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Bass Guitar For Dummies
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- About the Author
- Read an Excerpt
- Table of Contents
Whatever you're playing—funk, soul, rock, blues, country—the bass is the heart of the band. Bassists provide a crucial part of driving force and funky framework that other members of any and work off. From John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, to "The Pixies’' Kim Deal, to James Brown's favored bassist, Jimmy Nolan, bass players have made big names for themselves and commanded respect throughout music history.
In Bass Guitar For Dummies, Patrick Pfeiffer—who coached U2's Adam Clayton, among others—is your friendly guide to laying down the low end. Starting from the beginning with what bass and accessories to buy, the book shows you everything from how to hold and position your instrument to how to read music and understand chords. You'll develop your skills step-by-step until you’re confident playing your own solos and fills.
- Sharpen skills with instructional audio and video
- Discipline your play with exercises
- Understand chords, scales, and octaves
- Care for your instrument
Whether you're new to the bass or already well into the groove, Bass Guitar For Dummies gives you the thorough balance of theory and practice that distinguishes the titanic Hall of Famer from the just so-so.
P.S. If you think this book seems familiar, you're probably right. The Dummies team updated the cover and design to give the book a fresh feel, but the content is the same as the previous release of Bass Guitar For Dummies (9781118748800). The book you see here shouldn't be considered a new or updated product. But if you're in the mood to learn something new, check out some of our other books. We're always writing about new topics!
ISBN-13: 9781119695578
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Wiley
Publication Date: 07-21-2020
Pages: 416
Product Dimensions: 7.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.90(d)
Patrick Pfeiffer is a professional bassist, bass educator, and composer. His former clients include Polygram, Red Ant Records, Arista Records, and other major labels as well as Adam Clayton of U2. He has recorded with George Clinton, Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Norman of the Coasters, Paul Griffin and Bernard Purdie of Steely Dan, and many other stars.
* * * In This Chapter * Differentiating between bass guitars and other guitars * Understanding the function of the bass * Checking out the parts of a bass guitar * Getting ready to play bass * Expanding the bass range * Experiencing different music styles * Taking care of bass-iness * * * Bass guitars differ from their high-strungcousins (otherwise known as the As a bass player, you play the most crucial role in the band (at least in my You're responsible for linking the harmony (chords) of a song with a distinctive Every song is made up of chords that are special to that tune, and all the By playing one note at a time in a rhythmic fashion, you propel the music Good music creates a little tension, which then leads to a satisfying release of Keeping a steady rhythm, or a pulse, is one of the bassist's primary functions. Nothing works better than a metronome at helping you develop an unfailing As a bassist, you need to have a very clear understanding of exactly how the While the guitarists move through their aerobic exercises, dripping with Whew! A bassist has important responsibilities. Good thing you picked up You can call it a bass guitar, an electric bass, an electric bass guitar, or just a Figure 1-1 shows you a picture of the bass guitar (or whatever you prefer to You can divide the bass into three sections: The neck, the body, and the The neck of the bass guitar falls under the dominion of the fretting hand The body of the bass guitar falls under the dominion of the striking hand The innards aren't obvious to the eye (they're hidden in the cavity of the Getting yourself ready to play both physically (with exercises) and mentally Because you play the bass with two hands (one hand striking and the other Two basic tonalities prevail in music: major and minor. Each tonality has aRead an Excerpt
Bass Guitar For Dummies
By Patrick Pfeiffer Will Lee
John Wiley & Sons
Copyright © 2003
Patrick Pfeiffer, Will Lee
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0-7645-2487-9
Chapter One
Bass Bass-ics: What Is
the Meaning of Bass?
Bass ... the glue of rhythm and harmony ... the heartbeat of the band!
The bass has unique qualities that draw you to play it - perhaps it's the rich,
deep, mellow sound or the hypnotic rhythms. In the right hands, the bass is a
tremendously powerful tool, because it gives a band its feel and attitude. The
bass is at the heart of much of the music you hear today. But what exactly is
the bass? What makes the bass so powerful? And how does it help give music
that irresistible feel? Whether you're a raw bass recruit or a seasoned veteran,
this chapter can help you answer these questions.
Discovering the Difference between Bass
and Its High-Strung Cousins
other guitars) in several significant ways:
some bassists started adding strings. Nowadays you find five- and six-string
basses (and beyond), but four-stringers are still the norm.
electric, acoustic, or a combination of the two.
sound of each bass string is tuned an equal distance from the string
above it, making the instrument perfectly symmetrical. So if you play a
scale starting on one string, you can use the same fingering to play that
same scale starting on a different string. This type of tuning makes playing
the bass much easier than playing the guitar, where the second-highest
string is tuned differently from the others.
fill the lower end of the sound spectrum. Think of these notes as the
"bass-ment," or foundation, of music.
longer the string, the lower the pitch; the shorter the string, the higher
the pitch. Think of a Chihuahua and a Saint Bernard: The Chihuahua has
short vocal chords, and a rather high-pitched bark; the Saint Bernard ...
well ... you get the idea.
bore you with the guitarist's job description, but the bass player's makes
for fascinating reading, as the next section shows. (By the way, if you do
happen to want to know more about the guitarist's job description, you
can check out Wiley Publishing's Guitar For Dummies, by Mark Phillips
and Jon Chappell.)
Understanding the Bass Player's
Function in a Band
opinion). Everyone in the group depends on your subtle (and sometimes
not-so-subtle) lead. If the guitarist or saxophonist makes a mistake, hardly
anyone will notice, but if the bassist makes a mistake, everyone in the band
and the audience will instantly know that something is wrong.
Making the link between
harmony and rhythm
rhythm (groove). This link contributes to the feel, or style, of the music.
Feel or style determines whether a song is rock, jazz, Latin, or anything
else. Chapter 7 tells you exactly what you need to do to establish excellent
grooves, and Part IV discusses the different musical styles you're likely to
play. You want to be able to emulate any bassist in any style and, at the same
time, be creative - using your own notes and ideas!
Moving the song along
notes in the tune relate to the sounds of those chords (see Chapter 5 for
more information about chords). In some songs, all the chords are the same,
and so all the notes relate to that one chord sound, making such songs easy
to play. Most songs, however, have different kinds of chords in them; in these,
the first group of notes in the tune relates to the first chord and has one kind
of sound; the next group of notes relates to another chord sound; and so on
throughout the song.
along. You set up each chord for the other players in your band by choosing
notes that lead smoothly from one chord sound to the next.
that tension (a resolution). For example, you can feel the tension and release
in as simple a tune as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." The tension builds as
you sing the first line: "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." Can you end the song
right there? No, because you want to hear how it ends. That's the tension.
When you get through singing "How I wonder what you are," you feel a resolution
to the tension, a sense of coming home. You can end the song there; in
fact, that's how it does end. The bassist plays an important role in creating
and releasing tension. You're pretty much in the driver's seat!
Keeping time
I refer to this function as locking in with the drummer, because you work very
closely with the drummer to establish the rhythm. So be nice to your drummers.
Listen to them carefully and know them well. And while the two of you
are on such cozy terms, you may want to spend some time together reading
what Chapter 3 has to say about rhythm.
sense of time. The steady (and sometimes infuriating) click that emanates
from it provides an ideal backdrop for your own note placement, be it on or
off the beat. You can find out more about the metronome in Chapter 3.
Establishing rhythms
rhythm relates to the beat. You need to know where to place the notes for
the groove in relation to the beat. And you want to make your grooves
memorable (see Chapter 7 for more about how to create memorable
grooves). If you can't remember them, no one else will be able to
either - including the listener (who, of course, makes the trip to hear you play).
Looking cool
sweat and smashing their guitars, you get to be cool. You can join in with
their antics if you want. But have you ever seen footage of The Who? John
Entwistle was cool. And, if you ever get a chance to see U2, check out their
bassist Adam Clayton. He's one cool cucumber, too. Great bassists are just
too busy creating fabulous bass lines to join in the antics of their band mates.
this book.
Dissecting the Anatomy of a Bass Guitar
bass. You hear all these labels when you discuss music and musical instruments - and
you may encounter individuals who believe that only one of
these labels is correct. But it really doesn't matter which term you choose,
because they all refer to the same instrument.
call it) with all of its main parts labeled.
innards. The different parts of the neck and the body are easy to see, while
the innards aren't so obvious. You have to remove the cover (or covers) to
get at the innards, but knowing what they're there for is important.
The neck
(usually the left hand). The following list describes the function of each part.
machines for the strings.
heads) hold the ends of the strings. (The other ends are anchored at the
bridge on the body; see the next section for more info about the body of
the bass.) By turning the individual tuning heads, you can increase or
decrease the tension of the strings (which raises or lowers the pitch).
provides a groove for each string. It forms one end of the vibrating
length of the string.
the strings, that holds the frets.
perpendicular to the strings, along the length of the fingerboard. They
determine the pitch (sound) of the note that's played. Frets are arranged
in half steps (the smallest unit of musical distance from one note to the
next). When a string is pressed against a fret, the string's vibrating
length, and thus its pitch, is changed.
because you remove and replace them periodically. However, your bass
would be absolutely useless without them (except maybe as a "bass-ball"
bat). The strings are connected to the tuning machines at one end
and the bridge at the other. The vibration of the strings produces the
sound of your bass.
neck that the thumb of your fretting hand rests on. The fingerboard is
attached to the front of the neck. The neck and the fingerboard are
usually made up of two separate pieces of wood, but not always.
The body
(usually the right hand). The following list describes the function of each part
of the body:
plastic bar that lies underneath and perpendicular to the strings. You
can have two magnets for each string, or one long magnet for all the
strings. The magnets form a magnetic field, and the vibration of the
string disturbs (or modulates) that field. This modulation is then translated
into an electric signal, which in turn is converted into sound by
the amplifier and speaker.
(loudness) and tone (bass and treble) of the pickups. They are located
toward the lower side of your bass (when you have it strapped on).
bridge holds one end of each string and is located at the end of the
body. Modern pickups, such as piezo pickups or lightwave pickups, are
sometimes installed inside the bridge. These pickups read the vibration
of the string at the bridge.
body where you attach one end of your shoulder strap (usually the
thick end).
body (by the bridge) where you attach the thin end of your shoulder
strap.
the cord from your bass to the amplifier (for more on amplifiers,
see Chapter 17).
The innards
instrument and covered with plates), but they are essential to the sound and
feel of the bass guitar. The following list describes the innards of the bass
guitar.
length of your bass guitar's neck. The truss rod controls the curvature of
the neck and fingerboard and keeps them stable. The truss rod is usually
accessed through the top or bottom of the neck if you need to make
adjustments.
electronic capacitors, the round devices connected to the other side of
a volume knob), and other important-looking electronic items that help
convert the vibration of the string into sound. The cavity for the electronics
is usually located under a plate on the back of your bass guitar's
body. It may also be located under the control knobs on the front of your
bass.
own power source), you have one or two nine-volt batteries attached
to the electronics (via some wires). These batteries are located in the
same cavity as the electronics or in an adjacent cavity on the back of the
body. If your bass has passive electronics (electronics with no batteries),
you don't have to worry about replacing batteries.
On a Need-to-Know "Basses":
Gearing Up to Play Bass
(with theory) is essential to being a good bass player. You also have to pre-pare
your instrument by tuning it and by playing it correctly. When you play
the bass guitar correctly, your fingers can move with ease from note to note.
Coordinating your right and left hands
fretting; no, it's not worried!), both hands have to be well coordinated with
each other. With the exercises in Chapter 4, you can warm up your hands on
a daily basis (just like an athlete warms up before a sporting event).
Mastering major and minor
chord structures
distinctive sound.
Continues...
Excerpted from Bass Guitar For Dummies
by Patrick Pfeiffer Will Lee
Copyright © 2003 by Patrick Pfeiffer, Will Lee.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 4 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 5 Part 1: Getting Started With the Bass Guitar 7 Chapter 1: The Very Basics of Bass 9 Discovering the Differences between the Bass and Its High-Strung Cousins 9 Understanding the Bass Player’s Function in a Band 10 Forging the link between harmony and rhythm 11 Moving the song along 11 Keeping time 11 Establishing rhythms 12 Looking cool 12 Dissecting the Anatomy of a Bass Guitar 12 The neck 13 The body 14 The innards 15 On a Need-to-Know “Basses”: Gearing Up to Play Bass 15 Coordinating your right and left hands 16 Mastering major and minor chord structures 16 Tuning your bass 16 Combining scales and chords 16 Playing Grooves, Solos, and Fills 17 Creating grooves and riffs 17 Treating yourself and your audience to solos and fills 17 Experimenting with Different Musical Genres 18 Stocking Up on Some Bass Gear 19 Buying a bass 19 Getting an amplifier 19 Accessorizing your bass 20 Giving Your Bass Some Good Ol’ TLC 20 Chapter 2: Gaining the Tools and Skills to Play 21 Getting a Handle on Your Bass 21 Holding Your Bass 22 Strapping on your bass: Strings to the outside 23 Voilà! Standing with your bass 23 Sitting with your bass 24 Placing Your Hands in the Proper Position 25 Positioning your left hand 25 Positioning your right hand 27 Reading a Fingerboard Diagram 33 The language of music: Scales and chords 33 Viewing a diagram of the major and minor scales 36 Playing open-string scales 37 Finding the notes on the neck 37 Identifying intervals: They’re always in the same place 39 Tuning Your Bass Guitar 41 Reference pitch sources to use when playing alone 41 Reference pitch sources to use when playing with others 43 Tuning the bass guitar to itself 45 Playing a Song on Your Bass Guitar 53 Making some noise with the open strings 53 Closing the strings 54 Chapter 3: Warming Up: Getting Your Hands in Shape to Play 57 Understanding the Sound Your Bass Makes 58 Performing Right-Hand Warm-Ups 58 Right-hand same-string strokes 59 Controlling the strength in your striking hand: Right-hand accents 61 Skating across the strings: Right-hand string crossing 62 Coordinating Your Left Hand with Your Right Hand 63 Doing finger permutations 64 Muting the strings to avoid the infamous hum 65 Putting it all together 66 Part 2: The Bass-ics of Playing 69 Chapter 4: Reading, ’Riting, and Rhythm 71 Reading Notation: No Pain, Much Gain 71 Chord notation: The chord chart 72 Music notation: Indicating rhythm and notes 72 Tablature notation: Showing strings, frets, and sequence 73 The vocal chart: Using lyrics and chords for a singer or songwriter 75 Finding Any Note in Any Octave 75 Using the Metronome: You Know, That Tick-Tock Thing 80 Setting the metronome 80 Playing along 80 Dividing Music into Phrases, Measures, and Beats 81 The quarter note 82 The eighth note 82 The sixteenth note 83 The half note 83 The whole note 83 The triplet 83 The dot 84 The tie 84 The rest 85 Discovering How to Read Music 85 Rhythmic chunks 85 Interval chunks 86 What comes up must come down 88 Playing Your First Song While Reading Music 90 Chapter 5: Understanding Major and Minor Structures 93 Building Major and Minor Scales 94 Major scales 95 Minor scales 96 Building Chords: One Note at a Time, Please 97 Triads: The three most important notes of a chord 98 7th chords: Filling out the triad 101 Getting your kicks with boogie licks 104 Inversions: Down is Up, and Up is Down 106 Major chord inversions 106 Minor chord inversions 108 Spicing Up Your Sound: The Seven Main Modes (Scales) 110 Using Chromatic Tones: All the Other Notes 115 Chromatic tones within the box 115 Chromatic tones outside the box 116 Bringing a Groove to Life with Dead Notes (Weird but True) 117 Playing dead — notes, that is 118 Raking dead notes 118 Sampling Accompaniments 120 Using your accompaniments in a tune 123 Keeping your groove gloriously ambiguous 124 Part 3: Making the Moves, Creating the Grooves 127 Chapter 6: Creating the Groove 129 Anatomy of a Groove: Putting Together the Necessary Elements 129 Getting your groove skeleton out of the closet 130 Playing a song using only the groove skeleton 132 Choosing the right notes for a groove 133 Creating Your Own Groove 136 Covering the “basses”: Creating dominant, minor, and major grooves 136 Waggin’ the groove tail 144 Movin’ and groovin’ from chord to chord 146 Finding the perfect fit: The designer groove 150 Grooving with a Drummer 153 The bass drum 153 The snare drum 154 The hi-hat 155 Jammin’ with Other Musicians 155 Preparing your ear 156 Listening for “the note” 156 Pivoting the note 159 Getting Creative with Existing Grooves 161 Altering a (famous) groove 162 Simplifying a groove 164 Chapter 7: Going Solo: Playing Solos and Fills 167 Soloing: Your Moment to Shine 167 Playing with the blues scale: A favorite solo spice 168 Jamming with the minor pentatonic scale: No wrong notes 171 Using the major pentatonic scale: Smooth as can be 172 Moving from chord to chord 174 Creating Fills without Any Help from Your Dentist 176 A match made in heaven: Connecting your fill to the groove 177 Timing a fill 177 Part 4: Using the Correct Accompaniment For Each Genre 183 Chapter 8: Rock On! Getting Down with the Rock Styles 185 Rock ’n’ Roll: It’s The Attitude! 186 Hard Rock: Going at It Fast and Furious 191 Pop Rock: Supporting the Vocals 193 Blues Rock: Doin’ What “Duck” Does and Playing a Countermelody 195 Country Rock: Where Vocals Are King, and You Take a Back Seat 198 One Rock Fits All: Applying a Standard Rock Groove to Any Rock Song 200 Chapter 9: Swing It! Playing Styles That Rely on the Triplet Feel 203 Swing: Grooving Up-Tempo with Attitude 204 Jazz: Going for a Walk 205 Working the walk 206 Applying a jazz blues walking pattern 211 Blues Shuffle: Walking Like Donald Duck (Dunn, That Is) 214 Funk Shuffle: Combining Funk, Blues, and Jazz 217 Chapter 10: Making It Funky: Playing Hardcore Bass Grooves 221 R & B: Movin’ to Rhythm and Blues 222 The Motown Sound: Grooving with the Music of the Funk Brothers 225 Fusion: Blending Two Styles into One 226 Funk: Light Fingers, Heavy Attitude 229 Hip-Hop: Featuring Heavy Funk with Heavy Attitude 232 Knowing What to Do When You Just Want to Funkifize a Tune 234 Chapter 11: Sampling International Flavors: Bass Styles from Around the World 237 Bossa Nova: Baskin’ in a Brazilian Beat 238 Samba: Speeding Up with Bossa’s Fast Cousin 239 Afro-Cuban: Ordering Up Some Salsa (Hold the Chips, Please) 240 Reggae: Relaxing with Offbeat “Riddims” 242 Calypso Party Sounds: Dancing through the Groove 244 Combining Reggae and Rock: The Distinct Sound of Ska 245 African Grooves: Experimenting with Exotic Downbeat Grooves 247 Grooving on a steady beat, South African–style 247 Checking out the bass groove styles from Cameroon 248 Music without Borders: Grooving to the World Beat 251 Chapter 12: Playing in Odd Meters: Not Strange, Just Not the Norm 253 An Odd-Meter Oldie but Goodie: The Waltz 254 Beyond the Waltz: Navigating Beats in Odd Meter 255 5/4 meter: Not an impossible mission 256 Take a groove you know and make it grow 259 7/4 meter: Adding two more beats 260 Complex Simplicity: Syncopation and Subdivision 264 Syncopating in odd meter 264 Adding an eighth 265 Dealing with the rush 266 Chapter 13: Groovin’ in a Genre: It’s All About Style! 269 Playing Grooves in Each Genre: One Simple Song, Many Genres Strong 270 Pop: Backing up the singer-songwriter 271 Rocking by the quarter or eighth note 271 R & B/Soul, with or without the dot 272 Feeling da funk 275 Layin’ down some Latin grooves 276 When you’re feelin’ blue, shuffle 277 To Blend or Not to Blend: Knowing How to Fit In 279 Just blending in: How to do it 280 The bold and the beautiful: Creating a bold groove 281 Blending and bolding by genre 281 Signing off with a flourish 282 Chapter 14: Eight Degrees of Separation: The Beatles’ Solution 285 Playing Your Rhythm Straight or Syncopated 286 Pumping eighth notes 286 Syncopating the bass beat 287 Making Harmonic Choices 290 Feeling fine (with roots and 5ths) 290 Walking along Penny Lane 292 Coming together to move with the groove 295 Day-tripping in perfect agreement: Unison 295 Playing something to counter the melody with 299 Inverting while your bass gently weeps 300 Part 5: Buying and Caring For Your Bass 305 Chapter 15: Love of a Lifetime or One-Night Stand? Buying the Right Bass 307 Assessing Your Needs Before You Buy 308 Thinking long-term: Moving in together 309 Thinking short-term: Help me make it through the night 309 How many strings are too many? 309 To fret or not to fret 311 Needs Are One Thing . . . Budget is Quite Another 311 A Trip to the Bass-Mint: Where to Shop for Your Bass Guitar 312 Hitting the music stores 312 Consulting newspaper ads 314 Visiting online shops and individual online ads 315 When Money is No Object: Getting a Custom-Made Bass 316 Chapter 16: Getting the Right Gear for Your Bass Guitar 317 Making Yourself Heard: A Primer on Amplifiers and Speakers 318 Going with a combo or separate amp and speaker 318 Opting for solid state or tubes 319 Picking a speaker size 319 Setting the tone 320 Needs, Wants, and Nonessentials: Rounding Out Your Equipment 321 Must-haves: Cases, gig bags, and more 321 Definite maybes: Useful effects, gadgets, and practice items 323 Extras: Effects pedals 325 Chapter 17: Changing the Strings on Your Bass Guitar 327 Knowing When It’s Time to Say Goodbye 328 Off with the Old: Removing Bass Strings 328 On with the New: Restringing Your Bass 330 Ensuring a Long Life for Your Strings 335 Chapter 18: Keeping Your Bass in Shape: Maintenance and Light Repair 337 Cleaning Your Bass, Part by Part 337 The body and neck 338 The hardware 338 The pickups 338 The fingerboard 339 The strings 339 Making Minor Repairs to Your Bass 340 The taming of the screw(s) 340 Taking care of the finish 341 Leaving the electronics to the experts 341 Adjusting the Bass Guitar 342 Providing relief to the truss rod 342 Raising and lowering the bridge 344 Assembling a Cleaning and Repair Tool Bag 346 Storing Your Bass 347 Part 6: The Part of Tens 349 Chapter 19: Ten Innovative Bassists You Should Know 351 Stanley Clarke 351 John Entwistle 352 James Jamerson 352 Carol Kaye 352 Will Lee 353Table of Contents
Foreword xv