The No B.S. Guide To Bass Guitar For Beginners is an epic insight from top professional bass player James Eager that helps you learn the bass super-fast by answering the most common questions you'll face.
If you're looking for everything that you need to know... this guide is a MUST!
So you’ve decided you want to learn how to play bass guitar? Great move!
The chances are there was a moment when you decided bass was the instrument you we’re going to play:
- Perhaps it was the way those thunderous low notes made you feel?
- Perhaps you’ve always wanted to join a band and experience the rush of performing live on stage?
- Maybe you’re returning to the bass after 25 years off and want to pick up where you left off?
- Or perhaps there were already too many guitarists in the band and ended up being told you were going to be the bass player?
However you got here, you’re in for a great ride! Just keep reading Bass Guitar For Beginners: A No B.S. Guide and we'll get you motoring...
The chances are you're excited, and you've got a ton of questions. That’s why I’ve written this,
Here you’re going to discover the answers to all the questions I get asked time and time again. You may even discover a few that you’ve never even thought of, but are super-useful and will greatly speed up the process of learning the bass guitar.
This guide is largely focused on bass guitar for beginners. However, I guarantee there will be plenty of ‘A-ha’ moments for intermediate bass players too.... (maybe you more advanced guys will also find this a good read as well!)
1 - Is a bass player ‘just a guitarist who isn’t good enough’?
There are many musicians who come to the bass guitar via the 6-string electric or acoustic guitar. I came down that road too, and it’s perfectly normal for that to be your introduction to the bass.
However, there is this notion that a bass player is ‘just a failed guitarist’ or the band has ‘too many guitarists’ so you’ll just have to play bass - almost like playing bass is second best... I’m here to tell you that is complete nonsense. Whilst there are many musicians who can ‘double’ on both bass and guitar really well, conceptually they are very, very different.
I’d always ended up playing bass because there were so many guitarists at my school. That was fine, I didn’t mind… but aged 14 I really wanted to be the lead guitarist out front (with all the girls looking on!). Then, aged 16 or 17, I played bass with my first ever really good drummer. That was it. I fell in love with the groove and was totally hooked. That feeling of being in the engine room, creating the foundation, and being responsible for making people move and dance is like no other.
It was then I started to discover what it takes to be a really good bass player. It’s a completely different skill set, but takes just the same amount of love and dedication to master properly.
2 - How long does it take learn bass guitar?
The bass guitar is an awesome instrument because you’ll be able to pick it up and make a great noise straight away. Some instruments, like the violin, can sound like a strangled cat for the first couple of years with no apparent end in sight. The bass is very different.
Many years back, a bass player from my home town said: ‘The beauty of bass is it can be as simple or complex as you like’. Bass is a foundational instrument, and that means it doesn't have to play crazy, complicated bass lines to fulfil its role in the band perfectly.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying bass guitar is easy. Far from it! Once you get into the nitty-gritty, to get good requires the same amount of love and dedication as any other instrument. For many, it’s a life-long study and that’s what keeps me constantly motivated. One of the reasons I love teaching bass, and students love learning it, is because you can get moving super-fast.
3 - What is the role of the bass in the band?
Before playing or learning a note on the bass guitar, it’s really worth understanding the role of the bass in the band. We’re not 'the poor man's guitarist', as many less-informed people would like to make out. Far from it. In my opinion, the bass is the one instrument a band can’t do without. (I actually think we’re the most important member of the band… but then again, I might be a little biased!)
The bass has two very important roles in the band. A ‘rhythmic role’ and a ‘harmonic role’. Both are equally important.
The Rhythmic Role
By ‘Rhythmic Role’, I mean we need to lock in with drums. The rhythm, beat, pulse or groove we create is pivotal.
The Bass Player / Drummer relationship is one of the most important in contemporary music. When it’s right, you’ll notice people start to nod their heads in time with the music, clap along and dance. Put your favourite song on now and just listen to how the bass and drums work together to lay the foundation for every other instrument above.
The Harmonic Role
‘Harmonic Role’ means we are responsible for pinning down the lowest note of the harmony or chords. If what the bass is playing is wrong, everything else will sound bad above it.
In my opinion, there’s no other single instrument that can have such a drastic effect on the music. As a bass player in the UK, I have played hundreds of gigs where the drums were deemed as being too loud… so the band worked with just a bass player to give the pulse and the bottom end of the harmony.
4 - What bass guitar should I buy?
When I first started playing, 25+ years ago, any bass under a $200 was likely to be terrible! Today, things are totally different. For $200 you can get a bass guitar which is very good. For less that $300, you can get a ‘starter pack’ which has an excellent bass, a small amp and everything else you need to get going.
There are plenty of good brands out there. My advice is to go to a music store and take a look at all the basses. There’s normally an instrument that will just ‘speak to you’. Pick it up, play it, and see how it feels. Don’t be scared if the noise you make sounds awful... no one will be judging you, I promise. You’re trying a bass out… not making a public performance.
If you get an instrument you love, you’ll be inspired to pick it up more and more when you're at home (maybe even sleep with it in the bedroom… I might have done that!)
Classic Basses That Always Perform...
However, if you need a little inspiration, I would always recommend starting with an instrument which is inspired by a Fender Precision or Fender Jazz Bass. Leo Fender got these instruments so right when he designed them in the late 50s / early 60s. Fender also make a budget range called Fender Squiers… these basses are a perfect place to start. Other brands you may wish to consider are Yamaha, Ibanez, Sire, G&L.
5 - Do I need an amplifier?
The most important thing is that you can always hear yourself clearly when you practise. You should always plug it in to an amp or use headphones. Never practise ‘acoustically’ or unplugged because the chances are you’ll start to overplay to try and hear yourself. The small amps that come with starter packs are perfect to get you started.
The other thing you may wish to consider is a headphone amplifier. Vox make one which is perfect.
Closed back headphones or ‘in-ear’ style earbuds are the best choice because they allow you to really hear the low notes.
Great amplifier brands to consider are: MarkBass, Aguilar, Fender, Ampeg, Hartke, GK
Great brands of headphones to consider are: Sennheiser, AKG, Sony, Audio-Technica, Bose
Top brands of 'in-ear' monitors: Ultimate Ears, Shure, 64 Audio, ACS
6 - Should I buy a bass guitar from a music store or online?
I would always recommend buying your first bass guitar from a physical music store. When I was younger, I used to cherish a day going to the music stores in London with my Dad. Not only would I get to see an array of beautiful instruments that I could only dream of owning back then, but also I’d get to talk to the really knowledgeable guys who worked in the stores. These guys could save you making a very costly mistake, or just point you in the direction of something you hadn’t thought of, or something much more cost effective.
Why buy from a music store?
The other big reason to buy from a music store is they will ensure the instrument is properly ‘set up’, This means they will make a bunch of adjustments to the string height, the neck, frets, pick-ups, and more to ensure that the bass plays perfectly when you get it home.
Often instruments straight out of factories just don’t get this love and attention. You’ll find a badly set up bass may have strings that are too high and you can’t press them down, or frets that buzz, meaning certain notes don’t work properly. Buying from a music store means you get a rewarding experience the moment you get the bass home.
7 - Are there any other bass guitar accessories I need to get going?
There are two accessories that I recommend getting straight out of the gate:
- Good quality cable to connect from the bass guitar to the amplifier.
Often a budget cable will come with a bass guitar starter pack. These cables are often poor quality cables that break quickly. They are often ‘microphonic’ too, which means you’ll hear it a crackle through the amplifier every time the cable moves.
TIP - I recommend spending at least $30 USD to ensure you are getting quality and reliability. Whirlwind are a great brand to get going with.
- A bass guitar tuner.
Before you start practising, you should always ensure your bass is in tune. There’s no point in practising with an out-of-tune bass. (Believe you me, I’ve seen plenty of people try!) Learn to use an electronic tuner before you attempt to tune by ear.
TIP - try a Snark Clip-On Tuner to begin with. They are super accurate, convenient, and very inexpensive. They also work on vibration, so you can tune silently in noisy environments.
TIP: You may wish to consider a metronome too. My top tip is to use a smartphone app like ‘Tempo’. This app costs a fraction of a physical tuner and has about 10 times the functionality too.
Everything else (like bass guitar pedals) can come at a later date!
8 - Where is the best place to find bass guitar lessons?
Once you have the perfect instrument, you’ll want to get playing your favourite bass lines - and fast!
There are two routes you can take: the slow route, and the fast route.
The slow route is where choose to teach yourself. Now, don’t get me wrong. There are many fine musicians that are self-taught, but there is one commonality with all of their stories… it took them a long time to learn.
The fast route is to get bass guitar lessons, and again, there are two routes that achieve great results:
- See a teacher 1-to-1
- Take online bass guitar video lessons
Of course, each way has its pros and cons:
1-to-1 LESSONS
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Personal instruction | Expensive* (Expect $1600 / year)) |
You can ask plenty of questions | Travel Time |
A teacher needs to be in your area | |
Weekly commitment to get the most out of it | |
Teachers can often be guitarists, not specialist bass players |
*This figure is conservatively estimated on 40 weekly bass lessons a year, at $40 per hour.
In reality 1-to-1 lessons with an experienced, specialist bass teacher could cost anything up to $140/hr.
ONLINE LESSONS
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Watch lessons at your own convenience | Less personal feedback |
Study at your own pace | You need an internet connection |
Inexpensive ($199 / Year*) | |
Study anywhere in the world | |
Rewatch lessons over and over again | |
Study with specialist bass players (not guitarists!) | |
Meet & learn with other passionate bass players |
*This figure is based on a yearly membership to the The Bass Lab PLUS
There are also a huge amount of excellent bass guitar books which can provide amazing insights into the world of bass.
My preference is to advise students to use a blend of online tuition and 1-to-1 tuition if it is available in your area. This really does provide the best of both worlds.
To get started taking online bass guitar lessons make sure you check my online bass guitar lessons program - The Bass Lab PLUS
9 - Bass guitar for beginners - where should I start?
This might sound obvious, but a course entirely focused on bass guitar lessons for beginners is the number one place you should put your focus.
Obvious? Maybe, but I’ve lost count of the number of students who have relied on random TAB sites or the odd tip from a friend to get going, and just end up getting more and more confused.
This can be a slow, time-consuming process which makes it far harder than it needs to be. But with the right instruction, it can be one of the most fun and rewarding things you’ll ever do!
The bass guitar is a skills-based instrument, and it’s important to have an introduction to all the most import core concepts right away.
Long before I wrote Bass Guitar For Beginners: A No B.S. Guide, I wrote the Absolute Beginners Bass Course. This is my personal methodology which ensures you understand everything from playing your very first notes: from how the fingerboard works, all the way through to creating grooves and fills, and playing your very first song from beginning to end!
Click here to find out more about The Absolute Beginners Bass Course.
10 - YouTube versus bass guitar lessons websites
YouTube can be a challenging place to learn the bass guitar! As a teacher, I love to publish lessons on YouTube: it's a great way for me to share my love of bass guitar and some of the fantastic knowledge I’ve been lucky enough to gain over the past 25+ years. However, it needs to come with a health warning!
Here are some of the challenges you’ll face if you rely on YouTube:
- There are too many distractions
Just looking in that side bar! At any second, you could click on another video and be sucked into a black hole of cat videos and seductive online quizzes. - There’s no benchmark
Anyone can publish bass lessons on YouTube. I’ve seen world-class bass players and educators sharing mind-blowing knowledge; and I've seen people who have probably only being playing a couple of months. As a beginner bass player, that can be massively confusing, because it’s not always clear who is sharing the best information. - Lessons are random
YouTube doesn’t lay things out with the aim of making you a better bass player. It’s only purpose is to keep you on the website as long as possible and get you watching adverts in return. So it’s hard to find lessons in a well-structured and logical way.
When you're starting any new project, you must move quickly and gain momentum, not waste valuable time. So here, the important thing is to make sure you're learning from a dedicated bass guitar lessons website, with step-by-step lessons, and which is run by someone with credibility. That’s why I set up eBassGuitar.
You can check my step-by-step courses over at the Bass Lab PLUS
11 - How do I know if I’ve picked up bad habits?
This can be a big worry for many folks, especially if you’re picking up the bass again after, say, taking 25 years off to raise a family.
Back in the day, the only option would be to see a teacher for a ‘check-up’, which is still a very valid way to do it.
Fast forward to today: we have some incredible new opportunities if you want to learn bass guitar using the internet. Now, wherever you are in the world, it's possible to connect with a great instructor or bass guitar coach using Skype bass guitar lessons.
I’ve taught using Skype and I can 100% vouch for what effective results it can produce.
But we can go one better!
The power of online communities is phenomenal. Basslabgroup.com is a FREE online bass community where you can meet like-minded bassists, hang out, socialise, talk bass guitar, and improve your bass playing.
If you’ve got a question you want answering, all you need to do is shoot a quick video and post it in the group. You’ll then get advice from some of the most helpful and passionate guys on the planet. No longer do you need to feel like an island when there is a whole world of bass players out there, all happy to point you in the right direction.
For eBassGuitar students we have a Student Coaching Group, where you can get personal coaching and feedback directly from me.
12 - Should I play with my fingers or with a pick?
If you’ve played guitar before, the chances are you may have used a pick or plectrum. This technique can easily be transferred to the bass guitar. The other option you have is playing with your fingers - or ‘finger style’.
Over the years I have heard plenty of snobbery regarding the use of the pick because finger style is apparently the ‘correct way’ to do things. I think that’s bull****! (I often tell it how it is!)
The two styles have very different sounds and suit different styles of music. To generalise hugely: pick is more often found in rock, punk, and metal music; finger style is played in funk, jazz, country, soul and Motown music.
For me, inspiration to pick up the instrument always comes down to what feels most comfortable and gives ‘that bass sound’. I’m a finger style player by trade, and I always recommend starting with this style because it ‘blends’ better and is a more versatile sound. Pick has a more aggressive sound, which isn’t to all musicians’ tastes. Ultimately, the choice is yours!
To discover how to gain a great technique, make sure you check out the Essential Technique Course in The Bass Lab PLUS.
13 - How much should I practise?
This is something I get asked all of the time, and I want to share a secret with you…
It’s not the amount of time you spend practising, it’s the quality of the practice that really makes the difference. No joke, I’ve seen people practise for an hour when that work could have been done in 10 minutes.
If you want to discover more about how to practise, make sure you get my:
5 Steps To Perfect Practise Checklist
However, there is one thing I will add. This is the big one:
Pick up the instrument every single day. The key to progress is consistency. Even if it’s only for a few minutes, a small amount of practise daily will achieve many more results than a big session once a week. Progress is incremental. Small daily wins will add up to something massive over 3 to 6 months!
14 - Do I need to learn Music Theory?
I would recommend learning music theory straight away. So many people get confused by music theory when in reality it actually isn’t that complicated. The trick is to learn the music theory which is relevant to you as a bass player, and also learn it as you go.
When you zoom into the music theory bass guitar players actually need, it’s the one thing that will actually enable you to make sense of music and with a deeper understanding.
These are the 4 core reasons why you should learn music theory:
- IDENTIFY - It will enable you to name and recall music sounds at a later date
- GROUP - It will allow you to group musical sounds together so you can build relationships between notes and chords
- COMMUNICATE - It will help you communicate with other musicians more effectively
- PREDICT - It improves your musical ear so you can predict what notes are coming next… on the fly
I recommend you check out my eBook ‘The Complete Guide To Music Theory For Bass Players’.
This is 50 pages of JUST the music theory bass players need to understand.
You can get your copy by clicking the orange button.
15 - Do I need to be able to read musical notation?
You do not need to be able to read musical notation when you start playing the bass guitar, and you can become an excellent bassist without ever reading a dot of manuscript.
However, I believe it’s an amazing skill to gain, and it’s one I personally treasure. Being able to sight-read has enabled me to enter so many different musical situations and play with an enormously wide variety of musicians. It also dramatically reduces rehearsal time!
If situations like performing on theatre shows, gigging with big bands, or recording sessions interests you, learning to sight-read is something I’d highly recommend.
But don’t worry. If reading isn’t your thing, everything I teach here at eBassGuitar will still work just as well.
16 - How long will it take me to learn a song like Hotel California on the bass guitar?
The great thing about the bass guitar is how soon you’ll be playing your first song.
It really won’t be long before you’re pulling up Spotify or YouTube and jamming along with your favourite songs. You could be doing this in just a couple of weeks… seriously!
For something more involved, like how to play Hotel California on the bass guitar, it will take a little longer. 6 months to a year, depending on how much you practise. The great thing with many songs like Hotel California is it’s perfectly possible to simplify it and still create a fantastic bass line that fits really well.
I’ve chosen Hotel California as an example because, whilst it may sound complex, it’s really based on two fundamental grooves. Understanding this is the crux of great rock & pop bass guitar playing.
Here’s a lesson with the bass line from the verse part. We can also send you the Hotel California Cheatsheet by clicking the orange button below.
17 - What are the important styles of music I should learn?
This depends entirely on your taste in music. You should always play music that inspires you and gets you excited. That said, there are two styles of music I encourage all my students to learn, especially when they are hitting the intermediate phases of playing the bass:
The Blues
The genre of blues covers so many bases and styles: from John Lee Hooker to B.B. King, Eric Clapton to Joe Bonamassa.
Even if blues doesn’t initially spark your interest, I encourage to learn it because the chances are you are going to need to play a 12-bar blues at some point in your bass playing career!
But more importantly, with the blues, you learn how to play over musical structures without thinking about it.
Blues will teach you how to create bass lines, fills, turnarounds, walk ups, walk downs... all the way through to transposition and playing over different musical feels.
When you’re comfortable with the blues, you’ll easily be able to wrap your head around most other styles of bass playing.
Walking Bass
Walking bass is a direct extension of blues bass playing, and it will push any intermediate bass player on to the next stage.
When you know how to create walking bass lines, you’ll be able to create bass lines in virtually any genre of Western Music - jazz to funk, country to Motown, Latin to hip hop.
You’ll also start to build a complete command of how every note on the neck fits together. If you want to learn how the fingerboard works properly, learning walking bass is THE number one way of doing it.
You can learn blues and walking bass inside the Bass Lab PLUS Membership
18 - Should I join a band and play with other musicians?
Yes, yes, yes… and at the earliest possible opportunity. This is something I encourage all of my students to do, even if they feel like they really aren’t ready.
You’ll learn 50% of what you need from studying with a teacher and with websites like eBassGuitar.com The other 50% you’ll learn from playing with other musicians and actually DOING IT!
I simply can’t overemphasise the importance of this! It takes courage, but I promise you will become a better bass player every time you perform or practise with other musicians.
19 - What's the next step?
For the past 15 years I've been lucky enough to pay my mortgage entirely from playing and teaching the bass guitar and the double bass, here in the London.
My professional career has taken me from working on top West End shows like We Will Rock You, The Lion King, Spamalot, Wicked, Dirty Dancing, Saturday Night Fever, all the way through to recording at Abbey Road Studios and performing at Wembley Arena.
Over the years, I've had some incredible teachers and performed with some world-class musicians. I'm now passionate about sharing all the amazing information I have learned.
That's why I started eBassGuitar - the only online bass guitar lessons platform dedicated to helping beginner to intermediate bassists.
To take the next step to becoming a better bass player, please request an invitation to become a Bass Lab PLUS student here: