Forum menu
On a keyboard, you can see the notes. For me, it meant I could understand the relationships between notes, chords and scales far easier than on a guitar, as I could see what notes made up each chord. It helped with theory.
You can do the same with a bass guitar. You learn intervals pretty quickly, because they form a pattern, with all the strings tuned in 4ths in standard tuning. I play a lot of music from notation, and as my sight-reading skills improve I can simply read a note, fret it and play. I'd say that's an advantage compared with learning from tab, because with tab you don't need to know what you're playing, just hit the number shown on the diagram. At the same time, as you're reading the next notes along the stave, you recognise intervals, arpeggios, and because you know the fretboard, and where to fret those intervals, so your speed of reading increases. At the same time, you recognise chord changes, and your fingers fly to the next note.
I taught myself to play the ukulele during Covid lockdowns. Inspired by mr b the gentleman rhymer, I bought one in Feb 2020, not knowing if I’d have time to teach myself…. Cue many months of not going anywhere at the weekend, learning the uke and a very long suffering husband. Check out “paper plates”, mr b’s genius version of paper planes by MIA.
I can’t play the guitar, but I did learn to play the piano many years ago. I found the ukulele relatively easy to learn and am quite proficient after 5 years, fewer strings, cheap to buy, very portable . My first one was about £30. I taught myself by learning the pictures that make up a chord, I don’t know music theory. I can really recommend it as a fun instrument to play, difficult not to smile when playing and singing. Helped me to keep some sanity during lockdown and lots of beginner friendly tutorials on you tube.
"This is not a song about my Brompton."