I wanted to just quickly run down the 12 bar blues chord pattern (not any particular bass lines, just how the chord structure is set up). Bear in mind this is just one way to explain it, particularly the turnaround. In my experience, this is the most accurate way I can explain it. There are lots of variations and alternate ways to play a blues, but this is the most common 12 bar form.
Personally, I interpret the last two measures of the tunaround as having two chords per bar. This may be my personal interpretation, but in my experience is the best way to cover the turnaround for a variety of situations, tempos, and rhythic feels. It’s like my generic or template version, and I alter it to accomadate whatever the jam/tune is.
The original Blues greats from Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters to John Lee Hooker manipulated and altered the regular 12 bar form in all sorts of ways to create fantastic Blues classics. Each of the songs are unique and may be recognizable just by how the chords go.
A lot of early Rock n Roll songs from the ’50s are basically blues forms, and unfortunately, many of the tunes were lifted directly (lyrics and all) from black blues artists and marketed as “Rock n Roll” to the white teenage audience. There was no such thing as royalties or any type of protection/compensation for the original songwriters, many of whom probably didn’t know about copyright laws. It was a total atrocity and a sad fact of American history. Ok, total tangent.
Many classic rock songs are also blues based. A lot of those guys like The Stones and Eric Clapton very much gave credit where credit was due and were genuine class acts.
It’s always good to learn particular songs, as they each have unique inividual features like stops and kicks or alternate chord structure/turnarounds. Not to mention unique “B” sections, bridges, and choruses.
So, like I was saying, this is my basic explanation of how the chords go in a 12 bar blues that works best for me based on many. many years of experience
“House Is A Rockin” by Stevie Ray Vaughn, Texas Style Boogie or Dominant arpeggio exercise for bass? These are the kind of questions that must be answered if I’m going to continue to ramble on pointlessly. haha But seriously though folks, this is a short, fun tune to blast through. They played it in C, but they tuned down a half step so if you’re tuned regular (A440) then you would play it in B along with the recording. Its a ‘ I IV V ‘ tune just listen for the changes.
The basic note pattern is a Dominant arpeggio (mixolydian, a Major triad + b7) and the Major 6th as shown in the video. You can just play that pattern for each chord, or you can always mess around with it. You can switch around the order of the notes or play some notes only once instead of twice each time. I just always thought it was a fun tune to play and a borderline “exercise”. Like an etude, i guess. A blues bass etude? Maybe not. Have Fun!!!!
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Here’s some more ways to practice fretboard memorization. It builds off of part 1 where I played single notes all over the fretboard, but here I’m playing the rest of the notes of a Major scale. The idea is to play the scale off each note everywhere on the fretboard. Start with the E’s, then all the A’s then go through the rest of the circle of 5ths(E A D G C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B) It’s a ‘note drill’ type exercise and not real musical, but it can really help you to start being able to quickly go to an Eb Major scale(for instance) anywhere on the fretboard without having to think about it! You can/should run through this drill using minor, Dominant(mixolydian), min7b5(locrian). Also could run through it playing the arpeggios of each chord type listed above. Have fun, don’t forget to use your metronome haha
I don’t know if this qualifies as an exercise, but it’s something I heard Lincoln Goines saying at BassImmersionDay2 in October. He was talking about how Gary Willis had shown him a way to practice single string finger picking exercises and scales. The idea is to focus on the picking fingers. Using your normal alternating fingerpicking style, pluck the first note. Then alternate to the next finger as usual, but mute the string before you pluck the next note. You can put in long paces btween notes, like staccato, or see how short you can make the spaces.
It’s basically an exercise on being aware of your picking fingers and creating separations and little spaces between each note. It’s something to keep in mind for that extra bit of note articulation and picking hand control.
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A bass player can easily start to feel “stuck” in one spot on the fretboard if they aren’t sure where exactly a pattern of notes are somewhere else on the fretboard. This is a good exercise for just going through and systematically memorizing where every note is on the fretboard. It’s a good little drill to run through when you feel it’s time to really conquer the fretboard.
Running through the tones in time with a metronome is the best bet for getting the most out of this exercise. This is just a memorization exercise, not a musical one. Don’t worry about tone, just be able to play each note in time.
Knowing where the notes are gives you the ability to jump/leap/walkup to specific notes in time, with good feel and confidence. People definitely notice that stuff and it separates you from the pack!
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This video starts with a quick explanation of the blues shuffle beat. Typically, the pulse is felt swing eighths. Or you can feel it as four triplets (that could also be interpreted as 12/8).
You don’t always have to play swing eighths, though. Sometimes it’s better to just play quarter notes on the beat and not play the weaker eight after each note. It’s good to have some different ways of playing over a standard blues pattern.
In the video I’m talking about different notes and scales you can use to form blues basslines and solos. I said “minor pentatonic” about 50 times when I meant to say “blues scale” – just so you know, I mean to say “blues scale”. Whatever.
The important thing is that if you’re playing a Major or Dom based blues tune, you can solo in the relative minor (minor scale three frets down from the root) as a blues scale. Also, you can add the notes of a blues scale right into the Major or Dom7 root scale and use them as ‘blue’ notes.
If you wanna play blues bass, it’s a good idea to listen to some. Check out some recordings by Muddy Waters, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Albert Collins, Albert King, Freddie King, BB King,John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Charlie Musslewhite, Johnny Copeland, and the list goes on and on.
Different regions of the country developed different blues styles. Stevie Ray Vaughn’s Texas style blues sounds a bit different from Muddy Waters’ Chicago style. The history of The Blues is pretty fascinating stuff and worth checking out. Not to mention it makes you a better player. Nothing can replace busting out some tasty blues licks and in the pocket blues bass lines.
This video features random info on playing blues bass. A lot of the topics could be entire videos themselves, but I wanted to try and cover as many aspects of blues bass as I could. The topics I’m talking about here are what I consider to be some of the most important parts of playing blues bass in a band.
Firstly, the bass is where the band gets all its forward momentum, especially in blues. The drums are helping to form the rhythm section, but it’s the bass part in particular
that provides the propulsion that the rest of the band can ride on.
When you play blues tunes, it’s best not to play too busy during the main groove and verse parts. You can loosen it up for the solos, but mostly there’s are certain walking bass lines over a shuffle beat that gives blues music it’s sound and drive. Note wise, a simple Major triad (1st, 3rd, 5th) works very well over Major or Dom7 based blues tunes. From there you can add in the 6th and/or b7th step of the Major scale.
Those are the notes, now what about the feel? The beat is called a blues shuffle and it workd best with a very steady, pumping walking bass. Don’t get me wrong – there’s all kinds of ways to play some blues. I play funkified blues all the time, but for straight ahead Mississippi Delta/St Louis/Texas/Memphis/Chicago Blues songs it’s all about that walking shuffle.
A super important thing is shifting from the basic Major scale finger setup (middle finger on the root note) to get at the lower notes and shifting back. It makes playing walking bass lines really easy. Just shift your pinky onto that root note where your middle finger was. You can put your index finger three frets down. That’s the root of the relative minor.
Bass walk-ups are huge in blues and some other genres (like country). Usually there’s a walkup into th four chord. Walkups are a way to guide the listener into the chord change. It’s very common and effective. In fact, people get so used to hearing the bass walkup in popular tunes that one time, I had the riot act read to me by an overzealous band leader when I left it out. It’s like they need to hear it.
A good way to play the walkup is (on the last measure of the I chord – before it changes to the IV) start with the root on the downbeat, then go up to the second note of the scale (a whole step, or two frets) on the next beat, and then the next two frets in a row on the other two beats. Then right up into the root of the IV chord on the downbeat.
Be sure to check out Part 2 of this video for a whole bunch more Blues Bass Tips
Would you wear cement blocks for shoes? Probably not. Why? Because it wouldbe impossible to walk around or do anything, right? Well let me ask you this:Would you rather play bass the easy way or the hard way?
The point is this – learning bad bass playing technique will slow you down big time.It’s also hard to stop playing that way once those bad techniques become habits. If you start out the right way, it makes it much easier to get better at bass quickly.In this video I’m going over some basic fretting hand technique that will get you set up for success on bass.
The first thing to be aware of is where you place the thumb of your fretting hand. If you simply move your thumb down to the middle of the back of the neck, you can spread your hand out to cover much more fretboard real estate. When you have your thumb wrapped over the top of the neck of the bass, then you lose almost all the mobility in your fingers. Wrapping your thumb over the top of the bass neck is comfortable and everyone does it sometimes. It’s just hard to play more than one note in a row.
To fret the notes, it’s good to use the same part of your fingertip as you use to type with. It’s good to keep a slight arch in your fingers, and not let the palm of your hand touch the bass neck. Also, to get the best tone, fret the notes close to (or even touching) the fret-wire closest to you on that note.
At first, it’s a good idea to get used to spanning four frets in a row – one for each finger. It’s a good warm up exercise to play the four notes in a row up all the strings and then back down. For a beginner it will really help you get a feel for the strings and fretting notes, and also for developing your tone and ability to sound the notes clearly. Practice with a drum machine or click for it to be really effective.
If you wanna be a good bass player, then knowing proper technique will help you get more out of your practice time. I’m sure you don’t wanna waste a bunch of time and effort, right?
Bass monster-dom is calling to you in the form of your picking hand.
Yes, this hand unleahses it all.
If the fretting hand sets ‘em up, then the picking hand knocks ‘em down. When you build up more power, speed and dexterity in your picking hand, you can articulate ideas easier, and they will sound better.
It all starts with a good basic setup. First, the forearm goes down on the back of the bass body. The way I prefer to play, it can make contact with the bass anywhere between the wrist and middle of the forearm. Your arm hangs down so your hand is over the pickup area(for instance). Your fingers curl slightly to meet the strings. Your fingers should be pretty much perpendicular to the strings.
Keeping your fingers completely relaxed, make contact with the string with the same part of your finger that you use to type with and (keeping your finger totally relaxed and letting it straighten out and bend back a bit) let the string roll right off the tip of your finger. Make sure the string rings out evenly and clearly getting a nice full tone.
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One way I think about it is that the string isn’t even there and I’m trying to tap on the pickup – like I’m playing right through the string to tap my fingertip against the pickup.
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That’s one way to think about it. Mostly it’s about making sure your getting a full tone out of the note you pick.
Next you’ll want to start alternating picking between your index and middle fingers. These are the two main picking fingers. If you wanna use more or less its up to you – I play using my index, middle and thumb. Try to get as steady as you can with this alternating picking. It’s best to practice with a drum machine or some kind of beat or click from a metronome. It will help you develop really solid time without even trying – big bonus!
There are a ton of exercises you can do to build up your picking hand skills. I’ll try and make up some vids to show you. In the meantime, lemme know what questions you currently have about playing bass in the Bass Vids On Demand form on the upper left hand side of this page.
Thanks to you all for the help to keep this rolling…
If you have any questions regarding the content in this website, about the products that are mentioned, or just any questions at all don’t hesitate to contact me at the following address. I’d also love to hear any feedback on the site if you’ve found it helpful or have some ideas about how I can improve the site in some way.
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