any advice on learning uke bass?

my wife injured her hand a couple of years ago and has been struggling on playing the uke...not being able to chord very well...so, i bought her a uke bass, one of those baritone uke conversion ones. it sounds pretty good!
anyway, was just wondering if anyone had ideas, sites, practice ideas for her.
thanks!

This is the best online source for Bass playing in my opinion:
http://studybass.com

thanks wim!

Do you play together? Or want to? If so, teach her the bass (or Root) notes to the songs you play. That's a good start.

This guy's lessons are phenomenal and free.

http://www.scottsbasslessons.com/online-video-bass-lessons

The first thing you need to learn is the notes on the Fretboard. At least up to the fifth fret. Whenever there is a chord change, play the root note. So if it is a C chord, play C. If there is a Cm chord play C. If there is a C Diminished chord play C. If the chord goes on for more beats, alternate the root and the fifth of the chord. The easiest way to find the fifth on the bass is the same position on the string right before it (tuned lower). So C is the third fret of the second string from the top. The fifth is G, which is the third fret on the lowest string (the one on the top).

With most ukulele groups if you can count and play root/fifth, you can provide bass accompaniment. This is far from all there is to it, but it will get you far. The problem is that you need to learn the notes on the fretboard like the back of your hand. Since I started out years ago as a guitar player and since the lowest four strings on the guitar are the same notes as the strings on a four string bass, it was easy for me to get the basics. Mind you from a technical standpoint I'm a pretty terrible bass player, but I've played bass with a few different groups and regularly with one, people tell me they appreciate the bass because it gives the music some bottom, and it keeps the group together.

The key is that the notes on the fretboard have to be second nature to you. If nothing else,play the root at the beginning of the measure. So you need to be able to find the root without thinking. As you get practice and listen to the bass lines when you listen to music you'll be able to add to what you do. But the roll of the bass is to provide the beat and the anchor so if that's all you do, it adds a lot. Now people who really play the bass are probably horrified at my description, but someone told me this when I started and it was enough to jump right in.

All she needs is a series of notes that sound like the chord happening at that moment (arpeggio!). This is one way to think of it:

There are 3 basic types of chords, Major (happy), Minor (sad), and 7th (happy but in a bluesy way, or functioning to lead to the next chord)

Each chord has 2 names:
1)Alphabetical (A-G plus the #'s and b's)
2)Quality (major, minor, 7th)

All she needs to be able to do to get started on bass is to be able to match any quality with any alphabetical letter name (therefore creating a sequence of notes that sound like the chord).

These shapes have there "root" on the 4th string (the root note gives the alphabetical name) so whatever letter name you put the "R" in the pattern will be the alphabetical name and the geometric pattern you play will provide the quality.

Major =
-|-|-|-|-|
-|-|-|-|-|
-|o|-|-|o|
-|-|R|-|-|

Minor =
-|-|-|-|-|
-|-|-|-|-|
-|-|-|o|-|
-|R|-|-|o|

7th =
-|-|-|-|-|
-|-|o|-|-|
-|o|-|-|o|
-|-|R|-|-|

Here are the notes of the 4th string:

Open E|F| |G| |A| |B|C| |D| |E .........................................or by the fret numbers 0|1| |3| |5| |7|8| |10| |12|

Here is the same thing for patterns rooted on the 3rd string:

Major =
-|-|-|-|-|
-|o|-|-|o|
-|-|R|-|-|
-|-|-|-|-|

Minor =
-|-|-|-|-|
-|-|-|o|-|
-|R|-|-|o|
-|-|-|-|-|

7th =
-|-|o|-|-|
-|o|-|-|o|
-|-|R|-|-|
-|-|-|-|-|

Here are the notes of the 3rd string

Open A| |B|C| |D| |E|F| |G| |A .........................................or by the fret numbers 0| | 2|3| |5| |7|8| |10| |12|

These 6 shapes (3 per string on the E and A strings) are a great starting point for being able to play a short sequence of notes that "sound" like a chord. For example if you needed to sound like a G minor chord, you could find the note G on the 4th string (which lives at the 3rd fret) and that would be your "R" (Root note or starting point, the note that gives the chord its alphabetical name). Then you would choose the geometric pattern that will give you the quality "minor" which would be the second pattern above.

This is of course a very simplified way of looking at what a bass line really is, but I think it could be a great place to start working from. Its good too because there are only a few shapes to remember and 2 strings worth of letter names, and it provides a very complete chord vocabulary.

Here is a theoretical progression, just for example:

|C major |A minor |D minor |G 7th |

You could use the major pattern with R on the 3rd fret of the 3rd string for C major
You could use the minor pattern with R on the 5rd fret of the 4th string for A minor
You could use the minor pattern with R on the 5rd fret of the 3rd string for D minor
You could use the 7th pattern with R on the 3rd fret of the 4th string for G 7th

Anyway, just thought I would see if I could put this concept into words and hopefully it was in some way useful for you. Also, I am assuming that your UBASS is tuned EADG, if not I can edit it for whatever tuning you have. Thanks!

Here's the method I chose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8QK_SzC8GM

Hook up a mic to your computer and it even tells you if you are on tempo, on key, etc. Some good ones online, but I think this beats them all. Superior to a live instructor in some ways since you can start and stop it. Costs about as much as a lesson and a half. Can play solo, with or without backing, metronome, etc. etc.

PhilUSAFRet said:

Here's the method I chose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8QK_SzC8GM

Hook up a mic to your computer and it even tells you if you are on tempo, on key, etc. Some good ones online, but I think this beats them all. Superior to a live instructor in some ways since you can start and stop it. Costs about as much as a lesson and a half. Can play solo, with or without backing, metronome, etc. etc.

Click to expand...

That looks pretty good.

I made a fret map for the U-Bass and printed a few copies on card to keep as handy reference. I keep one on my music stand.

Below

thesillydave said:

my wife injured her hand a couple of years ago and has been struggling on playing the uke...not being able to chord very well...so, i bought her a uke bass, one of those baritone uke conversion ones. it sounds pretty good!
anyway, was just wondering if anyone had ideas, sites, practice ideas for her.
thanks!

Click to expand...

since its basically just a small scale bass you should start by learning the notes.
EX: since its tuned like Bass EADG it would be like the root of a guitar chord.
An F chord for example the pointer finger on a full Barred F is on the E string
on the first fret on the bass playing that note is the same first fret E string makes
an F note, than go down F#, G etc. than the next string (A) you have a Bflat, B, etc
once you learn the fret board than start learning little bass lines, now since
the scale is smaller their may be some things you can not play only due to not
having certain notes on the fret board.

I'm guitarist/uke player who can fake playing bass im not a true bassist...
but those should be the basics to learn first.

I looked around a bit more and found this site.

http://christarrylessons.com/

This lesson is so important

http://christarrylessons.com/right-hand-alternation/

I am really impressed.