Bass Guitar Tips – Bass Guitar Mastery

Fretless Bass Guitars

For the more advanced player, fretless bass guitars are a good way to hone your skills and get more sound from your instrument. Unlike their fretted cousins, fretless bass guitars lack the textured board. As a player, this means your have to have an excellent ear and a good knowledge of the bass guitar to play. Without the frets, you have to know what sounds each chord makes, as well as have excellent finger memory. Fretless bass guitars are not for beginners.

There are two types of fretless bass guitars available. The first type uses a completely blank board. These do not have any form of marker to show where your fingers need to rest in order to hit certain notes. These are the most challenging to use, and require the best finger memory and ear to play. The second type of fretless bass guitars available have the markings on where the frets would normally be. This is an intermediate stage guitar, allowing those interested in learning fretless bass guitars to have no frets but be able to get a visual confirmation that their fingers are in the correct place.

Fretless bass guitars have a distinct advantage over fretted guitars. By removing the frets, it is a lot easier to get half tones and notes that are specifically at half key. These are techniques designed for more advanced players. This allows those players to get a more individual sound from their guitars a lot more easily. For more aggressive music, where fingers may be slid up and down the board at great speed, fretless boards put a lot less strain on the fingers.

When you are examining guitars for purchase, you may notice that the majority of master grade instruments are fretless. This is due to both the level of skill required in order to play fretless bass guitars and the demands of the buyers. As most beginning and intermediate players will refuse to play a fretless bass guitar, they are sold less frequently than fretted boards. This may make finding a fretless bass guitar more difficult and more expensive.

When you go to buy a fretless bass guitar, you will want to make certain that the instrument has a good quality of sound. As you will be relying on your ears and your finger memory to correctly play the instrument, if the fretless bass guitars have lower quality sound, you may not be able to distinguish when you are in tune.

Be One With Your Bass Guitar Chords

So you think you have it in you to join the ranks of Flea, D’arcy, and George Harrison and play bass? Well, you have a long way to go, so you better start now.

Learning the basics

If you want to go into bass guitar playing, decide which bass you will play. You have a choice – the 4-stringed bass guitar, or five, six, seven, and even more strings. Beginners usually go for the 4-stringed bass guitar. The next step would be choosing the right bass guitar and learning the bass guitar chords.

A bass player who knows his bass guitar chords has an edge. His understanding of chord music theory will enable him to make his bass line definitive and very interesting. He knows the note to play and when to play it. Knowing bass guitar chords entails the mastery of all basic chords with emphasis on the 6th and 7th chords for bass guitar. A bass guitar chords lesson includes the entire basic chords, important 6th and 7th chords, the 12 keys, chord map, charts, and neck patterns. The bass guitar chords are composed of three or more notes played together, and each type of chord has a formula.

He also has to master the 12 different notes A, B flat, C, D flat up to A flat. Not all songs, however, use these notes because the notes of a song are dictated by the song’s key. Mastery of the musical patterns equips the bass guitarist with the skill to learn songs off record. He will then be able to pinpoint accurately what scales were used and the chord patterns and changes that went with it.

An initiation to bass guitar chords diagrams and notations

There are hundreds of bass guitar chords. There are even more ways to play them. You can play the “Happy”notes or the major chords, or sound the minor notes for the “sad” tones. You can jazz up the tones by moving up a half step (augment) or go down a half step (diminish). Playing the bass guitar chords offer endless possibilities of combinations of note chords.

Any beginner will benefit from learning to read bass guitar chords tablature or tab. This is a method of music notation. The illustrations show where to put your fingers, the frets and the strings. They also show horizontal lines, and each string is noted according to its placement. You will also see notations like O and X or a number. An O denotes that you play the string on the chord without depressing it. An X means you don’t play the string at all. A number on a string denotes that the string should be played in the fret specified.

A beginner should be able to memorize the chords and practice playing until he is comfortable with his guitar. Eventually his hand movement will take on the dexterity that marks a great bassist. He will also learn the slaps, riffs, and slides, as well as the use of the pick.

Buying and playing your bass guitar

An electric or acoustic bass guitar should be comfortable to play. You must able to manage its weight, and the neck of the bass guitar should be navigable by your hands. Get the guitar from reputable dealers who can give you a warranty. If you are opting for a used bass guitar, you can be sure it is reliable if it was played for years. However, bear in mind that used guitars do not come with a warranty and these may have unsuitable modifications.

Playing the bass guitar is a physical thing. It is therefore practical to do warm-up exercises before striking the first bass guitar chords. Find a comfortable position that will not strain your hands. Relax, and your bass guitar music will be just as smooth as it is fluid. In time, youll be giving Flea a run for his money.

Bass Guitar Chord Chart

A bass guitar chord chart is a good way for a player of any age level to work their skills and practice playing their instrument. Anyone can pick up a guitar, strum the strings and make some form of sound. It isn’t until you learn hundreds of chords, know how to place your fingers and work both of your hands in unison that you can transform random strumming of the strings into beautiful music.

There are several components of a bass guitar chord chart. First, the chord chart will be designed for a dominant hand. Usually, this is the right hand. Some charts allow a switch for left handed players, as the direction you strum the guitar greatly changes the sounds that come from it. As many bass guitar chord charts are displayed so you can compare with what you are doing, someone who is left handed will have great difficulty using a chart designed for those whom are right handed.

A good bass guitar chord chart will clearly show the strings and the standard layout of the fingerboard, as well as where you need to place your fingers. The notes this corresponds to will be commonly written out below the chart, though occasionally all you will be given is the name of the chord. As many songs are a combination of various chords, knowing as much of each chord as possible will help you master your instrument faster.

Do not be ashamed if you have difficulties mastering a bass guitar chord chart, or tying several chord charts together. Beginners need to focus on slowly strumming the correct chords, which requires practice. While many want to begin playing beautiful, challenging music immediately, the basics need to be learned. If you are tired of just practicing the various chords and ensuring you are playing the correct sound, slowly alternate which chords you play. This will help you create basic music, and can keep your interest live.

Even with the help of a bass guitar chord chart, you will never master the bass guitar unless you practice and use different charts and resources. Do not be afraid to experiment with your instrument. A great deal of the learning process is finding out just what your instrument can do. The more you play, the more fun you will have, which will make the required aspects of learning less of a job and more of a variant on your fun practices.

Bass Guitar Essentials

Picking out my very first bass guitar was an exciting event. It is the first instrument I have ever purchased that I plan on learning how to play. Why not learn guitar first? Well, I have a love for the bass and not only that, I have been told on many occasions that is is easier to learn than the guitar.With all of the excitement of my purchase, I decided to make sure I have all of the essentials needed for my new bass. Below covers several accessories that you may want to include if you are looking to purchase a new bass guitar as well.

Bass Guitar Cases

The first thing you will want to do is protect your new investment. This requires a sturdy bass guitar case. Cases come in various styles and materials. The lower-end cases are very thin and don’t offer much protection if you plan on toting your bass around town. There are sturdier cases which are molded and padded on the inside. These cases have a hard shell and the padding keeps the bass secure. I’d highly recommend a molded case if you will be doing a lot of traveling.

Extra Bass Strings

Bass guitar strings are relatively sturdy but it doesn’t hurt to keep some spare strings handy. There are several types of bass strings available to include flatwound, roundwound, and groundwound.

Bass Guitar Straps

Depending on the bass you purchase, it may already come with a strap included.Of course there are various types of straps to choose from as well. The most popular guitar straps are usually made of leather or suede. Many are often woven and come in a variety of colors to suit your tastes. If you’re not into the fancy straps, you can always choose between vinyl and polyester.

Extra Guitar Picks

Out of all of the accessories you can have for your bass, the pick comes in more styles than anything else. You can choose from hundreds of colors as well as the thickness of the pick. Having multiple guitar picks always comes in handy.

Guitar Tuner

Keeping your bass in tune is a must and there are various types of guitar tuners available on the market. They all range in price from lower end tuners at $10 up to high-end versions that go for $100 or more. If you’re a beginner, it’s probably safe to stick to a low-end model until you become better at playing the bass.