Is Thinking In Shapes Cheating For Playing Bass? (No.273)

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Greg's Bass Shed

Күн бұрын

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@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

Download the FREE pdf: www.gbshed.com/thinking-in-shapes

@jeffpaul6351 4 ай бұрын

Another great lesson. My bass instructor, who has 40 years experience as a pro and 20 years teaching, has provided me with the tools required to be a musician versus someone who can play a bass. Knowing the fretboard, major and minor scales and appegios, and learning songs by ear are the major focus. I started by playing by tabs and not understanding what I was playing. I also use the Nashville Number System for notating songs. It helped at practice when they changed keys on a song. This is where knowing your fretboard and scales really come in handy

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@jeffpaul6351 really great to hear. Sounds like you have a really good bass teacher!

@BillsBassCovers 4 ай бұрын

I started out using almost all patterns and my ear. When I started reading, it added another dimension to my playing. Learning new songs became easier and faster. Your video captures everything I have experienced. Great😮 lesson!

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@BillsBassCovers cheers! Great that the lesson resonated with you Bill!

@stevep3757 4 ай бұрын

Greg, many thanks for another great lesson! I play by extending the Nashville Number system for chord progressions down into the individual chords. What I mean by this is that I think about how the notes in a bar relate to the root of the chord of the bar. For example, in a bar with a C major arpeggio, I think of the C as the root or 1, and the arpeggio notes as the 3 (third) and 5 (fifth) of the C chord. So, for a C major arpeggio, I think about going to the C and playing 1-3-5-3. A C minor arpeggio would be 1-b3-5-b3. I use it for other "riffs" such as 1-3-5-8, 1-5-b7-8, 1-3-5-6, 8-b7-5-b3. Each "riff" has it own shape (actually 3 shapes depending on which finger is on the root). The numbers and shapes blend together over time. Cheers, Steve.

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@stevep3757 definitely a very useful system to help work out bass lines 👍

@williammorson1535 4 ай бұрын

Simply put, lovely stuff very helpful.

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@williammorson1535 thanks, glad you liked it.

@galshekel304 4 ай бұрын

Great lesson Greg. Your lessons are so methodical and clear. Helps me a lot. Thank you

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@galshekel304 thanks very much. I learnt that approach from my Dad who taught me music from aged 4! Didn’t appreciate it so much when I was younger though 😃

@deebeeIM 4 ай бұрын

Thanks Greg. Really helpful. Have a great holiday mate 👍

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@deebeeIM thanks so much David.

@gretelstonebridge2323 4 ай бұрын

Very useful and true Greg. I started to play bass after 40 years playing classical guitar. My bass teacher combines all those elements you describe. I find the shapes liberating and also tab. Thank you

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

Very cool! You've got a good teacher!

@matthewbernard4427 4 ай бұрын

Learning by patterns are necessary at first. But it’s best to move on, even though patterns will always be important. Reading notation really helped me learn the notes on the fingerboard. Practicing arpeggios up and down the neck in all 12 keys revealed to me the various positions and fingerings. Very insightful lesson, as usual!

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

Glad you liked it Matthew. Sounds like you are on the right track with what you practice 👍

@LennyG-TPFL 4 ай бұрын

For me, four point five years into playing (doubt I'll make it to 25+)....shapes/patterns are great. But the exercise of knowing where every third and every fifth is has been the best. Or every sixth, etc. from a first, second or fourth finger position. Good stuff and more interesting (to me) than covers. Thanks Greg,

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

I agree that the shapes and patterns are great but there is much more to learn beyond them. Sounds like you are on the right track.

@GERALDOuncleG 4 ай бұрын

Hi Greg, I loved this lesson and tabs. I’m developing on my arpeggios technique and this song was so good to practice, I’m happy that I was able to play it in abou an hour. Thanks!

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

You're very welcome! It's a perfect bass line for arpeggios!

@davidhooau 4 ай бұрын

Greg, great material as always. I don't know why people forget about the 4 string major pentatonic or blues scale, as there are no shifts required: just take your "Position 2" forms and move the root to the E string using the pinky finger.

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

Major Pentatonic/Blues scale is also very useful 👍

@AmandaCopeteShin Ай бұрын

As someone pointed here, I feel related with the idea of thinking as dancing. That's what I feel like after getting comfortable. It reminds me of Bobby Vega, just see how he moves his hand and it's like "flowing, dancing". I'm horrible at reading, that was never my skill. But I don't know why, I have an amazing ear. I can distinguish things, know if something sounds good or not... I can remember the sounds but not the names. Sometimes I feel like I'm dumb. I know scales, arpeggios, harmony, notes on the fret but... If someone tells me "what chord are you using?" I'm like "dunno". Jeesh, okay I'm dumb 😂

@GregsBassShed Ай бұрын

Interesting that the dancing idea resonates with you. I definitely move my body a little to lock in with the tempo. Reading is just another skill that can be learnt. Everyone can learnt it. You just have to be systematic with it and have a good structure for learning to read. It's a lot quicker than you may think!

@guidofiori1897 4 ай бұрын

Hi Greg! I am new here and I find out on your KZbin Chanel a lot of useful lessons and advice to improve my playing. Thank you!

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@guidofiori1897 welcome and I wish you all the luck with your playing.

@gearjammin_bluesman 4 ай бұрын

Cheating? Everyone has a different learning curve. Many of us wish we could simply listen to a song and play it with little effort. With mentors like yourself, it makes our journey a little less bumpy helping us reach our destination. As for the blues, many of the founders simply sat down and created their own rhythm and patterns. RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Lightning' Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, and so many more created legendary music with nothing more than an idea of tone establishing an everlasting craving decades after their passing. The legendary Willie Dixon forever lives on as my main inspiration whom established a foundation of bass lines that carries on to this very day. Playing bass is just like driving a semi truck. I have shifting patterns/music theory I follow listening to the rhythm of the engine/band traveling down the road/song to my destination/audience. Sometimes I take the scenic route and sometimes I "B" line it to get there quicker. It's not cheating. An old Trucker said to me many years ago, "Use ALL the tools available to reach your destination. Paper map, GPS, notes, etc." Same applies to learning music and the satisfaction attained from actually playing it, especially on bass because it's what gets the audience grooving even though they may not realize it.

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@gearjammin_bluesman yep, what you said is really the gist of this video, but with the addition of suggestions of how to use all the tools available and tackle areas of playing that might be new. We all have different gaps in our knowledge and they can all be filled with a little direction and practice.

@CountryFenderBass 4 ай бұрын

I think there are two thought processes. If you ask my nephew Nicky who went to Berklee he would say yes. If you ask my friend who plays in a band but could not find a note on the fret board if his life depended on it would say no. But they both play in bands

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@CountryFenderBass yes, that’s what I chatted about near the beginning of the video. Some players don’t know what the notes are but can still play.

@CountryFenderBass 4 ай бұрын

@@GregsBassShed Absolutely true….you always have interesting and fun topics.

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

@@CountryFenderBass thanks! 😀

@michaeledwards8846 4 ай бұрын

Playing bass, guitar and other stringed instruments, is like dancing with your hands and fingers. Thinking in shapes isn't cheating and never was.

@GregsBassShed 4 ай бұрын

Interesting analogy, I like it. What did you think of the video?

@michaeledwards8846 4 ай бұрын

@@GregsBassShed I like it a lot. That's close to that, what I'd learned the hard way. I'm very bad in sheet reading, but I'm very well in remember patterns, and also making variations within, just like dancing. You have a tool kit of well known steps/shapes and from this point you can do so much more and learn a lot the easy and, for me, with a lot more fun way.