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Chapter 1

Bass Bass-ics: What Is the Meaning of Bass?
In This Chapter
Differentiating between bass guitars and other guitars Understanding the function of the bass Checking out the parts of a bass guitar Getting ready to play bass Expanding the bass range Experiencing different music styles Taking care of bass-iness

B

ass . . . theglue of rhythm and harmony . . . the heartbeat of the band!

The bass has unique qualities that draw you to play it — perhaps it’s the rich, deep, mellow sound or the hypnotic rhythms. In the right hands, the bass is a tremendously powerful tool, because it gives a band its feel and attitude. The bass is at the heart of much of the music you hear today. But what exactly is the bass? What makes thebass so powerful? And how does it help give music that irresistible feel? Whether you’re a raw bass recruit or a seasoned veteran, this chapter can help you answer these questions.

Discovering the Difference between Bass and Its High-Strung Cousins
Bass guitars differ from their high-strung cousins (otherwise known as the other guitars) in several significant ways:

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Part I: The World According to Bass
Basses normally have four strings, while guitars have six. In the 1970s, some bassists started adding strings. Nowadays you find five- and sixstring basses (and beyond), but four-stringers are still the norm. Nearly all bass guitars are electric. Other guitars come in all flavors: electric, acoustic, or a combination of thetwo. The bass strings are an equal distance musically from each other. The sound of each bass string is tuned an equal distance from the string above it, making the instrument perfectly symmetrical. So if you play a scale starting on one string, you can use the same fingering to play that same scale starting on a different string. This type of tuning makes playing the bass much easier than playingthe guitar, where the secondhighest string is tuned differently from the others. The bass has a lower pitch than the guitar. The deep notes of the bass fill the lower end of the sound spectrum. Think of these notes as the “bass-ment,” or foundation, of music. The bass is longer than the guitar, thus making its strings longer. The longer the string, the lower the pitch; the shorter the string, thehigher the pitch. Think of a Chihuahua and a Saint Bernard: The Chihuahua has short vocal chords, and a rather high-pitched bark; the Saint Bernard . . . well . . . you get the idea. The bass player and the guitarist serve different functions. I won’t bore you with the guitarist’s job description, but the bass player’s makes for fascinating reading, as the next section shows. (By the way, if you dohappen to want to know more about the guitarist’s job description, you can check out Wiley Publishing’s Guitar For Dummies, by Mark Phillips and Jon Chappell.)

Understanding the Bass Player’s Function in a Band
As a bass player, you play the most crucial role in the band (at least in my opinion). Everyone in the group depends on your subtle (and sometimes notso-subtle) lead. If the guitaristor saxophonist makes a mistake, hardly anyone will notice, but if the bassist makes a mistake, everyone in the band and the audience will instantly know that something is wrong.

Making the link between harmony and rhythm
You’re responsible for linking the harmony (chords) of a song with a distinctive rhythm (groove). This link contributes to the feel, or style, of the music.

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Chapter 1: Bass Bass-ics: What Is the Meaning of Bass?
Feel or style determines whether a song is rock, jazz, Latin, or anything else. Chapter 7 tells you exactly what you need to do to establish excellent grooves, and Part IV discusses the different musical styles you’re likely to play. You want to be able to emulate any bassist in any style and, at the...