How to Learn Bass Guitar Online

If you have an interest in learning to play bass guitar, you will find it to be a very rewarding instrument to play. The bass guitar player is an important member of the band. The quality of the group's playing depends largely on how well the bass player keeps in time. Not only are the demands heavy but the rewards are great. It only takes a short time to get up and running as a bass guitarist and once you have learnt a few basic bass lines and worked out whether you are a plectrum player or a plucker, you will be able to start improvising your own bass licks.

There are two ways to learn bass online. One is to take advantage of the many free bass lessons on the web. These online bass guitar lessons will help you to understand how the place of the bass guitar in a band, music theory, reading sheet music and tabs as well as giving you basic rhythms to play. Some of the bass lessons you find will have some kind of interactive component where you can play along with riffs or a backing track.

Of course, many of the bass guitar lesson sites are offering paid courses, but there are also some good free lessons. If you do a search for "online bass guitar lessons" (without the quotes will give you more results) you will be able to compare the various paid lesson courses for bass guitarists, and you will get a chance to compare them with the free courses. If you decide to learn to play bass guitar for free you will probably need to find yourself some free bass guitar tabs on the internet. There are many places that offer bass tabs for popular songs. Another option for the bass guitar student on a budget is YouTube. If you go looking for online bass lessons on video you will probably find about a thousand clips, all offering something of value to the beginner.

As a bass player you must learn to play in time. A newbie guitar player can spend years playing guitar with the tempo and timing all over the place because he does not have to play with other musicians. The bass guitarist's job is to play in a band so the sooner you get any little rhythmic or timing peccadillos ironed out, the better. For this you will need a metronome. Type "free metronome" into a search engine, find one you like and bookmark it if it is online, although there are metronomes you can download for free. The same goes for a tuner. There are quite good bass guitar tuners online. You will also be able to find free backing tracks for guitar online. Playing along to these is a great way to get the feel of playing in a band. You can tell the program what chords to play and the time signature, and you can play along to the looped track online or download it in mp3 format. For more inspiration find video clips and mp3's by leading bass guitar players like Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, Waylon Tisdale, John Pattitucci, Mike Mason or Miroslav Vitous.

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Learn to Play Bass Guitar

There is a secret you must know if you want to learn to play bass guitar. It is in the name. The guitar is a musical instrument where you learn notes and melodies and chords and all that musical stuff. A bass guitar plays the same notes but in practice it should be approached as more of a percussion instrument which needs to be felt and interpreted mostly by the body rather than the mind and the emotions. Right from the very beginning when you are practicing your bass guitar you need to be aware that you are communicating with your audience in the same way the drummer is.

So how do you begin to learn to play bass guitar? Just the same as if you were learning the regular guitar. Take lessons for a while. Get the callouses on your fingers and learn the notes on the fretboard. As a bass guitar can be played with either a plectrum or with the right hand fingers you could try learning the rest stroke used by classical guitar players.

As part of your bass guitar training you should learn all about the basic chords and scales as they are played in rock music, and maybe take a look at the way folk singers play the guitar to accompany themselves singing. This will give you a basic understanding of where the bass notes are in regular guitar playing and how they fit in with the rest of the music.

Once you have a basic understanding of guitar playing you need to choose which type of bass guitar interests you most and how you are going to play it. The four string bass is tuned an octave lower than the six string guitar with its four strings tuned to E A D G. The five and six string bass guitars can be tuned in many different ways to give a wide range of how you express yourself through your music. Now is not the time to make the decision about which bass guitar you choose, you will find out as you experiment and gain some experience playing in groups.

When you play your bass guitar you will possibly be using a plectrum. Usually this will be one of the heavier picks but they are available in a range of weights to suit the music and the player. If you choose to play the bass guitar with your fingers you will be learning a range of plucking, slapping and snapping techniques using the fingers of your right hand.

The type of bass guitar you choose to play and the technique you use to play your bass will be the methods you use to turn musical notes into bass guitar music. As the bass player you have the job of giving your group the extra thump it takes to get the dancers dancing and the audience swaying. And the great part is you do not have to be a technical virtuoso to do it. You can have fun inventing your own bass lines and making use of chords and arpeggios, but keep it simple. It is an old joke amongst rock and roll musicians that the bass player has the least technical ability, and sometimes there is an element of truth to this, but the rhythm is best expressed by simplicity.

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Take Bass Guitar Lessons to Learn Bass Guitar Playing Tips

You normally hear guitarists say that what they do is to make their guitars sing. How about the bassists? Well, what they should do is to make their bass guitars dance.

You see, the bass, together with the drums, is the one giving rhythm to the band's sound. What's more important is that it also keeps what it provides. It is safe to say that without the depth of the bass' resonance, the overall sound of the band will be wispy and flimsy.

While it may be dismissed as just providing this thick drone to complement the sounds of the guitar, the bass need not be limited to this. Remember about "dancing"? The bassist's job is to lay out a solid sonic foundation but at the same time be creative with the chords and their progression so as to liven up the songs.

To make this possible, you need to accustom yourself with the different bass playing techniques, which you could get an introduction to--and later on study--if you enroll in bass guitar lessons.

Others would say that it is best to discover the art of bass playing on your own (with the help sometimes of instructional videos, books, magazines, advice from fellow musicians, etc.), but attending a class is actually more reliable since it involves the help of a professional teacher and the time to study and practice in this learning method is more focused. Also, there is a system to follow so students will find it easier to progress from one lesson to another.

As far as techniques go, here are some tips in playing the bass that both the rookie and the advanced player can benefit from.

Be beat-oriented

As earlier mentioned, the bass guitar and drums go together. As such, a great bass player should know how to make, keep, and follow a steady beat--in a crafty way, no less. Since the bass guitar is tasked for time-keeping, it is important for the bassist to be keen about both unaccented and accented beats so that the flow of the song is well-calculated. They say to make music takes heart. Well, to make bass music, it takes heart, primarily the way it beats.

Master your guitar notes and chords

Bass guitar lessons may require you to revisit your guitar notes and chords. Bass guitars are usually tuned the way regular guitars are. The only difference is that the guitar has more strings than the bass. But then playing both is basically the same. So it will help if you are well-read when it comes to your notes and chords. Bass playing, though, is more concerned about the notes. As such, you should know the notes--and the tunings as well--of ordinary guitars to be able to deftly play the bass.

Place your fingers where they are due

Have you seen how Red Hot Chili Pepper's Flea rocks the bass? How frenzied his fingers on the fretboard! It will be easier for you to be more experimental with the way you play if you have complete control of your fingers as you do so. In particular, the fingers of your left hand should be accurate in hitting the bass guitar fretboard since this is what will determine the clarity of each note. But, of course, the right-hand fingers should not be left out since they are important when it comes to playing the bass using a holistic approach.

Work on your grip

The bass guitar is a sturdy musical equipment. You need strength to be able to play it. Thus, you should develop not just the dexterity of your fingers but also their power. When you play, you should be able to accurately press down the strings for the notes to come out as thick and whole. There are many exercise offered in bass guitar lessons that could help you develop finger strength and flexibility.

Cindee Daniel, who has a degree in Journalism, has been a casual yet big fan of music since he first listened to The Beatles when he was 10. He then came to discover other bands, most specifically from the punk, grunge, and post-grunge movements, and has since been interested in the scene. His exposure to music saw him writing music reviews for various websites and founding his own band, with him composing songs and performing drumming duties.

You may want to visit Bass Guitar Lessons for more information or you may call us directly at 619-231-8505.