Introduction
So you’ve decided to learn the bass guitar. Excellent choice! You’ve also chosen the perfect learning tool—this book—to begin your musical journey. You don’t need to be able to read music, nor do you require any musical experience, to use this book. Teach Yourself to Play Bass makes use of tablature, combined with rhythmic symbols, which makes for a quick and pain-free learning curve. The bottom line is that you can start right now!
We’ll begin this book by looking at the parts of the bass, the bass amplifier, and the techniques used in both hands. Posture is also important, so don’t skip this part! We’ll continue with an explanation of the tablature system, rhythm notation, and fretboard diagrams. After that, we’ll plunge into the examples, which will begin with open strings and gently progress in difficulty throughout the book. Topics along the way will include chord symbols, scales (major and minor), octaves, 5ths, arpeggios, and more. Each section will feature examples (performed on the accompanying audio tracks) that span several musical styles, so you’ll be developing your versatility right from the start!
The objective here is to get you playing the bass as quickly as possible but also put you in a position to continue learning and improving once you’ve completed the book. By working through the examples, you’ll not only be improving your technical skill on the instrument, but you’ll be assimilating a myriad of musical concepts without even knowing it, including common chord progressions, rhythms, and melodic and formal structures. These overarching topics will be applicable to every instrument—not just the bass—and will therefore increase your musical ability as a whole.
While we want you to start playing bass right away, it’s important that you develop good habits from the beginning. Therefore, be sure to thoroughly read (and re-read, if necessary) all instructions before diving into a set of examples. When you reach the end of a chapter, quickly review it before beginning the next one to make sure you’re in good shape to tackle the new material. Regarding your practice sessions, you’ll make much more headway if you practice for shorter periods of time more frequently than if you cram one six-hour session into every Saturday. Of course, you have to work with what you have available; however, as is often the case, you can find an extra 30 minutes a day if it’s important to you. Remember to have fun with it!