U-Bass newbie starting with local uke group

rodk

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Hi Everyone (well anyone actually)

Have acquired a Kala U-Bass to accompany my local uke group. Never played an instrument before, but am enjoying it. Its quite a challenge working from song sheets which only show uke chord changes. So far only playing the root notes for chords as the bass line, but am experimenting with root, 3rds and 5ths.

Am pleased with the Black Star ID Beam amp I am using powered by a Kristonia power pack, so I don't have any mains leads to worry about.

Any guidance welcomed.

Best wishes

Rod
 
I bought a Donner ukulele bass about eight months ago and love it. I already play the mandolin by ear so I just tuned it like a mandolin (GDAE, well actually it’s CGDA) that is, in fifths and I can play a lot of melodies on it. One advantage with tuning in fifths is that there are ten of thousands of tabs for a lot of trad music.
But bass lines, that’s another story.

I do have a Behringer amp, the Ultracoustic AT108 15 watt, and they’re reasonably cheap. It works on the mains only, but really does sound like a double bass! -except that you can play VERY much faster than someone on a real double bass.


And I’d say that probably the best skill to learn would be to play by ear, learn to hear a song and immediately guess the key, then play along using those karaoke type vids on YouTube. Then learn by heart the melodies of songs like Christmas Carols anything old and popular that the audience is going to request. Start with a repertoire of just ten that you can play perfectly, SLOW, no mistakes. After learning a few melodies, it comes naturally and then the bass lines are fun, rather than hard work.

As you say, learn to read the chord for each measure and play arpeggios of that chord. 1, 3, 5 then 2,4,6 then 3,5,7 etc.

Double stops and fretboard mapping is another important skill.

Oh, and I’d say ALWAYS use a metronome, slow, put the metronome on slow, use a metronome that is slow, :)
Good luck.
Simon

Here’s one of the vids I’ve been learning from but of course the tab for me would be different, I do this by key and by ear.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6tuijFd_0iA&list=PL4uiJ6t2WJ_06XyAErsk5JybWZSB4axvx&index=3&t=0s
 
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Have acquired a Kala U-Bass to accompany my local uke group. Never played an instrument before, but am enjoying it. Its quite a challenge working from song sheets which only show uke chord changes. So far only playing the root notes for chords as the bass line, but am experimenting with root, 3rds and 5ths.
Welcome!

Ain't U-bass fun? I've had similar problems with the chord sheets my group uses - if I'm not very familiar with the song I can't line up the changes correctly (one measure on that chord? half measure? two?). Not a big problem for one uke in a crowd but breaking for me to play bass. A recommendation I got recently was to mark up my copies of the songs to clarify the timing, overall song speed, where to walk, key riffs, etc. Obvious once it was pointed out to me, but a LOT of music to go through!
 
Welcome, glad to have you. I may be considered an authority on playing the bass uke and mini electric bass guitar, between the two I have 26 since I started playing bass 5 years ago for my uke group. (In fact I'll attach them.) I did play guitar for almost 50 years before and was often told I should play bass since I had good rhythm and feel, but didn't want to be encumbered by a large electric bass, forget a stand up bass. When I discovered bass ukes and mini bass guitars, I went for it.

I started learning the bass online, but I really didn't know anything about music theory. It got me started, but very quickly I realized that to effectively play with the group, I needed to take some lessons, which helped me tremendously, and I recommend. I also suggest to tune the bass with normal tuning, EADG (4321), which will make it much easier to follow bass tabs, and allows for changing keys easily by working with the same finger patters on the fretboard.

Hope this helps, good luck, and practice, practice, practice.

Bass Collection 2019-9.jpg



This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 11 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 35)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
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Another idea is to look at the fretboard like a road map, you start here, here or alternatively here (all same notes, some an octave apart) and you move to here, a direction, a distance and with this difference between the two notes, you have a sound difference and a feeling (moving from the first to the fourth feels like this, for example).

Try playing a simple melody up the neck in say C and then play it in C#. Same jumps.
Now play it in F (the fourth of C) notice it’s on the string nearer the ground (the fourth direction) BUT the jumps are all the same. Now F# etc.
Good luck.
 
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Welcome Rod!
You are a little further down the bass uke road than I and so your comments resonate with me, especially the process of going through song sheets to see what to play on the bass!

Thanks also to Simon (atSunrise) for the youtube links - I'll certainly check them out.

Best wishes,
Mick
 
I've gotten a lot out of Bass Guitar For Dummies book. All the learning material for bass guitar are applicable to short scale "ukulele" bass.
Welcome to the club Rod.
 
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