Is learning that bass guitar easy?

Question

I really want to learn to play the bass. I talked to my dad and he said he's going to get me a bass for my 14th birthday which is in mid Aug. I've wanted one for about 2 years now, and finally I'm getting one.

Will it be really hard for me to learn? I'll be 14 when I have it and I'm sure I will be deicated. I do have some musical experience. I've played the clairent for my school band since 5th grade and now I am about to enter 9th grade. I'm not stopping with the clairent, I'm going to stick with it all through highschool, although I'm want to learn the bass on the side.

When I get it, how should I learn it? Should I get books or DVD's? Should I get a private teacher for it?

Please help, I'm dying to lear the bass.

Answer 1

I taught myself to play it. My advice is to get bass tabs, that will be the easiest way to do it. I didn't need a teacher, but many people do. If I were you, I might try teaching myself first, then if that doesn't work out, go for the teacher. Good Luck!

Answer 2

I am assuming you mean an electric bass with frets? If that is correct, then It is easy to learn to play bass. You will probably find it is easier to learn than the clarinet. The open tuning of the strings is (top down) E, A, D, G which is the same for the first four strings of the guitar. This is helpful to know in case you look at guitar tab or sheet music. My advice is to try learning on your own and if it is too frustrating, get a book. If that does not work, get a teacher. You will have no problem if you are dedicated. Good luck and Have fun!

Answer 3

It depends what genre you want to play and how difficult you want to write you bass parts. If you want to stand there and play the root note you'd be a master in less than a year. If you want to take the time to learn how to write complex rhythms and actually understand what you're playing it will take years of practice. Playing the root note over and over will work in most cases, but you can make a song much more interesting than that if you put effort into it. What do you mean by you can play the guitar easily? Can you play a few chords easily or can you shred past 200 BPM easily? If you can do the latter you will probably start out trying to cram as many notes into the bass line as possible and make it sound awful. Bass is all about quality of note choice over quantity.

Answer 4

Well, a private teacher would be best, but you don't really need one. i mean, there are only 4 strings, and I don't think bass player do many chords or anything. I taught myself how to play guitar pretty quickly, and I'm pretty sure that's more complicated than playing the bass. I recommend that you learn by playing TABs....go to www.mxtabs.net and start off with easy stuff, then once your fingers get the hang of it you can get more complicated stuff. But most of all, enjoy it! Oh, and I am assuming you meant the electric bass.

Answer 5

Well, no instrument is going to be easy to learn. And having played clarinet won't help you very much, bass guitar is in a different clef, key, and a different type of instrument.
You should definitely get a private teacher. You should go to a guitar store and ask around for a teacher, they're usually VERY helpful, whatever you need, if they don't have it they'll tell you where to get it.
It is worth the money getting a quality teacher. I would say AT LEAST a year of weekly lessons should get you where you need to teach yourself.
Definitely go for it! The world needs more quality bass players.

Answer 6

I'm a professional musician (piano and keyboards) and my 17 year old son is learning bass (he switched from piano a few years ago).

Learning to play simple rock and pop tunes on bass is VERY easy. However, to really go far on bass is as difficult as on any other instrument. Key is to get a good teacher, not the guy at your local music store who moonlights in a copy band at the local beer lounge.

My son takes lessons from a professional jazz bass player who also instructs at the highest level. Key is theory and an organized instructional method.

If you want to hear how far the instrument has progressed, go chase down music from these bass players for starters:

James Jamerson
Jaco Pastorius
Victor Wooten

Answer 7

Since you are dying to learn it, it sounds like you have the passion to stick to it. In January, 2004 I gave my [future] husband a bass guitar. He has natural musical talents and had been a drummer for about 20 years (he's 35 now). He began teaching himself by ear and also purchased two DVDs. This year (March) he began going to sit with a musician from our church for 30 minutes each week. We went to Sam Ash (music store) Saturday and he blew me away playing the guitar he'd like to get in the future. Passion, determination and at least 2 hours of practice every week can pretty much guarantee that you can accomplish your dreams and goals in just about everything, but for sure in the mastery of musicianship. By the way, the first bass I bought him costed only $109.00 with tax. No need to go crazy at first...remember you'll want to buy an amp as well. USED amps are FINE. Best wishes!

Answer 8

I just bought my son an acoustic guitar for his 14th b-day - he also plays trumpet since 5th grade, so he can read music. He taught himself to play the piano (very basic stuff). The guitar came with a DVD on learning to play and you could sign up for online lessons - the DVD was teaching him chords. I got him a book with a DVD that will teach him notes first after speaking to people at a music store. He likes that much better - he has taught himself one song. If he gets stuck, I might get him a lesson or two, but I think he (and you) can teach yourself fairly easily - have fun!!

Answer 9

well, ive played the bass guitar for 4 years now, and i think that books and movies dont help, but that could be just me...i think that your best bet would be getting a teacher, and then if you want to learn certain things, they might write the tabs for you...youll probly be able to start figuring out tabs on your own after a while, after you learn how to play tabs though, its really easy. the hardest part is practicing a lot...if you dont practice for a while and then you start again, your fingers start to hurt and your hands get soar a lot quicker... so keep practicing...its a lot of fun, and then if you get into 6 string guitar later on it really helps, i got mine like 2 weeks ago and i can already play a bunch of songs and chords! so yeah, dont worry its a lot of fun and it helps you with other instruments later on...and theres always lots of bands looking for a good bassist!!
hope i helped...

Answer 10

Try to take some lessons, it really helps. Another thing you could do is practice at home by just sitting down with a bass guitar and start playing and figuring out chords and sounds.