Learn how to play Bass Guitar with these easy lessons. Learn the basics of how to play bass guitar. Whether you are a beginner guitarist or an experienced player, you will find some useful tips here.
Learn with Easy Bass Guitar Lessons
Take any song for instance, and you will find a bass track that provides the rhythmic pulse to the songs, besides the drums.
The bass track is often the glue that holds the music together. Unlike the percussion instruments, a bass track has melody notes that keep the music moving.
Most beginners, especially the teenagers and the growing kids, usually don’t take to the bass guitar as their first instrument. Obviously because they find acoustic and the electric guitars most appealing!
But if you are one of those who like thumping bass sounds and love the feeling of the beats inside your chest, then you may like the bass guitar.
In that case, you can find some interesting, though basic, bass guitar playing techniques, patterns and theories that should help you start playing the bass guitar like a pro.
Bass Guitar vs Electric Guitar: Which one is easier to learn and play?
If you’re a beginner who’s interested in learning to play the guitar, what should you begin with – an electric or a Bass Guitar?
Here are some things that make these different instruments altogether. Here’s how a Bass Guitar differs from Traditional Guitar.
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- Firstly, Bass guitars have fewer and thicker strings. The thicker strings produce the booming bass sounds.
- Bass guitars also have large bodies and they are usually made from rose and maple wood and usually have four strings only.
- Unlike traditional chords, where you play chords, you use the bass guitar to play rhythmic notes, and not for chords.
- A bass guitar is usually played in unison with the drums to form a beat (it keeps time/tempo), on which other musicians can follow.
- Bass guitar is easier to get started with, just learn a few patterns and keep them repeating over
- Couple of months of practice on the bass, and you can join a band and still sound okay.
- With the electric guitar, you can play rhythm as well as lead, and it does take longer to learn
- The electric guitar is a better tool for performing & songwriting.
- You may learn the bass as a starting instrument (faster to learn), and then switch over to the electric guitar later on (you’ll learn faster as you’ll already be familiar with the fretboard)
Compared to the electric guitar, many find the fingerings, notes, and structure of bass comparatively easier to learn. Its actually possible to teach yourself to play bass in a few days/weeks time.
If you take the bass route, try listening to your favorite bands and focus on the bass part. Because it’s in the background, it can be hard to hear at first but becomes easier gradually.
Playing the Bass Guitar vs Playing the Lead Guitar
So how different is playing lead guitar different from playing bass lines, and if you play one is it easier to play the other style?
First thing you should understand is that just because you can play a guitar (which usually has 6 strings), you cannot just pick up a bass (usually has 4 strings) and start playing it (or even the other way round).
Besides, the difference in the number of strings, a bass guitar comes with much thicker strings compared to a standard 6-string guitar, which means you need more strength in your fingers.
Also, the bass is played in a different manner, its played in unison with the drums to form a beat, which the other musicians can follow.
A good bassist/bass guitar player picks the strings with the fingers and can thump or slap the strings with their thumb while playing.
Having said that the music theory and the basics that you learn with the other types of guitars are still applicable to the bass guitar.
Tips to Learn How to Play Bass Guitar
Here are some useful tips that can help to learn to play the bass guitar better.
- Since the Bass guitar is strong and a sturdy instrument, you will need strength in your fingers to play it well. Besides, bass guitar involves hitting single notes often. So give importance to regular finger exercises.
- Practicing is even more important in case of bass guitars. The bass notes will sound good only if you place the fingers correctly, only if your fingers hit the fret board of the bass guitar correctly.
- Bass guitars are tuned the same way as the regular guitars, you need to familiarize yourself with the notes and tunings of an ordinary guitar.
- It’s very important to feel the music while playing the Bass Guitar, since it gives any song timing and depth, just like drums.
Can You Play Chords On A Bass Guitar?
One common question that most beginner guitar players have is whether you can play chords on a Bass Guitar.
Even though there’s nothing that stops you from doing so, a bass guitar is used to provide the bass lines (patterns), which works best as individual notes rather than chords.
Also, Bass has only four strings (and the strings and frets on a bass are further apart compared to other guitar types), which makes it inconvenient to play chords on a Bass. Otherwise, there’s no difference between guitar chords and bass chords.
If you still want to play chords on the bass, good luck to your fingers 🙂
Here’s a video that show How to play chords on your Bass
Learn from Bass Guitar Tabs
Want to play bass guitar? You should begin with Bass guitar tabs, and learning to play from tabs is really not as difficult as it seems. Here’s how to do it the right way. Just remember that the first string is always the thinnest and with the highest pitch.
Basics of Reading your bass guitar tabs
A bass guitar will have four strings. The first uppermost string is the G string (no, it’s not underwear), followed below by the D string, which is tailed by the A string. The last string, E, is the strongest of all the bass strings. These strings are represented by four horizontal lines. The numbers below the lines are the frets where the notes are played on. You will observe the frequent appearance of the “O” which indicates that the string should not be fretted or pressed against a fret. If there are numbers above the fret numbers – the note has to be played on that fret.
If a number appears above a number on top of the fret, the strings are to be played at the same time, this time like a chord. Most bass guitar tabs are accompanied by legends to help the player understand some of the unfamiliar terms. In general, bass guitar tabs are easier to learn than the formal guitar musical tablature.
More guitar enthusiasts are finding bass guitar tabs convenient to use when attempting to understand the rudiments of bass guitar playing. There is no need for them to understand the underlying principles of guitar tablature because they want to learn how to play the bass guitar fast.
Bass guitar players who dream of making it big opt for formal lessons in the fine art of bass guitar. A lesson in bass guitar will introduce them to the formal musical scales meant for stringed instruments. With experience and a solid background on musical theories, bass guitar players can switch easily from bass guitar tabs to scales.
Begin practicing with easy pieces
If you want to start a band, you should start with easy song pieces. Try out guitar pieces with simple bass guitar tabs. You will gradually progress on all fronts, from rhythm to bass, with constant practice and lessons. If there are difficulties along the way, you can always ask advice and opinions from the pros.
Practice your hand speed, slapping, and picking. Bass guitar tabs will require fast playing and switching of notes. You can add a dash of your own style by adding slaps. The faster you can go, the better you can play your bass guitar. Start practicing with free bass guitar tabs. You can have access to thousands of bass guitar tabs online and offline. Just decide what song pieces you want to learn but always start from the simple to the complex to avoid developing bad guitar habits that will ultimately be too hard to shake off.
If you follow this approach, bass guitar tabs becomes easy enough to learn.
Free Beginner Bass Guitar Lessons
Observe carefully and you will notice that besides the electric guitars or acoustic guitars (who usually play solo or lead), there are background music players such as bass guitarists, who are an essential part of any music ensemble/band.
The solo playing will sound a lot better with the background rhythm of the bass guitar, and that’s why many guitar players also learn to play the bass guitar.
To learn bass guitar effectively, you should start with the basics and then move on to simple techniques. Practice, and watch online videos of your favorite bass guitarists, to learn even more.
Read here to know how different is bass guitar playing from playing lead guitar.
Another good read here — do bass guitarists play chords on their bass guitar?
Summary
There’s always a good demand for musicians who can play bass instruments as it gives depth to any song. So if you play the bass guitar, try to become good at it. Many successful bands have a bass guitarist in their group. As you start learning the basics, also try to learn variations like slap bass, blues bass, etc. So get started with your bass guitar lessons today, and it will also become easier for you to play the other kinds of guitar, if you wish to.
See Also
- Understanding the various bass guitar parts
- Bass guitar buying guide and reviews of bestbass guitars
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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