Blues Bass Guitar Helps Establish Tone And Rhythm

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By: Mike Hammil

The purpose of the blues bass guitar is to help set the tone for the rhythm and speed of the song being played while supplying filler for the lower end of the scale on any tune being played. While some say it is easier for a novice to learn to play blues bass guitar, many intermediate and advanced bass players have learned to play the blues on their bass more by feeling the music rather than by taking lessons from another blues bass player. Even without knowing how to read music, as most people did not 100 years ago when the blues was growing out of the southern deltas, learning to play the blues bass guitar was often done by simply listening to the music being played and finding a complimentary note on the bass that did not contrast with the rest of the music. In typical music, the bass guitar strums along with the drummer's bass drum, but with a blues bass guitar there often times the four-string instrument is often used to form chords as well as play blues licks. Understanding The Basics Of Blues Bass Guitar Typical blues music is written using 12 bar progressions along with turnarounds, to the beginning of the progression, as well as providing fill and dead spots created when the blues guitar rests. Knowing the blues scale, understanding chord variations and having a good sense of the blues rhythm make playing the blues bass guitar like falling off a log for most musicians. Originally, blues bass guitar was played on an upright bass, similar to jazz music through the same time period, but as electric bass guitars became more popular, their use in playing the blues greatly increased. An electric blues bass guitar allows for sustaining notes longer, especially between chord changes allowing it to provide more fill throughout the duration of the song. It also proves smoother chord transitions, or changes and allows the blues bass guitar to offer slides and its own style to create turnarounds during progressions. In addition to basic talent and knowledge of the location of notes on a blues bass guitar the player also needs to have more of a feel for the music. Most of the pioneers of blues music did not know how to read music, but their understanding of playing complimentary bass notes to match the chords or licks provided by the blues guitarists were discovered simply by listening to the songs and the chord pregressions.