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Bass Guitar Lessons
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Beginner Bass Guitar Lessons

Playing the four-string electric bass is basically the same thing as playing the first four strings of an electric guitar. This is because the strings are tuned to E A D G.

Though chords are not usually played, there are a few that can be used. Most of the time, though, one note will be played at a time. This note is usually the bass note of the chord being played be the guitar or piano. If you know someone who knows how to play guitar chords and you want to play a song with him/her just ask that person what chords s/he is playing. They may say something like B minor or something like that, but you should just play B. If you continue to play like this you will become good at the bass since most modern music is played with just the base note.

As I have said, most music is played with the base notes of the chords. This could get boring. Alternate bass is also easy, but sounds a little harder. All that you have to do is play the base note, and then the fifth of that chord. There are two ways to do this. One is to play the base note and then play the same fret, just a string lower. This will not work on the E string though, since there is no lower string. To get around this, just play the base note and then, a string higher, play two frets up. This is also the fifth, and this gets around that problem.

Although I have said that chords are not usually played on the bass, this does not mean that there are no chords for the bass. To play a power chord on bass, you first have to know the bass note. After finding this out, you have to play this, the fifth of the scale, and the bass note, just an octave higher. To do this, play the bass note. While doing this, put another finger on the next string, two frets higher than the first. Additionally, play the next string on the same fret that you played the second note. Do you have all of these fingers down? Play those three strings. That is a power chord for the bass. Good job!

This is all that I can teach you now. Go out and practice this. This is good enough to get you through most things. I will be updating the page ASAP to teach you some more, but you should practice a little before then.

Until then, see ya!

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