Learn To Play Bass Guitar

There is a secret you must know if you want to learn to play bass guitar. It is in the name. The guitar is a musical instrument where you learn notes and melodies and chords and all that musical stuff. A bass guitar plays the same notes but in practice it should be approached as more of a percussion instrument which needs to be felt and interpreted by the body directly to the bodies of your listeners. Right from the very beginning when you are practicing your bass guitar you need to be aware that you are communicating with your audience in almost the same way the drummer is.

So how do you begin to learn to play bass guitar? Just the same as if you were learning the regular guitar. Take lessons for a while. Get the callouses on your fingers and learn the notes on the fretboard. As a bass guitar can be played with either a plectrum or with the right hand fingers you could try learning the rest stroke used by classical guitar players. You should learn all about the basic chords and scales as they are played in rock music, and maybe take a look at the way folk singers play the guitar to accompany themselves singing. This will give you a basic understanding of where the bass notes are in regular guitar playing and how they fit in with the rest of the music.

Once you have a basic understanding of guitar playing you need to choose which type of bass guitar interests you most and how you are going to play it. The four string bass is tuned an octave lower than the six string guitar, with its four strings tuned to E A D G. The five and six string bass guitars can be tuned in many different ways to give a wide range of how you express yourself through your music. Now is not the time to make the decision about which bass guitar you choose, you will find out as you experiment and gain some experience playing in groups.

When you play your bass guitar you will possibly be using a plectrum. Usually this will be one of the heavier picks but they are available in a range of weights to suit the music and the player. If you choose to play the bass guitar with your fingers you will be learning a range of plucking, slapping and snapping techniques using the fingers of your right hand.

The type of bass guitar you choose to play and the technique you use to play your bass will be the methods you use to turn musical notes into bass guitar music. As the bass player you have the job of giving your group the extra thump it takes to get the dancers dancing and the audience swaying. And the great part is you do not have to be a technical virtuoso to do it. You can have fun inventing your own bass lines and making use of chords and arpeggios, but keep it simple. It is an old joke amongst rock and roll musicians that the bass player has the least technical ability, and sometimes there is an element of truth to this, but the rhythm is best expressed by simplicity.

Here is a video featuring that personification of simplicity, Flea, giving a lesson on popping and slapping.

Technorati Tags: learn to play bass guitar, four string bass, bass guitar