by In today’s lesson, you’re going to learn how to play bass without looking at your fingers or fretboard.
Why?
Because having your eyes constantly glued to your hands isn’t much of a problem if you only ever play with recordings or backing tracks. But what happens when you start to play with other people?
What if you need to learn to communicate through nothing but eye contact?
What if you have to learn to read music? You can’t look at your fingers AND sheet music at the same time.
What if you just want to have more fun and be in the moment with your buddies at a jam session? Can you be fully in the moment if you’re too worried about making a shift and playing a bum note?
Or what if you end up playing in a dark room or on a pitch black stage and you simply can’t see your fretboard properly?
Then it becomes incredibly important to be able to play ‘by feel’ and that’s exactly what we’re talking about in this week’s video.
Check out the lesson here:
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Like I say in the video, sometimes it absolutely does make sense to look at your fingers when you play – like if you’re making big jumps from the top of your fretboard all the way down to the bottom.
You don’t want to play a beautiful fill, then totally botch the groove when it comes back in…
But if you’re playing grooves or bass lines that stay roughly in one position, you should be able to play blindfolded – with a bit of practice.
Not knowing how to play bass without looking is one of many problems that beginning bass players face. There’s also the questions of “What should I practice? Which songs should I learn? Am I even doing this right?” plus a million others.
It can be tricky to know exactly what will give you the best results, but if you’re a beginner wondering these things, then be sure to sign up for the Become A Bassist Beginner’s Starter Pack.
I’ve curated my absolute best material for beginners to go through in order, and it’s totally free. Just fill out the form above and I’ll send it straight to you – 100% free.
Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!
Cheers,
Hi Luke. I have been watching you when I can. I have learnt a lot from you ,even though I have being playing over 50 years. As I never could never read music I just myself by losing to records and making up a few runs like the 12 bar blues. I stopped up and seen you on the ebass night or early morning . I didn’t know you were Australian as I live in wagga wagga. Only play in church now though. Cheers. Peter