Learn How To Play Bass Guitar in three months

 For the new and Upcoming Players seeking fast development, the bass guitar could be a very frustrating musical instrument to learn at first.

Truth is...the bass guitar requires hours of your life devoted to practice before even a little level of confidence is built, meaning there are NO SHORTCUTS when learning to play the bass guitar.

Learning to play the bass guitar with an acoustic guitar to me is like learning to play the drums with some buckets...

Follow my steps and you should be up and running in at least 3 months

1)GET A PERSONAL ELECTRIC BASS GUITAR: In your course of learning to play the bass guitar, you will most definitely need to practice at some odd hours. Having a personal bass guitar gives you an advantage. 

2) DEVELOP PASSION FOR MUSIC: It's scientifically proven that it is easier to learn what you are passionate about. If you haven't yet developed the right amount of passion for music, it will become frustrating to learn. Listen to tons of music, irrespective of the genreor whatever genre you are interested in. Listen to any music you love continuously until it plays in your subconscious.

Make friends with bass players or any other instrumentalist.

3)LEARN MAJOR SCALE: The Major scale as the name implies, is obviously the most important scale in music and is the basic scale for any musician to start from.

The Major scale is nothing else but ; Doh; Reh; Mi; Fah; Soh; La; Ti; doh.

4)LEARN THEORY: In my case, I had little knowledge on music theory before I started learning the bass guitar.

What do I mean by Theory?

CHORDS: Read and understand how chords are formed i.e Major chord, Minor chord, power chord etc.

SCALES:Minor Scale, Pentatonic scale, chromatic scale, Modes of the Major scale etc.

CIRCLE OF FIFTH AND FOURTH: The Circle of fifth and fourth helps you understand how one key relates to another and if understood well, it is definitely a big addition in your playing.

n/b: the purpose of learning music theory is to know what to play before playing and having general understanding of Music as a whole.

RELATIVE MINOR ETC

5)LEARN MUSIC PROGRESSION: This is the point where you train your ears. If you have a pianist friend or a bassist or any instrumentalist generally, they can help you leap through this process.

**The process of learning and mastering Music progression takes time because it requires ear training.

**You can start with the 3 Major Progressions i.e Doh, Fa, Soh.

After the first 3 progression, you can include the corresponding relative minor to each i.e La, Re, Mi and the Ti.

6)FINGER EXERCISE: One problem with playing bass guitar is that your fingers are just not good enough to produce the sound ringing in your head. This is where the finger exercises come in. It comes in different shapes and patterns and requires a lot of time.

**When learning any scale, it's easier to first make it an exercise then you play as many times as it takes for your fingers to loosen up.

**It's best when exercising consistently with one scale at a time for easy concentration not playing every scale you know at once.

**Always use a metronome for accuracy and so you can keep track of your development.

**Finger exercises are not limited to only the fretting hand. The plucking hand is as important if not more important. The fretting and plucking hands can be compared to Steering and Engine of a car.

**Learn alternate plucking i.e using 2 or more fingers alternately to pick. Usually the index finger and the middle finger.

7) BE CONSISTENT IN PRACTICE: As a beginner, practicing 1 hour every day is a big Challenge at first...but practicing 15 minutes, 4 times daily works better.

Make sure to practice daily for best results. You can practice more than an hour if you can...

8)BE OPEN: Music is a means of self expression. Different people have different ideas as to self expression. The goal of being open is to sound like yourself in a long run.

** Listen to professionals jam and adopt an idea or two you love from it. Practice those ideas until you can apply subconsciously then move along to the next.

**Be open to learning other playing techniques as soon as you feel comfortable with plucking...no better to to learn then. By other playing techniques, mean SLAPPING, STRUMMING CHORDS, TAPPING etc. Learning the techniques at an early stage give you added advantage.

9) Always try to replicate any sound you hear from your head on the guitar no matter how complex it sounds...

If you follow up the steps faithfully, you should be more confident in a short while.