guitar or bass....

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i just started on guitar like in september.. i can play a few songs (fear of the dark, rainmaker by maiden, iron man by sabbath and te zoo by scorpions) but i want to get in a band quickly so i was thinking learning bass too as i find it fairly easy. is this a good idea? your thoughts ladies and gents
 
[!--QuoteBegin-edthegreat+Dec 27 2005, 08:37 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(edthegreat @ Dec 27 2005, 08:37 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]please reply dont just view it !!! i need your guidence
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Allowing a mere 25 minutes for people to reply before transforming into a whiny bitch is not a good way to make friends around here.
 
First of all you need some patience if you want to get in a band...

But to answer your question, I think that you should audition in all bands you can find who needs either a bass-player or a guitar-player. But if you want to specialize your self on one instrument, I'd say bass. And the reason i sugest that is that I've found it harder to find a good bass-player out there than there is to find a good guitarist.

But personally i prefer to play guitar [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Playing bass depends on how good you wan to be..same with guitar.
It's not easy playing Iron Maiden on bass if you want to do it right
 
thanks you guys! i might splash out on a bass as i got some money now but by all means continue posting all this lovely advice!
 
Bass is easy? If you think that then you probably havent played much. It's a unique instrument much different from a guitar when you explore it. Try playing some Maiden solos on it and then say that.
To answer your question if you want to be a solo songwriter, sure, go for it. Complex basslines add a lot to your sound, and will help seperate you from all thetrash in the music industry.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-edthegreat+Dec 27 2005, 02:12 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(edthegreat @ Dec 27 2005, 02:12 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]i just started on guitar like in september.. i can play a few songs (fear of the dark, rainmaker by maiden, iron man by sabbath and te zoo by scorpions) but i want to get in a band quickly so i was thinking learning bass too as i find it fairly easy. is this a good idea? your thoughts ladies and gents
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3 months? God, I hate to sound like a grizzled old crotch, but are you serious? No offense, and I hope that you do not take this to be insulting; it is more of a general observation regarding the the music 'scene' today. I think that this happens more times than anyone realizes; someone gets a guitar/drums/bass and then after 3 long months, they think that they can play anything resembling music, and then even worse, want to join a band!
Unless you are incredibly talented (and you could be for all I know), give yourself some freaking time! Learn more than power (5th) chords (Major/Minor/7th/Dim/Sus), learn your major/minor scales in ALL positions, Penatonic Major and Minor, at least understand the modes, move onto diminished, augmented, melodic minor and then you will be ready to play in a band.
Is all of that necessary? No. Not if you want to play the same 3 chord progression and the same tired interchangable solo (if any at all). I am biased because I love Maiden and always have, take a hint from them; dual harmonies (do you know how to harmonize?), and while it's true that they favor the standard E, D and C chord progression, no two songs sound the same.
That's talent and strong song writing.

Keep practicing, about an hour a day; to warm up, play chromatics (if you do not know that this means, I'll be more than happy to tell you), trills, double picking and riffing. Record yourself and after a month, you will be amazed at your improvement. It is the best way I know of to chart your progress (I used to use a Radio Shack black tape recorder!).

Keep the faith, up the Irons and keep practicing

Tim
 
well thats my ego kicked in the balls [!--emo&:blink:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--] but thanbks alot for the advice i really need to practise more. and no im not incredibly talented and some more info on the warm up thingy you mentioned would be ace

up the irons andd thanks
 
[!--QuoteBegin-edthegreat+Jan 12 2006, 08:58 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(edthegreat @ Jan 12 2006, 08:58 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]well thats my ego kicked in the balls [!--emo&:blink:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]  but thanbks alot for the advice i really need to practise more. and no im not incredibly talented and some more info on the warm up thingy you mentioned would be ace

up the irons andd thanks
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This is what I do, and it works for me; mileage may vary.
The chromatic exercise basically means that you hit every note on the fretboard. Start on the low E dtring, pick the low F, first finger, and then hit the F# with your second finger; G third finger and finally G# pinky. Then play A# on the A string, first finger, repeat the sane fret/finger pattern on this string as well as the others. Then, when you get to the 4th fret high E (G#), reverse the pattern (4th finger high E (G#), 3rd finger high E (G), etc. Then, once you end at the first fret low E (F), the point that you began, shift your first finger to the second fret low E (F#) and begin the ascending/descending pattern again.
PICK EVERY NOTE.
How long will this take? Better pack a lunch the first few times that you do it; it may take you longer than you think, it depends though. Here are some points to remember:
- PICK EVERY NOTE
- Follow this pattern of hitting every note on the fretboard until you run out of frets, then go back down again. In other words, once you end on the highest fretted note possible, star with you pinky on that note and make your way back down toward the headstock
- PICK EVERY NOTE
- I cannot stress this enough; PLAY SLOWLY. When I was in my teens, speed was the diving rod that all guitarists seemed to be measured. As a result, I sounded like ass. I was fast, but I played like I had something to prove and all that I proved is that I had the abilioty to sound like ass.
The speed will come because:

Speed is the natural result of repetition. I bet that you are much faster now compared to when you first picked up your guitar, right? Play slow and clean and the speed will come; you will then not only be able to pull some speed out of your bag of tricks when you need to, but you will sound much better than the crackhead that it trying to play the Paul Gilbert solo, Frenzy, after only practicing it for a day.
PICK EVERY NOTE.

What do I keep repeating that? Because it is so freaking easy to play everything legato (hammer ons/pull offs) once you learn how to; if you make a constant effort to play fast, the following will result:

- Your hands will be in synch, making those dead notes (your picking hand strikes faster than your fret hand) tends to lesson a great deal
- Riffing, arpeggios )especially sweeps), string skipping and other right handing coordinated techniques will be improved

Listen to early Y. Malmsteen; sure, he was an ego-centric weenie that has since mellowed out, but DAMN! He picked nearly everynote and could play faster and cleaner than most guys that trill. That comes from hours every day of practice.


Some more tips that helped me:

1 - Practice as much as you can, but when you are bored and practice seems like a chore, put the guitar down. Some of my biggest gains in technique were the result of taken a short break (anywhere from a few days to a few weeks), and coming back to the guitar with a fresh state of mind.

2 - After you can play the above chromatic exercise without concentrating a whole lot (you can hit every note and you know where you are going without gluing your eyes to the fretboard), do it while you watch tv. Recently, I started doing that after watching the first two seasons of 24; I got in a lot of practice and saw a great series.

3 - This may border line on an Opra (however you spell her fat name) moment, but do not let your guitar define who you are as a person. If you cannot get a song down or you have writers block, it does not mean that you are a loser or untalented. Keep working at it but do other things, too.

4 - Have fun; after I warm up and try to learn something new (it has been awhile, I went through a period where I did not even touch a guitar for about 10 years), I take some time out to JAM. At this stage, it is by myself, but I play along to some Sabbath and Maiden and I never why I learned to play in the first place; because it's fun and I love playing along to great music.

Sorry this is so long, but it's 6:00 am and I am at work, with nothing to do yet.

Tim

edited to fix a few spelling errors
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Scream for me Stockholm+Jan 18 2006, 02:52 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Scream for me Stockholm @ Jan 18 2006, 02:52 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Actually, the best way to learn is to play with people that are better than yourself.
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That is an additional way, but I was referring to when he (she?) practices by himself; you can't expect someone to practice with you all the time.

Good suggestion though, when I jam with people, I always like there to be another guitarist present, because I do learn from just about everyone.
 
i always try and learn music by ear. I have been playing bass for about a year and i have been teaching myself all along. but before that i played piano for 8 years so that helped [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
[!--QuoteBegin-fuzzboy+Jan 27 2006, 12:23 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(fuzzboy @ Jan 27 2006, 12:23 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]i always try and learn music by ear. I have been playing bass for about a year and i have been teaching myself all along. but before that i played piano for 8 years so that helped [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
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No kidding! The area that I am the most weak is reading standard notation, I learned tab back in the 80's and was just lazy in that regard.
But it serves it's purpose; I use tab with ear training and get get pretty close if not dead on most of the time.
 
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