Let's learn some bass! [yes
I filmed this in reverse] There's never been a
better time to get going. This is not the same old super
basic beginner bass lesson where I teach you how
to plug your bass in. Been there, done that. Now is the time for badassery. I'm gonna walk you through
a complete practice routine to get more badass at bass even if you've never touched one before. You'll learn how to have fun improvising. Lock in with a beat,
crank out solid basslines, and more till you're a
bass-slaying machine. This lesson is designed so you learn your first skill on day one. You pause, you go practice then you come back on
day two, rinse and repeat until you've graduated
by the end of the week. But you can rip through the whole video in one go if you want to. I'm stuck in your screen
and I can't stop you. Improvising your own bass ideas is one of the most fun things to do but it's pretty easy to sound bad. MEAN PERSON: Boo, boo, you're bad. Noob Josh, you suck. So how about we skip the sounding bad part and I get you sounding
badASS in just three steps with some idiot-proof improv? The best way to sound bad improvising is to play the wrong notes. So how do you know which notes to play? Eventually you'll wanna learn scales, which will help you find
good sounding notes. But for now, I'm gonna give you some no-theory training wheels that'll help you sound good on your own and with the tracks we're gonna play. Step one is to get some cool
notes by playing the dots. Just go crazy with any note that has a dot on your fretboard. You can even use the open
strings with no fretting and they'll basically all sound good against this guitar part. You can go slow, super simple
or you can play faster, something more complex. And believe it or not, you can take this all the way to Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath level. This part of his famous
N.I.B. is on all dots. So if it's good enough for Geezer, I think it's good enough for us. Plus The Awakening as played
by Primus's Les Claypool. Also dots galore. A couple of the notes on
the dots might sound crappy with this track and that's
fine, you just move on. And some of them are gonna sound
like, whoa, that's awesome. There's theory behind all of that. For now, I just want you
to get some notes locked in so you're ready for step two 'cause the second way people sound bad improvising is
playing crappy rhythm. NJ: Stop booing at me, I'm
doing my best, damn it! Playing in time with other
musicians is super crucial to sounding good, especially as a bassist. So on day two, I'm gonna
show you specific rhythms that'll help you lock
in a solid game plan. But first, you need to nail
step two, feel the pulse. The pulse is the consistent
steady heartbeat of the music, which on this track is right here. And if you can find that
pulse when you're listening to music, feel it hitting your body, maybe move along with it
with some sexy dance moves, you've got a much better chance of playing rhythms that sound good. So you can just pluck
along with that pulse, playing some notes on the dots. Or you could play every couple pulses or maybe in between pulses. It could be super simple or more complex. Whatever you do, you just wanna make sure you're feeling where that pulse is. Your improv should be
sounding pretty decent by now but there's one more step
to make your playing sound less random and scattered. And its step three, settle into
a groove by repeating notes. Repeating notes makes your playing sound more consistent and bassline-y. And it also makes it easier to play 'cause you have more time
to plan your next move. So to start the track, grab
a note that's on the dots, see how it sounds,
repeat it a bit, move on. Maybe find one that's a little
gross, so that's useful data. Just move on from there. Maybe you find one that
sounds, whoa, that's awesome. You can hang there some extra time. You can also try holding notes for a longer times than other notes versus just repeating
them with more plucks. Your mission to complete day one - Spend another 5 to 10 minutes trying out some idiot-proof improv. You can play along with
the tracks on your own with the links in the description. I've got tons of resources for
you there for all seven days, all totally free. Why does this sound bad? But this sounds good? It's the number one thing that
makes a bassist sound crappy. Not locking in with the drummer, which you may have discovered in your improv explorations on day one. There are many aspects
of getting locked in. But for starters you'll learn
four foundational rhythms that every musician needs to know. So you always have a rhythm game plan. Here's the deal. For most music, we like to count to four over and over and over. It's just what we like and it's as high as most drummers can count. [burn] So if we listen to the next track, we start by finding the pulse, that steady heartbeat of the
song, which is right here. And then we just count to four from the start of the pattern. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. ♪ Cats and boots and cats and ♪ Foundational rhythm number
one is the whole note, which lasts a full four count like one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four. You can hear this rhythm in action on I'll Be There by the Jackson 5. Let's try that rhythm
together on the open E string, which is the big fat string
closest to your face. So I'll count to four. Then we'll start plucking
the open E string on the one count together a couple times. Here we go.
1, 2, 3, 4. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. And on this drumbeat, you can
listen to the crash cymbal for where that whole note
is that sounds like psshh. Two, three, four. Next up, rhythm number
two is the half note, which lasts for two counts,
half as long as the whole note. Sorry if I just blew your mind with that. You can hear this rhythm at the end of the Seven Nation Army riff with the half notes
hitting on the one count and the three count. Let's play that together
again on the E string. But this time let's press
down the third fret note for some variety and we'll
put all these rhythms together into a cool play along at
the end of this day's lesson. So press down on the third fret, get ready to pluck on one and three. Again, I'm gonna give
you one, two, three, four and then we'll start together. Here we go, one, two, three,
four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. And you can hear that half
note rhythm on the kick drum, which is the low thumpy drum you probably can't hear
if you're listening to this on your phone speaker. Foundational rhythm number
three is the quarter note, which lasts for one count. So you just pluck on every count. And this rhythm is heavily
featured in the bass riff for Another One Bites the Dust. Let's try some quarter notes together. Press on the 5th fret of the E-string and let's just pluck on
every count together. I'll give you one, two,
three, four and we're in. One, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four, pluck, pluck, pluck. And you can hear all the
quarter notes in this beat by listening between the
kick drum and the snare drum, which is that boom
crack, that crack sound. So boom, crack, boom,
crack, kick, snare, kick. Snare gives you all the quarter notes. Finally before we mash
all these rhythms together to get one cool sounding bassline, rhythm number four is eighth notes, which actually split the count into two even notes per count. And we count that like one and
two and three and four and. This rhythm is heavily
featured in tons of basslines. Let's use Zombie by The
Cranberries just for fun and also because my editor is
Irish and I wanna annoy him. All right, you know the drill. Press on the 7th fret of the E-string and let's try plucking some eighth notes. One, two, three and four and one and two and three and four and. And you can follow this
rhythm on the hi-hat, which goes on every eighth note. Let's do something crazy. We're gonna put all four
rhythms into one song to make sure you remember everything. Just like we played them before. A whole note on the open E-string. One, two, three, four, two
half notes on the third fret. One, two, three, four. Four quarter notes on the 5th fret. One, two, three, four
and eight eighth notes on the 7th fret. One and two and three and four and. Four counts and then we're in. We'll just do this a couple times. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four. One and two and three and four and. Notice how the more frequently you pluck, the more energy you add to the song. We'll explore that more on day six when we play a legit real song. Your mission to complete day two, spend another 5 to 10
minutes practicing switching between the four foundational rhythms. You can do that with notes on the dots along with the day one play along track. Or you can use whatever notes you want with a plain drum track. You probably think writing
cool, non-n00b bass riffs is out of reach on day three. But you can actually just
use what I call shapes to find really cool sounding sh*t. Shapes are a shortcut that
allow you to visualize your fretboard so that writing and playing basslines is super easy. So welcome to 567 Heaven. Why am I saying 567 Heaven? Because we're gonna play
frets five, six and seven. So the shape here is
basically a straight line that you can copy paste on
any of the four strings. It gives you really nice
little noodly riffs. and also gets you started with the index, middle,
pinky fretting technique that's most efficient
for most bass playing. And you can find 567 riffing in tons of popular basslines. So use your index finger
to press the 5th fret, middle finger to press the 6th fret and pinky to press the 7th fret. No matter what string you're on. I know, I know you wanna use your ring finger instead of your pinky. Just trust me and give
your pinky some love and make sure you press
at the end of the fret, not back here to get less buzz. If you want more buzz than
slide your finger further up the neck over to your mouse
and subscribe to BassBuzz. It's really easy to make up
your own riffs in 567 Heaven. You can kind of just like have at it without much of a game plan
and it'll sound pretty cool. But there's one more tip that's crucial to get if you want your future raging fans to be able to absorb and enjoy your riffs. You need to pick a focal
point for your riff - A note that gets
emphasized more than others so the listener's ear has
something solid to latch onto. This is formally called a root note, which I'll explain more on day four. It's really easy to do that. Just pick a note you're
gonna start on and spend a little more time on it than other notes. I'll demonstrate this for you. And I'll pick the 5th fret of the E-string as my focal point. So that'll be my starting note and I'll come back to it at
least like every four count. And the cool thing is that
since I know which note my focal point is, it's
easier for the guitar player to follow along and we can play
something that sounds good. So I start on my focal point,
guitar player's on board. Then I'll just play some 567 Heaven. Again, I could go simple
or I could go more complex. Your mission to complete day three. Make up at least one riff that you think sounds
cool using 567 Heaven. To play with the play along
track in the description, you'll need to use the
same focal point I used, the 5th fret on the E string. Or you can just use whatever focal point you want with the drum track. There's two shapes that
every bass player knows. Without them you couldn't play
90% of all basslines ever. And even if you only
know these two shapes, you can come up with super
solid basslines for any song. Is that enough hype? I can keep going. You good? Okay, we're talking
about the root 5th shape. You can really just learn
this as visual shapes on the fret board but I'm gonna
give you the minimum amount of theory to really be able
to adapt this to any song. A root note, like I mentioned
briefly on day three, is a focal point that feels like a home base to the listener. And it's also the main note of whatever chord is being
played by the guitar or piano. So the root will be the
starting anchor note that we start all of these shapes from. And all you need to know about the 5th for now is that it's a really, really good note to add to basslines. And you can find it with the
shapes I'm about to show you. I have a whole video
where you can nerd out on the theory of that later. So let's dig straight in. There are two shapes, the
high shape and the low shape. The high shape, we just need
to find a starting root note. So let's take the 5th
fret of the A string, which is your second thickest string and grab that with your index finger. And to find the other note, the 5th, you go up a string and up two frets. And when I say up, I mean
to higher sounding notes. So to the next thinnest string
and then up two fret numbers. So that means 7th fret on the next string, which is called the D string, which you can play with your pinky. And between those two notes, you have your high root 5th shape and you can come up with
tons of cool basslines. This shape is prominently featured in Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding and Rikki Don't Lose That
Number by Steely Dan. So that's the high shape,
the low shape is even easier. Same root note but now we go down a string on the same fret so down
meaning lower sounding, which takes you from the
5th fret of the A string to the 5th fret of the E string. Root 5th, root 5th. So again, the high shape, we
go up a string and up two frets and the low shape we go down
a string on the same fret. This shape is also used
in tons of basslines. You might have heard that
like country two beat vibe when I was playing it earlier. But the coolest example of
this is John Deacon's riff on Under Pressure. So let's put these shapes
into practice for today. You'll be able to use these in real songs much more fluently with
what I show you on day five. But for an easy start, let's
jam with some drums and guitar. We're gonna get spicy and alternate between two different
root notes to start on. So you're gonna get two four counts where we start on the
5th fret of the A string. That'll last for two four counts. And then we'll go to the
third fret of the A string. And in both spots you can
apply your root 5th shapes. So we go back to the 5th fret start. You can go high shape or low
shape and back to third fret. High shape, low shape,
however you wanna do it. And just try stuff out. Your mission to complete day four, play with the track on your
own for 5 to 10 minutes and get really comfortable with the high and low root 5th shapes. You can also make up your own songs, solo or with a plain drum track
by just picking some notes on the dots like we did on day one. And then layer your root 5th shapes onto those notes you chose. The fastest way to learn songs and come up with solid basslines is to have a simple visual
reference that you can read. But here's the problem, reading sheet music
takes tons of practice. Reading tablature lacks
context and is way too slow. And these stupid lyrics
with chord names charts don't tell you when things
are supposed to happen. The solution, the simple
yet elegant chord chart, nice Vanna White action here. This is a shorthand
format that any musician on any instrument can read. By the end of this section,
you'll know how to read this, how to apply it to the bass and use it to come up
with bass line ideas. I'll give it to you in three steps. Step one, learn the note
names on your bass neck. You need to learn your notes and I have a big long
detailed video on that. But today I'm gonna shortcut you with a bass notes cheatsheet, which shows you the note
names up to the 7th fret. And you can grab it in the
description whenever you need it. Step two is to match the chord
chart to your bass notes. So if you see a G on the chord chart, you just find a G on your
bass notes cheat sheet. If you have multiple options,
which you probably will, just pick your favorite or the lowest sounding one
on the thickest string. There are some other symbols you might see by the letters on a chord chart. If you see a little B, which
means flat or a pound sign, which means sharp, those
are part of the note name. So you need to hunt down a Gb or a G#. But any other symbol, a little M, a seven, whatever you can ignore for now. That stuff does matter
for chordal instruments and more complex basslines. But not for the simple shapes
we're using in this lesson. Step three, follow the rhythm. These charts don't just tell
you the order of the notes, they also tell you how long
they last by using bar lines, which are also used in sheet music, which break up the four count. So if there's only one note
name between the lines, you know it lasts for a full four count like one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four. And if you see two note
names inside the same lines, that usually means they
each get two counts like one, two, three, four. So let's put that all together and look at the outro progression to Hey Jude by... the Beatles. You already knew that. Nobody else has ever dared to write another song called Hey Jude. Like "Hey, I wrote a song,
it's called Hey Jude". No, no you didn't. So step one, get your cheatsheet handy. Step two, match the note names on the chord chart to your bass notes. So first on the chord chart is an F so you find that on the cheat sheet and then play it on your bass,
first fret of the E string. Next is Eb. Remember that little B means flat and that's part of the note name. So you see one of those on the
first fret of the D string. You can play that and next is Bb. Find that on the first
fret of the A string, play it and then back
to F, same as before. Step three, check the rhythm, which looks like one four count each. So once you find the pulse of the song, one, two, three, four, you can get your four
count going, two, three. And just plug in the notes. F, two, three, four. Bb, two, three, four. Bb, two, three, four, F. And then obviously start singing
at the top of your lungs. ♪ Na na na nananana ♪ ♪ Na na na nananana ♪ ♪ Hey you copyright claim na ♪ Your mission to complete day five, download the chord charts
practice sheet in the description. And get rock solid on these three steps with three more chord
progressions from popular songs. ♪ You can go your way ♪ And if you're digging this lesson and you're hungry to
get badass at bass fast, you should check out my Beginner to Badass course at bassbuzz.com. It includes more on rhythms, technique, creating basslines, chord progressions and playing way more songs. It's over 35 hours of
prerecorded video lessons that you can do at your own pace and you get lifetime access. So you can complete it in
six months, three months, or you can rip through it in 30 days if you're a crazy person. It is time to rock. You're gonna learn Creep by Radiohead 'cause it's a great song
to practice coming up with your own basslines. It's a simple repeating
loop of just a few notes without being a bland, soulless pop song. Our goal today isn't to learn Colin Greenwood's
original bass line note for note, although it's super rad and you can totally do that another time. I'm just gonna get you up and running on the basics of playing a full song. And then on day seven, we'll add some more
bass player flourishes. Let's get straight into it. First we need to use your chord chart and note name skills from day five to figure out what to
play and when to play it. So four things to read here, G, B, C and then C with a little m. Like I said, you can ignore the m for now since it's not
part of the note name. So you only need to find three notes. If you have your note cheatsheet, you can find those notes here. G on the third fret of the E string, B on the second fret of the A string and C on the third fret of the A string. And notice the lines on the chord chart, which mark where the
bars or four counts are. Each note gets two full
four counts except C. Technically, we'll be
playing for four four counts. For four four counts, yikes. Now we're gonna integrate
the rhythms from day two to make this feel more like a bass line. Like I said, the more
frequently you pluck, the more energy you add to the song. And this is part of our power
as bassist to change the mood and intensity with our rhythmic choices. So I'm gonna do like a fast forward demo and switch rhythms pretty frequently. But when you do this on your own, you can space out your
rhythm switches a lot more. Okay, so pull up the chord
chart, find where the pulse is, find your four count, one,
two, three, four, whole note. Where I'll start, you can
start wherever you want. Two, three, four, I'll
go to half notes on B. Three, four, one, two, three. And I'll try some quarter notes
on C, build some intensity. Stay there, now I'll try some
eighth notes on the chorus. Your mission to complete day
six is to try out playing the roots and changing rhythms on the full song at least once. Try less plucks when it's
chill, more when it's wild. And feel free to try your own rhythms, maybe inspired by the drum
track like you could catch that boom, boom, boom, boom
that's on the original. Now you're probably gonna
wanna add some more spice to this 'cause after three
minutes of just root notes it might get a little boring. So I'll see you on day
seven, where we'll put it all together to make
your lines kick more ass. You made it, it's day seven. You're on the edge of becoming
the greatest bass player of the world has ever known. And I've been wearing
these clothes for a week. I said I'd turn you into
a bass-slaying machine. And that means not just
knowing some cool tricks, but being able to apply
what you know to real songs. We're gonna play Creep again
because I'm still wearing this shirt, but we're gonna build up your basslines with the root 5th shapes and the three finger riffs
we learned on previous days. So you have even more creative choices you can make as a
bassist to affect a song. Lightning round review. Here's the chord chart. So you got G, B and C and you already tried
playing different rhythms for different intensities on those. Now let's time travel back to day four and add the root 5th shape, which you can play as the high shape. So it's going from C, we go
up a string and up two frets or the low shape going down
a string on the same fret. The only trick in context is
that you can't use both shapes from every starting note like the low G at the beginning of Creep. You can't use the low shape
because there's no string here. But when you go to the
B, now there's a string on either side of it so you can play the high shape or the low shape. And then same thing from
C, high shape or low shape. I'll show you that in
the song in a second. But first, how can we also integrate that cool three finger riffing
we were doing on day three. We're actually not gonna be able to go to 567 heaven this time. We're gonna have to play on
frets three, four and five. 345 to stay alive so you don't
die and go to 567 heaven. I don't know what I'm
saying at this point. This is a very long video. There are lots of ways
you could swing this but I'm just gonna say on
the last two, four counts of the progression, just go nuts on 345 however you want to. Free to descend into tasteless wanking. I won't tell anybody. Okay, don't worry if
you're a little sketchy on what you're actually supposed to do. I'm gonna demo it for you. You can just watch and
I'll explain as I go. So again, anchoring to the chord chart, finding the notes, I'm gonna be playing with the root 5th shapes from each note. And then at the end going
crazy with 345 to stay alive. Starting on G, going to the 5th. Trying some different rhythms. Go to B, same thing,
up to the 5th or down. Same thing on C. See how the 5th adds some nice movement and then 345 to stay alive at the end. Your mission to complete day seven. Just go crazy on this song and make Thom Yorke's head explode. And if you want more in-depth lessons, that'll teach you this
stuff and way, way more. Just click the link on
my face to learn more about my Beginner to Badass course. Beginner to badass, tell your friends. Is that what I'm supposed to say? oh.
