I took private lessons when first starting out from someone who was a bassist as a hobby but a classical pianist and composer professionally. I started out on piano and switched to bass when my garage band needed a bass player more than we needed a keyboardist, so I was able to follow a lot of the theory stuff, much of which I have forgotten at this point. My lessons mostly focused on songwriting, chord voicings, WHY things sounded the way they did, etc.
"You hear that cool effect in these Faith No More songs? That's because the bassist is laying down one line but the chords are changing around it in unconventional ways. Here's how to incorporate that into your playing."
That kind of thing.
As a result of focusing on that, I like to think I come up with some pretty interesting bass parts, even when having to work around two eight-strings in 200bpm songs. I would, perhaps, be even better at that kind of thing if I worked more on technique, timing, etc, but those are practice issues rather than things you can be taught.
"You hear that cool effect in these Faith No More songs? That's because the bassist is laying down one line but the chords are changing around it in unconventional ways. Here's how to incorporate that into your playing."
That kind of thing.
As a result of focusing on that, I like to think I come up with some pretty interesting bass parts, even when having to work around two eight-strings in 200bpm songs. I would, perhaps, be even better at that kind of thing if I worked more on technique, timing, etc, but those are practice issues rather than things you can be taught.
