So you wanna learn bass and you just got your first bass guitar. This
lesson assumes you just have a standered 4-string bass with 3 control
knobs.
First most important thing is how to hook up your bass guitar. First you
have to plug your amp into an outlet. Next you should take your guitar
chord and plug it into the slot that says "input". Now plug the other
side into the slot on your bass wich will either be on the very edge
uderneath, or on top of the body near the control knobs.
Now I'm going to tell you what everything on your bass does. First of
all I'm sure youv'e figured out by now that the strings are what you
play on. The frets on the neck of your bass guide you to what note your
playing. The pegs on your headstock tune your bass. The pickups (the
devices on your body underneath your strings) are what pickup the sound
from your strings and send it to your amp. They sort of act like tiny
microphones that all they can hear are your strings. The control knobs
can vary. If you have 3, one of the (most likely the one to the left) is
your volume knob. The other two are for tone (bass/lows and
treble/highs).
Next to pluck you bass you simply just place your thumb on top of one of
your pickups and pull on it sort of in the motion like your trying to
scratch an itch. Try just plucking your top string a few times. Now try
plucking the rest of your strings a few times. Now try plucking your
strings with just your middle finger. Now try alternating between the
two fingers.
Good, now I'm going to show you the interface of your fret board, wich
also shows the notes of your bass. The Notes that are played on your
strings when your not fretting your bass at all from lowest to highest
are E, A, D, and G. On a standered bass you should have about 20 frets,
maybe more maybe less. When you read tab the number represents the fret
that you should play on wich string. Here's an example.
E-2-4-----------4-2-
A-----2-4---4-2-----
D---------0---------
G-------------------
When you play that you would start on your E string and play the 2nd
then 4th frett. Then you would switch to your A string and play the 2nd
and 4th fret on that string. Then switch to your D string and play it
without freting anything. And then so on. As I said earlier each fret
represnts a note that can be played. Before I show you the notes on your
neck I'm going to show your everynote that there is. I'll start with A
only because it's the first of the alphabet
A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab
after G#/Ab it just goes back to A. Now I'm sure your wondering, what
does A#/Bb mean? Well in between some notes there's another note, and it
can either be called sharp (#) of the note before it, or flat (b) of
the note after it. There are only 2 pairs of notes that don't have any
sharps or flats inbetween them. They would be B and C, and E, and F. Now
here are all the notes on your bass (Note: I'm only going to type the
notes inbetween other notes as sharp, althogh they are still flats of
the next note).
