"Is The Bass Guitar Easy?"
This is a question I get asked a bunch over at the eBassGuitar Facebook group especially students who are beginners or in the early phases of learning...
The question of whether or not it is easy to play the bass guitar is very interesting…
Especially when you compare it to our friends who play the 6 string electric or acoustic guitar.
- They’re often flying around playing the crazy solos…
- They have to put complicated chords down, playing 5 or 6 notes at once on a small cramped, fingerboard.
- They generally have a mountain of gear and are constantly changing sounds.
Where as us bass players…
- Rarely play a solo (well maybe 16 bars in a whole gig if we’re lucky!)
- Play one note at a time on a bigger instrument with less stings.
- And on the whole don’t even get involved with complex sound changes.
When I was 14 years old I had a conversation with local bass player “Dave” which changed my thinking forever on this subject.
No longer was the bass player the guy who wasn’t good enough to be a guitarist.
No longer was the bass player the guy who ended up playing the instrument because the band already had 4 guitarists.
No longer was the bass player the guy who had it easy...
Dave told me something so valuable “the beauty of the bass guitar is it can be as simple or as complicated as you like”
In a nutshell simple bass lines can be just as musically valid as the ones which are flying around.
Now here’s the great thing about playing the bass… it’s an easy instrument to get going on and it’s a straightforward instrument to start playing those ‘simple’ bass lines Dave was referring to.
Many bassists have ended up performing at their local jam session, join a band or being asked to play for a worship team far faster than they ever imagined… just by keeping it simple!
Now in the bigger plan of things it’s important to appreciate that the bass guitar is just as hard as any other instrument to truly master.
The greats will still unquestionably practise hours a day and dedicate their lives to being the best they possibly can be at the bass guitar.
But the beautiful thing is the early phases of playing the instrument can be hugely rewarding… especially if you are comparing to a violin which takes about 2 years to get out of the ‘strangled cat phase’.
In this lesson ,I want to show you how good bass lines can be as simple or as complicated as you like.
Here are 5 bass lines over which get progressively more involved. See which one you like!
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
To sum up…
Is the bass guitar easy? The bass guitar is a straight forward, highly rewarding instrument to get going. You can be playing simple inspiring bass lines very fast. It will take the same amount of love and dedication as any other instrument if you wish to push it on the next levels...
So if you’re trying to work out if the bass guitar is for you make sure you check out the Absolute Beginners Bass Course.
I’ll show how you can play a world class rock song… in just 6 weeks.
You can get the course by joining the Bass Lab PLUS and starting your bass playing journey today.
Keep groovin' hard,
James