Teenage daughter wants to learn bass!

[Tait]

ive only quikly skimmed through this thread, but i just wanna say that 13 isnt too young to be in a band! i started one in year seven, near the start of year seven, too, so i'd have been 11 when i started my first band. admittedly, we did no gigs, we rehersed in our bedroom and never actually had a singer, but it was still a laugh.

also i saw guitar pro mentioned - its good for learning songs because you can slow down the bass part and hear exactly how it should be played, but i dont think its worth getting as a beginner tbh.

[bassmanbish]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='203204' date='May 20 2008, 08:05 PM']Hi Bean - bin there dun that.

Three years ago my daughter was 13 and had just decided to give up flute and learn bass. In the event she got bored after three months and gave up, but that had nothing to do with having no one to play with - we're in London and half her friends (at the time) seemed to play guitar.

Silver lining? I picked up her discarded bass, and I haven't stopped playing bass since.

My point is, don't spend a lot of money getting her a "good" bass or even a "decent" bass. Pick up a mass-produced Fender copy second-hand - you'll get something perfectly playable for less than £100. There's a Nevada P-bass on eBay right now with a Buy-It-Now of £70. Alternatively, take a look at the [i]Basses For Sale[/i] on this site; there's a MIM (Made In Mexico) Fender for sale today at £150 ... the Fender name alone is worth at least £50!

Buy her one of the teach-yourself books (I recommend the ones by Stuart Clayton) and see if she does anything with it. If she takes it seriously and gets stuck in, it's easy enough to trade up to a higher-quality bass, and to arrange some lessons before she picks up bad habits.

If she's particularly small, or has very small hands, then you might want to consider buying a short-scale bass rather than a long-scale one. That doesn't mean it's a scaled-down copy of a "real" bass ... just that it has a shorter neck with the frets closer together, and therefore a lower string tension to compensate.

Good luck.


Edit: Oops! That MIM Fender has already sold - I told you £150 was a good price! -_-[/quote]

Hi chaps

Thought I would chime in as I started playing bass at around the same age (13-14). I partly agree with Happy Jack with regards to choosing a bass - it would be madness to spend a fortune on a bass for her, but I would also say it's vital to actually try one before putting your hand in your pocket.

The quality of cheap, mass-produced basses varies wildly (eg how the neck feels, how they play and sound, general construction etc). Consequently, there's no substitute for visiting your local music shops and trying a few - you'll know what plays well and sounds good etc but your daughter won't. As Happy Jack also mentioned, you could go down the second-hand route, but I would still recommend trying before buying. It's definitely possible to get a good bass that won't break the bank, but on the other hand she could end up with a piece of crap.

Just my opinon (although I started on an Encore precision copy thing from my mum's Kays catalogue so it's amazing I stuck it out)!

Cheers
Matt

[queenofthedepths]

[quote name='lwtait' post='203880' date='May 21 2008, 08:09 PM']also i saw guitar pro mentioned - its good for learning songs because you can slow down the bass part and hear exactly how it should be played, but i dont think its worth getting as a beginner tbh[/quote]
It worked well for me as a beginner! Probably the most useful tool I've ever had as a musician

[budget bassist]

Yeah, same here. Probably the most useful part of it is being able to mute everything but one track and slow it down, makes the learning process so much easier.

[FJ1200]

Also been there. My eldest is 15 this year. 3 years ago it was a keyboard - now gathering dust in her bedroom. 2 years ago it was a guitar. Now gathering dust in the study. On both occasions we bought a reasonable instrument, and said that if she was really keen ands kept it up we'd buy her a better one. Now she says she's bored all ther time and we point out she has more 'stuff' than we ever had, and has 2 instruments to learn either of which would server her well in the future.

And we also realised at that point we sounded just like OUR parents! We take the 'play it for fun, play for the sheer enjoyment of playing' route. She sees me picking up my bass all the time, 5 minutes here, 3 minutes there, 2 hours somewhere else simply cos I love it. I'm hoping it'll catch on!

[OldGit]

[quote name='dlloyd' post='204088' date='May 22 2008, 09:44 AM']I remember the days when I used to stare longingly at the Marlin guitars in Kays catalogue... horrible plywood things, not much better than a Woolworths Top 20! [/quote]


Actually the orginal Welsh made Marlins were solid wood and pretty fine instruments. There's a Marlin PJ turns up at our jam session and it's a great bass to play (for a P copy that is)

[Jobiebass]

[quote name='budget bassist' post='203164' date='May 20 2008, 07:17 PM']Quite honestly, i get bored learning bass on it's own. What i'd recommend is that you get guitar pro (pay for it or otherwise) and let her play along to that, then once she's competent at playing to a song on guitar pro, let her play along to the actual track without the guitar pro tabs in front of her. That's how i do it, i much prefer playing to music than not and if she's someone that gets bored easily that's probably the way to do it.[/quote]

+1

Guitar Pro 5 is excelent, if its wasnt for that I dont think I would have kept playing, I hit a brick wall reading tabs after a while and Guitar Pro 5 really helped me progress into more complex songs, I still use it now.

As you state shes a bit of an emo, she'll pick up all her garbage (in my opinion) songs quite quickly I would have thought, for example, she could pick up and Blink 182 song and be able to play it all the way through after 10 mins of looking at it.

Not sure id recomend getting a tutour right off the bat, can be quite frustrating when they can play so good and you cant even keep a steady beat. That might just be me, but ive only stated taking lessons 3 years after picking my first bass up, but I should have had them a LOT sooner.

[johnnylager]

[quote name='bean52' post='203531' date='May 21 2008, 09:57 AM']Thanks everyone for some excellent replies and great advice - I'm convinced and the search for a bass and practice amp has started.[/quote]
Might I suggest [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=18245&st=0&p=186138&#entry186138"]this[/url]..?

[chris_b]

[quote name='bean52' post='203152' date='May 20 2008, 07:06 PM']....I've laid out several hundred quid before on a flute for her that has now resided in a cupboard for a couple of years, to say nothing of the lessons.
....it doesn't strike me as an instrument suited to solitary learning....[/quote]
All musicians start in "solitary". That shouldn't be a problem but if your daughter is motivated enough to ask then this might be the time she sticks at it. Also, you shouldn't buy expensive instruments at this stage and you don't have to. These days you can get "starter bass kits", a reasonable bass, amp, strap and lead for very little. A lot of kids don't stick with it and these kits come up on ebay (search for Bass Starter) all the time.

[bean52]

[quote name='johnnylager' post='204747' date='May 23 2008, 08:43 AM']Might I suggest [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=18245&st=0&p=186138&#entry186138"]this[/url]..?[/quote]

yes please! Afraid I couldn't get down to collect though, I'm on crutches at the moment due to a "gardening" accident (very Spinal Tap), so can't drive. How do you want to handle payment etc?

[johnnylager]

[quote name='bean52' post='204790' date='May 23 2008, 09:36 AM']yes please! Afraid I couldn't get down to collect though, I'm on crutches at the moment due to a "gardening" accident (very Spinal Tap), so can't drive. How do you want to handle payment etc?[/quote]
PM'd

[OldGit]

[quote name='bean52' post='204790' date='May 23 2008, 09:36 AM']yes please! Afraid I couldn't get down to collect though, I'm on crutches at the moment due to a "gardening" accident (very Spinal Tap), so can't drive. How do you want to handle payment etc?[/quote]


Ok Oldgit wisdom here... (sorry JohnnyL)

She'll need more than that to jam with her mates. Get a used 50watt (at least) bass combo. Used gear holds its value so you'll loose less if she bails.
50 watts 'cos a couple of kids on psudo- strats through 10 watt practice amps on 11 plus a beginner drummer make a huge amount of noise and a 15 watt bass amp just won't keep up so she'll be on your back for more funding as soon as she realises....