20 Tips I Wish I Knew as a Beginner Bassist (Avoid My Dumb Mistakes)

Save yourself years of frustration and slow learning - here are 20 beginner bass tips I wish I knew when I was starting out.

There’s tons of stuff I wish I knew when I was a beginner learning bass that would have improved my playing quicker and saved me a bunch of frustration… and here it is!

The beginner bass tips in this video will run the gamut of bass knowledge, from the basics of how to practice bass, to the tiny things pro musicians know to do with their gear to keep it from breaking. (or looking like a dumba$$)

Did you know you can actually learn faster by going slower? Or that going to bed can accelerate your progress more than endless practice?

By the end of this video you’ll have a handle on counterintuitive but useful truths - like those - that’ll help your bass playing keep evolving beyond the stuck points.

#beginnerbasstips #talentisoverrated

[BassBuzz]

If you could share one bass tip with your former self from when you were starting out, what would it be? 🎸

Timestamps for this lesson:
0:00 - Intro
0:18 - Online Tabs Often Suck
1:11 - Listen to Bass
2:04 - Practice 5 Minutes a Day
2:46 - Slow It Down
3:30 - Practice Bitesize
4:03 - Learn the Alphabet + Fretboard
4:33 - Notice Your Progress
5:02 - Record Yourself
5:39 - Gear Barely Matters
6:26 - Get a Setup
7:01 - Wear a Strap
7:08 - Don’t Do This
7:31 - Unplug From the Amp Side
7:49 - Cable Through Strap
8:24 - No Drinks on Amps
8:34 - Learn Full Songs
9:07 - Sleep is Part of Practice
9:58 - Get Guidance
10:31 - Breathe
11:01 - Stop Believing in Talent

[llamamilk]

I came here to learn BASS. Instead i learned how to get my life in order and how to learn new skills..

BASS SAVES LIVES

[IsaBilal]

Another top tip: Grow a thick skin for when your playing is being "critiqued" by family/partners. Ignore the haters and get good.

[rockkid]

"If you can play it slowly, you can play it quickly."
-some sacrilegious man

[craigdaubbeats-rapinstrume]

His advice on practicing 5 minutes a day is priceless. It will definitely lead you to playing more. This is applicable to anything you want to get better at, not just playing bass. Just starting alone gets you in the groove. I smoke cigarettes (trying to quit) and I find myself smoking much less the more I get into my music because the thought of needing a cigarette doesn't even come to mind when I'm playing. And I don't smoke in my house so I can't do it while playing. So playing, or making music is a good way to try to cut out bad habits as well.

[ronnie]

It’s funny you would mention the sleep tip. I record bass and mix songs for a girl across the US and we’ve never met. She’ll send me the vocal track, guitar/ukulele track and drum track. I’ll mix them together in Garage Band and lay down a bass line. Last weekend I spent over an hour recording the bass line, and never got past the first 8 bars because my fingers WOULD NOT cooperate. I got frustrated and stopped. Went to bed shortly after, got up the next morning, and got the entire bass track down on the first take. So yeah, sleep does help get over that bridge sometimes!

[IslandDave]

5+ minutes practice a day is the best tip of all time - it really works!

[kevinmoor]

I have been playing electric bass since 1969 and have learned a lot from this channel.
My tip: practice.
Jimi Hendrix and Jaco Pastorius didn't come from other planets with powers and abilities beyond other musicians. They just played all the time.

[thomasfioriglio]

Josh, I teach AP Psychology and I love how you incorporate psychology into these!

[AS-burw]

Another tip for listening to bass is listening to isolated or boosted bass tracks for songs that have those I guess.

[guessingguy]

7:08 "don't set your bass down like this"

Camera swish to my bass, sitting like that

[Jimenez]

"Focus on Bass"
Me who's listening to ...AndJusticeForAll:
*Confused screaming*

[sipesmw]

him: sleep is part of practice
me: watching this at 5:27 am not having slept at all yet

[sj_-_]

Bass and guitar tabs are often wrong, however realising this and learning to spot the mistakes and correct them by listening to the track and watching what the original player plays on you tubes clips, is great ear training. And cheaper than buying books, although I do I that too.

[nathanwahl]

1. Self doubt is just as bad as overconfidence.
2. Always know where "The One" is. I learned from an experienced drummer in a band I was joining. It's the Downbeat. The first count of each measure/bar.
If you're adding some ghost notes and grace notes and doing some odd timing, it gets all that crap out of the way before hitting The One so you're not lagging behind or screwing everyone else up. Very important whether you're actually playing a note on The One or not. It keeps you in THE GROOVE!!! Yes, you can lay back a little when playing funk, for instance, but you still have to know where it is or you won't know where you're laying back from!!!
3. For visually oriented folks, your song note fingering will be in patterns on the fret board. Except for open strings, the notes will always be in the same relative positions to each other on the fretboard. Knowing those patterns in addition to the note names will make it a whole lot easier to learn songs, using your visual abilities, and later you will be able to transpose keys on the fly MUCH easier than others will!!!
4. Ear training. Learn what notes sound like and work in each chord; what a Major 7th sounds like, a minor, an augmented, a 9th, etc. Find out where those are on our pattern if you're a visual as in 3 above. Makes it easier to play if you know what it's supposed to sound like. (Although personally, as a gigging bass player, things like Minor vs Major chords in particular don't bother you that much because you rarely need to play a 3rd; but at least if you need one, you'll know how to find it fast. When your guitar player says it's an A minor, ask him what a minor is (only IF he has a sense of humor!!!)
5. When sitting while playing, even if you have your strap over your shoulder, put an object in your front right (or left) pocket to keep the bottom of the bass from sliding out. Hard to keep playing when you have to keep pulling it back in, disastrous if you ignored the warning about wearing your strap. I use a pocket knife, lighter, keys, whatever works. Beware that if you use your key fob, you may be setting your car alarm off out in the parking lot, trust
5. Now that I'm also singing, I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the time either the Internet lyrics, tempo, progression and even the key are WRONG. It is "free, " and you know how that works out most times!!!

[darkgladiator]

I didn’t know Dua Lipa's songs contained juicy bass lines

[SamasakiXBL]

It's crazy how much sleep helps beginners. I started learning the Seinfeld theme and couldn't hit any of the right slaps, but over night and some breakfast had it 80% down!

Only the first few bars, but progress is progress! 😅

[breadpirateoverhere]

I've been trying to listen for bass more in songs and I was surprised by how many songs have an almost invisible bass line and the songs I love have a much louder, active bass.

[jhnbrck]

I remember when I started playing bass at 12 years old. I wanted to play guitar but that wasn't offered at school, but bass was. I didn't think there was much of a difference at that age so I we t ahead with it anyway. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. 15 years later I'm so glad I stuck with it. I can't imagine what my life would even be like without it.

[Attackonmuffin]

Just quickly on the "Notice your progress bit" After 6 years of bass I was feeling like I was still as crap as when I started, so I randomly opened my old school books with the old basslines I had to play for music class. once I played those notes and I realized how much better my first attempt in 6 years to play those songs as opposed to my like 50th attempt when I first learnt. Really built my confidence back up