How did you learn?

[daz]

When i tried to learn guitar,(not bass) years ago. I didnt have any books or videos, all i had was my music. I tried to learn a few songs, ot at least riffs, by ear. I just went around the fretboard till i knew by ear id hit the correct start note and went on from there, note by note. I knew nothing of chords and intervals, so the process was long and slow. When i moved back up North other distractions appeared and the guitar was put away.

Many years later i picked up the bass. That was 20 months ago, and i had the internet to tutor me on all the ins and outs, along with a few lessons. I truly dont know which was the better method. To know about intervals and scales is definately a plus, but whether it better than learning totally by ear, i have to wonder.

Edited August 8, 2011 by daz

[Etienne]

Another vote for 'by ear' here!

I bought my first bass back when I was 15, with money I'd saved up from doing chores for my parents. It was the same day that Kurt Cobain was announced dead on the news (can still clearly remember hearing about it from the car radio on the way home from the music shop with my dad). Later the same year, I received one of those all-in-one stereo boomboxes with a CD player in it for my birthday, and my godfather gave me the Police's Greatest Hits to try it out with- good choice!

From that moment on, I've always transcribed stuff by ear to this very day and have got by pretty well (it helps that I was blessed with perfect pitch), although I must say it's helped me greatly to learn some basic music theory (scales, modes, intervals, chord construction, etc) to back up the info my ears are telling me. Unfortunately, I still haven't got the hang of reading music, but that's my own fault for not applying myself more!

[Benplaysbass]

I started when I was about 16. My dad had a rock/pop covers band and they needed a bass player. I came home one day while he was thinking about advertising for one and he said 'here come down tonight and play bass' Yeah great dad, never played an instrument before in my life (apart from the obligatory recorder at primary school) He found out an old acoustic guitar with three strings on, showed me a few notes and away we went. Bit ropey for a start. But something clicked and I just got into it more and more. Bought a squire precision and was away. Since then I learn mostly by ear and use the internet alot too.

[obbm]

OP, I think there's an option missing from the list, a good old book, you know those things made of paper with printing on them.

In 1962 or thereabouts, when I started, there were no tutors, teachers, internet, tab, songbooks, etc. The only way to learn how to tune the bass, basic scales and chords was the book written by Chas McDevitt and Shirley Douglass, the name of which escapes me for the moment however I'm rather envious of the fact that Happy Jack actually still has a copy of it.

After that it was by ear, transcribing everything by hand.

[LiamPodmore]

Dad gave me a bass, started learning some tab and had lessons for about 2 years.

Liam

[Ancient Mariner]

It's complicated.

At the age of 11 I had lessons for brass, and played tuba in various orchestras and a military band until I was 19, becoming reasonably proficient and reading music.

At 16 I picked up the guitar and after 3 months could play a couple of simple songs, using chord books and words with chords. Went on from there to play by ear, playing lead in a couple of bands and buying my first bass (part-ex'd fairly quickly - horrid thing - in favour of a nice guitar). About 18 months ago I was 'out of work' musically speaking for the first time in 30 years, and picked up a couple of budget basses to learn how to play. I'm hardly proficient, but I can play like a bass player - watched what other players do and watched a couple of you-tube vids too.

[Marvin]

Not sure I've ever really learnt how to play the damned thing tbh.

I suppose a combination of books, tab, a little notation here and there, quite a bit from the internet these days. All sorts really.

I had four lessons. But stopped because paying £15/hour to learn the major scale, a walking bass line and the rudiments of slap seemed a tad expensive. There was also the fact I didn't really want to learn slap I wanted to learn how to apply the theory.

[scalpy]

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' post='1332633' date='Aug 8 2011, 07:52 PM']It's complicated.

At the age of 11 I had lessons for brass, and played tuba in various orchestras and a military band until I was 19, becoming reasonably proficient and reading music.

At 16 I picked up the guitar and after 3 months could play a couple of simple songs, using chord books and words with chords. Went on from there to play by ear, playing lead in a couple of bands and buying my first bass (part-ex'd fairly quickly - horrid thing - in favour of a nice guitar). About 18 months ago I was 'out of work' musically speaking for the first time in 30 years, and picked up a couple of budget basses to learn how to play. I'm hardly proficient, but I can play like a bass player - watched what other players do and watched a couple of you-tube vids too.[/quote]

I ended up on bass after playing the trumpet too. So many people seem to end up down here after playing brass!

What I should have made more clear in the OP is as well as the medium of learning, and the poll should have included books OBBM, I forgot, is that it would be interesting to find what is generating the motivation. Where does the dedication and focus come from to develop what is a complicated skill? For me, it was a strong sense of identity, I felt like I belonged with the musicians I was meeting and I wanted to be better than any other bass players in town so that I would be the one always offered the gig. (That didn't happen..!)

Harry

[grunge666]

Had drum lessons at school - Mom & Dad couldn't afford to get me a drum kit so, sold my ZX Spectrum and a suitcase full of games for £99 and bought a beat up Fender P from a second hand shop. I still use it!
Played along to the first 3 Iron Maiden albums on vinyl and with a bit of shock therapy* never looked back.

* the record played was 2nd hand and it used to give me electric shocks. The fuse blew one day and when I looked the live & earth wires were attached to the same pin!!

Edited August 12, 2011 by grunge666

[BigRedX]

What you really need to do is to correlate the learning method with when someone learnt to play.

Certainly when I started playing in the early 70s nearly everyone learnt to play by ear or from a friend (who'd probably learnt to play by ear themselves).

You could get sheet music of the more popular singles and albums, but they were scored out to play on the piano (plus simple guitar chords) so the bass line bore little resemblance to what the bass guitar did on the record.

I can't help but feel that "rock" musicians of the time were more stylistically adventurous because at least half the things they did had to be invented from scratch rather than being shown note for note exactly how their favourite musician was able to play the things they did.

[Pete Academy]

Entirely by ear.

[clarkpegasus4001]

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='1338015' date='Aug 12 2011, 06:46 PM']Entirely by ear.[/quote]

Same for me