Matsu Patty - Bass Lessons Update #1

Patty, how are you? It's been a month and a week since I have been taking my bass lessons. I'm super, super excited. And there's a few things that I learned about my bass that I didn't know. The original strap, I just had to chuck it because I was like getting some massive, you know, shoulder pain. so I got a Levy strap which is phenomenal by the way and I also changed out my um uh buttons uh to locks so which is great this actually takes a lot of the weight of the bass and you know I wasn't like icing it every night so so excited that you know my teacher actually did this for me so yay all right so the next thing that I learned is to have to learn how to tune the bass I was like hello so I bought the snark so I guess everybody buys it but I don't actually like it um because I have a hard time you know so there is a electronic one so hopefully I will be getting that and when i practice i have to practice with a um metronome um this one is okay but i actually downloaded an app so it helps me and i practice you know uh the metronome i think uh we're setting it between 60 and 70 which is great um other than that um oh oh oh oh good thing so like the second time i had to go to the lessons he was like okay where's your c's where's your d's and i was like what the heck you know um the first class he's like don't worry about the notes and then second one is like where's this and where's that i was like oh my god so i had to learn my notes so easy way that i did was i learned my three five seven nine and i knew my 12th you know so if i get lost i know exactly where i am so my seven is you know b a d you know my three is a d g c so i know my three five seven and nine and twelfth i knew already fret and right now we are going to learn you know the octaves i know exactly where they are i just can't play them you know they're just one scale over so i know those already um uh we're also doing like fingering um exercises because like when i pick up my bass which i'll do in a minute you know i am stumbling so i have a different exercise that he wants me to do and i don't know um bass players out there do y'all have a hard time with the top string. Literally, I feel goofy and I can't not play it for some reason. I'm very comfortable playing down here. And when I get up, you know, to the top string, I am struggling. So anybody have tips for that? I am, you know, I need help there. I'm open ears on that um other than that uh like i said i practice originally i started practicing like 30 minutes but i'm like oh you know i think i need to practice more because oh my god i suck so now i do between like an hour to two hours and um i do it six days a week um the reason the reason why i don't do you know seven because you know i figured i have an hour lesson with my teacher I think I'm good. So I have learned a lot. So I'm going to pick up my bass now. So this is my beautiful bass. And by the way, I'm in a different room. So one thing that I had to learn because I was stringing, you know, my bass wrong. You know, for some reason I was going like this. I was like, oh my god why can I not stop you know hitting other strings so he taught me to you know the correct way learn how to string it the correct way so I'm gonna talk and you know do my exercise at the same time so this helps me a lot so I would sit for maybe 20 or 30 minutes you know just playing correctly excuse me, and I learned how to, you know, how to stop the actual string. I mean, once in a while, of course, sometimes I actually hit the other string, but I practice. So here's the thing. So once I learned that I had to get my right hand all set, I had to get my left hand. You know, it's like ridiculous, by the way, whether you have it or not, but my thumb, when I play the top string my thumb wants to come over which is bad i know that okay but for some reason it's like here and maybe i just need to do a little bit more because when i you know play the lower string which i'm very comfortable you know i don't have a problem i actually you know put it in the right position so like i said once in a while i'll just you know sit here till i feel comfortable And then I'm like, okay, I have to play in my left hand. So what I do is basically, I take it slow, okay? Sometimes I want to rush, which is bad, by the way. See? I had a problem right there. So when I feel comfortable, I'll just start my exercise that I have to do with him. And this actually gives me confidence that I'm doing it right. So when I come up here, guys, like I said, I don't feel that comfortable. My thumb is going this way already, which is bad. But the good thing is, you know, I know my mistakes, so I need pointers. I am fine. Why is that? I don't know. So, I can play this really good and this really good. I think when I play this string, I'm just gonna have to take my time. So, okay, I'm gonna talk to you. So one of the things that I have to I guess is slow down my brain because for some reason you know you know I am a band major and then when I saw Herman Lee play I'm like oh my god I really am not playing that you know bass but my teacher says don't play bass because I need to learn to you know string um you know, correctly. So I want my note to get it clear, you know, because if I go real fast, I mess up. So one of the scales that I learned is basically I have to learn, you know, I'm playing uh c d e f g a b c d e f g a b c so i've learned like literally on wednesday guys i'm playing up the neck of um the bass and i'm learning these um uh different terms um which is great and it's new because i've never well besides the piano you know i i really did not pick up um an instrument and so when i have to play the scale you know like this like a day and a half my right hand to say hey get it together i'm gonna do it again you know you gotta forgive me a month i think a month i did i'm doing very well the first scale that i've learned and i've actually if i stand up you know i think i do it pretty well the two scales that i learned the last scale i am still practicing so i think i did pretty good don't be too harsh on me because i will be playing the correct way all right guys i hope you enjoyed this and this is my journey and like i said i am sticking to my base i am you know every time i go to the lesson i'm so excited because I'm picking things up quickly I think quickly in a month uh you know I memorized my notes I'm playing my scales really well um yeah so tell me what you think other than that guys I will talk to you later