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  Bass Line Creation
Playing the roots, step one in bass line creation

Where to play

When trying to make a decision of where to play the root on the neck of the bass, keep these things in mind.

  • What sound are you looking for. For instance, even though you could play and E note on the open 4th string, and play an E on the 7th fret of the 3rd string, they sound different. One is higher, and one is lower.
  • You will also make the decision based on what the last note was, and what the next note is. You don't want to have to jump up and down the neck if all of the note could be play in the same position.

What rhythms to play

Now you know what the names of the notes on at least the 3rd and 4th strings are. So the next step is to decide what rhythms to play. Before you start playing anything too complex, you may just want to get your feet wet and play some simple rhythms, like whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes.

Play through the following chord progression doing just that. The first time through, just play whole notes (once on every chord). Next try playing half notes (2 times for every chord). And then quarter notes (4 times on every chord). This is just to get the feel of playing along with the band.

Whole notes


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Half notes


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Quarter notes


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Page 1, The basics

Page 3, Making up your own rhythms








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