What I would do differently today as a beginner bass player

Are you working on the right priorities?

By Jon Liebman
November 7, 2024

Looking back on my teen years, when I was first learning to play bass, I now realize I spent a lot of time and energy on the wrong things.

I was obsessed with learning stuff like Stanley Clarke solos, Jaco licks, Jeff Berlin lines… and not much else.

If I had it to do over again, my focus would be very different. 

For starters, I would take a step back and ponder the role of the bass player, making sure I understood why that position even exists in the first place. Spoiler alert: It’s not to dazzle the people with how fast you can play or show off your acrobatic bass skills all over the neck.

Watch this week’s video for some actionable takeaways.

Be sure to leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experience, whether it’s about how you learned, whether you’ve always (or never) had the right goals, or anything else. I’d love to hear from you.

Let’s play bass!

Jon

Comments on What I would do differently today as a beginner bass player

  1. joe locascio says:

    If you remember, back then there was No Internet, No Video Lessons and maybe 3 0r 4 actual books teaching bass guitar and not many teachers. I only had the Mel Bay books Vol 1 & 2! lol
    I have to pat us bass players from back then, on the back for getting to the point where our talents and skills took us without all of these tools. We had the couple of books, a radio, the all important turntable, maybe a cassette player and patience and stick to it-ness to learn the songs that we wanted to play. We had the innocence of not knowing what we did not know. I knew I wanted to play bass as a young kid because every time I heard a song with a cool bassline I got motivated to learn them by trial and error. Im glad that I found out later that these lines were the genius of James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Duck Dunn and Joe Osborn with some Paul McCartney thrown in there too! I shudder to think what I may have become if we had all the tools and info and online teachers and online groups that exist today! Now, just watching YouTube videos of our heroes in action or in interviews that they give is enough for me! I was 11yrs old when I started playing bass and at 66 Im still addicted to the thing! Hahahahaha

    1. Jon Liebman says:

      Yep. I remember those days! Thanks for the comment, Joe. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” I’d say we made the most of what we had. Kids today have it so easy! LOL

  2. Petey says:

    Excellent video Jon.
    If I had to do it all over again, I would learn how to read music, and ‘stick to it this time.” My worst mistake I STOP when I graduated high school (1982) because back then I joined groups that didn’t ‘required’ reading. So I was like “why read?” and I stopped. BAD MOVE! Now here I am in my 60’s wanting to get back to playing, professionally Part-time, and trying to learn to read and it’s been tough. But I’m determined.

    1. Jon Liebman says:

      Thanks, Petey. Try devoting a little time, consistently, to learning to read. Even a few minutes a day will make a big difference. You’ve got this!

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