U Bass Tutorial
Ashlie Mealey
All bass amplifiers will have an input socket (where you plug your lead in) and a variety of knobs. These range from basic volume and tone controls through to effects and graphics equalizers.
I was very nervous at first but the lesson and instructions are at a lovely pace and easy to understand, which helped me to relax and above all enjoy my time with my new bass, at the end of the lesson I felt more confident handling my base and really enjoyed it, which is after all why I took it up in the first place. Looking forward to practicing and the next lesson
Great introduction to Talking Bass as a beginner. No fluff and straight into it, everything straight to the point and easy to understand, finishing with a simple riff to give encouragement. The reason people pick up an instrument is to learn how to play music on it, so finishing the first lesson with a simple riff is perfect. Your presentation style is professional whilst still keeping a friendly feel, so nice balance.
There is a sort-of workaround for p-locking the arp on and off. Set arp on and arp speed to whatever you want the retrig speed to be. Set the default track note length to be as short as possible. You can then select which notes to retrig by p-locking the note length to be long enough. This allows retrigs down to 32nd notes and 32nd note triplets, after which the minimum note length is longer than the retrig time. Granted, you lose control over the note length this way, but for percussive/transient sounds it works great!
Great tutorial, thanks for doing that. I have read the manual, done tutorials and have a good handle on how to do basic things on A4. Where I am struggling is having a feel for synthesis and how to intuitively dial in good sounds. I appreciate the pacing where you quickly twist knobs and talk about what you are hearing/thinking. I can follow along at your speed and pause/rewind as needed.
Bass may not get all the glory of the guitar or have the flash, crash, and bang of the drums -- but the instrument holds an important spot in any band, bridging the gap between rhythm and melody. The bass guitar is responsible for creating the undercurrent -- or bassline -- that ties a song together, giving it a rhythmic feel and a steady beat that helps both the guitar and drums propel the song forward.
Depending on the musical genre and the level of mastery you aspire to with playing your instrument, it can determine how easy or how hard it is to learn bass guitar. For instance, for more tone and guitar-driven songs in the country genre, playing bass may be easier than rhythm-focused genres such as funk or hard rock and heavy metal.
The physical size and thickness (or gauge) of bass strings of a bass may also make it more challenging for new musicians to learn. However, if you have smaller hands, there are short-scale basses (like the Fender Mustang Bass) that can make it easier for you to maneuver up and down the neck of your bass guitar and span a shorter distance between frets.
If you have a desire to experiment and tinker with tone, outfitting your electric bass with the right amp or pedals can help you replicate the tones of your favorite artists. The Fender Mustang GTX series of amps is compatible with the Fender Tone app, which allows you to access hundreds of presets to help you sound like your favorite musician without having to string together a ton of effects pedals.
There are a number of ways to tune your bass. While you can tune it by ear or using harmonics -- playing a specific fret on an adjoining string and matching the tone of a higher, open string to it, the Fender Tune app makes it easy to stay in tune. Download the free bass tuning app to keep your playing pitch perfect.
When learning to play bass, you may not encounter chords as frequently as you would when playing guitar. However, learning how to play bass chords can only serve to enhance your playing. While basslines are often the cornerstone of a song, bass chords help to add color, flavor, and a bottom-heavy rhythm to a song.
Learning to play the popular C Major scale on bass can help you play a number of songs. Playing scales not only helps to build finger dexterity, but helps you to recognize the same notes and tones, even when played on different frets. Learning scales can also help you recognize patterns and apply them when playing songs or writing your own music and basslines.
Setting good practice habits is essential for new bassists. For any beginner musician, making practice a regular part of your routine is critical to progress and building proficiency. Here are a few tips for carving out time to practice, as well as making sure you have what you need to get in a quality practice session.
One of the most rewarding parts of learning to play an instrument is putting that knowledge into practice by playing a song. Learning to play songs you love helps you develop a greater appreciation for the musicianship of the artists who created those tunes, as well as to develop your musical ear and experiment with new skills you learn.
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!
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!
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.
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 studying Awesome 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.
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.
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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I do often mention the fret and/or note but not always. Not doing so all the time is just one of many teaching errors on my part! Keep up the great work and I hope you can get something from my future videos.
Skilled bass players know how to tune their instrument by ear. However, a reliable bass guitar tuner is a great tool for everyone regardless of their bass-playing skills. Physical tuner devices can be a reliable tool for tuning a bass guitar. Unfortunately, they also tend to be quite expensive, at least if you want an accurate bass tuner. Luckily, there are bass tuner apps you can download completely free without having to settle for lower quality. Check out GuitarTuna, an online tuner app that you can download free of charge for your Android and iOS devices.
Should you use a pick or your fingers to play the bass? The decision is up to you, but the two different playing styles are good for different things. Playing with a pick allows you to play faster, alternating between upstrokes and downstrokes (also known as tremolo picking). Playing with a pick also produces a sharper and punchier sound which makes it a good choice if you want to play more rock, punk, and metal genres. However, playing with a pick may not fit all musical styles and genres that require more versatility.
To get familiar with the instrument and gain control over the strings, you can start playing as a beginner by using just your fingers. As you get better and more comfortable playing, you can learn to play with a pick as well. Overall, having the skills to use both playing techniques is a good decision. That way you can change between playing with a pick or your fingers whenever you need to.
Knowing how to read sheet music is a useful skill to have but one that takes a lot of time and effort to learn. A simpler and more accessible format of musical notation for the bass guitar is tabs or tablature. The four (or in some cases more) bass guitar strings are represented by horizontal lines and notes by numbers. The numbers in a bass tab show which frets you should be playing. Zeros (0) represent open strings.
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