How to Play a Bass Guitar Solo

The Who's late low-ender, John Entwistle, seen with his bass guitar collection.

Once confined to a strict timekeeping role, the bass guitar has come a long way in contemporary music. For more than 40 years, bassists have pushed against those limitations to create riffs of jaw-dropping power and complexity. The crisp authority of "My Generation"'s lickety-split breaks, the bump and grind groove of "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf (Agin)" or the galloping chromatic passages of "Give It Away" are just some of the ways in which modern music's bottom enders have successfully pushed the envelope. With a little practice, and a willingness to learn, you can do the same thing.

Things You'll Need

• Bass chord book Bass transcriptions Instructional videos and DVDs Tablatures of popular solos and songs

Instructions

Make Use of Space and Silence

1. Build your solo around the relevant chords in a song, while using them for a jump-off point--this is where learning different scales and improvisational modes will pay off, particularly in fusion or jazz music, less so in blues, where the 12-bar format locks the bass into a strong rhythmic voice. Study online guitar sites and videos to learn which of these scales and modes work best, depending on the musical situation you find yourself working.

2. Use space and silence to give heavier passages more muscle--imagine how John Entwistle's heart-stopping breaks on "My Generation" would have sounded, had he played all the way through it! Instead, Entwistle plays a classic call and response pattern--letting the guitars or drums lead off, then answering with a phrase of his own--then slips his lightning-fast breaks between those phrases. On the funk side, listen closely to the introduction on The Temptations' classic, "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." Without the sparse one- and two-note phrases, driven by a heavy thumb pluck, the music would be less interesting.

3. Spice up extended passages with chromatic scales and passing tones, a specialty of modern alternative rock players like Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Instead of playing a standard phrase like A-C-D, for example, fill in the blanks with the relevant half- or whole-step tones before and after the relevant notes--which might lead you to A-C-C-sharp-D, or even A-B-Flat-C-E-flat-D, for example. In many cases, these tones will go down as "ghost notes," because you will have to play quickly before they register in the brain. Either way, the beauty of playing bass is that are so many different routes to try.

4. Fill the empty spaces in a solo passage with drones, bouncing off open strings--such as the low and high A, for example. This is particularly useful for a power trio, in which everyone must play out in order to hold down the harmonic fort. Lemmy, Motorhead's longstanding low-ender, is a master of this technique. Also, don't be afraid to leap octaves--the eight notes separating the low and high tones from each other--to make a part sound meatier.

5. Consider where your solo will occur. The trick is creating a solo that supports the melody, while standing out in its own right--which is why many bass solos consist of a midsong "breakdown," or instrumental interlude that locks in with the drums. Many classic funk and reggae songs--such as the long version of "Exodus," from Bob Marley & The Wailers' 1978 live album, "Babylon By Bus"--often used this technique. To hear how this works in a rock context, hear Jack Casady's work on "Feels So Good" from the "30 Seconds Over Winterland" album--one of countless examples in the canon.

Tips & Warnings

• If you already play in a band, dedicate some time rehearsing with your drummer to better understand your roles and how you will lock in together.This, in turn, will help you determine specific opportunities for solos. Immerse yourself in as many different genres of music as possible. The more diverse your tastes, the more naturally creative you will become, which is just as important as proficiency. Practice chromatic scales with a metronome to build your soloing creativity and timekeeping skills. Set your metronome at varying tempos to build up your hand strength and endurance, since bass playing is an extremely visceral art.

• Develop a sense of when to bring solos to their natural conclusion. Nobody enjoys seeing someone hog the stage so they can indulge gratuitous noodling for its own sake. As the old saying goes, it isn't what you put in, but what you leave out, that matters. Get a feeling for song structure and how it pertains to your own role in a band. The driving straight eighth-note rhythms of a classic British rock band like Status Quo, for example, lend less to improvisation than counterparts like Cream or Traffic--in short, context matters.

Resources

• How to Write a Guitar or Bass Solo
• John Entwistle: Isolated Bass
• Slap Bass Lessons