Chords for 7 BASS Guitar LEVELS (to enhance your riffs)

[Am] The first _ demonstration I'm going to do is going to be quarter note and eighth note following the chord changes with a pick.
So we'll call that level one, okay?
Here we go with the backing track. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
So yeah, if that's all you're going to do for a song, you can consider that somewhat easy.
You know, it's still challenging.
You have to know your notes, have to be able to follow the chord changes, and you have to keep a good rhythm with a pick.
So, I've played in many bands where that's all I've had to do, and it's a lot of fun.
Okay, the next level would be the same concept, except [C] following the drum beat a little [Em] bit more,
because I always think of bass as the glue between the drums and the guitar.
So, you're going to play a little bit of both sides when you're the bass player, okay?
So let's go ahead and try this, and I'm just going to add some upstrokes, a little syncopation to the beat, and we'll call this level two. _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ If you're a fan of Green Day, the guy does that all the time.
Okay, level three would be the same concept as what I just did, except now we're going to add octaves and fifths.
So, you'll learn quickly as a bass player that you get sort of bored being on the root notes all the time,
so adding the octave at least is kind of a cool concept, because [A] then you get _ _ _ _ some [E] of that happening,
and then a lot of times you can just throw the fifth in there too, which guitar players know as power chord.
_ _ _ [A] _ _
So I'm just going to throw those in [Am] sporadically.
Here we go, level three. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ [Gm] _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ [Dm] _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ [Em] _
_ _ That's a really fun level because you feel like you're doing more than you're used to if you're just starting off real basic on bass.
All of a sudden you're throwing in some octaves, and you get to play the other side of the strings.
It's fun.
There's a lot of _ [E] debate on whether a real bass player should play with a pick.
A lot of people say it has to be the fingers, but then I always bring up the Paul McCartney argument.
He's one of the best bass players of all time, and he used a pick.
Okay, so we're going to do the same concept, except now I'm just going to be using fingers.
So, _ if you guys are familiar with finger technique for bass, _
_ there's a lot of styles that people like to do where they like to rest their thumb and how they like to do it.
I have my own style.
I just kind of keep my thumb [Am] around the E string a lot, and if I'm playing the E string, I just let it float. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ _ _ It's _ _ _ really hard not to play up at level seven, which I want to do because that's what I naturally try to go for.
[A] I'm trying to play this really straight, but with fingers. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ It feels weird to me.
Okay, so that's level four.
Level five would be, I just had to throw this in because a lot of people ask about slap bass.
They think it's the hardest thing in the world, but if you just get the basic concepts down,
which are pretty easy to teach actually, but they're hard to develop,
you can get some good slap bass happening really quick.
I had to put this higher than the fourth level because instead of just using fingers,
_ [Em] _ there's more to contend with because now you have to hit things and you have to pluck things.
There's a lot going on and you have to stay with the beat.
Okay, here we go.
_ [Am] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [A] _ _ [E] Slap bass
Some really cool things you can do with slap bass, but I call that level five.
Okay, so what could level six be?
It's going to be actually writing bass parts.
[Ab] So instead of just following the octaves and the fifths and the root notes,
we're going to go ahead and start to add some passing notes that connect the chords together,
and we're going to be playing within each chord a little bit differently than before.
So we're going to just get deeper into the different voicings you can [Am] put inside of each chord. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ _ [N] _ _ Okay, so did you see how there's some passing tones happening? _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Way more interesting as far as the notes go.
But the reason I left a little bit of room for level seven is because there's people that can play a lot of notes like that,
but they don't really know how to fit it with the rhythm aspect completely yet.
It's really hard when you start adding all these extra tones to really stay in the pocket.
So one thing that I really think level seven players have that I see all the time
is the ability to play drums with their fingers on, let's say, even if you just mute all the strings. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ You know, something like that.
I used to practice like that all the time to a click track.
I would just play a metronome and then just_
_ _ Except I had to get rid of the bad habit of really hitting the strings hard for the snare
because that could really sound distracting to a drummer if he hears somebody else hitting that snare hit too much.
Okay, [Am] let's go ahead and just throw it in to what we did for level six,
but now it's going to have that rhythmic effect to it as well. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ [Dm] _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _
_ _ Okay, that was a lot of fun.
I just wanted to demonstrate that for you guys in case anybody ever wonders,
or you're wondering if bass is way easier than guitar.
In the beginning stages, yeah, you can say it's a little more basic.
But as you move up the ladder and you start getting to those higher levels,
you can tell things change pretty quickly and it can get pretty intense.
I know it's been a lifelong pursuit for myself and it's well worth it.
Playing bass is a lot of fun and it's great to be able to add them to your recordings
and also to play live sometimes with some bands.
So I'll catch you guys later.
Hopefully that was fun for you to watch