My life is so boring... [not good bass playing] Turn that goddarn [beep] off! It sounds [beep] terrible. [Mysterious Stranger] Hey! It's all good, dude. Just watch this beginner bass lesson. Hey, I'm Josh with BassBuzz. I'm going to take you through seven steps to get you from total newbie
to playing your first song. First, I'll get you started
with playing position and gear essentials. Then we'll dive into
plucking, fretting and groove. And I'll show you how to avoid some common beginner mistakes, so your grumpy neighbor, won't
yell at you to turn down. Hey, I heard that! [BassBuzz Theme] You need to plug your bass into an amp with a cable. You should practice
amplified most of the time, so you get used to hearing yourself the way other people would hear you. So just find the input jack,
on the body of the bass, it might be on the front or the side. Plug in the cable, it
doesn't matter which end. Then plug the other end into
your amp and switch it on. And you should hear some good
sounding bass coming out, unless your knobs aren't dialed correctly, which is why that's step two. You've got knobs on your
bass and on your amp. To get started, you just need
to know enough to make a sound that isn't terrible. First, bass knobs. They
affect your volume, how loud your bass is. And also your tone, like
the character of the sound, whether it's dark and warm or more bright and zingy. Different basses have
different knob situations. On a Precision style bass or
P bass, which is super common, You've just got two knobs:
one controls volume, and the other one controls tone. Going fully clockwise
gives you a brighter tone and going counterclockwise
gives you a darker tone. On a Jazz style bass or J bass, you've got a volume for this pickup, a volume for this pickup,
and then a tone knob, just like the P bass. If your bass isn't a P or a J,
or maybe it's an active bass, meaning it takes batteries, you just need to look up a
manual for your specific bass. Pro tip. If you do have an active bass, make sure you unplug it
when you're not playing. Otherwise the batteries will drain and your base won't make sound. [crickets chirping] [crowd booing] Let's look quickly at amp knobs. Again, different amps
will have different knobs, but the quick fix for getting started is just to set everything,
except volume, to 12 o'clock. Your goal is just to get a decent sound. You can always fiddle around more later. Wait, this is volume and this is volume? Which one do I use? The simplest way to
set your overall volume is to start with your bass
volume, maxed or close to it, and then just creep up the amp volume until you're as loud as you want to be... or as loud as your family
and neighbors will tolerate. If you want to learn more
about getting good bass tone, you can check out my
Beginner Tone Fixes video, and I'll have links for all
the resources I mentioned in the description. All right, let's do this. Hold your horses, buddy. Your position and
posture is all messed up. Playing in a bad position, makes it hard to play
and it can cause pain. So here are five tips
to get you properly set. One, if you're sitting,
you want to be high enough so your hips are level
with or above your knees, so you don't get lower back pain. And you want a seat without arms so your actual arms don't get boxed in. Tip two, the most common
place to rest your bass when sitting is over your right leg, over the left leg works for some people, especially for higher notes, but it can make it harder
to reach the lower notes since they're further away. You can try both and switch around. Three, you should always
play with a strap on, whether sitting or standing
because it stabilizes the bass so your hands are free
to focus on playing. Just attach it to both strap
buttons and put your head and your right arm through, or your left arm if you're playing lefty. If you look at pro bassists, there's a range of how high or
low people have their straps. For easy learning. I
recommend setting your strap, so your bass stays in
about the same position, whether you're sitting or standing [Josh ascends to fourth density] Tip four, neck angle. For most playing, it's nice
to have it angled up a bit versus parallel with the floor. And it's okay to shift position
around as you're playing. And again, there's a
range with pro bassists. Some have it tilted up a lot, or a bit less, or even lower, which can
be nice for slap bass. Tip five, push the headstock away from you to get better access to the neck. That gives you room to
move your arm comfortably, especially higher up where you'd
otherwise be getting stuck, running into your torso. And with all that extra space, you'll have room to get your
hand over to the computer so you can click like
and subscribe to BassBuzz for more beginner bass lessons. ["No Money"] Uhh, why do I sound so bad? Before you play, you've
got to get in tune. If you're not tuned up, everything you play will sound
off and you won't match up with any song or other
instrument you try to play with. You tune by turning these tuners, which loosens or tightens the strings, which changes the sound. You can tune by ear,
or you can use a tuner, which could be a clip-on,
a plug-in, a pedal or even an app. For beginners, I recommend using a tuner because it's easier to learn and it's more reliable at first. We're not gonna tune
together in this video because it's really boring
and it takes too long. But check the description
for some in-depth how to tune resources. I'll just cover one
starting point for tuning, which also helps with playing. You got to know the names of your strings, so you know how to tune them. So the names of your strings,
from thickest to thinnest, are E, A, D, G You can use any mnemonic you
want to help you remember that. My favorite one is Eat And Drink Grapes. But I'm weird. So those are the only notes
you need to know for tuning, E, A, D, G Do you need to know the
names of these other notes? Hell yes you do. And I explain why and how in my Fretboard Money Notes video, which is worth checking
out after you're done here. But not before you get some
critical technique basics down. Alright, plucking. That sounds pretty easy. [nope] Okay? Maybe not. Help! Your hand by the body of the bass is in charge of plucking the strings, which is how you make the bass make sound. If you have bad technique,
you'll hit the wrong strings, you won't be able to keep
up and your tone will suck. So here are three plucking tips to make sure you sound legit. First, you need to rest or
anchor your thumb somewhere, so your fingers can find
the strings consistently. Your anchor point can change depending on what strings you're using. You might rest on a low
string, like the E or the A, or you might rest on a pickup,
which is this magnet-y bit that turns the vibration of your strings into an electrical signal that your amp turns
into juicy bass sounds. If you have two pickups,
like on this jazz bass, you should default to resting on the one closest to
the neck, not the bridge, for most playing. Second, you pluck the strings with your index and middle fingers, alternately, going index,
middle, index, middle. That's not the only way to do it. You could pluck everything with
one finger, which is simple, but it's hard to go very fast with. Or you can do it with three,
which gives you crazy speed, but it's extra hard to learn. We use two fingers for standard
bass plucking technique because it's not too hard to learn, but you can still get plenty fast since your index and middle
fingers share the load. SAM: Share the loaddddddd FRODO: Get away! The third and final must know plucking tip is to pull across. This is the difference
between sounding like a noob and sounding like you
know what you're doing. So let me show you this from the side. So what newbies always want to do is put their finger on the string and then pull up and away from the bass. And that does make a sound, but
it's not the sound you want. It's kind of like thin and wimpy. To sound more legit and solid, you want to pull across
into the next string or into your thumb, if you're
plucking on the E string. Not only does that sound more
solid and bassy than this, but it also helps with unwanted ringing because every time you pluck the A string your plucking fingers are
then muting the E string Making a habit of anchoring your thumb, plucking with index and
middle and pulling across, takes a lot of practice. And that's why I make it a heavy focus in my Beginner to Badass course, where I cover all this
stuff and way more detail and lots more, in over
35 hours of lessons. And you can check that out at BassBuzz.com Is that guy plugging his course in the middle of the video? [beep] YouTubers! So eventually you want to be comfortable plucking on all of your strings, but the easiest way to get started is just to practice on one string. So let's do a little plucking
together on your E string, along with some music. So anchor your thumb on the pickup. I'm going to count to four over and over, and we'll pluck index finger on one, and middle finger on three. So like 1, 2, 3, 4 index two, middle four. Okay. Let's try that out. I'll count 1, 2, 3, 4,
and then we'll start. And if this is too fast for you, just use the YouTube speed
controls to slow it down. Here we go. Let's get funky. make sure you're pulling across should be running into your thumb All right. That was a good
start on your plucking, but I think we need to make
this bassline a little funkier, and we can do that by muting
the strings in between plucks, which will leave some space
where the funk can get out. So right now you're plucking on one and then that note just keeps ringing until your next pluck on three. So I'm going to have you add a new move, on counts two and four, you're
gonna shut off your note, which you can do two ways. You can either touch the strings with all your fingers on your other hand, not pressing down the strings, just touching them so they don't vibrate, and then just release the
strings before your next pluck. Or you can touch the E string
with your plucking fingers, which will quiet it down and also set you up for your next pluck. Or you can do both. There's
no fault in some extra muting. So however you do it, you're
going to go pluck mute, pluck mute, one, two, three, four. So let's hear that track one more time. You can try doing some muting with me or just listen to the
difference in funkiness with that added space. Here we go. pluck, mute, pluck, mute, And you can do that with your other hand that's not plucking, or you can do it with
your plucking fingers. Nailed the plucking, time
to play some sweet riffs. [come as you aren't] Crap, what's that buzzing? Yo! Let me guess, I'm doing something wrong. Yeah, sorry dude. But it's a simple fix. Your hand over here by
the neck of the bass is in charge of fretting, which means pressing the
strings against the fingerboard, which changes the sound they make. If you don't have decent
fretting technique, you're going to waste a lot of energy with like inefficient movements and you can also hurt yourself playing in super contorted positions. So here are three fretting
tips to help you ditch the buzz and get oriented. First let's dial in your
basic hand position. So start with your bass on
your lap or off to the side, and just look at your
palm in front of you. This should be a pretty relaxed position. Your shoulders should
be dropped and relaxed. Your elbow should be
resting next to your body. Your wrists should be either straight or slightly bent forward and your fingers should be either straight or slightly bent forward. And your thumb is just relaxing off to the side of your hand. Okay? Now, without changing anything - don't change anything with that arm - pick up your bass with your other arm and just put the neck
next to your fingers. And that's basically what
your hand should look like when you're playing bass. And from this position, you'll eventually be fretting
with all four fingers. Teachers, including me, often say they should be pointed
perpendicular to the neck, but that's really gonna shift a bit depending on how far your
arm is from your body. Next, let's give some special
attention to your thumb. There's a lot of bad advice
going around out there that you should force your thumb to stay behind your middle
finger when you're playing. But that adds a ton of
tension to your hand, and it's just not necessary. Do you remember what your hand
looks like when it's relaxed? Your thumb likes to be off to the side. So you want to aim to replicate that on the back of the neck, it can point along with your fingers or more towards the headstock, just wherever it wants to lay and keep it as relaxed as possible. You're gonna feel the urge
to jam it into the neck, but that pressure is unnecessary and it makes your hand hurt. Final fretting tip. When you press down, you need to aim for the end of the fret, closest to the pickups. So this whole area would
be called the third fret, but you need to press
towards the end of it right behind that metal wire,
which is called the fret wire. And that gives you the best chance of getting nice clean
notes, that don't buzz. Let's test all that out together quickly with some music. So we're just going to play two notes, the 5th fret and the 7th
fret of the E string. So the E string is the fattest one. Eat And Drink Grapes. E, A, D, G. E And the 5th fret is one, two,
three, four, five, right here, and then the seventh
fret five, six, seven. And notice those frets have dots. And those are just visual markers to help you track where
you are on the bass without getting lost. So use your pinky finger to press down towards the end of the 7th fret, give that note of pluck
and then our second note, press with your index finger towards the end of the 5th
fret and give that a pluck. So we're just gonna pluck
that 7th fret note once for one, two, three, four,
and then lift the pinky, play the 5th fret note
with your index once, one, two three, four, back and forth. And if your fingers are getting tired or the skin's getting
roughed up, it's all good. You'll have a lot more
stamina and skin toughness after the first few weeks.
All right, let's do it. I'll count one, two, three, four, then we'll start on that pinky note. Here we go. One, two, three, four. Make sure you're aiming
for the end of the fret, not getting fret buzz. Good plucking and fretting
technique is important, but you still won't
sound like a bass player until you nail this final piece. Because the most important thing
as a bass player is groove, locking in with the rest of the band so the music feels good. I'm going to show you two steps to make sure your playing
is solidly grooving. Any time you listen to music, there's a pulse that you can bob your head or tap your foot to. And feeling that pulse is step one to grooving with the band. Because if you try to play without feeling where that pulse is, you're just gonna play at weird times that don't have anything to do with what everyone else is doing. [wuttt] But even if you're feeling the pulse, if you don't have a plan of what specific rhythms
you're meaning to play, you'll probably drift off. So the easiest way to make sure your playing
is really synced up, is to play some specific, simple rhythms, which I'll show you now. So if you want to play along
with something like this, you remember step one, you've got to find where that pulse is where do you want to bob
your head, one, two, three, which is right here. And then step two is to know
what rhythm you're aiming for. So each one of these
pulses, we call a beat and we name our rhythms after
how many beats they last. So you could play a note
that lasts for four beats, which is called whole note. Sounds like this, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Or something that lasts two
beats, which we call a half note one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Or just one beat, which
is called quarter note. If you need more help feeling
the pulse of the music or listening to drums, you can check out my How to
Play Bass with a Drummer video, which has some more beginner tips. Let's put everything you
just learned into music with High and Dry by Radiohead. So we're going to simplify
this bassline a little bit, but it's still legit
enough to play in a garage with your friends. So all the notes are on E string, which remember is the fat
one closest to your face, Eat And Drink Grapes. E, A, D, G. So fret the 2nd fret note
with your index finger, remember to press toward
the end of the fret and give that a pluck. And then fret the 5th fret
note with your pinky finger to get some more pinky
strengthening practice. And you don't need to stretch from the 2nd fret to
the 5th fret like this. You can just slide your hand down in what I call a microshift. So 2nd fret, 5th fret, and
then for the open string, that just means to pluck
without fretting the strings. And those are all the three
notes you need to play and we'll mess around with the different
rhythms you just learned to see how it affects the song. All right, let's play this thing. You're plugged in. Your knobs are set. You got a comfortable
position, sitting or standing. You're tuned up. You're plucking with
your index and middle, you're pulling across, your
thumb is anchored on the pickup. Your fretting hand is nice and relaxed. You're fretting with your index and pinky towards the end of the fret. Let's do it. I'll count one, two, three, four, and then we'll start with some
nice spacious whole notes, which is just one pluck
every four beats. Here we go. One, two, three, four, 2nd fret, two, three, four, 5th fret, two, three, four, to the open string, two, three, four. Now we'll fill up a little more
space with some half notes, one, two, three, four. Make sure you're plucking
index middle if you can. Two, three, four. Now let's really push the
song with some quarter notes. One, two, three, four.
Pluck and then repeat. Hey! Hey you! Turn that goldarn bass UP! It sounds awesome! Nice work. If that was
your first real song ever, congratulations and
welcome to the bass family. If you're a Radiohead fan like me, you should totally go play
along with this whole song. You can do it all, with
just those three notes. And you can try out these
different rhythm ideas to see how they affect the song. If you're not so into Radiohead, I have a couple beginner
riffs videos you can check out to go keep playing music. Another really important beginner bas- All right, printed my tabs. Got to get to that jam session. Wait, there's so much more to learn! [grumble grumble] Attention
deficit YouTube viewers... at least watched my beginner
lessons playlist on YouTube? [beep]
