Wall of Mouths

3) go look at bass tabs for “Sober” by Tool and “Please Sir” by Pitchshifter, or better still find live videos and watch the bass player, as both those songs feature awesome use of chords on bass which form the main rhythm part and are often mistaken for guitar, and while some low end bass chords sound muddy and crap, higher up the neck they sound awesomely fat, espeiclaly wiht distortion. and theres many many many more tunes and bass player that use bass chords, try some jazz on for size.

Hoi Matthew,

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That depends. After a pause lasting for a few years, i started to play guitar again on a western guitar (an Ibanez AEL20 to be exactly). In comparison to a classical guitar, the western guitar uses a tighter neck (like the electrical ones) and metal strings. I was suprised about how easy it was to play barre chords on this guitar (i had an experience of about four years of playing guitars before), but i was also suprised about the blood blisters at my finger tips. Overall: Just practise, practise, practise, practise, practise, regardless which guitar you like to play. It took me one year of practising every day to play barre chords easily on my guitars. Remember to practise the switching between chords often!!

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I don’t know. My western guitar has some more frets, than my classical guitar has, but anyway too less frets to play my version of silent night :D

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Just have a look at Bootsy Collins or Lenny Kilmister. They play their basses as were they just guitars with heavier gauge strings. As far as i know Bootsy Collins turned some guitars in basses just by putting bass strings on his guitar.

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Get yourself a copy of “in vivo guitar” from Abi von Reininghaus. I don’t know if this book is also available in english, but it helped me a lot in understanding music theory used with guitars.
Simplified spoken you can play every chord barre. Major/Minor/dim5/add9/etc..

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Pentatonic scales are scales which lack the existence of halftones.
“Normal” scales have seven (or eight tones if you take the octave into account) tones, five “normal” tones and two halftones. The placement of the halftones within the scale determine the scale itself. Major scales have the halfton steps between the 3rd/4th and 7th/8th step, whereas minor scales have the halfton steps between 2nd/3rd and 5th/6th step. Pentatonic scales just have those five “normal” tones, which some might think makes them easy to play (IMHO those guys are the real pussies :)).

If you are really interested in music theory get a copy of the book mentioned above. Be aware that this books intention is not to teach you how to play guitar, but it will help you in understanding the theory behind chords/scales/etc.

Best wishes,

To what buffalo-boy said, I’d add that playing fast and playing rhythmically aren’t necessarily the same thing. ;)

Thanks for all your help guys, really appreciate it.
I find I’m better at messing around with individual strings than playing whole chords. I wish I could download more traditional folk music, because I want to learn tunes that are played solo if you know what I mean. I mean there are so many tabs of bands riffs but sometimes the riffs need to played with the bass line and the singer’s vocal’s to sound any good.
They can sound pretty insignificant on their own.
I’ve tried playing somebas tabs with a pick and with fingers and all I gotta say is that if bass is’nt that much easier than playing the top four strings of a classical guitar, then bass is way easy. Hooray for bass!
Hooray for playting single strings!
Moint I’ll have to check out that book, better be in English though, hehe.

Bass chords… check out Les Claypool’s flamenco power chord sennanigans eg. Too Many Puppies by Primus.

buffalo-boy wrote:

Buffalo-boy I don’t understand what is rhythmic about a bass, surely a guitarist can provide more rhythm than a bass player. He can pick faster anyway. I suppose the bass player usually locks in with the kick drum though, so is that rhythm for ya?
Thanks!

Buffalo boy; the bass plays plays ina lower register sonically to the guitar. even playing a note which is also on a guitar, due to the thickness of the strings, the way bass amps work and the electrics of the bass itself, the note will have more ‘low-end’ tonally than the guitar, for which the sound is produced with more mid-range. play with the treble and bass knobs on your guitar or amp to see what i mean.

This means that when a bass player ‘locks in’ with a beat played on the kick drum, it makes both sound more powerful. Through a venue PA system this sounds incredible. have a listen to any rock music and try to imagine it without the kick drum or the low end of the bass and you’ll see why it’s also a rythem instrument.

In terms of playing only one note, that single note, being lower than the guitar, can change so much of the music itself. Playing the same root note as the guitarist’s chord will cause the tune to sound tighter, and punky; however if you then play a note three frets lower, you’ll change the overall sound of what the guitar player is doing, and end up with a more ‘progressive’ sound. get a guitar playing friend and try this:

Whilst he plays the following progression: A minor / D minor / C major / G major; you play A, D, C and G. then keep him playing this, whilst you play C, F, A, E.

what the two of your are playing as a whole is Amin, Dmin, C and G in the first instance. in the second, where you are playing different notes, the resultant chords will be C, F, Amin, Emin. you’ve changed what he’s playing but just playing single notes. It’s awesome!

if you need tab or anything let me know.

PS in terms of the differences between electric and spanish (nylon strung) guitars, one of the biggest is that they are played differently. Electrics can be beaten and battered, changed through effects, and amplified loudly. Spanish guitars are virtually almost played fingerstyle (so strings are further apart in order to get your right hand fingers between them), and are normally amplified through the use of careful microphone placement. i can’t thing of a single classical guitarist who would use effects either. It’s not just the way in which they’re played, but the objectives of the people playing them too remember!

er…deekoi, why are you telling me those things above - i have an HND in music!!! I was putting things in simple terms for those of us who are beginners or who can’t be arsed to learn theory!

Aha! Sorry dude! I didn’t get that,my fault!

The course was contemporary music in bass guitar and yes, there was LOTS of theory. I am not really a thrash metaller - i ws just saying that I can play those speeds with my fingers - its not impossible! I play in a good old fashioned rock n roll band! My favourite type of basslines are the ones that follow the vocal melody but still play really rhythmically ( and i’m damned if i can think of a single example of a good un now!) but yeah, know what u mean about root notes. Check out the yo-yo’s - he plays really simply but sounds great. I keep thinking how much i want him to stick a tasty fill in those gaps! (No double entendre’s please!!!)

I’m sure Les Claypools main role in life is to remind every aspiring musician, that no matter how good you may think you might be, you dont know shit when it comes to playing bass!

buffalo-boy wrote:

I have to be honest dudes - what i’ve heard of Primus I absolutely HATE!!!! But i would like to study Les, can you recommend a cool place to start?

His new DVD (5 Gallon Diesel) or the ‘Animals Should Not Try To Act Like People’ DVD