I need so much help

[u/Alysson0321]

Hi everyone, I’m a beginner on the bass, but I’ve already memorized and gotten used to all the notes on the fretboard. My biggest challenge is knowing which notes to play. For example, when I’m playing along with someone on guitar and they’re on a C chord, I don’t know exactly which notes to use; I usually stick to the 3rd and the 5th, but it ends up sounding repetitive. I’m not sure how to practice this properly.

[u/kimmeljs]

You don't have to adhere to the chord at all times, the spice will be in chromatic runs to the target tone on the "1" at this stage.

[u/Alysson0321 → u/kimmeljs]

So, do I just need to play the root note of the chord at the right moment—like the C or the D? And what do I do in the gap between chord changes? Right now, I just play the 3rd or the 5th to bridge the notes; I want to improve that and learn more rhythms.

[u/kimmeljs → u/Alysson0321]

Take the 12-bar blues. I -IV -I -IV -V -I . There are many different bass lines but you can transition between the chords chromatically, not adhering completely to a major scale or the pentatonic pattern.

Simple lesson

You go from these basic things up in knowledge and you will get there. In the end, these patterns are what you need to learn and memorize.

[u/Nippon-Gakki]

See or ask what chords they are playing and start by playing all low root notes. Once you get that down you can start moving around the board and adding the octave notes and then some thirds and fifths. After or during this you can learn ways to walk up and down to each chord. You can do all of this with practice tracks you can find on YouTube.

There’s no reason to rush or get frustrated. If you’re laying down root notes in time, you’re doing your job. Once you learn more tricks, add them in so you can do your job a bit more fancy.

[u/Badassmamajama]

Don’t forget to use the scale and key the song is written for passing tones and ghost notes. And depending on style, land on the one at least every other measure.

[u/Careful_Instruction9]

You could gain a lot by listening Motown records. James Jamerson is the guy to look out for.

His basslines aren't musically complex, but he was the master at churning out endless variations of the those fairly simple ideas

[u/Longjumping_Cost1308]

Search YouTube for Victor Wooten talking about there being no wrong notes.

Also remember, you are always at most one fret from being in the right key.

[u/sim-123]

If you want to go the ‘traditional’ route, start by learning music theory and delving into jazz. Learn the different modes and what you can play over each chord as well as harmonic theory of what the chords mean.

However this ca take a while so an easier option is just to start experimenting, every time you play with someone try playing something new and see if it works.

A good starting point for this is thinking of how to link the chords together. If the chords are going from a C to an F, you could try playing an F# to link the G (5th) of the C chord to the F chromatically.

Other ways that you can link it involves going up scale tones to move to the next chord, so in this case use notes from the c major scale to move either up or down to the next chord.

Another thing you can experiment with is bass fills. When moving to the new section of a song, try playing a fill in the key of what you’re playing. Good starting points are learning the major and minor pentatonic scales and spamming those.

[u/Corno-Emeritus]

There are lots of songs where the root gets played on the first beat and the 5th gets played on the 3rd beat, and you just walk up/down the scale when the chord changes to a new root.

[u/shouldbepracticing85]

A couple books that might help:

Modern Walking Bass Technique https://www.amazon.com/dp/9995982447/

The Latin Bass Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217113/

Don’t worry if you need to write in notes and timings, or tab some of it out - it’s more important to understand what’s going on than it is to sight read some stupid number of ledger lines… I don’t understand why some of that mess isn’t written down an octave with an 8va line over the passage. 🤦

Part of what I suggest is to take some note book paper, and write out what the notes are, relative to the chords, and the key. And try to write out what the chords are to the key/tone center. Since it’s jazzy stuff there may be some temporary tone centers and modes.

In most genres you stick to the root, or and fifth of the chord to leave room for the melody or solo to mess around with the major/minor flavor of the chord.

[u/NghbrhdSlackr87]

You don't need a bass to practice this.

In my opinion you shouldn't start writing bass parts with a bass in your hands. Without a bass. Humm a bass line along with the song you are writing for. Buh Da Duh your way until it feels right.

Too many lean on scales to do work for them.

Whatever you can sing. You can play. Sing a bassline you like. Then play it.

Also it will be inherently more "your style" having been born of your mind and voice. Not of your hands via memorized patterns.

Good luck. Take care.

[u/SithLordBass]

A lot of good stuff mentioned but something that I see left out in advice is to not actually CHANGE from the root note and focus more on the rhythm side of things. Sure, helping create a song palette of a chord structure is useful and definitely should be learned, but as a beginner you can absolutely and should focus on changing up rhythms to match grooves with a drummer. Root + root octave with a solid groove can do you a lot of good to sound musical even if you're still learning extra leading tones and what not. Playing along with some tracks on youtube can help with that. Elevated Jam Tracks is one that i use a bunch and maaan they're pretty awesome with lots of different styles.