How Hard To Learn Bass Guitar

Learn how to play bass guitar with our step-past-step guide for beginners. Get started playing bones chords and understanding finger techniques.

Bass may not go all the glory of the guitar or have the wink, crash, and bang of the drums -- but the musical instrument holds an important spot in any band, bridging the gap betwixt rhythm and melody. The bass guitar is responsible for creating the undercurrent -- or bassline -- that ties a song together, giving information technology a rhythmic feel and a steady beat that helps both the guitar and drums propel the song forwards.

In this guide, we'll show you lot some bass guitar basics, helping you get started on your musical journey. Nosotros'll give yous some pointers on how to choose a bass guitar, tuning tips and finger technique, every bit well every bit how to play a song on bass.

In This Guide

• Why Learn to Play Bass Guitar?
• Is Bass Guitar Easy to Learn?
• Choosing a Bass Guitar That'southward Right for Yous
• Bass Checklist for Beginners
• How to Tune a Bass Guitar
• Bass Finger Techniques for Beginners
• How to Play Bass Chords
• How to Play Bass Scales
• How to Practice Bass for Beginners
• Larn a Song on Bass Guitar

Why learn to play bass guitar?

While guitar gets the glory in terms of musicianship in the band, there aren't quite as many bassists vying for the spotlight. However, bass guitar is the depression-cease bottom that provides a bridge between the showmanship and melody of the guitar and the driving backbeat of the drums.

Need some other reason to desire to acquire to play bass? While y'all may marvel at a guitarist's string-angle prowess when you listen to a song, when yous plug your headphones in, the bass line is usually the function that makes y'all bob your caput.

Many bassists have a firm agreement of the structure of songs and oftentimes take a front-seat office in songwriting. Accept a look (and mind) to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney of The Beatles, Parliament-Funkadelic's Bootsy Collins (who likewise played with Dee-Lite and James Chocolate-brown), Geddy Lee of Blitz, Motley Crue'due south Nikki Sixx, and Gene Simmons of Kiss, and you accept a litany of bassists who have been the songwriting forces behind their corresponding bands. Picking up a bass and learning how to weave its rhythmic texture into a song puts you in practiced company.

Is Bass Guitar Easy to Acquire?

Playing bass guitar tin can exist easy simply the more you decide to delve into the intricacies of the instrument, you can apply that knowledge to play unproblematic or more complex basslines in songs.

Depending on the musical genre and the level of mastery you aspire to with playing your instrument, it can make up one's mind 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 guess) 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 get in easier for yous to maneuver up and down the neck of your bass guitar and span a shorter altitude between frets.

"Everyone's a beginner at some point. Yous get better at things by doing them more. You may be a beginner, merely you'll get better. I guarantee it."

- Mike Dirnt, Green Solar day

Bass Guitar Basics

Choosing a Bass Guitar That's Right for Yous

As a beginner, choosing a bass guitar tin feel intimidating -- only it doesn't take to be. From size to tone, to the number of strings and your budget, there are several factors that tin can help narrow downward the right choice for your bass.

• Size: If you're a beginner bassist with smaller hands or just want a lighter instrument with a shorter neck to more than easily maneuver around the fretboard, a short-scale bass may be the perfect option. The Fender Mustang Bass, Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass Special SS and Squier Bronco Bass all feature a thirty" long neck. Additionally, a lightweight bass may be ideal for individuals who experience back or shoulder pain when playing for extended periods.

• Tone: The tone a bassist gravitates toward is a affair of personal preference. Depending on your genre of option and the sound yous're aiming to achieve, different bass guitars will offer their ain singled-out tone. Desire a warmer tone? Opt for a bass from the Fender Squier range. In add-on to a warm tone, they offer a thinner neck and profile, platonic for novice bassists and players with small easily. Crave a deeper, more rumbling tone? Await to the Thespian Precision Bass®.

If you have a desire to experiment and tinker with tone, outfitting your electric bass with the correct amp or pedals tin 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 audio like your favorite musician without having to cord together a ton of furnishings pedals.

• Number of strings: While most bass guitars have four strings, in that location are some five-cord models (such every bit the Fender American Ultra Jazz Bass® V) that offer players more creative freedom. If you're but starting out on your musical journey, it may exist best to master playing a four-string bass first earlier branching out. The thinner neck of a four-cord bass guitar may be easier for beginners to play. On the flipside, a five-cord bass increases the range of notes and scales that can be played.

• Budget: An instrument is an investment that volition last a lifetime. Even if you're starting out or on a upkeep, there are enough of affordable options to detect a bass you'll love for years to come. For case, the Fender Affinity Series™ Jazz Bass® packs a legendary sound at under $250. Electric bass bundles are another great choice for bassists on a budget, packaging together a bass, amp, strap, and other accessories to get yous started.

Even so not sure where to begin? Find your Fender and get paired up with an instrument that speaks to your style and sound.

Bass Checklist for Beginners

Having the right tools is the key to mastering your musical instrument. There are a few essentials beginner bassists should accept to get started:

• Bass guitar strap - A guitar strap not only helps yous to securely hold your musical instrument in the correct position for playing, but information technology also helps yous show off a bit of your personality and sense of style.

• Cables - Whether you're plugging your bass into an amplifier or stringing furnishings pedals together, cables help brand that connection possible.

• Amps - At that place'southward zilch like the feeling of plugging in your electric bass and hearing its rumble roar to life. Whether you're cranking it all the way upward to ten or practicing at a lower volume, an amplifier can help you hear the true tone of your instrument and perfect your technique. Not certain which amp is right for you? Become some help and find out how to cull your ideal bass modeling amp.

• Digital tuner - Making sure your bass stays in melody can help you develop your ear. As you increase your skill level, yous may want to experiment with alternate bass tunings. A digital tuner tin assistance you find the right pitch.

How To Tune A Bass Guitar

While it may have a thicker, more lesser heavy sound than its half dozen-stringed cousin, the guitar; the bass has the same kickoff four strings, tuned to the same notes. The strings on the bass guitar are:

• East = The fourth (lowest tone) string
• A = The 3rd cord
• D = The second string
• G = The first (and highest tone) string

There are a number of means to melody your bass. While you can tune it by ear or using harmonics -- playing a specific fret on an adjoining cord and matching the tone of a higher, open cord to information technology, the Fender Tune app makes it easy to stay in melody. Download the costless bass tuning app to go on your playing pitch perfect.

"Music is like the genius of humankind, universal… People who have never really taken the time to become into music, their lives are a lot smaller."

- Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Bass Finger Techniques For Beginners

Information technology's been the bailiwick of The Great Bass Contend for years: whether to play with a choice or your fingers. The truth is, at that place's no wrong manner to play bass. Depending on the genre and manner you like most, as well as your own finger forcefulness and dexterity. Both styles take their own merits:

• Play bass with a selection: If speed and versatility is what you lot strive for, playing bass with a pick may be your preferred method. Not but can y'all more quickly plunk out notes with a choice than you could with your fingers (barring years of do and honing your technique), simply experimenting with picks of different thickness tin can help you lot tweak your tone and give y'all a unlike sound.

• Play bass with your fingers: Sometimes referred to as fingerstyle, playing bass with your fingers yields a smoother audio and allows you to slap and pop your strings for a funk-fueled tone. Most bassists who play with their fingers find it's easiest to start by using their index and center fingers to pluck at the strings. Nevertheless, with time, you can build up your dexterity and experiment with using your thumb to slap at the strings for an organic tone.

How To Play Bass Chords

When learning to play bass, you lot may non encounter chords as frequently every bit you would when playing guitar. Still, learning how to play bass chords tin can merely serve to enhance your playing. While basslines are oftentimes the cornerstone of a vocal, bass chords help to add color, flavour, and a lesser-heavy rhythm to a song.

A chord is a combination of three or more than notes played together to produce a distinct sound. While chords are the foundation of a guitar education, information technology's possible to play chords on bass, equally well. The strings on a bass correspond with the starting time four strings of a guitar. And then, many guitar chords that make utilise of merely the first four strings tin can be played on bass.

How To Play Bass Scales

A bass scale is a consecutive series of notes played in an ascending or descending gild. Every calibration has 8 notes. This set of notes is called an octave. The notes on a scale remain the same, regardless of whether you're playing a scale on bass, guitar, or ukulele. Each scale begins and ends with the same note -- known as the "root note." The last note of every scale is too the root annotation, but the pitch of the note is raised one octave higher than the kickoff note.

When playing bass scales, one of the easiest scales to start with is the Yard Major calibration:

• 1st Note (Root Note): G
• second Notation: A
• 3rd Note: B
• 4th Note: C
• 5th Note: D
• 6th Annotation: E
• seventh Note: F#
• 8th Note (Root annotation, one octave higher): G

The G Major scale tin be played on just one string of your bass, or bridge the full four strings. For instance, check out how to play the One thousand Major on bass.

Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J21p55hM6hI&t=3s

Learning to play the popular C Major scale on bass can help y'all play a number of songs. Playing scales non but helps to build finger dexterity, but helps you lot to recognize the same notes and tones, fifty-fifty when played on different frets. Learning scales can besides help you recognize patterns and apply them when playing songs or writing your own music and basslines.

Want to larn and do more bass scales? Here are some of the most popular bass scales:

• Thousand Major Bass Scale
• A Major Bass Calibration
• Bb Major Bass Calibration
• Eastward Major Bass Scale
• A Natural Pocket-sized Bass Scale
• G Natural Modest Bass Scale

A free trial of Fender Play unlocks a world of new scales, skills and more than, helping you level upward your skill as a musician.

"That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song construction and expression."

- Geddy Lee, Rush

How to Create a Bassline

A bassline is a series of notes played on bass that ties together chord tones, the central a song is written and performed in, and the rhythm -- anchoring the trounce and melody of the song. Listen to funky, upbeat intro to Rick James' "Super Freak" or the night, murky opening bass notes of "Come Every bit You Are" by Nirvana and hear those notes repeated throughout and you'll have a prime case of the power of a well-crafted bassline.

Building a bassline weaves together some of the skills you'll option up forth your musical journey, transforming that noesis into the joy of creation. Some tips to keep in mind when building bassline include:

• Find a primal: Showtime by knowing the key of the song. Learning your scales and listening for the root note that crops upward in the song and its chords can help yous narrow downwards the central of a vocal. This tin can help you to craft a bassline that compliments the song.

• Option apart chords: Heed to the chords a guitarist is playing and break them downward, note by note, into an arpeggio. This can aid y'all create a bassline that gels with the chords in a given song.

• Listen for timing: Bass, at heart, is a rhythm instrument. It sets the tone and pace for a song. When crafting a bassline, go on in mind the tempo or signature of a vocal and use it to inform your bassline's rhythm.

In this Fender Play Alive session, lookout man every bit host Dylan Caligiuri is joined by bassist Caleb Buchanan, giving you a crash course on what goes into building a memorable bassline.

Embedded content: https://world wide web.youtube.com/sentry?5=DZEqEim4Ge8

How to Practice Bass for Beginners

Setting adept 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 fourth dimension to practice, as well as making sure you accept what you need to get in a quality practice session.

• Make time to practice. Practicing for fifty-fifty a few minutes a day is better than non practicing at all. The Fender Play app allows yous to set practice reminders at a time that works for you. You set the date and time, we remind you when to practice. Similarly, the app tracks your progress and gamifies your exercise session with Streaks. Whenever you exercise in the Fender Play app for at to the lowest degree 7 minutes, 3 times per week, you earn points toward your streak.

• Accept a devoted practice space. Having a space dedicated to your practice can go a long way toward making it a regular part of your routine. If you can, find a place where you lot know you lot can practise uninterrupted. This space can include a stand or case for your bass and a comfy seat that encourages good playing posture.

• First with scales and techniques. Start by learning fundamentals such as bass scales or by focusing on one technique at a time.

• Be patient with yourself. No one picked upwardly an instrument and learned it in one day. Equally y'all progress, you'll be able to link these smaller skills together and piece of work your way upward to playing entire songs or basslines.

Learn a Song on Bass Guitar

One of the virtually rewarding parts of learning to play an instrument is putting that knowledge into practice by playing a song. Learning to play songs yous love helps you develop a greater appreciation for the musicianship of the artists who created those tunes, likewise every bit to develop your musical ear and experiment with new skills you acquire.

An easy song for beginner bassists to learn is "La Grange" by ZZ Elevation. The heavily-disguised trio's sound treads the line of blues and difficult stone. The unproblematic, yet driving bassline of the song gives new bassists a hazard to hear the influence the blues has had on a variety of genres -- from rock to funk to country.

What makes "La Grange" such a corking song for new bassists to play is that it offers up a very uncomplicated riff, playing simply a few single notes -- with attending to tempo -- on a single cord. There is a neat slide between a few frets on the A (second lowest) string on the song'due south span, but this ane is all about rhythm and a steady tempo. It's also a keen opportunity to experiment with playing bass with your fingers and how it affects the tone.

Learn how to play La Grange on the bass here.

Explore Bass Collections

Still hungry for more songs to play on bass? Bank check out Fender Play's collections. These carefully curated collections teach yous how to play a variety of songs on bass, grouping them past creative person, genre, difficulty level, or related techniques. Browsing through collections tin assistance you to level upwardly your playing, learning some of the fundamentals within your favorite genre, or gaining a firmer agreement of the techniques some of your favorite bassists use across a variety of their songs.

Check out a few of our favorite bass collections:

• 10 Easy Songs to Learn on Bass - Perfect for beginners, check out 10 iconic basslines and songs -- From Salt n' Pepa'southward "Button It" to Nirvana's "Come As Y'all Are" that are easy for new players to learn.

• Slap Bass - Larn how to master the slap and popular bass technique when you explore this collection designed to help you improve your skills.

• Dejection Class Bass Nuts - With 4 blues-based skills and 7 songs, this collection gives you a crash class in playing bass with blues fundamentals. Learn and apply shuffle groove and bass arpeggios in a diversity of songs including "Boom Boom" past John Lee Hooker and James Brown's iconic "I Got Y'all (I Feel Good)."

• Must-Know Rock Riffs - Learn 14 essential rock basslines and riffs, spanning classic stone favorites similar "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" past Pink Floyd to pop-punk mainstays like Green Day's Longview.

• Walking Basslines & Arpeggios - The walking bassline is a staple of diverse genres -- from rock to rockabilly to the blues. Acquire this primal with 4 skills lessons and play it in 8 songs in this collection.

Check out Fender Play Bass Lessons

Learning to play an instrument is a great way to challenge yourself and take your dear of music to the next level. When y'all larn to play bass guitar, you lot'll find a new appreciation for the rhythm and melody of your favorite tunes. Sign upwardly for a free trial of Fender Play and unlock skills, scales, and songs to acquire and play on bass.