Learn How To Play Bass Guitar Online: Reinforce The Concepts Many Times As You Need To
July 10th, 2009. Published under Software. No Comments.
Bass Lessons are available in all kinds of formats these days audio, video, book and even on-line. No matter what type of media you choose to start your journey to learning how to play bass you must always concentrate on the fundamentals no matter what your skill level.
The bass student will find more reward in learning the varied methods, namings, visualizing and thinking of chord, scale, and arpeggio patterns on the fretboard. In some ways, the differences are minor, but often they can be very obvious and the benefit of learning them can easily result in transitioning around the fretboard easily.
Take a regular guitar (which is tuned from the thickest to the lowest string- E – A – D – G – B – E) and exclude the two thinnest strings at the bottom and what is left is basically a bass guitar with thinner strings. Bass playing is usually note-oriented and not chord-oriented. This means that single notes are hit more often in bass playing and this scheme is the essential element of bass playing, one should be familiar with the tunings and the notes in a regular guitar to be able to decently play the bass guitar.
Identify the parts of the bass guitar. There are typically four strings, and the components are very similar to a guitar. The thickest string is the E (the topmost), followed by A, D, and G, and are also referred to as 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively. On the neck of the guitar forming a grid-like pattern with the strings are metal strips called frets that make the notes produced higher as it goes farther from you.
Feel the beat, playing the bass guitar differs primarily from playing a regular guitar because it entails an emphasis on the beat of the music. One can compare the bass guitar into a drum or percussion set that is made into a guitar. Beats are very important in playing bass guitar because this type of guitar gives depth and timing to any song.
Set the metronome for 60 beats per minute. Choose a scale (pentatonic minor is a good one to begin with) and play the scale all the way through TWICE using eighth notes. This means that you play 2 notes for every metronome beat.
Also, crucial to slap bass is the “snapping” sound produced by pulling the strings up and letting them snap back onto the fretboard – this is called “popping”. Of course, all the other more usual techniques of bass playing are still used, such as hammer-ons and crosshammers, lift-offs, slides, string bends and harmonics – but rather than plucking the string with the finger or pick, it might be slapped with the thumb or popped.
Not only do they need to know the right pattern to use and how to execute them in many different ways, but they also need to know how to practice with them. Regular practice with the proper set of fretboard patterns is a necessary component of becoming a seasoned player, time must be spent with practice, but it is important to know how to practice so that hours a day are not spent with insufficient result.