Category Archives for "Rhythms"

0 Rhythms: Triplet and Dotted 8th

When you’re playing bass, especially in the blues, you’ll run across triples and dotted 8th rhythms quite a lot.

In a 4/4 beat, if you’re playing triplets, you need three equal pulses to make up the space of a quarter note. We count this as “one trip-let” “two-trip-let” “three-trip-let” “four-trip-let” and then you’ve completed one bar.

The dotted 8th is also referred to as a shuffle. Basically what you’re doing here is playing the first note and the last note from a triplet group, skipping the middle one. When you’re counting the dotted eighth, you can count it like this “one-ah” two-ah” “three-ah” four-ah” where the “ah” is the short note, the last note before you start the next beat.

So it is quite a similar feel, but produces a different effect. The both line up together though.

1 Rhythms: Straight 8th Bass Pedal

The straight 8th bass pedal is one of the most common rhythms you’ll find on the bass, and it is a great place to start off. Later on of course, you’ll want to make things more interesting; however this is a good starting point. Some bands actually prefer bass players that are simple… but ROCK SOLID. So, get this down good, then we can build from there.

6 Basic Bass Root Playing

In this lesson we will be looking at using root notes of chords to construct bass lines. This is a beginners lesson, but you will need to know how the notes are laid out on the fretboard.

4 Roots, Pedalling, and Basic Rhythms

Getting to know your roots and fundamental rhythms on the bass will be a must if you want to make any progress. Here we will look at several popular techniques and rhythm styles that are used in a range of genres.

7 Walking Bass Lines

Here’s an introductory lesson to walking bass lines. Although this lesson is for beginners, you should make sure you’re at least familiar with the material in this lesson first as you’ll be using the major scale here too.

3 The Flatted 7th in a Bass Walk

The flatted 7th is an extremely useful tool for the bass player… here’s a lesson all about it!

21 Beginner’s Bass AND Guitar

This is the first lesson that Colin and Jonathan have paired up on, so let us know what you think about it!

This lesson is for both guitar players AND bass players. Having an understanding of the other instrument will really help you out as a player, and will give you a better understanding of how your own playing relates to the rest of the bad.

We’ll teach you a simple progression and give you some tools that you can use to jam with others over the progression.

5 Bass & Guitar: The Shuffle

So you want to learn how to shuffle on the bass? We’ve touched on this in other lessons, though this one gets specifically at the heart of the matter.

Playing a shuffle on the bass tends to go hand in hand with a walking bass line, one of the most fun things to play on the bass. In this lesson we also cover playing a shuffle on the guitar, because understanding how the guitar and the bass parts interact is quite important.