Bassists have it made in one sense—they can typically do their gig playing no more than 8 notes to the bar. The bass lays the cornerstone and pours the foundation for our musical skyscrapers. Virtually everything sounds bigger and better with a good bass line. The tools required for good bass playing aren’t hard to grasp, but do require study and practice before the bass line will flow well and contribute musically to the song.
On a practical level, the primary function of the bass is to outline the chordal structure and progression of the piece at hand. Thus a bassist does not play scales so much as arpeggios—chord tones played one at a time. Depending on the style of music at hand, the tones used to create an effective bass line might be simply the root of every chord; or perhaps the root and 5th, alternating; or the root, 3rd and 5th, maybe a 6 and b7. What we call walking bass lines may require considerably more effort, including some basic scalar runs connecting one chord to another.
As a point of departure, a good working knowledge of the major scale (from which all chords are derived or referenced) is very useful. No matter how complex a chord might be, it’s construction is analyzed and expressed by the relationship of the tones to a major scale. This is why one might think of the major scale as our musical ruler or measuring stick (I like to think of the major scale as a ruler, inasmuch as there are 12 inches to a foot, and we happen to use a 12-tone system in music).
Following is the major scale in the key of C. Bear in mind that these patterns are movable, and by shifting them to the desired root tone on the neck can accomodate any key center or root:
Two fingerings for the Major Scale in the Key of C
* The first scale pattern is rooted on the 3rd string of the bass and is found on frets 2-5.
* The second scale pattern is rooted on the 4th string and occurs on frets 7-10.
* They are in fact the exact same fingering simply relocated to the appropriate root.
* You can of course intermingle these basic scale patterns to create killer bass lines.
* When practicing scales, it will help you to memorize the intervallic relationship of each note to the root tone by counting each note as you ascend the scale (the root is 1, then on up – 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and finish with 1 again at the high octave of the root).
Following are the basic arpeggios needed to cover the four chord types indigenous to the major scale—major, minor, dominant and half-diminished (m7b5).
Other chord types such as fully diminished (1, b3, b5, 6), augmented (1, 3, #5) or altered chords can be created by simply altering the tones used to reflect the construction of the chord at hand.
Mastery of these fundamental patterns is essential for competent bass playing. While many styles of popular music can be handled with a fluid ability to employ these patterns, they are certainly not exhaustive. And of course matters of technique (including how these patterns are articulated by the right hand) must be addressed by the player as well. But hopefully, the above material will give the beginning or intermediate bassist a useful glimpse into the “mystery down below”.
Copyright 2004 Jeff Foster. All Rights Reserved.