How to Play Blues on a Bass Fiddle

If you want to sing the blues and play the blues, nothing can say blues better than playing them on a bass fiddle. Understanding how to approach the basics of the blues and applying them specifically to this instrument can provide you with a better way of reaching your goals of expressing yourself through the blues.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• bass fiddle

1. Get the basics down. No matter what type of blues song you are going to be playing, you will always start with a similar chord progression that moves in a framework of the song. Knowing this as your foundation will lead you into more options for playing the blues. For instance, the chord progression for 12 bar blues in the key of Bb would be: I (4 measures) (Bb)IV (2 measures) (Eb)I (2 measures) (Bb)IV (2 measures) (Eb)V (1 measure) (F)IV (1 measure) (Eb)(repeat w/ I)Remember that you can have different amounts of measures, depending on the types of blues as well as different starting chords and ending chords.

2. Take the chord progressions as your basic notes for the blues. Once you have defined the key signature and the movement of the chords, you can begin to play the basic progression on the fiddle. The bass fiddle will need to keep this progression because of the lower sound that it has.

3. Add in the melodies. Once you have the foundation of the chord progressions, you can start to add in melodies and specific blues riffs. If you don't have any melodies yet, you can start with improvisation by working off of the blues scale for the key. The blues scale is made up of 6 notes with the intervals being: 1 - b3 - 4 - b5 - 5 - b7 - 1If you are in the key of C, this will be:C - Eb - F - Gb - G - Bb - C

4. Find blues songs to work with. Once you understand the theory behind the blues, you can start adding in popular songs to your repertoire. For newer songs, you can look into artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, Bobby Rush or Peggy Scott Adams. You can also find older songs that date from the 1920s and move up through the war in order to get a different set of styles. With all of these options, you should have the same type of chord progressions and the same type of scale.

5. Put the blues to the bass fiddle. One important thing to keep in mind when you start exploring the blues music is to make sure that it fits with playing the bass fiddle. You will want to remember that since there is a lower sound and resonance that you are playing with, playing slightly slower and exploring in specific ways will allow you to get the blues message across.

Tips & Warnings

• Explore the blues by moving up in time. This is an easy way to understand the theory and tradition of the blues, then to begin adding in more non-traditional methods of blues.