How to start a band?

Starting a band and maintaining it for a long period of time requires a lot of will power and determination, but if you do everything right, it will definetly pay of. I was in a lot of bands in my life, and everyone was different from the other, but some things remained the same.  Here are some advices from me experience, on how to start a good band:

• If you want to start a band from scratch it is wise to know how to play a crucial instrument such as the guitar or drums or bass, because these instruments provide a great amount of the music played in the band, and if you have the knoledge over these instruments you can easily steer the band in the musical direction that you prefer, because other band mates will have to follow your lead.
• Start a band with one or two good friends. This way you already know the people with whom you'll have to work, and will prevent akward intereactions with a stranger in the band, you will play more fluently and quickly. Furthermore you will have a somwhat same music taste, this will prevent conflicts about the directions of the band.
• Have your own equipment. Not having or depending on someone elsess equipment can be a true show stopper for the whole collective, so it is wise to have your own.
• Having your own practice area is always better than renting or using someone elsess, because uo can can play whenever you want and not have to deal with other peoples graphics.
• Have a somwhat predetermined style of music you'll want to play. This way the whole band will avoid future conflicts on the direction of the band.

I hope you have found this informative, and as always - good luck!

Pick or fingers?

Many people have asked me, how is it better to play bass: with your fingers or using a pick? Well There isin't a definitive answer to this question. It truly depends on your personal prefference. If playing with your fingers is easier for you, then play with your fingers, or if playing with a pick is easier for you, then play with a pick, I guess what i'm trying to say is: just do it in the way that you feel more comfortable with.

There is however a difference in the sound and style of the two techniques.

• Playing with your fingers gives you a somewhat liquidy, softer tone and it also gives a more dynamic, lively sound. It is comonly used in funk, jazz, and rock.
• A pick gives you more of a rugh, edgy sound. It is comonly used in metall and punk rock.
• There is also a technique called: slapping and popping. I will tell more about those in a future post.

I hope this has been helpful, and as always - good luck!

Flea - playing with his fingers.

Sid Vicious - playing with a pick.

What bass should I buy?

If you are interested with the bass guitar, love its sound, the feel, the groove and you want to purchase one so that you could start creating bass lines or just doing covers of the songs you like, and don't know anything about bass guitars yet, well i'm a long time bass player, and have a lot of experience in the whole bass sphere and i'm going to help you pick the perfect bass for you!

These are the steps, that I think are crucial for finding the ideal instrument for anybody:

1. First of all, you have to set yourself a pricerange. That is you should have a limit on how much money you're planing to spend on the instrument. I would advise not to pick the most expencive one, even if you have the money for it. The reason is, that if you're just a beginner and don't know if you're going to latch on to the instrument, you could waste a lot of money on an instrument you couldn't even use properly. It is better in the start to buy a mid priced bass 400-600$  (If you have a lot of disposable money), or if you're tight on the budget a cheap 100-200$ bass would suite you just fine. When you grasp the instrument and feel like you're ready to move up a notch, then you can think about a more expensive, advanced bass.  
2. The style. Just as buying anything, you pay attention to the design and choose the one, that is the most apealling to you visually, so as choosing a bass. Before buying anything, you should go to a musical instrument store (even if you're planing to buy it online) and try out some basses, just to get the feel of the model, the weight, colour, the shape of the body, to know if that perticular instrument is comfortable for you, and believe me, comfort is one of the most crucial things to pay attention to, if you want to play well.
3. I would advise anyone, if they're new to the whole bass scene, not to buy an unknown company bass, even if it looks great to you personaly, and choose a more known manufactorer, that has been in the buisiness a long time, has good feedback, has international stores, etc. The reason is this: A stable manufactorer is more lickely to provide a better quality instrument, than an unknown company, even if the instruments have same price, because known manufacturers have a lot more experiance in the making of instruments. And especialy if you're knew and don't know a lot about the specifics and electronics of the instrument, you could get easily mislead into buying a bad quality instrument.

These are my tips on buying your first bass guitar. I hope you have found this informative and i'm going to be posting more bass related material in the near future. Good luck!