Can I Play Bass Through a Fender Mustang

Acquire how to play bass guitar with our step-past-step guide for beginners. Get started playing bones chords and understanding finger techniques.

Bass may not get all the glory of the guitar or take the flash, crash, and bang of the drums -- merely the instrument holds an of import spot in any band, bridging the gap between rhythm and tune. The bass guitar is responsible for creating the undercurrent -- or bassline -- that ties a song together, giving it a rhythmic feel and a steady beat that helps both the guitar and drums propel the song forward.

In this guide, nosotros'll show you some bass guitar basics, helping you get started on your musical journey. Nosotros'll give you some pointers on how to choose a bass guitar, tuning tips and finger technique, as well as how to play a song on bass.

In This Guide

• Why Learn to Play Bass Guitar?
• Is Bass Guitar Piece of cake to Learn?
• Choosing a Bass Guitar That'due south Right for Y'all
• Bass Checklist for Beginners
• How to Melody a Bass Guitar
• Bass Finger Techniques for Beginners
• How to Play Bass Chords
• How to Play Bass Scales
• How to Practice Bass for Beginners
• Learn a Song on Bass Guitar

Why learn to play bass guitar?

While guitar gets the glory in terms of musicianship in the band, there aren't quite as many bassists vying for the spotlight. However, bass guitar is the low-cease bottom that provides a span betwixt the showmanship and melody of the guitar and the driving backbeat of the drums.

Need another reason to desire to learn to play bass? While you may marvel at a guitarist'southward string-bending prowess when you listen to a song, when you lot plug your headphones in, the bass line is usually the part that makes yous bob your head.

Many bassists have a business firm understanding of the construction of songs and often accept a front-seat function in songwriting. Take a await (and listen) to Brian Wilson of the Embankment Boys, Paul McCartney of The Beatles, Parliament-Funkadelic'due south Bootsy Collins (who likewise played with Dee-Lite and James Brown), Geddy Lee of Rush, Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx, and Gene Simmons of KISS, and you lot have a litany of bassists who have been the songwriting forces behind their respective bands. Picking up a bass and learning how to weave its rhythmic texture into a song puts yous in skillful company.

Is Bass Guitar Like shooting fish in a barrel to Learn?

Playing bass guitar can be like shooting fish in a barrel but the more than you make up one's mind to delve into the intricacies of the musical instrument, you tin can apply that knowledge to play simple or more complex basslines in songs.

Depending on the musical genre and the level of mastery you aspire to with playing your musical instrument, it can decide how like shooting fish in a barrel or how hard information technology is to learn bass guitar. For case, for more tone and guitar-driven songs in the land genre, playing bass may be easier than rhythm-focused genres such every bit funk or hard rock and heavy metallic.

The physical size and thickness (or gauge) of bass strings of a bass may likewise make it more challenging for new musicians to learn. However, if y'all have smaller hands, in that location are curt-scale basses (similar the Fender Mustang® Bass) that can go far easier for you lot to maneuver up and down the cervix of your bass guitar and span a shorter distance betwixt frets.

"Everyone's a beginner at some point. Yous get better at things by doing them more. Yous may be a beginner, but you'll become better. I guarantee information technology."

- Mike Dirnt, Green Day

Bass Guitar Basics

Choosing a Bass Guitar That's Right for You

As a beginner, choosing a bass guitar can feel intimidating -- just it doesn't have to be. From size to tone, to the number of strings and your upkeep, there are several factors that can help narrow downward the right choice for your bass.

• Size: If you lot're a beginner bassist with smaller hands or just want a lighter musical instrument with a shorter neck to more than easily maneuver around the fretboard, a short-scale bass may be the perfect choice. The Fender Mustang Bass, Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass Special SS and Squier Bronco Bass all feature a 30" long neck. Additionally, a lightweight bass may be ideal for individuals who experience back or shoulder hurting when playing for extended periods.

• Tone: The tone a bassist gravitates toward is a matter of personal preference. Depending on your genre of choice and the sound y'all're aiming to achieve, different bass guitars will offer their own distinct tone. Want a warmer tone? Opt for a bass from the Fender Squier range. In addition to a warm tone, they offering a thinner neck and profile, ideal for novice bassists and players with small hands. Crave a deeper, more rumbling tone? Look to the Player Precision Bass®.

If y'all have a desire to experiment and tinker with tone, outfitting your electric bass with the right amp or pedals can assistance you replicate the tones of your favorite artists. The Fender Mustang GTX serial of amps is compatible with the Fender Tone app, which allows y'all to admission hundreds of presets to help you sound like your favorite musician without having to string together a ton of effects pedals.

• Number of strings: While most bass guitars take four strings, at that place are some five-string models (such every bit the Fender American Ultra Jazz Bass® 5) that offering players more creative freedom. If yous're but starting out on your musical journeying, it may be best to master playing a iv-string bass get-go earlier branching out. The thinner neck of a four-string bass guitar may exist easier for beginners to play. On the flipside, a five-string bass increases the range of notes and scales that tin be played.

• Upkeep: An instrument is an investment that will terminal a lifetime. Even if you're starting out or on a budget, there are plenty of affordable options to find a bass you'll dearest for years to come up. For example, the Fender Analogousness Series™ Jazz Bass® packs a legendary sound at under $250. Electric bass bundles are another great choice for bassists on a budget, packaging together a bass, amp, strap, and other accessories to get you started.

Still non sure where to begin? Find your Fender and get paired up with an musical instrument that speaks to your fashion and sound.

Bass Checklist for Beginners

Having the right tools is the key to mastering your musical instrument. There are a few essentials beginner bassists should accept to get started:

• Bass guitar strap - A guitar strap not simply helps you to deeply hold your instrument in the correct position for playing, but it as well helps you lot show off a bit of your personality and sense of style.

• Cables - Whether you're plugging your bass into an amplifier or stringing effects pedals together, cables help brand that connection possible.

• Amps - There's nothing similar the feeling of plugging in your electric bass and hearing its rumble roar to life. Whether you're cranking information technology all the mode upwardly to 10 or practicing at a lower volume, an amplifier can assistance yous hear the true tone of your instrument and perfect your technique. Non sure which amp is correct for yous? Get some help and observe out how to choose your ideal bass modeling amp.

• Digital tuner - Making sure your bass stays in tune can help you develop your ear. As you increase your skill level, you lot may want to experiment with alternate bass tunings. A digital tuner can aid y'all find the right pitch.

How To Tune A Bass Guitar

While information technology may have a thicker, more than bottom heavy audio than its vi-stringed cousin, the guitar; the bass has the same first iv strings, tuned to the aforementioned notes. The strings on the bass guitar are:

• E = The fourth (everyman tone) string
• A = The tertiary string
• D = The second cord
• Grand = The get-go (and highest tone) string

There are a number of means to tune your bass. While you lot can melody information technology by ear or using harmonics -- playing a specific fret on an bordering cord and matching the tone of a college, open up string to information technology, the Fender Tune app makes it easy to stay in tune. Download the costless bass tuning app to proceed your playing pitch perfect.

"Music is like the genius of humankind, universal… People who accept never really taken the time to get into music, their lives are a lot smaller."

- Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Bass Finger Techniques For Beginners

It's been the subject field of The Great Bass Debate for years: whether to play with a pick or your fingers. The truth is, there'southward no wrong way to play bass. Depending on the genre and style yous like most, equally well as your own finger strength and dexterity. Both styles accept their ain merits:

• Play bass with a pick: If speed and versatility is what you lot strive for, playing bass with a option may be your preferred method. Non only tin can you more quickly plunk out notes with a option than you could with your fingers (disallowment years of do and honing your technique), but experimenting with picks of different thickness tin can help you tweak your tone and give you a different sound.

• Play bass with your fingers: Sometimes referred to as fingerstyle, playing bass with your fingers yields a smoother sound and allows you to slap and popular your strings for a funk-fueled tone. Nearly bassists who play with their fingers discover it's easiest to starting time by using their index and heart fingers to pluck at the strings. However, with time, yous can build upwards your dexterity and experiment with using your pollex to slap at the strings for an organic tone.

How To Play Bass Chords

When learning to play bass, y'all may not encounter chords as oftentimes as you would when playing guitar. Notwithstanding, learning how to play bass chords tin but serve to raise your playing. While basslines are often the cornerstone of a vocal, bass chords help to add together color, flavor, and a bottom-heavy rhythm to a song.

A chord is a combination of three or more notes played together to produce a singled-out sound. While chords are the foundation of a guitar education, it's possible to play chords on bass, as well. The strings on a bass correspond with the beginning four strings of a guitar. So, many guitar chords that make employ of only the first four strings can be played on bass.

How To Play Bass Scales

A bass scale is a consecutive serial of notes played in an ascending or descending society. Every scale has 8 notes. This fix of notes is called an octave. The notes on a calibration remain the same, regardless of whether you're playing a calibration on bass, guitar, or ukulele. Each scale begins and ends with the same notation -- known equally the "root note." The final notation of every scale is as well the root annotation, but the pitch of the note is raised 1 octave college than the outset note.

When playing bass scales, one of the easiest scales to start with is the G Major calibration. Role of what makes the G Major scale like shooting fish in a barrel is that information technology contains no sharps or flats:

• 1st Note (Root Note): K
• 2nd Note: A
• 3rd Note: B
• fourth Annotation: C
• 5th Note: D
• 6th Notation: E
• 7th Notation: F
• 8th Note (Root note, one octave higher): G

The G Major calibration can be played on but one cord of your bass, or span the full iv strings. For instance, check out how to play the G Major on bass.

Embedded content: https://world wide web.youtube.com/lookout man?v=J21p55hM6hI&t=3s

Learning to play the popular C Major scale on bass can help you play a number of songs. Playing scales not only helps to build finger dexterity, simply helps you to recognize the same notes and tones, even when played on different frets. Learning scales can also assistance yous recognize patterns and apply them when playing songs or writing your ain music and basslines.

Desire to learn and exercise more than bass scales? Here are some of the most popular bass scales:

• M Major Bass Scale
• A Major Bass Calibration
• Bb Major Bass Scale
• E Major Bass Scale
• A Natural Pocket-size Bass Scale
• Yard Natural Minor Bass Scale

A complimentary trial of Fender Play unlocks a world of new scales, skills and more than, helping you level upwardly your skill as a musician.

"That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression."

- Geddy Lee, Rush

How to Create a Bassline

A bassline is a series of notes played on bass that ties together chord tones, the fundamental a song is written and performed in, and the rhythm -- anchoring the beat and tune of the vocal. Listen to funky, upbeat intro to Rick James' "Super Freak" or the dark, murky opening bass notes of "Come Equally You Are" by Nirvana and hear those notes repeated throughout and you'll have a prime number example of the power of a well-crafted bassline.

Building a bassline weaves together some of the skills you'll pick up forth your musical journey, transforming that knowledge into the joy of creation. Some tips to go on in heed when building bassline include:

• Find a key: Showtime by knowing the fundamental of the song. Learning your scales and listening for the root annotation that crops up in the song and its chords can help you narrow downward the key of a song. This tin can aid yous to craft a bassline that compliments the song.

• Choice apart chords: Listen to the chords a guitarist is playing and break them down, note by notation, into an arpeggio. This can help you create a bassline that gels with the chords in a given song.

• Listen for timing: Bass, at heart, is a rhythm instrument. It sets the tone and pace for a song. When crafting a bassline, go on in listen the tempo or signature of a song and utilize it to inform your bassline'southward rhythm.

In this Fender Play Live session, sentinel as host Dylan Caligiuri is joined by bassist Caleb Buchanan, giving yous a crash grade on what goes into building a memorable bassline.

Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZEqEim4Ge8

How to Practice Bass for Beginners

Setting good exercise habits is essential for new bassists. For whatever beginner musician, making practise a regular part of your routine is critical to progress and building proficiency. Here are a few tips for etching out time to practice, equally well as making sure you lot have what you need to get in a quality practice session.

• Make fourth dimension to exercise. Practicing for even a few minutes a day is ameliorate than not practicing at all. The Fender Play app allows you lot to set exercise reminders at a time that works for yous. You set the engagement and fourth dimension, nosotros remind you when to practice. Similarly, the app tracks your progress and gamifies your practice session with Streaks. Whenever you practice in the Fender Play app for at least 7 minutes, 3 times per week, you earn points toward your streak.

• Have a devoted exercise infinite. Having a space dedicated to your practise can go a long way toward making it a regular function of your routine. If yous tin, find a place where you know you tin can practice uninterrupted. This space tin can include a stand or case for your bass and a comfortable seat that encourages good playing posture.

• Start with scales and techniques. Start by learning fundamentals such equally bass scales or by focusing on one technique at a time.

• Be patient with yourself. No i picked up an musical instrument and learned it in one day. As y'all progress, you'll be able to link these smaller skills together and work your way up to playing entire songs or basslines.

Learn a Song on Bass Guitar

Ane of the virtually rewarding parts of learning to play an musical instrument is putting that knowledge into exercise by playing a song. Learning to play songs you love helps you develop a greater appreciation for the musicianship of the artists who created those tunes, likewise every bit to develop your musical ear and experiment with new skills y'all learn.

An piece of cake song for beginner bassists to learn is "La Grange" past ZZ Top. The heavily-bearded trio'due south sound treads the line of blues and hard rock. The simple, however driving bassline of the song gives new bassists a chance to hear the influence the blues has had on a diversity of genres -- from rock to funk to country.

What makes "La Grange" such a neat song for new bassists to play is that it offers upwards a very simple riff, playing just a few unmarried notes -- with attending to tempo -- on a single string. There is a corking slide between a few frets on the A (second lowest) cord on the vocal'due south bridge, but this one is all nigh rhythm and a steady tempo. Information technology's also a great opportunity to experiment with playing bass with your fingers and how it affects the tone.

Learn how to play La Grange on the bass here.

Explore Bass Collections

Nevertheless hungry for more songs to play on bass? Bank check out Fender Play'southward collections. These advisedly curated collections teach y'all how to play a variety of songs on bass, grouping them by creative person, genre, difficulty level, or related techniques. Browsing through collections can help you to level up your playing, learning some of the fundamentals within your favorite genre, or gaining a firmer agreement of the techniques some of your favorite bassists employ across a variety of their songs.

Bank check out a few of our favorite bass collections:

• 10 Easy Songs to Larn on Bass - Perfect for beginners, check out 10 iconic basslines and songs -- From Table salt n' Pepa'southward "Push Information technology" to Nirvana's "Come As You lot Are" that are easy for new players to acquire.

• Slap Bass - Larn how to main the slap and pop bass technique when you explore this collection designed to assist yous meliorate your skills.

• Dejection Form Bass Basics - With iv blues-based skills and 7 songs, this collection gives you a crash course in playing bass with blues fundamentals. Larn and use shuffle groove and bass arpeggios in a variety of songs including "Nail Blast" by John Lee Hooker and James Chocolate-brown's iconic "I Got Yous (I Feel Good)."

• Must-Know Stone Riffs - Acquire 14 essential rock basslines and riffs, spanning classic stone favorites similar "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" by Pink Floyd to pop-punk mainstays like Green 24-hour interval'due south Longview.

• Walking Basslines & Arpeggios - The walking bassline is a staple of diverse genres -- from rock to rockabilly to the blues. Larn this fundamental with 4 skills lessons and play it in 8 songs in this collection.

Cheque out Fender Play Bass Lessons

Learning to play an instrument is a great way to claiming yourself and take your dear of music to the next level. When you learn to play bass guitar, you'll find a new appreciation for the rhythm and melody of your favorite tunes. Sign up for a free trial of Fender Play and unlock skills, scales, and songs to learn and play on bass.

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Source: https://www.fender.com/articles/how-to/how-to-play-bass-guitar