Bass Guitar Player? Know Your Scales?
Posted in guitar players on 23. Nov, 2009
A tough guitar players question this week. Let’s dive straight in
The basic rule is, stick with the root note of the chord so if your guitarist or keyboard player is playing an E chord play an E and so on. If you want to get more adventurous, use the octave of the note you’re playing and the 5th as a fill in – for example if the chord is G, and assuming it’s a four string bass, put your first finger on the bottom E at the third fret, then move your ring finger or little finger to the 5th fret on the A and D strings. Pluck or pick the bottom string followed by the D string, then down to the A and back to the bottom string. You can move this shape all over the fret board and get some great results.
Best thing you can do is learn to know what chord your guitarist/ keyboard player is playing and work from there. You can sometimes play either the third or fifth note in the chord instead of the root note as that adds colour, but don’t go mad to start with. The main thing with all bass playing is tight, precise rhythm and for that I use Jim Dunlop Delrin 2mm picks, same as Flea!
Find a book or some classes on basic music theory. Plenty of free info on the web if you just search for it.
Try guitar pro my friend tells me it’s great.
music has its own theory and techinques, it is not possible to answer your question in this short note. SO better find some online tutorial and learn from them. I bet its far more better than someone answering here.
C is easy. There are no sharps or flats in the scale of C, so you can use C, D, E, F, G, A or B. The 1st, 3rd and 5th notes of the scale usually fit best.