The major misconception is that playing chords on bass is common. Many players start out as regular guitarists and bring along the mind set of playing chords on bass. Where in fact the vast majority of bass lines are single notes, not chords.

As a bass guitar player it is much more important to understand how to play bass lines over chord progressions. Knowing the notes of the various chords gives you a clear idea of what notes are available to you to outline and harmonise with the chords of the song.

Playing bass guitar chords where you fret multiple strings and notes at the same time, like a regular guitar chord, can be really difficult to play. Especially if you’re just getting started and don’t yet have the strength in your hands and fingers.

It’s a good idea to begin playing them above the 12th fret as the fret spacing are much closer and therefore easier to play. Also playing chords with deeper notes can often sound muddy and unclear.

Here are a few basic bass guitar chords to get you started:

A (Major)
g–9—–
d-11—–
a-12—–
e——–

Am
g–9—–
d-10—–
a-12—–
e——–

Try to first fret these one finger at a time. So work out which fingers you are going to use and figure out how you are going to comfortable play the chord. Then begin placing your fingers onto the bass fretboard one finger at a time until you are pressing down all the notes of the chord.

As previously mentions you might find this very difficult at first so if you are new to bass you will need to do some exercises to help building up the necessary strength you need.

Once you have all the notes of the bass chord fretted it’s a good idea to then play each note one at a time to make sure that none of the strings buzz. Once you can hold the bass chord without buzzing try strumming the chord.

When you have learnt the first of the two bass guitar chords above, you will want to practise moving them around the fretboard. When you master your 2nd bass chord you should then practise moving between the two different chord shapes.

I hope this has given you a quick introduction to bass chords, how to play them and how to practise them effectively. Remember to take it slowly at first and you will soon be up and running playing bass guitar chords.

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• Bass scales help to build strength and dexterity in your fingers and hands making it much easier to play other bass lines
• Knowing your bass scales will also give you a better understanding of how music works and how the different notes sound. Allowing you to create your own bass lines, write your own songs and improvise and perform bass guitar solos
• They can also help to train your ear and allow you to recognize common patterns and combinations of notes that are played on the bass

The first bass guitar scale to learn is the major scale. This is because most of music is based around the C major scale. It’s also a good idea to practise your scales in all positions on the fretboard.

A great way to be more efficient with your practise is to use scales as your bass warm up at the start of your practise. Spend 5 minutes or so just slowly playing bass scales going up and down trying to keep in time and using correct bass guitar technique.

Major Bass Scale

Here is a diagram of the major bass scale:

G----------------------------------
D-----------4-6-7-7-6-4-----------
A-----4-5-7-------------7-5-4-----
E-5-7--------------------------7-5

The starting note, which is known as the root, is what gives the scale its name. So when you play the scale pattern above, which starts on an A note you would be playing an A major scale.

The great thing about scales on bass in that you can move them about. Once you know the major scale pattern you instantly know how to play every major bass scale. You just take the A major scale pattern in the diagram above and move it around the fretboard.

It’s important to know that the last note of the major scale is called the octave and is the same note as the starting note. This is useful to know because when improvising and creating bass lines it’s a good idea to resolve the lick back to the root or octave note.

Bass Minor Scale

Now that we have looked at playing the major bass scale it is now time to move on to the next most common bass guitar scale.

The bass minor scale is very similar in sound to the major scale and in fact the only difference is the 3rd note of the scale is flattened (this simply means you take the note and play it one fret lower).

Due to “flatting the 3rd”, instead of playing the same pattern and playing the 3rd note one fret lower we play a different pattern to make it easier to play.

Here is a diagram for the bass minor scale

G----------------------------------
D-------------5-7-7-5--------------
A-------5-7-8---------8-7-5--------
E-5-7-8---------------------8-7-5--

I hope this has given you a quick overview of bass guitar scales. You should now have a better understanding of the two most common bass scales and how to play them.

It’s a good idea to spend a few minutes playing through them at the start of your practise. Another good tip is to say the names of the notes you are playing out loud or in your head as you play the various bass scales.

This will help to maximise your practise time as you will also be learning the names of the notes, learning your bass guitar scales and warming up your hands and fingers.

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Well it’s like a regular bass but it is tuned one whole octave higher. To achieve this you need a special set of strings. Often the neck of the bass will be shorter but with the right set ofstrings you can use a standard bass. You might need to replace the nut, which is the small strip at the top of the fretboard used to guide the strings to the tuners.

As you will see the sound and tone of a piccolo bass is rather unique and interesting. It’s sort of half way between a normal bass and an electric guitar.

I’m tempted to get a set of piccolo bass stings for my bass and try it out.

Edit: I asked Zander Zon (they guy in the video below) “How do you go about learning the pieces you play?”

Just thought I would share that with you.

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The problem was I didn’t have time to practise for hours everyday of the week. Back then my practise was all or nothing. I would pick my shinny blue bass up for hours at a time or not at all. I was busy during the week and never thought that anything under an hour was worth bothering with.

I later discovered that short, focused practises for about 15 minutes every day gave much better results. I also found that I remembered the things I had practised much better. When you go over something daily everything seems to sink in much better.

Bass, like everything in life is about gradual steady improvement.

Just try to take one step forward each day and you will get to where you want to be. And sure their will be days when you take one step forward and three steps back. Life is just kinda like that. Just don’t give up!

Regardless of how difficult you are finding bass right now, you can do it.

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Once you watch this video be sure to leave me a comment. I’d love to hear your opinion on this quick but effective video.

Related Posts:

• How Much Should You Practise Bass?
• Bass Guitar Scales – The Essential Link to Great Bass Playing
• Amazing Electric Piccolo Bass Guitar Playing