I started playing music from a very young age. It just so happened that I grew up where steel-pan music was playing, or if you took a short walk from my house, you would most likely walk into the steel-pan band room or steel-pan band shed. , as they called it.
What I remember is that I used to take our galvanized dustbin lid, hold it between my legs like it was a steel tray and play with a stick, banging on the dustbin lid, and whatever I would hear coming out of there at that moment some interesting melodies came up, I felt some kind of connection to the music at that moment, although I couldn’t interpret the experience. I don’t think others could have heard what I was hearing, but what I heard sounded so good that it made me realize that something bigger than myself was going on inside of me. Looking back now makes me believe that it was my inspiration and a preview of what I would be doing in life.
Sometimes band members would call me into the band room to play a song with them, they thought I had a good ear for music and picked up music very quickly, and I loved it. I also remember playing with a friend who played acoustic guitar, and I played another acoustic guitar, but only four strings. I think I was training then, and I didn’t know it.
Even in elementary school I had the privilege of playing in the school’s metal drum orchestra.
My hearing improved at that time. All this time I lived in Trinidad. Then we moved to Tobago, which is Trinidad’s sister island. There my cousin and my uncle took me to a combo, a band that had just started, and my uncle and my cousin told the captain of the band that I was interested in playing bass, which I never remember telling them, however , the captain was willing to give. I a test
There were other bass players in that band at the time, although we were all learning, but with a bass that had all the notes written and taped to the fretboard, as if they knew it was coming, so I did my duty to take advantage of this opportunity. Well, that interested me a lot.
What happened next was an experience he would never forget. After classes at school, I would run to the band room to practice by myself and learn about that bass, and after about three weeks I removed the paper that had the name of the notes taped on the fingerboard. Believe my wish and delivery It made me the most used bassist in that band, more used than the other two bassists.
When I really started playing; my initiation, or rather to learn songs with the band, the leader of the band who was the organist, would ask me to hang the bass around my neck, and while they played the songs I would shout the notes that I saw stuck to the fingerboard, and the played, and although I didn’t have the right fingering like all bass players should, (this should be corrected when starting to practice playing bass by ear – you can find help on some social networking sites), I was able to see, hear and play the notes.
I got better with time and experience, and with opportunities to play with other bands that I think liked my style of playing. While on the island of Tobago, musicians came from Trinidad, who had heard about my way of playing and asked me to play with them, which I did. I learned quite a lot from them. In all this time, playing with those groups, I had never read a note on a sheet music, or a bass sheet music; I didn’t really know anything about it at the time. I played many styles of music just listening and transferring what I heard to the bass.
I remember a popular nightclub where I was a member of the resident band. There were situations where I had to play songs I only heard for about a minute and then had to accompany the singers and play the full songs just a few minutes later. In fact, they just came to us to give us a taste of what we should expect. I also loved that experience, I think it helped me train my hearing.
The bottom line is that playing music by ear has its challenges, but it’s not impossible to be a good bassist playing by ear. My only advice is that even if you like to play by ear, learn to read sheet music notes and bass tabs, it will help you to know note values, learn scales, arpeggios, etc. Listen and try to play all kinds of music so that you can be a complete player; not just restricted to one style of music.
I just thought it should encourage beginners who would like to play bass by ear.
Have fun!
