play the techniques required for the likes of fusion, and I don't think I'll be able to do it even if I practice. But even if I can't play fast, I hope I'll be able to support the band with a thorough performance. It might sound pretentious, but I want to be such a bassist.

Music stands

■ PLAYTECH (formerly ZENN) / MS20BK Music stand

■ PLAYTECH / MS05 Music stand

Bass straps

■ Right On STRAPS / FAKEY Brown