How To Play And Create Bass Lines On Guitar

Just about every blog that I have posted so far has been focused on the guitar, thus more time has been spent on types of guitars, playing chords, and effects.  One important aspect of guitar playing that I haven't gone over much is the bass line.  I don't necessarily mean playing bass guitar, although these lessons can be directly applied to bass guitar, but creating bass lines on the guitar.  Understanding how bass lines work on the guitar is very important for solo guitarists that handle bass, harmony, melody, and rhythm but also recording guitarists that create all their own instrument tracks.  Bass lines are an extremely important part of every song, but often not focused on.  I would like to take some time to focus on bass line lessons and applications for different styles of guitar music.

Playing a bass line on the guitar

Why don't we jump right into it with a few examples of bass lines under rhythm guitar examples.  This should give you some insight into how simple bass lines can be to begin with.  Find the lesson here at http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/bass_lessons/how_to_create_a_bass_line_for_a_song.html.

Creating a bassline might sound hard. But as you read this lesson you will learn that it is quite easy. When you make a bassline take a look at what the rhythm guitarist is playing during a song.

Say he is playing something simple like this:

E|---------------------------------------------------------------|
B|---------------------------------------------------------------|
G|---------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-4--6--8---4--6--8---------------------------------------------------|
A|-3--5--0---3--5--0--------------------------------------------------|
E|-2--4--7---2--4--7---------------------------------------------------|

(i understand this probably looks like a stupid riff.)If he is playing some thing like that then you might want to play this:

G|---------------------------------------------------------------|
D|---------------------------------------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-2222-4444-7777--2222-4444-7777--------------------------------|
 
or even more simple:
 
G|---------------------------------------------------------------|
D|---------------------------------------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-2-4-7--2-4-7-------------------------------------------------------|

if you want to make it harder you can play what he plays or use a fret on the top string and use it's octave.

G|---------------------------------------------------------------|
D|-4--6--9--4-6-9------------------------------------------------------|
A|---------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-2--4--7--2-4-7------------------------------------------------------|

this whole thing may sound stupid but here are some popular examples:

Learn to Fly-Foo Fighters
I Hear You Calling-Gob
Pets-Porno for Pyros
Smells Like Teen Spirit-Nirvana
Break on Through (to the Other Side)-The Doors

Solo guitarist playing bass line

That last example focuses on building a bass line underneath a preexisting rhythm guitar part.  What if you were responsible for the bass and rhythm guitar part on your own?  Solo guitarists face this dilemma all the time.  There are examples of solo guitar in a variety of musical styles.  We'll start off with a great video lesson of alternating bass fingerstyle technique here at http://www.learn-acoustic-guitar.com/alternating-bass-fingerstyle-guitar-technique-for-beginners.

In this free video guitar lesson from Jamplay.com, Instructor Orville Johnson teaches the alternating bass style of picking for acoustic guitar, using a popular song called Railroad Bill.

As Orville points out in the video lesson below, the alternating bass technique is similar to the way someone plays piano. With piano, a pianist plays the bass line with one hand and the melody with the other. This is similar to what you will be doing with this technique and this song. The way you will do this is by playing the bass line with your thumb and use the rest of your fingers to finger the chord and play the melody.

This is a great introduction to the Alternating Bass Fingerstyle Technique. Orville takes things nice and slow so that any beginner can follow along.

The chords you will need to know for this lesson are C Major, E Major, F Major (Orville plays the F Major chord a bit different than you may be used to.  He hooks his thumb around and plays the first fret of the sixth string. He demonstrates how to do this in the video below) and G7.

Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson -- Alternating Bass

Another popular style of solo guitar is jazz.  Guitar and piano are the two primary instruments of solo jazz performance because they are both capable of covering rhythm, bass, harmony, and melody at the same time.  Learn more about solo jazz guitar here at http://ezinearticles.com/?Solo-Jazz-Guitar&id=6400160.

There are several approaches to playing jazz on guitar without a rhythm section. The guitar is of course capable of being used as a solo instrument, as shown by the classical repertoire as well as jazz artists such as Joe Pass and Tuck Andress. The technical problem to solve is to how to play chords, bass line, and melody with only ten fingers?

There are two parts to solving this - conceptual and technical, and they are interrelated. A finger-style technique allow the player to keep a bass line going while playing chords and melody, much like classical pieces demand. Using a flatpick, on the other hand, causes the player to have to shift back and forth between playing bass and melody. A third, hybrid method, sometimes called "chicken picking" involves using the pick for bass and several fingers of the plucking hand to play melody and chords.

Conceptually, the choice is this: a consistent bass line while keeping a melody going involves pretty much working out the parts - there isn't much opportunity to improvise while you are doing all that. To have an improvising solo style, you need to switch back and forth - playing enough bass to give the listener the idea of a progression, and enough melody and chords to create good phrases. It's a little bit of smoke and mirrors, but it changes the focus of playing solo from a worked-out-in-advance piece to a looser somewhat on-the-fly version.

Solo jazz guitarist playing bass line
and melody at the same time

The key here is developing compositional ability within improvisation. For instance, using call-and-response is very effective when playing solo. You can state a motif as part of the bass line or on the treble strings, and then answer it in the other register. You can learn to vary the length of phrases, the interplay of single lines and chords, and the interplay of fast passages and simpler passages. However you put it together, solo guitar will challenge you to develop your compositional abilities, especially if you are a guitar player who tends to just 'shred". Good improvisation is just very fast composing - while you are playing a phrase, part of your brain learns to formulate what you are going to do next, and another part is shaping the solo as a whole. All of this is done intuitively - you don't have time to second-guess or revise. So practicing solo guitar is good practice for improvising in any situation. Remember improvising is not just about learning to run fast scales and arpeggios over chords. It's about creating meaning and melody.

Guitar Right-Hand Styles

There are a lot of choices here and it partly depends on the style of music one plays.
Flatpicking: using a flatpick, and learning to play with up and down strokes to develop speed when playing single lines. Variations include Chickenpicking - using the pick to hit bass notes while the 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers play single lines. Combination picking - like chicken picking, but the fingers pluck chords and the pick is used when single lines are played. Cross-picking - Playing fast arpeggios with a pick, such as imitating the typical banjo roll on the guitar (a 3-3-2 rhythm) Sweep picking - fast picking of arpeggios using all down strokes or up strokes.

Classical style: using the fingers to play both chords and single lines.

Finger picking: Keeping a bass line and melody going, using one of the patterns usually called "Cotton picking" (after Elizabeth Cotton) or "Travis picking" (after Merle Travis, though his style was more complicated than a few patterns). Chet Atkins and Tommy Emanuel are examples of this style. Blues musicians often used a variation on this style in which the thumb didn't alternate bass note, but just stayed on the root (Lightnin' Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb, for example).

The last example I have for you is a bass line in the blues guitar style.  The Blues style is probably one of the most popular styles of guitar music and the guitar bass line can have a prominent role in blues songs.  Blues guitar bass lines are often used in accompaniment or even doubling a bass guitar part.  Find a great introductory lesson here at http://adult-guitar-lessons.com/blues-guitar-lessons-walking-bass-lines/.

I can't tell you enough how important a bass line is in any style of music.  It might not be the most popular part of the song, but the bass line is at the core and foundation of all popular music.  As a versatile guitarist, I encourage you to learn bass lines on the guitar and be able to create your own if needed. 

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Have fun and stay tuned!

Mike