Posts Tagged ‘Bass Guitar’
Do you play bass guitar like me, or electric guitar? If not, do you thing you will start playing any type of guitar in the near future?
It’s no secret to become a good guitar player you have to practice. I know it can be boring at times but the more practice you get the better you will be. The best way to practice, especially if you are new is to first get the feel of your electric guitar. It doesn’t matter if it’s expensive or cheap electric guitars every guitar has it’s own feel. Next one of the best things you practice is your scales. Start slowly picking up speed as you go along, try letting your fingers travel on the neck without looking at them, as if they had their own eyes.
Scales are basically behind your chords and solos, and if you play bass they’re an essential part of every song that you will play. Learning the basics will make learning everything else easier.
I can’t explain it but all my life I tend to focus more on bass guitars than any other instrument. Yes in the 1960′s I was able to hear through the terrific electric guitars playing exceptional solo’s, along with moving rhythms and single out the bass line.
I have managed to secure many bass guitar packages through the years. Some have cheap bass guitars and some expensive ones. I have played and owned quite a few bass guitars, including a j-bass, a p-bass, and a violin bass, I also own a hollow body bass guitar that looks like the Gibson E355 hollow body guitar.
Although I don’t play gigs anymore I still own them all and play them all. Each style adds something else to your sound. If there is anything you get out of this blog it’s don’t underestimate cheap electric guitars. It’s a way to own several different types of guitars without breaking the bank.
The 1950′s and 1960′s was an exciting time for rock and roll if you were a fan of electric guitar and bass guitars like I was. There were all kinds of band configurations after Buddy Holly led the way with one electric guitar, a double bass, and a drummer. Most of the bands that followed consisted of two electric guitars, one bass guitar, and a drummer, and if the band didn’t provide their own vocals from their guitarists they had an extra person who just provided vocals.
There were some bands in those early days that didn’t rely on vocals at all, they were strictly instrumental. The Fireballs pretty much got things started and paved way for countless other bands like Booker T and the MGs, The Shadows, and my personal favorite The Ventures. The guitar packages for these bands was pretty simple utilizing two electric guitars, a bass guitar, and a drummer, and a few like Booker T using keyboards.
There was no flashy front-man for any of these bands so the music had to be catchy enough to get your attention. The Ventures had songs like “Walk Don’t Run and Hawaii Five-O, yes that’s right they did the theme song from the original TV show. If you have never heard any of these songs try one out and I’m sure you will be hooked.
Rock and roll was just getting started in the late 1950′s thanks to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. After Buddy’s death rock kind of stalled out for a while until The Beatles picked up the gauntlet in the early 1960′s. They took Buddy’s idea on an electric guitar, upright bass and drummer and expanded on it. Their guitar packages consisted of two electric guitars and replaced the upright bass with a bass guitar, added vocal harmonies of the Everly Brothers and the rest is history.
Yes if you are a fan on listening to and playing electric guitars and bass guitars as I am, than I think you will agree that for rock an roll the time from the 1960′s through the 1980′s was the best. With bands like Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd whose music was so extraordinary they were described as being put on earth from another planet, AC/DC, Queen, and Def Leppard just to name a few how could any other era beat that. There were so many different sounds to choose from, if you didn’t care the style of one there was alwas another.
Unlike the music of today each band had its own original sound. Some of these bands are still touring today, like AC/DC. They continues to be a top money maker every year.
I have played bass guitar since the mid 1960′s. I have played cheap bass guitars and expensive ones and have found you can be successful with both.
When I started out I had all to do with learning the basics. I took lessons at the local music store and practiced religiously, (we didn’t have the Internet and Tabs for short cuts to playing songs) and I am glad we didn’t. We learned the long hard way and I think that made us better musicians in the long run.
After playing for a while guys in the neighborhood started to jam together which led to several neighborhood bands starting up. When you’ve been playing a for a while you kind of get a following in the neighborhood and before you know it you being asked to play you electric guitar packages and bass guitar packages at parties or other affairs.
I have played in front of people with cheap bass guitars and expensive ones and I can tell you people don’t know the difference. The one thing playing in front of people does do, it transforms you into a different type of guitar player, and I mean that in a good way. The feeling you get playing in front of people is indescribable.
More than other instruments bass guitars are responsible filling up the songs that you listen to. They are what you might call the anchors of rock.
Many of the classic rock songs are filled with bass guitar riffs that make it possible for the lead guitar player to do his thing. Music by Lynyrd Skynyrd is perfect example of what I am talking about. Anyone playing cheap bass guitars can duplicate these great bass guitar riffs which are nothing more than what is known as a walking bass. A walking bass line is something that every bass guitar player should know how to play.
More great examples of bass filling up a song can be found with some of the three piece bands, like Rush and Queen. The bass guitar riffs carry the song making it possible for the electric guitars to play some pretty great solos without losing the melody of the song.
If you are one of the many electric guitar or bass guitar owners that have an electric guitar made by one of the top names in the business bravo to you. I too own a bass guitar by a top manufacturer and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
If you are one of the lucky guitar players mentioned above and think that guitar packages are not for you than you are wrong. Guitar packages are offered in electric guitar packages, acoustic guitar packages, and bass guitar packages, and offer you the affordability of owning different styles of electric guitars than you already have at a fraction of the cost.
Many of these cheap electric guitars will surprise you with their action and their overall good looks. You won’t mind using them at gigs as they will give you peace of mind in case anything should happen to it. The peace of mind is the fact nothing happened to your expensive guitar. Should anything happen to it, it is easily replaced with a cost that won’t break your wallet, like your expensive one.
I have been playing bass guitars for mor than forty years, maybe that is why I do so many blogs about the bass.
I have played cheap bass guitars as well as expensive ones, and I like them all equally. I prefer the jazz style bass guitar but do switch off to the precision style at times. I sometimes have been known to play my Beatle bass knock off made by Glen Burton Guitars which is an exact copy of the one used by Paul McCartney. I like it because it has a softer sound because it is built on a hollow body and is extremely light weight. I also use a hollow body bass guitar, much like the ES series jazz guitars made by Gibson.
The purchasing electric guitar packages or bass guitar packages doesn’t automatically make you a musician. There are countless years, months, and hours that go into playing a guitar.
The road towards playing electric guitars is filled with ups and downs, some caused by daily events, while some are the result of having good and bad days of playing guitar. Playing bass guitar since the 1960′s, I have found it useful at times to study the techniques of other bass guitar players and sometimes incorporate them into my playing. They can be techniques by other guitarists in your area or they can be achieved be observing a live video of your favorite musician and his band.
Playing either electric guitars or bass guitars is fun, bur let’s face it practice is boring. Armed with one of the great but cheap electric guitars made by New York Pro guitars, you practice religiously. You practice your scales and different chord configurations but after a while that just isn’t enough.
Yes, after a while your interest starts to wane because your practices are boring. With the help of the Internet, which we didn’t have when I started playing bass guitar, you can search for the tabs from your favorite song or band and incorporate that into your practice. If that isn’t enough you can search for a video of that song, preferably a live video and play along with it. You know, instead of sitting and playing stand up and make like you are on stage and the pressure is on.
Another thing you can try is to play the song using either bass guitars or acoustic guitars, this alone might perk up your interests.