How long does it take to learn how to play under an electrical?
In a few weeks you play your first lines, have groove and play band with sure takes more. These are the actual stages of the electrical bass.
The bass has a friendly entrance. With regular practice, from 20 to 30 minutes almost every day, in two to six weeks you can play simple lines on the main note of each chord and accompany rock or pop songs. To have groove, that's to say, sound attached to the drums with fair time and duration, usually takes from 6 months to 1 year, to create your own lines and read with flares, between 1 and 2 years, and to play with safety in several styles, from two to 4 years.
They change with your constancy, if you play another instrument, your age and the music that you have to do: accompanying rock in the school band doesn't demand the same as a salsa tumbao or a jazz walk.
To sum up
- The first low lines above the roots of chords usually come out in the first few weeks.
- The groove is what takes most time and what the bands value most: play with time, with fair duration and with the bulb.
- To create their own lines with quintas, octaves and passing notes usually range from four months to first year.
- To read with Fa's code isn't required to start with but to open the door to wind bands, orchestras and formal studies.
- If you come from the guitar you move quickly at the mast but you have to learn how to play less grades and think as a bassist.
The phases of an electrical bass and its times
The low almost always plays a note at once, so first steps feel fast. His difficulty isn't with the number of notes but with his playing them at an exact time with fair duration and volume.
| Etapa | What do you get? | Orientation time with regular practice |
|---|---|---|
| First steps | Posture, strap at good height, press by alternating index and half, place notes on the four strings and turn off those that don't sound. | 2 to 6 weeks |
| Basic root and groove | Lines with clordes at the root of each chord with a metronomer and with simple songs. | 1 to 4 months |
| Low Lines | Quintas, octaves, arpegtios and passing notes; understand how to arm a line. | 4 months to 1 year |
| Lectura | Read in fa key, rhythms with quiet and syncups, and follow chord cipher. | 6 months to 2 years |
| Play in a band | Follow the form of the song, listen to the drummer and play live without being lost. | 6 months to 2 years |
| Styles and intermittent | Funk and slap, salsa tumbao, jazz walking bases and Colombian rhythms. | 2 to 4 years or more |
The groove: what costs most and what matters most
A bassist with few notes and good groove usually find a band before a man with many notes and an unstable time. The groove isn't something mystical; it's built with very concrete elements:
- Time: play right with his pulse, with his chores and his soft parts.
- Duration: To decide how long each note lasts. A cut note on time sounds quite different from a note that's been let sound.
- That's what I'm talking about. In many styles, the bass and drum bulb work as a single instrument.
- Dynamics: That the notes have an equal volume, with some that leap and some that go away.
An exercise using many teachers: put the [methonomic]](/herramientas/metronomo) To sound only at times 2 and 4, as if it were the repurer, and play a single note line for five minutes. It looks boring but trains just how different a bassist that sounds good.
A plate, encryption or fa key?
There are three ways to read music for bass, and each has its place on the way:
| System | What's she say? | Boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Tablatura | What's his string and what's up with every note. | It barely indicates the rhythm, and we have to get to know the ear song. |
| Retirement of chords | The chords of the song, so that you put your own line together. | He doesn't say what notes to play: He requires understanding harmony. |
| Fa key score | The exact notes, rhythm, quiet and dynamic. | It takes more time to read it fluently. |
Many bassist start with tablatrics and [how to read guitar and low tablatums]](/blog/como-leer-tablaturas-de-guitarra-y-bajo) We explain how. But if you want to play with wind bands, salsa orchestras or run for a music race, the Fa key becomes necessary.
From copying lines to creating yours
At first copies of song lines. In time, your teacher will ask you to build yours from the chords. It's a step-by-step path:
- Touch only the root of each chord with a firm rhythm.
- To add the fifth, the base movement of many styles, from cumbia to rock.
- Add the octave to give the line movement.
- To conduct a complete chord with an apron.
- Use passing or approach notes to get to the next chord.
Each style has its own rules. In salsa, for example, low tumbao usually anticipates chord change and leaves free the first time of the bar, something that begets the person from rock. To get ear lines out of the music you listen to is the best school to understand these differences.
Play with a band: The true exam
You can sound good in your room and lose yourself in the first essay. The band changes everything: the volume, the need to listen to others and the pressure to be unable to stop.
- Learn how every song looks: how many times the choir repeated, where the bridge is and how it ends.
- Place yourself where you can see the drummer, and many signs come with his looks.
- Simplify if you get lost: back to root in time is better than a complex line out of place.
- Before the first essay, play complete songs with the recording, without stopping while you're wrong.
The high school band, a group of friends or open improvisation sessions are good place to start. Playing with others usually accelerates advanced more than extra hours of solo practice.
That accelerates or challenges your advance
| Acelera | Frena |
|---|---|
| Practice with a metronome, scheduled drums or songs. | Always practice with no time reference. |
| Filling before each practice with [low tuning]](/herramientas/afinador/bajo). | To play out of tune without noticing it, because serious notes are more difficult to judge by ear. |
| A comfortable low for your hands and short-scale ones help children and small hands. | an instrument with very high strings or a mast that you can't reach. |
| To play with other musicians from earlier. | Spend years playing alone in your room. |
| Listen carefully to the low line of music that you love. | To play too many grades, as if it were a guitar. |
Frequently asked questions
Is it easier to learn under that guitar?
At first it's usually easier, because you play a note at once and there's no chords to put together. But the low has its own difficulty: time and groove are exposed, and a rhythmic error can be felt throughout the band. It's not easier or more difficult and requires different things.
Do you have a low with a stick or with your fingers?
The two forms are valid. Many teachers start with their fingers, alternating an index and a half, because they give more sound control and are the most widely used technique in many styles. The puba is common at rock and should be taught as an additional resource later.
Do I need an amplifier to practice low?
Yes, at least a small or an interface with hearing aids. Without amplification, the electrical bass sounds very weak and you don't listen well to the length of the notes, that's just what we have to train. how to choose your first electrical bass We're talking about the core team.
How old can you learn under an electrical?
It's usually been recommended from 9 to 10 years old, when your hands reach the mast with comfort and a short scale low helps. low-power class The teacher adapts his posture and his repertoire to his age and to his or her own hands.