Level: beginner No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. Okay, so you’ve finally fulfilled your ambition to start playing bass. You went out and got yourself the essential starting equipment: a bass guitar, […]
Free Bass Lessons
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Level: beginner No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. If you have recently acquired your first bass, you might have gotten an electronic tuner to go with it. Modern digital tuners […]
Level: beginner No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. Don’t be intimidated by all of the frets on the bass neck! This instrument is actually laid out very logically, and I’d […]
Level: beginner No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. I get a lot of beginning bass students who are eager to learn about music in general but, understandably, aren’t sure where […]
Level: beginner No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. In a previous lesson, I introduced the Major Pentatonic scale and gave an example of its use in creating walking bass lines over a blues chord progression. If you’re not already familiar […]
Level: all levels No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. If you’ve already been playing for a while, you have probably come to the realization that bass ain’t as easy as it’s cracked up to be. […]
Level: beginner No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. If you’ve been learning bass casually, you have probably picked up some basic information, such as fingerings for the major and minor scales, maybe a pentatonic pattern or […]
Level: beginner No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. Ear training…..the most dreaded two words in all of music instruction. Yes, sooner or later, you’re going to have to do some interval training if you want to master […]
Level: intermediate No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. Although we tend to think of bass guitar as a one-note-at-a-time kind of instrument, there’s no reason that it can’t be used for sounding simultaneous intervals and even […]
Level: intermediate No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. In the previous lesson, we covered root position fingerings for all common three-note chords on 4 string bass. However, in most forms of popular music, four-note chords (a.k.a. “7th […]
Level: intermediate No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. Most bassists are familiar with basic chord types, since we use basic R-3-5-7 chord tones for building bass lines all the time. You may also be aware that different chords […]
Level: intermediate/advanced No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. You should have a good understanding of basic diatonic harmony before diving into this lesson. If you’re not yet familiar with the harmonized major scale, please have a look […]
Level: advanced No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. Okay, so you’ve now got a handle on your basic 3 and 4 note chord symbols, but you’re still getting confused by some of the more complex chords […]
Level: advanced No part of this lesson may be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without consent of the author. Copyright © Doug Ross, all rights reserved. No, it’s NOT okay to ignore those numbers in the chord symbols on your chart! The deeper you get into bass playing, the more you will come to […]