Chords for How to Play Bass Guitar - Rhythm 101 - Bass Guitar Lessons for Beginners - Jump Start

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Alright, so you want to play the bass.
What's your job?
You're a timekeeper just like the drums.
So you've got to understand when to play the notes exactly where to place them in the music.
That's what this lesson is about.
We're going to address two general feels that occur in music.
Straight feels and swing feels.
A lot of different styles fall into each of these categories.
I think you'll clearly hear the difference.
So let's give it a listen.
Now we have to talk about rhythm.
There are two basic feels that you need to be aware of and this is what you have to do.
You have to listen before you go to play.
Don't be in a big hurry.
We've got to get your ears to where you hear the differences.
Because you're a bass player, right?
You've got to be locked into the rhythm.
Listen to this groove. _ _ _ _ _ _
That's what we call a straight eight groove. _ _ _
_ _ One and two and three and four and five.
You can feel that.
So I'm _ [E] _ _
_ just playing the open E, the open fourth string _
_ [G#m] right along with it, right?
_ _ Okay, now I'm going to change the drum patch.
Listen to [F#] this.
_ _ [B]
It doesn't sound the same, does it?
That's called a shuttle. _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ Those are your two basic feels.
Almost all the music you play can fall into one of those two categories.
It's very important that you understand what's going on rhythmically.
So make sure you listen to the jam tracks.
They are labeled either a straight eighth feel or a shuffle feel.
And make sure you practice playing along with them just with an open string.
Because you're getting the drum groove without a bass note.
The math behind this is as follows.
If we have a tempo of a tune that's, let's say, _
_ a quarter note, that's what you're counting.
That's where you're tapping your foot.
So one, two, three, four.
Those are called quarter notes.
So if I play along and just go one, two, three, [Em] four.
[E] One, two, three, four.
That's got to be rock steady.
Then I'm going to base everything off of that.
If I take each of those beats and subdivide them into two, I'm going to get one and two and three and four.
_ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ Dot, [E] dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. _ _ _
Those are straight eighths.
Remember, you're dividing it in half.
That means _ _ you can hear the high end. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Those are eighth notes.
And then you can mix up the chords.
_ _ _ _ _ [N] _
What's important is that you stay in that groove, in that grid.
You can't waver out of it.
Then the shuffle feel, you're taking each beat and subdividing it into three equal parts.
Now to demonstrate this, I'm going to take a slow blues feel. _ _
_ _ The tempo is as follows on this.
It's very slow.
_ One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four.
_ You hear that hi-hat?
_ _ _ _ _ _ Each beat is getting subdivided into three equal parts.
They are then counted as follows.
_ _ One triplet, two triplet, three triplet, four triplet.
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ But the problem is that [B] that doesn't sound right for us to play all of those [F#] triplets.
So we would go, _ _ _ we'd leave the middle one out.
I'm going to demonstrate this very slowly.
Here we go.
One [E] triplet, two triplet, three triplet, four triplet.
Or if you prefer, count it like a waltz.
Go one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ This is where it's important you can dampen because if you just go, _
it doesn't sound right.
So make sure you put a rest in there.
Means you have silence.
One triplet, two triplet, three triplet.
Okay, now if you're going to be dampening strings, make sure you stay away from those harmonics. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ We talked about that a little bit [G#] earlier.
So make sure you [E] find a spot where _ _ you get a clean silence.
_ As you play faster, it just adds to the feel.
_ _ _ Okay, so that's a quick overview of Rhythm 101 straight versus swing rhythms.
[N] _