Learning how to play the Bass Guitar.
From the beginning. (Part I)
The following lesson is a basic introduction to the bass guitar and its use in modern music.
What is the Bass Guitar?
The bass guitar is all about low notes and guiding the chord progression as the “heartbeat” in a song. Bass guitar's are not generally considered melody instruments. They are widely understood as being rhythm instruments. Some might even say that a bass guitar is like a "stringed drum set". Bass and drums are played together almost as one combined entity separate from the melody instruments; sort of like giving the drummer a "tone". The majority of the notes played on the bass guitar are located below "middle C" on the piano. However, there is an overlap of higher notes. Many of these higher notes on the bass guitar can also be played on the regular six-string guitar. So, you can think of both instruments as being extensions of each other.
How many strings?
The most common bass guitars have four strings: E, A, D and G. The lowest "tone" string is the low E string or the "4th" string. A is the "3rd" string, D is the "2nd" string and G is the "1st" string. There are, however, some bass guitars that have five (or more) strings. These are widely used in playing jazz music. The "5th" string has a lower tone, below the E string. This is the B string. The B string allows for five more lower notes below low E. This allows for easier access to notes that are played in songs with lower notes: B, C, Db (C#), D and Eb (D#).
Do's and Don'ts
Old school purists’ thinking will insist that you do not play a bass guitar with a pick. All notes should be played with your fingers. However, there are different styles that require different sounds and different approaches to the strings, to create a harder, sometimes more aggressive appeal. Should you use your thumb to "pluck" the strings? Probably not. This is mostly based on technique. However if you are a funky or R&B bass player, you probably already know about "pop and slap" styles. This again, is a completely different style and approach to create a specific sound. Can you play chords on the guitar? Sure you can. However, chords are generally considered a piano or guitar thing. You can play two or more notes together on the bass to create a unique "fuller" sound, but the bass guitar is mostly used as the lowest rhythm foundation instrument to support the melody.
Thinking like a drummer.
When I started playing bass guitar in high school, my band director helped guide me into understanding what my role was as the bassist in the jazz band. I had already been playing guitar for two years prior, so I knew about reading chords. He told me that when reading the chord progression in music - that when I saw a chord like "GMaj9", I was to play the lowest note or the name of that chord. In that case, I played the low "G" note. If I saw a chord that read: D/F#, I was to play the second note "F#". This made perfect sense to me. What I didn't know was how and when to play it. That's when he told me to think like a drummer. I was to listen to whatever the drummer was playing on his right foot and with his right hand. If the drummer was playing something simple in 4/4 time: "bass-drum snare, bass-drum bass-drum snare bass-drum snare, bass-drum bass-drum snare", my job was to put a note on each of those bass-drum beats. If I wanted to play something on the snare beat, I could play the octave of that note or the fifth of that note. I eventually figured it out. Whatever my drummer did, I could give him a tone.
One's and Five's
If you learn only the absolute basics of bass guitar, and nothing else - the use of "Ones and Fives" in music is imperative for the bassist. What are they? There are twelve keys used in most music. Each key has seven notes. If we use the key of "G" major, these notes are: G, A, B, C, D, E and F#. Each note - in order, has its own Roman numeral placement: G = I, A = II, B = III, C = IV, D = V, E = VI and F# = VII. If I say play the I and V in the key of G, what are the notes? If you said G and D, you are correct. Knowing how to use the "I and V" method will help you play almost any type of music.
This concludes Part I of this lesson. Upcoming lessons will include learning the bass guitar fretboard, some basic theory applied to the bass guitar and some common scale patterns used in almost all American music.
Enlightening. I know nothing about the bass.