Learn Bass Guitar

Ok, so this story isn’t strictly about how to learn bass guitar, or in fact about the bass guitar at all!  But i came across a story in the Associated Press that will either give you more inspiration than ever to learn your instrument of choice or make you realise that it’s time to give up for good! 

An 8 year old boy from Wisconsin plays guitar regularly in bars and clubs and has even played with the likes of Les Paul.  He’s got a number of festivals lined up and has venues around the world interested in having him play.  Making you green with envy yet?  The boy is Tallan Latz, and he started learning when he was 5 having seen Joe Satriani play on TV.  Blues is Tallan’s music of choice and he’s a genuine prodigy, but it’s not been an entirely smooth ride.  Apparently some of the other guitarists in the area aren’t too keen on his level of popularity – and i guess they are a little jealous of his talent!  Complaints have been made that he’s too young to be playing in taverns and nighclubs, and Tallan’s booking agent has even received an anonymous letter containing a death threat!

Still, Tallan isn’t being put off, and has endorsements from at least 9 companies to use their equipment and has already built up a collection of 13 guitars!

Read the full story here:  Associated Press – 8 year old guitar prodigy

I guess you can’t wait to get stuck in and start learning how to play bass guitar, but let’s start with a little background and maybe even a bit of the history of the bass guitar. Now try and stay with me on this, some of it is actually quite interesting! For a start, did you know that the first instrument to be thought of as an electric bass was invented in the 1930’s by a man named Paul Tutmarc. His invention was known as the Electric Bass Fiddle and was the first bass instrument designed to be used in the horizontal position – previously the double bass was the standard instrument for playing bass lines, and obviously they are played in the upright position. Turmarc invented the Electric Bass Fiddle in Seattle, Washington, which in more recent musical history is considered to be the birth place of grunge (with the likes of Nirvana and Peal Jam leading the way).

So, when did the bass guitar or ‘electric bass’ as we now know it really start appearing? Well, in the 1950’s, so some time after Paul Tutmarc’s invention, a certain Leo Fender introduced the Precision Bass or ‘P-bass’, which became the first mass-produced electric bass and pretty much became the industry standard. From the 50’s to the present day a number of variations of the bass guitar have been produced, for example you can get fretted and un-fretted basses, headless basses, jazz basses (J-bases), acoustic basses, basses with any number of strings from 4 up to 12 (yes, 12 string bass guitars honestly exist, though any bass with more than 6 strings is known as an ‘extended range bass’). As you have now probably gathered, there is more to the bass guitar than just the standard 4-string, fretted bass that most of us probably have a picture of in our head!

So if you want to learn bass guitar, i suggest you go out there and get one of the 12-string bases and give it a go! Or perhaps not! I think it may be wise to stick to a nice simple 4-string bass as a beginner….

So i guess the fact that you’ve found your way to this site means that, like me, you want to learn bass guitar. Well the good news is that i intend to make this site the definitive resource, so stay tuned! Ultimately, no matter whether you are an absolute beginner or a seasoned pro i hope to provide something to enhance your enjoyment of the bass guitar. Please feel free to comment on anything about the site, and suggest topics that would interest you and hopefully together we can make this THE place to learn bass guitar. As a kick off, there’s a good book and cd package that you really should take a look at, it’s the Hal Leonard Bass Method – Complete Edition. It’s a great way to get going and covers the basics that we all need to know if we want to learn bass guitar. Go check it out, then check back here and hopefully i’ll have some great new content for you.