Bassic Basslines

This book is designed to teach the beginning bass player how to build and play functional basslines in a variety of musical situations. The first chapters provide the student with a functional understanding of basic music theory concepts. Later chapters apply this understanding to playing standard chord progressions common to all styles of music, from Blues and Rock and Roll to Latin and Pop music. The student will learn three different chord progressions used in many songs, and how to construct a bassline in several styles for each progression. We will also explore the four most commonly used time-feels, or grooves, that all bassists need to know. The play-along tracks recorded for this book have the example basslines played on the first repetition of the progression for the student to hear. The bass then drops out for the student to play the example themselves on the following repetitions. Each progression repeats a minimum of four times to give the student time to get comfortable with the material.