Learn To Play Bass Guitar...Fast!

The Bass is a great instrument. Important to almost all forms of popular music, the bass is the foundation of most groups. The low pulsing beats are the building blocks on which everything else is built.

The bass is easy to learn, yet difficult to master, and herein lies the problem. Too many bass players have learned to play by ear without really understanding what they are playing or why.

You can get started as a bass player this way, but it becomes difficult to progress past the stage of adequacy without the knowledge and the theory of music behind your playing. I have received a lot of mail from readers asking for the quick way to learn cool runs. Well . . . there isn't a quick way. However, knowing the theory behind what you are playing will help considerably. It could help you create your own cool runs.



Hopefully this will help. I have designed the "Running with the Bass" series of articles to help bass players with the theory they need to progress.

Furthermore, I have left out a lot of the technical jargon and details that are not terribly useful to bass players. Focusing on only the lower register of the grand staff will allow us to progress at a much faster pace than is normally done when studying music.

In part one we will deal with the building of major scales and fingering patterns on which to develop your style of playing.

All styles of playing need to be built around a sound foundation. Whether you're a in the pocket, blues man, or a swing player doing jump music, there should be something in this article for you.