So you've bought your first bass guitar and you’re ready to rock. What do you learn? It can be confusing knowing exactly where to start but there really are a few things that will get you on the right track straight away.
This post links to many of my other free lessons which are designed to make you a better bass player. The lessons will give you a really solid foundation from which to build.
There is quite a lot of information here but, eventually, you will be using it all to make great music. Bookmark or save this page, take your time building up your skills and keep going. You will notice an improvement with good, consistent practice!
Learn To Play Bass Guitar
I find it really helpful to have an overall framework of what it takes to be a great bass player. You will find that everything you need can be distilled into these seven categories:
This looks like a lot but, don't worry, there are very small gains you can make in each category that will compound very quickly into fantastic results.
Without decent technique you will literally fight and struggle with the bass, get frustrated and want to give up. Work on this area and everything else will seem easier.
Solid Body Electric Bass Guitar Plan #4
This lesson shows you how to hold the bass and what to do with each hand. This will work on your coordination, fluency, accuracy, speed, strength, and stamina.
I have more exercises in my free ebook and loads of musical sounding and challenging ones in my book Creative Bass Technique Exercises.
Scales form the building blocks of bass lines. Since so much music theory is based on scales it makes a lot of sense to memorise a few. In addition, you can use scales to improvise solos, bass lines as well as building speed and accuracy in your technique. All good stuff!
Online Guitar Lesson Plans
Memorise the following one-octave scales. On these diagrams, the strings run horizontally, the frets vertically and the blobs are where you put your fingers (the numbers in them are the left-hand fingers to press down). The red blob bottom left is the lowest note in pitch (the ‘root’ note) and the one on the top right is the highest note (the ‘octave’). Play from the lowest to the highest note but feel free to change the order of notes - that’s called making music!
All these diagrams are moveable meaning you can start the red blob at a different place and end up with the same scale - just starting from a different note (so you can play any of these shapes starting on any of the 12 notes in music - pretty cool).
Look at any good bass player and you will see them using more than the first few frets. Actually, so much great bass playing does take place only in the first few frets but my point is that true mastery comes from being able to play what you want when you want. Knowing your fretboard inside out is essential for that.
Designing A Perfect Guitar Lesson Plan And 10 Week Syllabus
The following diagrams come from the free lesson: How To Find Any Note On The Bass Guitar. Check that lesson out as well as:
The above diagrams and many more useful ones can be found in a free ebook I wrote that you can download here or by signing up on the form at the end of this post.
Reading music enables you to learn so much more by quickly reading the notes as you would these words you're reading now. You don’t have to be anywhere near as good at reading music as you are at reading English; you can get loads out of having just a decent grasp.
Easy Kids Guitar Songs With The Best Kids Chord Shapes
It’s also brilliant if you want to do a last minute gig and you can’t practice or prepare - just read it and you’re ready to go! That does take a deeper understanding but with regular practice, you can learn to read well really quickly. It starts coming together the more consistently you do it.
I find that reading music tends to teach you more about notes and music theory more than TAB does. TAB usually doesn't display any rhythms so that's no big surprise. Reading music is a great way to learn and understand rhythm, harmony and melody - the three big cornerstones of music.
Listen to the greats of the instrument. This really is the best way to learn the bass. Get a lesson direct from your favourite bass player by working out what they played. Want to play like Bootsy? Work out Sex Machine. Want to sound like Jaco? Figure out Teen Town (practice loads first!). To do this you can look at YouTube videos and TAB but I also recommend studyingAwesome Bass Players and Classic Bass Albums. Immersing yourself in great music and the top players is the best way to train your ear and learn all kinds of cool lines, techniques and styles.
Guitar Lessons Week 1
When you listen to different styles of music you get inspired and also develop your own unique voice on the bass. To then make the most of what you're listening to, you will need to...
To be able to put on your favourite piece of music and figure out the bass line requires you to have a good ear. You need to be able to listen to a piece of music, pick out the bass line and work out the notes, rhythms and techniques. This takes a little time but, with practice, it comes much much easier. HINT: go through all the free lessons on this blog and you’ll pick a lot of this stuff up. I will be releasing ear training courses specific to bass in the near future so sign up for the newsletter to keep updated.
Not to be too anti-TAB but one thing I have noticed over years of teaching is the real lack of a good ear in many bass players who rely solely on TAB (or a video showing you exactly how something goes). These two approaches do not rely on your own ear, resulting in weak listening skills. I understand the allure of TAB and videos: It's definitely more difficult in the short term to use your own ear, especially with the internet around to give you all the answers immediately.
Guitar Lesson Plan
Listening and working out bass lines yourself (at least as part of your practice routine) is one of the best investments you will ever make in yourself as a musician. Click To Tweet
Here’s a great way to start working on your ear. Learn the major scale (see above) and learn to be able to sing or hum the notes of the scale without the bass anywhere near you. Then learn to pick out the intervals within the scale.
An interval is the distance between 2 musical notes and they are named from the major and natural minor scales. Since all bass lines consist of notes followed by more notes it pays to be able to figure out quickly the sounds (intervals) that are taking place as the bass line progresses. Each interval has a unique sound that maps to a shape on the bass guitar fretboard. If you can learn the shape and link it to the sound (interval) you’re in business!
Chordbuddy Chord Buddy Guitar Learning System Left Hand Plus Tuner Set Teaching Aid Book Lesson Plan App Usa
The fancy word for this is repertoire and it simply means everything you know how to play on the bass. This is why you took up the bass and this is what you will be working on constantly. Learn rock, jazz, pop, funk, blues, classical and everything in between! You’ll learn something from every different style and it will make you a better bass player.
A lot of the information in this lesson is powerless without context. The really cool stuff starts to happen when you know what to do with the scales, theory, fretboard knowledge and so on. Sign up for the newsletter to be informed of plenty more free lessons and tips that will show you exactly how to turn all this into amazing sounding bass playing.
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Bass Guitar For Beginners: A Definitive Guide To Learning
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