So I've officially been playing bass for one year

[mfratt]

Yep. It was this time last year that I went down to Guitar Center and picked up my Ibanez jump start kit for $280. My first ever instrument.

 

I went in blind and cold. Zero musical understanding or knowledge, never played anything before (save my poor attempts at "strumming" chords I looked up online on an out-of-tune old fender acoustic). It was actually shortly after I began gaining interest in Rush a few years prior that I began developing an interest in playing bass (specifically, the badassery of Geddy Lee), and I was psyched to finally go home and play my new bass, having relied on my super-duper air bass for quite some time.

 

I got home, plugged it all in, and started screwing around. I started plucking away at the strings and making my best effort to note different frets (at random of course). I'm sure it must have sounded like complete crap, but when I laid down that night after jamming around since getting home from Guitar Center, and I felt the pain in my torn up, I knew just one thing about bass: I was hooked.

 

Over the next several months, I went to different websites to learn different fundamentals of playing; pretty much everything from how to hold the bass to fingering patterns for scales. I practiced and jammed for was must have averaged to a few hours per day, stumbling along a few cool riffs that I liked here and there (and still implement in my playing now, albeit in a little more developed of a form). I tried to teach myself a few songs by tabs, most of which I failed miserably at (I think the first song I tried to play was YYZ.....yeeeeeeeah...). The first song that I could actually play (and then play along to shortly thereafter) was Killing in the Name by RATM.

 

I did actually record myself playing a few times. I think I have videos dating back to February of 08. I can see, comparing then to now, how much I have developed, even over the last 6-12 months.

 

Today, one year from when I held the bass guitar in my hands for the first time, I know I still have a long way to go before I can play at the level I would like to play at (and it just keeps going on from there), but I see my progress, I hear my music, I hear the music of the world's greatest musicians and I am inspired to push on. I sit here today, with a decent understanding of the foundation of music theory, with an ability to play along to some of my favorite songs (Just got Hemispheres prelude down pretty well), able to jam out a decent bass line impromptu, in key and in time (well with a metronome at least), and all around so much improved and more confident of a bassist than I was even a few months ago.

 

There are plenty of areas that I know I need to work on (some I need to work on a lot), as I'm sure there is plenty which I don't even know that I don't know (read: completely ignorant to), and I look forward to developing and learning new things.

 

With perfect hind-sight, heres a few things I would have done differently (and words of caution if you're just starting out yourself):

- Learn to read standard notation instead of tabs. Not only would it have been useful in developing a better understanding of theory, but it would have also allowed me to learn by notes and not by frets. I still struggle now to think notes and not frets when I'm playing (but I am finally starting to overcome it).

- Sloooow it down. Both my "jamming" and trying to play off tabs. I always wanted to jump in head first and start playing everything as I would ideally want it to sound, which either lead in many cases to sloppy technique (which usually makes the playing sound like crap), or so much frustration trying to get it right that I just gave up on that piece of music. I suppose a good idea would have been to play to a metronome.

- Play with a metronome. Not only would it have helped playing slower, but my disregard for metrnomes means that today I struggle to play in time, and it is a big obstacle which I must overcome before I can even think of joining/starting a band.

- Theory. Theory. Theory. I wish I had paid a lot more attention to music theory than I did. Now that I am giving it some serious attention, I must first learn it then learn to implement it into my bass playing. Had I taught myself theory as I was first starting on bass, the two would have developed in unison and I would be more naturally inclined to relate them.

 

Sorry for the long read, just kind of went on an introspective rant. Its probably worth the read if you're just starting out or thinking of starting out on guitar or bass. I'm at my one year point and I definitely am loving it. The road behind me is long, but the road before me leads beyond the horizon.