Bass Guitar Guide (Advanced)

In this instalment of the bass guitar guide we're diving into three topics for the more skilled and experienced player. This means that you know about root notes, rhythm, communicating with your drummer and tuning. If that's not the case, definitely check out our bass guitar guide.

The first topic in this article is actually not necessarily applicable to all bass guitarists. If you are a bassist who started on the bass, and not on the guitar, then this might be fun to read, but not all that useful. The second topic is about singing and playing bass. A difficult thing to learn, but definitely not impossible. The last topic of this article revolves around arranging for a bass guitar.

How not to play bass like a guitarist

Many people start their musical journey on a guitar. It's one of the most popular instruments, it's pretty cool and there is usually always someone who can teach you a thing or two. Also, you don't really need a band to play a song. The bass guitar sounds best when it blends with the other instruments. Still, even though the guitar is popular, there are many player who make the transition to the bass guitar. Sometimes because they have to, and sometimes because they realize what a great instrument it is. When listening to these guitar players turnt bass players, you can usually here the traces of their heritage. Depending on your taste, this is a good or bad thing.

Pro bassists can spot a guitarist playing bass from a mile away. You can hear it in their bravado, wanting to play a lot of notes. You can hear it in their fast pointy styles and in the way they tend to play just a little before the rhythm. Natural bass players usually play a bit behind the rhythm.
All these little things are not easily discarded, and you don't necessarily have to. The most important thing is to begin to think as a bass player. Learn what it is to play bass and try not to relate this to your guitar knowledge. At least not yet. In other words, start with the beginning and keep it simple. Just play the basic notes and listen to how it blends with the rhythm section. Only add if it's really necessary. That's how you get to know the bass and get to know bass playing.

How to sing and play bass

Another hot topic is singing and playing bass together. The nature of many bass lines somewhat clashes with the singing lines. When you try to sing together with playing the bass you often times lose the rhythm and end up failing. Singing Bassist has some amazing tips on singing and playing bass at the same time.

One of the most important things is to really know the song. Get to know each part of the song and how it is constructed. Understand where you can keep the bass basic and where you need to focus on your singing, and which parts allow more freedom in your bass playing. Since singing needs more expression, as a bassist you really need to know your bass part like a robot. You must be able to play it, while having a conversation with someone, while watching and following a TV-show and while learning the lyrics. It has to become a second nature that is separated from your mental capacity to really sing the lyrics with emotion.

How to arrange for bass guitar

Arranging bass lines in a song can be easy or difficult depending on what you want, but the most important thing is that the bass is in complete sync with the rhythm section. Nothing sounds more messy than a drummer and a bassist that do not agree. This is also Adam Neely's first tip, a very good read.

Other things you need to understand when arranging a bass line is that the sound of the bass matches the style of the song. In R&B-style song, a big fat bass sound can really make the song pop, while in some rock- or country-styles the bass sounds better in support of the guitars. Make sure you know what the songs needs from you and start writing from that perspective.
When you start from scratch a big thumping bass line could be the core of the song. The rest of the instruments are just there to highlight the bass guitar. If you manage to write a big bass line, don't be afraid to repeat it. The hypnotizing effect that occurs is one of the great joys of a well-written bass line.

Tips for bass players

What rests are some tips for everyone playing and loving the bass. While I would like to give you the tips myself, I should really let the pros do the talking here. Gibson has a nice piece where 10 expert bass players give tips to bass players. It's a great read and an inspiration for us all.

Bass Guitar Guide (Easy & Useful)

This article explores the basics of playing bass guitar, explains the role of the bassist, gives tips for beginners and bass lessons for the more advanced player. Everyone who is enthusiastic about the bass guitar is welcome to read on!

The bass guitar

People who are familiar with a guitar can consider the bass guitar as a guitar without the two highest strings (b and e). The remaining four strings (e, a, d, g) are thick strings that give the bass a low sound that’s a few octaves lower than the sound of a regular guitar. The appearance of a bass guitar is thus fairly similar to the appearance of a guitar. The neck of the bass guitar, however, is usually longer. Even though bass guitars often have four strings, there are also bass guitar with four, five or six strings. Some bass guitars even have eight strings.

Without using the guitar as a point of reference, the bass guitar is a piece of wood with a neck and four strings. The electric version of the bass guitar has got pickups that pick up the sound that the strings produce and send it to an amplifier. The acoustic version of the bass guitar has got a hollow body that amplifies the sound acoustically. You can play the instrument by either using your fingers or a pick. There are different styles of playing. Examples are plucking, slapping and popping.

Different types of wood lead to different types of sounds. Also, different types of pickups can lead to different types of sounds. Most bass guitars have tone knobs to adjust the tone and thus specific sound of a bass guitar. The sound, however, always remains relatively low and fat, as this is important for the role of the bass in a musical composition.

The role of the bassist

A bass is instrumental to a musical composition. Together with the drums, it carries the other musical instruments to make a coherent and grooving piece of work. Playing a piece of music without a bassist will not get people of their feet to dance and is often highly unattractive to listen to. On the other hand, just listening to a piece of music involving only the bassist is also not really nice as a listening experience. The bass guitar has a role that it needs to play.

Still, the bass instrument in its contemporary form is still a relatively young instrument, unlike the piano or guitar. Influential bassists like James Jamerson, Pino Palladino, Marcus Miller and many others have put their stamp on what bass playing is in this day and age, but there is still much to explore.

If you’re playing in a band, as a bassist, you will have to work with the drummer. Where the drummer lays the rhythm down, you are laying the groove down. On top of that the keyboard player and the guitarist play chords or harmonies. The bass player is like the cement that keeps everything together. Beginning bassists should therefore concentrate on keeping it simple and maintaining the groove. Because remember, if you stop playing, the people stop dancing.

 

Tips for the beginner

One of the absolute basics is tuning your bass guitar. Every bassist should know how to keep the instrument in tune. If you have an extraordinary technique, a great rhythm and brilliant players beside you, but you’re bass is out of tune, then you might as well not play at all. While, an out of tune guitar can be very annoying to listen to, chances are that it might not ruin the entire performance. An out of tune bass will ruin the performance guaranteed. Knowing how to tune your bass guitar is thus a good skill to have and there are several methods.

 

 Am I out of tune?

A bass guitar is tuned by using the tuning keys at the end of the neck of the instrument. Turning these will either make your string produce a higher or a lower sound. Putting more tension on it (making the string shorter) gives you a higher sound, while loosening it gives you a lower sound. A regular bass guitar with four strings is tuned like this:

G——————————–
D——————————–
A——————————–
E——————————–

The next question might be, how do I know if my bass guitar is tuned like that? Unless you are a bassist with perfect pitch, it might be difficult to know if it is in tune.

How to tune

To tune your bass you can use an electronic tuner, an app or your ear. Or if you are reading this on your computer, just go to this website. All methods should get you where you need to be. The easiest way for a beginning bassist is using an electronic tuner. These little devices allow you to put your cable into the device and by playing your string it lets you know what note you are playing. So if you play the open E-string and it says you are playing a D#, you know you have to tune it up half a note. This means tightening the tuning key a bit. The advantage of using an electronic tuner is that they are reliable and you can use them even if there is a lot of noise around.

Another way to tune is to use an application on your smartphone. These apps for iOS or Android are usually free or very cheap and can be extremely helpful. Using the internal microphone they recognize if your string is in tune and accordingly say if you need to tune the bass guitar up or down. The disadvantage is that you have to be in a quiet place to have a reliable result.

The last option is to use your ear. This is the most traditional way, but also the best way to train your musical ear. Also, if you forget your electronic tuner or don’t have any apps, you can always fall back on your ear. An easy way to check if your bass guitar is in tune using your hearing, is to have the keyboard player play you a note. The advantage of an electronic keyboard is that it’s always in tune. Alternatively you could get a perfect note from your tuning app on your smartphone. If you are alone, then there is of course always your bass guitar.

Playing bass guitar

Now you know what a bass guitar is, understand the role it plays and have made sure it is in tune, it’s time for two valuable lessons.

Hit the root notes

A regular pop song usually consists of a couple of chords that are played by a guitarist and/or keyboard player. A chord is a set of notes that sound really well together. The role of the bassist is to emphasize each chord by giving it foundation. A metaphor to explain this is the bassist deciding what color a wall should be painted and the guitarist or keyboard player deciding which shade of the color it will be and whether it needs some decoration. To decide upon a ground color or foundation, the bassist should play a note. This is usually the root note of a chord.
The root note is often the lowest sounding note in a chord. There are of course some exceptions. What this means for a bass player is that when a guitarist or keyboard player plays a progression of C, Dm, Am and G, the bass player should play the notes C, D, A and G to emphasize the beginning of a new chord in the progression. When playing these notes you will immediately hear that the chord progression gets a small groove. This is the basis of playing the bass guitar.

Keep the rhythm

The next step is keeping rhythm. Whether you are able to play twenty notes during a chord or just play the root note, it’s of vital importance to keep the rhythm. The most basic rhythm is hitting the note at the 1. What this means is that from the moment the song starts, you count till 4 and then start over again. For every time you count the one, you should also play the root note. Try doing this with any song and try to keep the rhythm going. It may become boring after a while, but this is the very foundation of playing the bass guitar: listening to the drummer for the rhythm and listening to the guitarist for the chord. Basically you are connecting the two things using your bass guitar.

Of course you can vary at some point. Try filling up the 2,3 and 4 with either the root note or other notes you think sound good. Just make sure you hit the root note on the 1 every time. Filling the other parts up will add some more groove to the song and will enhance your sense or rhythm. And if your goal is to get funky, then most certainly watch how Bootsy Collins does it.

Bass jam track

Of course you want to try out your newly acquired skills. Why not play some nice bass grooves on this jam track?

Teenage Love Affair Bass Tab (Alicia Keys)

We will start off immediately with the verse and the riff you can play entirely throughout it. Beginners may have to practice a bit more since you have to develop a little speed and use some hammer-ons. I won’t explain in detail where to put the hammer-ons, since you will probably feel it yourself when you play it.

G|———–10–8–7—————————-
D|———————10–10–10–8–10–8——
A|–8–8–8———————————-10–
E|———————————————–

As you probably noticed the E-string isn’t used. The string won’t be used for the entire duration of the song, which is weird for a bass tab. Usually bassline involve a lot of playing on the E-string, since it gives the lowest and bassiest sound. More melodic basslines, however, can be played by making full use of all the other strings.

The next part is the pre-chorus. This part features a relatively simple bit and then a more difficult break. The first bit is just playing two notes in line with the singer. The break is a bit tricker because of the timing. You should get that absolutely right for it to work.

G|—————————————————————–
D|—————————————————————–
A|–6–6–5–6–6–5–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–8–8–8–
E|—————————————————————–

After the pre-chorus you get into the chorus part. This part of the bass tab is not really difficult. The bass mainly follows the lead singer and it consists of two chords. Using some extra notes you can make it a little more interesting, but the singer is the most important here, so you should just stick to a simple rendition.

G|———————————–
D|———–7————–5—–5–
A|–5–5–5—–5–3–3–3—–3—–
E|———————————–

The chorus has to be played three times. After that you get into a break that leads you back to the main riff. It is very similar to the pre-chorus, but still listen to the song a couple of times to get it absolutely right.

G|———————————————————–
D|———————————————————–
A|–6–6–5–5–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–3–
E|———————————————————–

And that basically finalizes the song. There isn’t much more to it. Playing this bass tab will get you a perfectly usable bassline for a nice live performance. Try experimenting with the breaks or coming up with variations for the main riff.

Cleanup Woman Bass Tab (Betty Wright)

Clean Up Woman is a very funky tune off Betty Wright’s second solo album. It has a great guitar part that stays in your head forever. The bassline is not really difficult, but still very fun to play. As is the entire song if you play in a band.

Cleanup Woman

The main riff throughout the verses is quite simple, but involves some hammer-ons. If you look at the tab underneath you will see that the 10th note on the E-string (D), reoccurs constantly. This note should be hammered on. This keeps the flow and the rhythm of the song going on very nicely and makes life a little bit easier for you. The riff can be repeated endlessley, until the singer of course wants to go to the bridge.

G|—————————————————————
D|—————————————————————
A|–8—————-8—————-8—————-8–10–8–
E|—–8–10–8–10—–8–10–8–10—–8–10–8–10————

The other part of the song is the bridge section. A couple of chords are played during that section (Am, Dm, Gm, Bb) and you can accompany those chords by playing the next couple of notes. You can hold each note till you play the next one, to get a nice flow going. It also creates a good change from the more snappy verse groove. The last four notes build up to the return to the verse and you can put a little emphasis on them.

G|———————–5——————————–
D|——–5———–7—–7–5——–5—————–
A|—–7—–7–5–5—————–5—–5—–8—–8–
E|–5—————————–3———–6—–6—–

These two riffs are basically all there is to it. The real difficulty of the song does not lie in the notes itself. They are pretty basic in the key of F. The real difficulty lies in maintaining a steady groove and then mixing the style up for the bridge. This makes the song great. Of course you can add little fills in the main groove, but that’s totally up to you. The above tab is just my interpretation of the song and what I think is nice to play. I think it strikes a good balance between ease of playing and maintaining a steady groove.

Never Too Much Bass Tab (Luther Vandross)

This is a bass guitar tab for the song Never Too Much by Luther Vandross. It features a very original bassline which utilizes different techniques. Luther Vandross sang the entire bassline, as can be read in this interview and was then played by Marcus Miller.

Bass Tab (Never Too Much)

The bassline for Never Too Much is a vital element in the song, because it is so prolific and well-known. Learning to play it, is not just a question of hitting the right notes, but is really more a challenge in getting the right timing, rhythm and technique. I recommend going back to the song and listening to it often to get it right. The major parts of the bassline are tabbed below, so you can enjoy playing it with your band.

Never Too Much

The classic intro of Never Too Much is played like this:

G|—————–
D|—————–
A|—————–
E|–5–4–5–6–7–

After the intro, the verse begins. This is both played instrumental and played with Luther Vandross singing over it. The verse of Never Too Much has two major components and it has some fills. The fills are open to your own creativity. I propose one little option that I like to play, but feel free to go back to the record and take that or come up with something yourself. Underneath is the first part of the verse. Try slapping the string for the best sound.

G|————–
D|————–
A|————–
E|–5–7–5–7–

Here is the mentioned fill. It makes a nice transition to the second verse part. It doesn’t have to be slapped.

G|—————————–
D|—————————–
A|————–5–7–5——–
E|–7–5–7–7———–7–5–

Back to the main part of the bass tab which is basically a G-note in two octaves. The first three notes can be slapped and the latter three notes should be timed really well and be plucked. Do this with either one finger or use two, whatever suits you best. Again, the timing is the most important.

G|——————–
D|———–5–5–5–
A|——————–
E|–3–3–3———–

The there is a transition back to the verse.

G|———–
D|———–
A|———–
E|–3–5–7–

This completes the verse. The chorus is next up, which can be quite difficult to get right. Especially the transition from verse to chorus can be hard to grasp at first. So listen to the record well and see how and when it is played. The first notes are plucked and then immediately after the plucking you slap the open E-string with your thumb. Repeat this in the rhythm, get the other three notes and play another chorus. Once you get it, it’s a quite addictive little groove.

G|————————————–
D|–7–9–7–9————————–
A|————————————–
E|————–0–0–0–0–0–2–3–5–

After repeating this, you head back to the very first intro. Play the whole thing again and you are basically there. Creating nice original fills and straying away from the bass tab makes the song pop even more, but getting the basics right is absolutely vital. Slapping, plucking and doing this in the right rhythm will make the pretty basic notes really stand out. Have fun with it and don’t hesitate to ask questions!