I started playing music from a very young age. It just so happened that I grew up where steel pan music was played, or if you were taking a little walk from my house, you most likely walked into the steel band room or the steel band shed as they called it .
What I remembered is that I used to take the galvanized lid from our trash tray, hold it between my legs like it was a steel pan, and play with a stick, bang on the trash lid and whatever I heard coming out. From there at that time there were some interesting melodies, I felt some kind of connection with the music at that time although I could not 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 aware that something bigger than myself was happening inside of me. Looking back now makes me believe that it was my inspiration and a foretaste of what I would be doing in life.
Sometimes the 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 with another acoustic guitar, but with only four strings. I think I was training then and didn’t know it.
Even in elementary school I had the privilege of playing in the school’s steel pan orchestra.
My hearing improved at that point. All this time I lived in Trinidad. Then we moved to live in 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 remembered telling them, however. , the captain was willing to give me a try.
There were other bassists in that band at the time, although we were all learning, but with a bass that had all the notes written and glued to the fretboard, like they knew it was coming, so I did it myself. duty to seize this opportunity. Well, that interested me a lot.
What happened next was an experience I will never forget. After classes at school, I would rush to the band room to practice by myself just to learn about that bass, and after about three weeks or so I removed the paper that had the name of the notes attached to it. to the fretboard. I think my desire and dedication it made me become 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, asked me to hang the bass around my neck, and while they played the songs he shouted the notes that he saw stuck. the tuning fork, and played them, and although I didn’t have the correct fingering like all bassists should, (this should be corrected when starting to practice playing bass by ear – you can find help on some social media sites), I was able to see, hear and play the notes.
I got better with time and experience, and with the opportunity to play with other bands that I think liked my style of playing. Being on the island of Tobago, musicians from Trinidad came, they would have found out about my way of playing, and they asked me to play with them, which I did. I learned a lot from them. During all this time, playing with these groups, I had never read a note from a sheet music or a bass tablature; I really didn’t know about that at the time. I played many styles of music just by listening and transferred what I heard to bass.
I remember a popular nightclub where I was a member of the resident band. There were situations where I had to play songs that I only listened to for about a minute and then I had to accompany the singers and I had to play the full songs only a few minutes later. In fact, they only came to us to give us a taste of what to expect. I also loved that experience, I think it helped 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 who plays by ear. My only advice is that, although you like to play by ear, learning to read sheet music notes and bass tablatures, it will help you to know the values of the notes, learn scales, arpeggios, etc. play all kinds of music so you can be a complete gamer; not just restricted to one style of music.
I just thought it should encourage beginners who want to play bass by ear.
Have fun!
