Eight

Not starting 2009 as I mean to go on... only managed to grab ten minutes or so with the bass and I fly away for a week tonight. Bah. But, the first line I played this year was "My Michelle" (Guns and Roses). Played badly of course, I'm a newb and it turns out Duff McKagan was actually pretty good. Followed by a few attempts to figure out "Feed The Gods" by White Zombie. Struggling... not helped that I'm pretty sure the guitar tab I looked at for a bit of a clue seems wrong.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='366406' date='Dec 30 2008, 05:01 PM']Do you mean the relative minor coming off the 6 th note of a major scale?[/quote] That'd be the natural/harmonic minor; the melodic minor is an annoying theory where the ascending and descending forms are different from each other - supposedly because it sounds better in melody lines.

Hi Kris, Thanks for posting. I was just reading through bits of your blog yesterday (from another thread I stumbled upon) and I think you really have a knack for presenting useful stuff for beginners - I'm very grateful that are there are guys like you around, and look forward to sitting down with your videos a little later today. So far my first experience with learning this thing has been so much more fun and rewarding because of the help/tips/pointers I've been receiving from fellow bass players. I don't know if you all realise just how unusual it is - clearly bassists are a better class of people.

[quote name='ednaplate' post='366528' date='Dec 30 2008, 07:24 PM']Coldplay are also easy enough if you like eighth note plodfests.[/quote] Now I try very hard to keep my musical tastes out of "practice" time. i.e. I don't have to like the band/song to learn something from playing it; but I would struggle to sit through more than a couple of repetitions of any Coldplay track. Lol. Of course, I mean no disrespect to anyone who does like them. I can see why they are popular, they're just not for me. (Although if forced to admit it, I did kinda like that single speed of sound or whatever its called).

[quote name='Absolute-beginner' post='365420' date='Dec 29 2008, 12:40 PM']might also be a good idea to get a tutor who will give you a grounding in tecnique and the ability to read music.[/quote] I agree. I plan to start taking lessons in the new year (I didn't think the christmas holidays was a good time to go hassling tutors ) - was just asking for suggestions to keep me going until then. I can read music (not amazingly well, but functional), but I know there's also so much beyond technique that a good teacher is going to be able to help me through. And its great that so many people have suggested tunes to try out - thank you for this - I'm having a lot of fun playing (or trying to) through them.

[quote name='mewsie' post='364409' date='Dec 27 2008, 07:33 PM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq6O_9RjCUs&feature=related"]gimme some lovin'[/url] is a nice straightforward song![/quote] That's a very cool track - so cool I had to try playing it straight away. I got about half way through before my plucking hand seized up, lol. And that octave riff just told me my bass is out of tune. *sigh*

Wow. Thank you so much guys - I must admit the songs that have been suggested so far would never have occurred to me, but are quality.

[quote name='Absolute-beginner' post='364376' date='Dec 27 2008, 06:39 PM']Hi Eight, and welcome. I started a thread about this a while ago, Ill see if I can find the link for you.[/quote] Cheers mate, I'd appreciate that. I did do a couple of searches before posting, but didn't find anything (probably made poor choices in search terms).

Hi all, I just bought my first bass guitar and am sorting out a teacher for the new year, but in the mean time I've just been practicing some of the boring (but necessary) stuff like scales, learning the fretboard notes etc. etc. I was wondering if anyone can recommend some good rock/metal/blues songs to try as I'm having real problems here. Every time I think of something I find the tab is woefully incorrect; or I can't make out the bassline well enough on the track to decipher the tab; or the songs I have the "dots" for are too hard; or all of the above. Such a newbie post I know, but I'm feeling a little demotivated now and thought it'd be better to try and remedy the situation even if it meant embarrassing myself here.