I wasn't a very good drummer Matthew. I could keep perfect time until I tried a paradiddle or any sort of flourish so I stuck to a very basic beat which wasn't much chop in the loudest, rockiest band in Queensland. So I decided the bass guitar was the best way to be involved. In that hippy community you either play music or wish you could play music. Fortunately I took to the bass and that drummer's timing carried over.
Without a musical background in my schooling or elsewhere I had to teach myself the rudiments of musical theory and technique. We played covers so the process was this...get a cassette tape of the song, play it on a tiny, tinny sounding cassette player, rewind passages with a pencil and try to hear the bass line, plug in the bass through a inverter which was connected to a car battery to power my amp which was home-built from speaker parts and plywood and then play along. We lived in the bush without power. The house was powered by solar before anyone knew what solar was. If it was rainy I would drive the car to the corner of the house and plug the car in. The world is driving around on untapped power.
Anyway that's how I learned 200 songs. No internet with instant video lessons, no charts. But plenty of time.
The best lesson I taught myself was basslines are simple patterns on the fretboard - little boxes of notes and the song would follow short 'patterns' and then, generally, repeat. I was told, of course, to learn scales but...well you know. Once you know the patterns you can play the song in any key.
As a reference to Perfect Golf - that is similar to how I like to play and learn this game. Forget the grids and exact distances and rough percentages and just learn the basics then go out and play on instinct.
In the band I was always amazed that no matter how difficult it was to learn each song it was always fine on the night. There will be no drug references in this post.
I love bass playing with drummers. I don't care how bad they are. I don't notice. I just lock in and away we go. Psycho lead guitar/singers are a different matter. I learned the 13 bar blues and how to anticipate and play the mistakes that would inevitably occur from the frontman.
I would like to ask you Matthew...you use the bass as a writing tool and I would like to know if you write your own bass lines for original songs? I tried to make up bass lines but they all sound like a country and western beat.
From there it was a natural progression to acoustic guitar but that instrument really must be started as an 8 year old in your bedroom. Nevertheless, if I could sing I would be the psycho frontman. After moving from the bush community (I hit the city (hardly - Ed.) and I lost my band) the acoustic was essential because I could play by myself. The ukelele is great for solo-ing and singing along to. There is this lovely 'drone' in the sound that accompanies the voice so well.
But not wanting to stagnate I bought a keyboard and became determined to learn the most complex song I could. It is 'Cavatina' - the theme from The Deer Hunter. Now how the hell can I do that. There is plenty of sheet music on the net but trying to read the treble clef and bass clef while trying to find keys on the piano was out of the question. It's a foreign language. I went back to my bass training method. There's a good YouTube of Cavatina with the dude's hands playing the keyboard plus another keyboard with each note played highlighted with colours for left and right hand. The trouble is it is very impractical to watch the video and play the piano at the same time. You would have to pause / play / pause / rewind / play etc. etc.
With the bass guitar it was a matter of burning each passage into the memory so I could play the songs on stage without charts. So I invented a method of breaking the parts of Cavatina into small passages thus creating 'patterns'. Anyone who can read sheet music will roll their eyes. But it suits my brain and it works - so there. Eventually the memory starts clicking into gear and difficult pieces can be learned. Fortunately Cavatina is a beautiful piece so every practice session is a joy.
As a Perfect Golf reference this is by far the most enjoyable way to play this game. That's why I like the Naked Golf concept - and I have to admit PG is so good visually and practically that it is a successful way to play. Eventually one can go out and instinctively remember how far a shot will go or how it will react. Not only that but you can learn a course. I love Medinah because I've learned it's nuances over many rounds. It takes PG from a game - with all the aids and HUD crap - to more of a simulation. Get rid of the crap kitty-kats.
Here is part of a page of the chart for Cavatina showing the timing of both hands. It takes a bit of time to get the chart together but I do it at work so why not. I find it is a better visual chart than traditional sheet music.
TL;DR There are plenty of hours in the day whether you think so or not. If PG was irresistable I would play it many hours a week but it isn't so I don't. It's kind of sad because I like to fill up my days and there is a hole there where PG should be.
