I taught myself guitar and while I have some bad habits as a result of that and am probably not as good as I ought to be for how long I’ve been playing, I am pretty good nowadays. I can play most things that I want to play, it’s only really the tougher end of prog metal stuff that I enjoy but which is beyond my reach.
I’ve learned a bit of bass guitar too, since most of the hand movements and shapes from guitar can be transferred across, you just have to cover a little more distance with each movement. Learning bass was much more an exercise in thinking about the instrument differently and understanding how to apply it in a musical context than it was a matter of learning new ways of moving my hands.
I’m attempting to learn piano at the moment, but it’s coming along slowly. I had started learning violin beforehand, but I realised that I needed to be much better at reading sheet music than I was if I was to play much violin, and I figured piano would be an easier way to learn that. I can read sheet music, just not nearly well enough, and that becomes something of an obstacle on an unfamiliar instrument. With guitar, tabs got me through the early stages and after that I was able to do things by ear for the most part, so I never properly developed the sheet music skills.
Glad to hear you picked up the bass with the right mindset coming from guitar. A lot of people think it’s a 1:1 but bass is such a different beast for sure
It is quite frustrating to see other guitarists just play bass as if it was just a big guitar. It makes for very dull bass parts. I suppose I had something of an advantage though. One of my friends is an exceptionally proficient jazz and funk bassist, so I was exposed to a lot of what bass could be
Yes it is, they end up not being where they need to be or even understanding the concept of its purpose. A lot of guitarists want to try and be Les Claypool without handling the rhythm section like Les does so it all falls apart. Glad you got that jazz exposure, that’s what I learned bass on and it made me so much more proficient on the bass that you can’t really get in other genres besides funk
Lifeson is fantastic. I’m glad I got to see him performing live while I could. But yeah, self-teaching is absolutely valid. I just should have been more disciplined and methodical about how I did it. It has worked out okay, though; I’m good enough to make myself happy
I taught myself guitar and while I have some bad habits as a result of that and am probably not as good as I ought to be for how long I’ve been playing, I am pretty good nowadays. I can play most things that I want to play, it’s only really the tougher end of prog metal stuff that I enjoy but which is beyond my reach.
I’ve learned a bit of bass guitar too, since most of the hand movements and shapes from guitar can be transferred across, you just have to cover a little more distance with each movement. Learning bass was much more an exercise in thinking about the instrument differently and understanding how to apply it in a musical context than it was a matter of learning new ways of moving my hands.
I’m attempting to learn piano at the moment, but it’s coming along slowly. I had started learning violin beforehand, but I realised that I needed to be much better at reading sheet music than I was if I was to play much violin, and I figured piano would be an easier way to learn that. I can read sheet music, just not nearly well enough, and that becomes something of an obstacle on an unfamiliar instrument. With guitar, tabs got me through the early stages and after that I was able to do things by ear for the most part, so I never properly developed the sheet music skills.
Glad to hear you picked up the bass with the right mindset coming from guitar. A lot of people think it’s a 1:1 but bass is such a different beast for sure
It is quite frustrating to see other guitarists just play bass as if it was just a big guitar. It makes for very dull bass parts. I suppose I had something of an advantage though. One of my friends is an exceptionally proficient jazz and funk bassist, so I was exposed to a lot of what bass could be
Yes it is, they end up not being where they need to be or even understanding the concept of its purpose. A lot of guitarists want to try and be Les Claypool without handling the rhythm section like Les does so it all falls apart. Glad you got that jazz exposure, that’s what I learned bass on and it made me so much more proficient on the bass that you can’t really get in other genres besides funk
A lot of very good guitarists (Alex Lifeson leaps to mind) are almost entirely self-taught.
Lifeson is fantastic. I’m glad I got to see him performing live while I could. But yeah, self-teaching is absolutely valid. I just should have been more disciplined and methodical about how I did it. It has worked out okay, though; I’m good enough to make myself happy