Guitarist’s Guide to Playing Bass

by

An excellent article on Guitar World entitled Guitarist’s Guide to Playing Bass see: http://www.guitarworld.com/guitarists-guide-playing-bass by by Matt Scharfglass

“Bass is more than just a guitar with two fewer strings. It has a different tone, scale length, feel and musical role, and in many cases it requires a different conceptual and technical approach.

Guitarists who are new to playing bass will often double the guitar part one octave lower. There is certainly a place for lockstep octave doubling—just listen to Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion,” Led Zeppelin’s “The Ocean” and Pantera’s “I’m Broken.”

But there is so much more that can be done with the bass guitar. Matt gives 20 guidelines to help you think and play like a real bassist:

  1. PLAY FOR THE SONG
  2. LEARN TO WALK
  3. LOCK IN WITH THE DRUMMER
  4. USE OCTAVES AND FIFTHS
  5. TONE IS IN THE HANDS
  6. TO PICK OR NOT TO PICK?
  7. SINGLE-FINGER TECHNIQUE
  8. GET YOUR TIME SOLID
  9. TO FILL OR NOT TO FILL?
  10. OCTAVE APPROPRIATE
  11. AVOID LOW-B OBSESSION
  12. SUBSTITUTE DIFFERENT CHORD TONES
  13. GREASE
  14. SHAKE IT
  15. USE DEAD NOTES AND RAKES
  16. ARTICULATION VARIATION
  17. IT’S ALL BASS
  18. LESS IS MORE
  19. MORE IS MORE
  20. LET IT ALL HANG OUT

 

Leave a Comment