Foreword xv
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
Voila! 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 353
Paul McCartney 353
Marcus Miller 353
Jaco Pastorius 353
Victor Wooten 354
X (Fill in Your Own) 354
Chapter 20: Ten Great Rhythm Sections (Bassists and Drummers) 355
Bootsy Collins and Jab’o Starks 356
Donald “Duck” Dunn and Al Jackson Jr 356
James Jamerson and Benny Benjamin 356
John Paul Jones and John Bonham 357
Joe Osborn and Hal Blaine 357
Jaco Pastorius and Peter Erskine 358
George Porter Jr and Zig Modeliste 358
Francis Rocco Prestia and David Garibaldi 358
Chuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie 359
Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar 359
Appendix: Audio Tracks and Video Clips 361
Index 375
