chilipepperflea wrote on Jul 13^th, 2007 at 12:36pm:


Hey, Ryan. I've played guitar for the past eight-nine years. I still suck, but I think it's fun! I also play the keyboard and two days ago I actually bought a mexican Fender Jazz Bass! I jam with a friend of mine, so he took his Stratocaster, and I my newly acquired bass, and sat down to learn Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends. Now I know Paul McCartney is a genius, but I didn't know his bass lines were quite that fantastic. It was almost spiritual to jam on those two songs. Then we got too drunk, and yesterday was a pretty awful day, so we're gonna continue our jam today.

I've heard of Squire, but not the Arai. I couldn't even find it in the online music shop where I buy stuff. It's cool that you play bass also. We continued our jam yesterday, this time I learnt some Oasis songs. They were cool to play, but the bass lines were mostly pretty basic (three days with a bass and I'm already being a snob!). So far I'm having a hard time to mute strings I've just played. I can do it with the palm of my right hand, but it's nearly impossible doing it with the left, which is what I want to learn. I'll practice a lot more, though, maybe I'll manage to do it someday. And yeah, check out McCartney's bass lines. Personally, I think he outdid himself on Abbey Road, but I haven't actually tried anything from that album yet. Do you pluck with your fingers, or do you use a pick? I'm trying to learn to use my fingers.

Well, if I hold my right hand like I do on an electric guitar with a pick, I can mute strings without a worry. But since I'm trying to learn to play with my fingers, that's counterproductive. The problem I have with muting with my left hand is that I have to mute one string while holding down another, I can't do two things at once, haha. Sadly, I don't like Red Hot much, they're a bit too funky for me. But I recognize the uniqueness of Flea's bass abilites.