Online Bass Guitar Lessons: Make Your Own Study Schedule

Whether you have a musical bone in your body or not, being your own teacher on how to play the bass guitar is not impossible since a lot of musicians are self-trained. It is a challenge that requires patience and determination. To help out, here are the reminders before learning to produce music with this stringed instrument.

Getting a guitar strap can help your hands focus on playing instead of carrying the instrument. It is advisable to keep your fingernails trimmed so that they do not interfere with the sound. Blisters signify the first signs of learning. They hurt a lot, but eventually you will get used to them and eventually calluses will develop to protect you from the sting.

Attacking The Strings: The most important part to remember while starting to take slap bass lessons is the amount of intensity used to attack the strings. Now that you know the proper hand positioning and wrist movement you must know how to attack the strings with your thumb.

Beginner bass players should learn these right away to save them years of time, trouble and frustration, but that most often never happens for them. Intermediate bass players have to have some patterns under their belt to even be at an intermediate level, however, they are usually the most frustrated players because they feel like they are getting somewhere with their instrument, but the are so held up with partial information that they can’t move beyond where they are at.

Save the beer for in between setlists. Drink water if you’re thirsty. If someone offers you a beer just before a setlist, just set it to the side and save it for the next break. Water drinking musicians onstage just look more professional than beer-drinking ones.

The mathematics of this exercise work out so that you must play the scale through 3 times before the accent will again fall on the beginning note. That is one reason why this exercise is so beneficial. Be patient and practice this exercise until you can play it all the way through the three repetitions without mistakes.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be harder than it looks. Here’s why: The muscles that move your hands and fingers across the neck and strings are rarely used for other tasks. The fine motor skills needed to play a stringed instrument require that the small muscles of the hands be strengthened. So when you take up the bass, you’re like a baby learning to walk: Not only do you have no idea of what you’re doing, you don’t even have the muscles to do it.

Use your left thumb as a pivot, keeping your elbow out from your body so that it can swing back and forth freely. Curve the fingers of your left hand out over the neck to reach notes on the thicker strings; as your thumb pivots. Play the notes on the thinner strings with your fingers flattened more against the neck, your elbow pulled back, and your left thumb standing almost out straight from the neck