Upright Bass Note Relationships

Series Summary

The bass has a bit of a chip on its shoulder. Many people think that the least talented musician in a band is assigned to the bass. But fewer strings does not necessarily translate into less creative impact. While much of pop music has relatively simple bass lines, even the most basic of these lines are crucial to creating a solid rhythm section. In more progressive forms of rock music as well as in jazz, the bass maintains the timekeeping function while adding a subtlety and depth to a band’s sound nearly impossible to achieve with the more intrusive lead instruments. In funk and hip hop, the bass steps up to center stage, pounding home dancefloor rhythms. And in reggae the bass takes over, with the guitar keeping the beat as expansive bass runs dance all around it. The double bass is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra. Also known as the upright bass, this instrument requires a great deal of practice to learn the numerous ways in which different scales, chords, and patterns can be played to fit myriad music styles. In this free video series, a music teacher will demonstrate some simple basslines for the upright bass beginner. After learning about note relationships, a country style, bluegrass, and walking bassline will be demonstrated in a variety of different keys.

Video Transcript

"Ok. First thing we're going to talk about to get into playing bass lines is going to be note relationships. And, that is basically if you're at one note on the bass how can you find the other note that you want to get to? Well, when you're playing a bass line the most important notes are the root and the fifth. The way you arrive at that, the root is just the one. In this case, we're playing B flat. Counting up the scale from there, we'll go one-two-three-four-five notes. And, the F is the fifth one. We did B flat-C-D-E-F. That fifth is always going to be your one hand length, your first and your fourth finger. But, on the next string over. It works if you move up to C. Now, the other note that you want is the octave. The octave is on the next string over from the fifth. So, here we are on low C. Our fifth is G. And, our octave is C. That means, the octave to G is over here. So this pattern, your first finger and your fourth finger becomes very important playing C to G-C to G-C to G. One-five-octave-five-one-five."