I Love Guitar » bass guitar player

Bass Guitar Player? Know Your Scales?

Guitar God — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:05:33 +0000

A tough guitar players question this week. Let’s dive straight in

Question: Hi, am learning bass and would like to know the notes I can use in each scale eg…C which notes would fit when making a bass line and sound ok?? any ideas where I can get this info from please?? thanks in advance peeps!

Answer: Okay, it depends entirely on what key the rest of the band is playing in and whether it’s a major or minor key. It also depends if you’re playing bluesy stuff, straight rock, heavy rock or whatever.

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!

Who is the Best Modern Bass Guitar Player ?

Guitar God — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:39:03 +0000

Well here’s a question I just had to answering straight away:

Question: Who is the Best Modern Bass Guitar Player ?

Answer: Mark King – Level 42 bass & lead vocalist. Although he was famous in 80’s

Flea – RHCP aren’t the same with him

Lemmy Klimster – Great for MotorHead.

I think Mark is King overall. (excuse the pun)

Who is the Greatest Ever Bass Guitar Player?

Guitar God — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:43:11 +0000

Well here’s a question I just had to answering straight away:

Question: Who is the Greatest Ever Bass Guitar Player?

Answer: I believe it is a Mr Jack Bruce who played in the supergroup Cream as well as the supergroup BBM as well as with most musicians who are regarded as "great" in their own field. He was originally offered the bassist job in Led Zeppelin which he turned down. Possibly the second best bassist John Paul Jones took the job!