How do you get yourself back into the rhythm of playing bass guitar again?

Question

I am so proud to be a bass player but no so proud at how bad I am at it for someone who's been playing for so long. How would I get better at it and get myself back into practicing? I guess people that play other instruments might be able to answer this too.

Answer 1

I know what your feeling....
I'd spent most of my younger life playing bass for 12 years and had to give it up for a career to sustain a growing family.

Find some music books, actually certain classical pieces are so crazy to learn they're the perfect remedy, and go for it.

Listen to some familiar bass lines in your music and fool around with 'em.

Or, if your like me, and have the money, go out and buy a Spector 5 string, Mesa-Boogie 400+ head & 4.8.18 bass box. After you've spent all that hard earned money on new stuff you'll just have to get back into practicing.

BTW-how long have u been playing? Check out my 360 page and leave a message, thanks!

Answer 2

Practice at least an hour or more everyday. Practice with songs you like and with songs you already know how to play. It does get discourage sometimes when things don't seem to go right. Don't give up even if you can't do it right. Jut keep plucking it away. The hard part about learning to play a new song is that it frustrated you. I found out that no matter how hard the song you try to learn is, the more I keep going at it because I like the song so much or it's just my favorite on. The way I look at hard to play song is like this. It is a challenge, especially, with harder songs. That is if I like the song. And for me I make it a point of telling myself I like the challenge part of it. Once you mastered the song, you'll be so proud of yourself. Then what I do is that, I would play the song over and over and enjoy it. The more I play the better I get. So the trick to be really good at playing your bass is to try to learn hard to play songs.The pay of is that you eventually master the song you really like. You said you messed with bass guitar for a long time, that's even better. you'll pick it up right away, once it starts to click for you and everything will fall into place for you. So have fun and enjoy practicing your favorite songs.

Answer 3

the instruments i play: guitar bass tenor sax clarinet drums piano as you can see i play both the bass and the 6 string guitar(currently learning the 12 string)to play the bass guitar u need a strong sense in beat and the 6 string u need to have a strong sense of rhythm the bass is a little bit easier to learn then the guitar because you only have 4 strings and you dont have to learn chords i <3 playing the standard guitar because you can do more with the sound even though it is a bit more challenging i would pick the standard 6 string guitar

Answer 4

There's a simple exercise that you can try with any song you want to play (and even those really difficult songs), just use windows media player or a tab software to make that song slower... play it over and over, once you get it right in that time, make it a little bit faster (about 5 bmp) and do it again

The first songs i ever tried with this were Red Hot Chilli Pepper's (Californication, Around The World), now i can play Dream Theater... not to mention my tecnique is better!

Also there's a lot of exercises in the web... *use the link*

Answer 5

I think you just have to discipline yourself to playing again every day and look at something you haven't tried yet. I'll give you a few songs that perhaps you already know but maybe you don't. Give them a try and see if it inspires you a little.
Yours Is No Disgrace-Yes
Achilles Last Stand-Led Zeppelin
The Writ-Black Sabbath
Crossroads-Cream
Synchronicity-The Police
Red Barchetta-Rush

That should keep you busy for a few days and give you something to shoot for. Good luck and keep on jamming!

Answer 6

My cousin used to practice to a cd...you know, like singing in the car to a song, only instead of singing w/ the vocals, playing with the bass.

Answer 7

buy a looper pedal and take your instrument to the next level