Patterns for bass guitar
Here are a few common bass guitar patterns that can be useful. They are arranged with sheet music and tabs in PDF format. They are only intended as suggestions that you can modify according to taste and style of music!
Free bass tablature scores (PDF)
- A-Major lick - bgtr (video)
- Pattern 1
- Pattern 2
- Pattern 3
- Pattern 4 (video)
- Running Man
- Trying To Succeed
Bass guitar lines (bgi-l)
The Bass Guitar Solo
By Ricky Sharples
The bass guitar is an integral part of any band these days. It started
life in the nineteen thirties as a more user-friendly alternative to the
double bass but never found its feet until the nineteen fifties when it
took its place as the rhythm section of rock and roll bands. Since its initial
use as a bass instrument there have been a number of musicians and composers
who have felt moved to compose solos for the bass guitar. Even though the
bass guitar is descended from the double bass, a solo instrument used in
orchestral music, rock and roll bass guitarists seem to have been inspired
by their counterparts in jazz when it comes to soloing.
Probably
the most recognizable bass guitar solo was performed by John Entwhistle
of The Who in the song My Generation recorded in 1965. This is an outstanding
example of a bass solo inspired by double bass solos found in jazz music.
It is typical of many bass solos in that it is unaccompanied. It was always
the standard mode of presentation of jazz bass solos to do them without
other instruments or only drums played with brushes so the solo could be
easily heard.
The list of bass solos in modern music in rock, funk, jazz and fusion
could go on and on but it is in pop music that bass solos have been successful
as musical works in their own right. In the early nineteen sixties the first
musician in England to own an electric bass guitar was Jet Harris who was
the bass player in an instrumental group called The Shadows. Inspired by
the American solo guitarist, Duane Eddy, Jet Harris left the shadows to
pursue a solo career. In 1962 he had a hit single with the 1940 song, Besame
Mucho played as a solo on a six string bass guitar. Another hit bass guitar
solo was by The Shadows themselves with Stingray recorded in 1965.
Meanwhile in America in 1963 a young composer and arranger named Jack
Nitzsche made a lush orchestral single called The Lonely Surfer. The orchestra
was merely the backdrop for a simple melody played on the bass guitar. The
Lonely Surfer never climbed higher than number thirty-nine on the charts,
but that is pretty good for a bass guitar solo!
If you are interested
in playing bass guitar, the most common course of action to take is to learn
to play a regular guitar first. Strictly speaking this is not necessary
but it seems to be where most bass players come from. For someone with a
grasp of the basics of guitar playing, it is not difficult to make a smooth
transition to bass guitar. There are plenty of bass guitar tabs available
on the internet to help you to learn the music. You might need to get a
teacher in order to grasp some of the techniques involved in bas playing.
For a start you can choose whether to use a plectrum or just your fingers.
Slapping and popping techniques can be found on video clips on the internet
but one-on-one tuition is probably best. But if you are not able to buy
lessons there are some available for free on the net.
Once you have
sorted out which techniques you want to use to play bass, it is just a matter
of practice and developing some kind of individual style before you begin
working out your own solos.
Ricky Sharples has been
playing guitar his whole life, and is presently engaged in building a blog
called Learn How
To Play A Guitar For Free. Ricky's blog features free tools, lessons
and resources for guitarists of all ages and stages. Ricky updates the blog
regularly so if you are interested in learning to play guitar there will
be an enormous variety of tip, tools and tutorials for you.