A little help please

Galaeronthegreat · Sea Monkey Joined: 28 May 2003 Posts: 10

ok hey i am starting out on bass and i got the jest of it and me and my friend are wanting to start playing(we both play guitar in church and lead worship but i switch to bass here shortly ago) well it says in a book i bought that you play some root note and gives those as well as 3rd 5th 6th dominant7th major7th 9th 11th 13th

this is all confuseing and i don't know what it really means cuse i just play the note of the chord like a G or a C or Bb you know but this all i don't know how i should play with him

also could you guys give some pointers on how to make your own like riffs or time fillers while playing cuse i don't know how to do that eather

thanks for reading

bassmaniac50 · Rattlesnake Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Posts: 430 Location: Ohio

You should just start going to an online site that provides free bass lessons, and learning the right scales and techniques you need to become a good bassist.
Try doing a search for free bass lessons through a couple of search engines, and you'll find that there's good lessons for bass that don't cost you anything but time for practicing.

I will suggest a few sites, but there are others also, so look around to find others if these aren't right for you.

http://www.activebass.com/main.asp

http://www.bassprotips.com/main.htm

http://www.embamba.com/bass/

http://www.aic.se/basslob/index.html

http://www.basslessons.com/mp3/index.html

http://www.hostultra.com/~bassistsreview/lessons.htm

Ninestring · Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 12:26 am Post subject:

You know , there is a lot you can do to move forward quickly without lessons. You can develope your ears by listening to recordings of bass players and just diving in and trying to play what they are playing.
You may hit wrong notes along the way ,but you will find out where bass parts are played by playing them.

Don't let 9th or 13th etc. confuse you . Do you know intervals ? If you play a C , do you know where the 5th is ? The 9th is the 2nd an octave higher.The 13th is the 6th an octave higher.

If you practice playing two octave scales up and down ,you will be able to hear all those intervals.

Standard "walking bass " begins with playing the root ,major third or minor third for minor , fifth , and sixth for major or flat seventh for minor.

1 3 5 6 8 6 5 3 1 or 1 b3 5 b7 8 b7 5 b3 1

Do you know where these notes are on the fret board ?
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http://garrygoodman.com
40 years playing bass guitar

Guest · Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 4:44 am Post subject:

Playing by ear is all good but you absolutely have to have some sort of foundation to work from. Otherwise you'll never really understand what the heck your doing.

Learn the major and minor scales. Easy stuff. Learn what those notes are. Learn how to move those scales up and down the neck. Learn how each note "sounds", this helps your ear training.

At the very least know that stuff.

kantkeepup · Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 5:13 am Post subject:

Garry, when you say "walking bass", do you mean filling?
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SteveJazz · Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 11:02 am Post subject:

Walking bass does not mean filling. It refers to a procession of notes played one after the other to form a steady "walking" pattern. It is very common in blues and jazz. A well known pop example would be "Moondance" by Van Morrison.

Sir Paul plays a walking part on the verses in "Eight Days a Week." He changes to a different feel in the chorus. "Walking" implies that the bass is playing a succession of different notes, usually quarter notes, rather than just hitting the root over and over, or a root/fifth pattern, for example.

Country swing uses a walking bass also. Bob Wills, an early pioneer of country swing, was actually kicked out of the musicians' union for playing "jazz" which was under attack as not being music at the time (1920's). The main reason the union called Wills' music "jazz?" It featured a walking bass part.

A "fill" is a spot where you break the pattern you have been playing, and play something different for a measure or two. Fills are used to spice things up, and are best used sparingly, and during the silence between vocal lines. You are "filling" an empty spot in the music where no one else is singing, or playing a signature lick. Filling too often leads to not getting called back for another gig. This gets into "taste," which is another issue important to all musicians.

SJ Cool

Ninestring · Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 3:09 pm Post subject:

When I say walking bass ,I am saying that you play a note on every quarter note. when you see 4/4 or 3/4 as the time signature ,the 4 on the bottom means that the "beat " or pulse is based on a quarter note.When you count off 'one ,two , three , four" you set the tempo or how many quarter note will be played per minute.

The top number of 4/4 or 3/4 indicates how those beats are grouped. In 4/4 ,you count 1-2-3-4 and then on to the next group of 4 quarter notes or bar/measure.

Walking bass means you are playing a note of the chord on every beat.

here is an example of four bars/measure of 4/4 :

Chord: 4/4 / C major / F major / C major / C7 / major
Beat: 1 -2-3-4 1 -2- 3- 4 1 -2- 3- 4- 1 -2- 3-4

Bass note ; C -a- g -e F -A -C -a c- G-E- g C- g- E- Bb lower case =lower than the note before
upper case = higher than the note before

a balanced walking bass part mixes scale wise ,arppegiated chords to create a smooth bass "melody.

The most important thing for a bass player to know about a particular tune is what the bass player is expected to play for a particular style. Country two step ,Bossa Nova, Samba,Songo ,Son Montuno ,Funk ,waltz etc. all have a definite groove that needs to be there .

Swing ,shuffles ,and be bop rely on the walking bass.You can't try to BS the notes when you walk , but rather outline the definitive notes of the chords you are walking through. Try transposing the above example to other keys and play them until they feel natural to you.
_________________
Garry Goodman
http://garrygoodman.com
40 years playing bass guitar

warwick87 · Tadpole Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 23

is that the pattern for walking bass/ is there a pattern?

Guest · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 6:41 pm Post subject:

Guest · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 6:42 pm Post subject:

I didn't log on so I am "guest"

ninestring

Neil Gray · Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2003 9:54 pm Post subject:

Hey Galaeronthegreat...
Forget root notes, dominant 5ths and all that jazz for now!!! Learn your neck first and foremost. If you're playing Church music, then you're probably using the same books as me (Praise and Worship, Hillsong, ALvin Slaughter... etc), in which case, you've got a big fat guitar chord note sitting above the score. Follow that, and feel where the music wants to go. Learn to play by feel. In a Church band, feel is all important. One week, a song may be slow and thoughtful (worship), and the next, it may be exciting and loud (praise). You need to be flexible, and you won't get flexible by learning theory and nothing but. Above all, enjoy what you play. At the risk of sounding too spiritual, if you play for God, you will play well. After all, it's His people you are playing for to help them get closer to Him. Do you think He's going to allow it to fall flat? Besides all that, play simple at first. Like I said, learn your neck, stick with the chord charts, and go from there. What you're doing is fine. You'll reach a point where you'll want to learn more, and that's when you should. No need putting that pressure on 'coz you feel you have to know more. As for your own riffs, make "squares" on the bass. Eg, C on the A string to G on the D string, then back to F on the D string. Muck around with it, and you'll start to recognise some sounds.
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Guest · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2003 6:08 am Post subject:

it's posts like this that make bass playing confusing.

You don't learn the 'neck" . You learn the Fourths tuning on your fret board. With out knowing the structure of tonality,you can't hear what's on the fret board. This thread was dealing with walking bass lines ,not making "squares".
If you can't help in a concise way ,why post ?

Neil Gray · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2003 8:53 pm Post subject:

Thankyou guest.
I am humbled by your greatness.
You are truly superior.

I won't mention that "squares" are quite a good way to learn how to improvise, and that i never suggested that "squares" will teach you bass. I'll ignore the fact that that galaeronthegreat mentioned that he was finding all that "technical" talk a little confusing. Read my post again in context. If it doesn't help you, then that's okay... it wasn't you who asked for the help in the first place. All I know is that those that I have taught have caught on much more quickly to the "square" theory than they have when trying to teach dominant fifths, eighths, relative minors, and all that. At the end of the day, guest, I don't think I'll be losing any sleep because you feel a little different.
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sandman · Newbie Alert Joined: 03 Sep 2005 Posts: 4