Bass Guitar Lessons – Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced Included

by
Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Bass Guitar Lessons

I’m not someone who wants to be a bass guitar teacher.

In fact, when it comes to most instruments that I know, there are plenty of more passionate teachers out there than me.

Instead of trying to half-bake some bass lessons for you, I’ve gone through all my best resources and curated a lesson plan from start to finish.

Some are video lessons, and some are written – all of them interactive.

You’ll find both beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons.

Contents show

If you were to follow these lessons from #1 all the way to the end, you could easily find yourself a proficient bass player.

I expect you’ll eventually outgrow this page and start looking for your own resources. Don’t avoid it – you won’t hurt my feelings! Branching out and becoming your own teacher is an important part of your development.

If you get to a point where you feel you can’t grow anymore – go and hire a teacher. You’ll have already done a lot of the heavy lifting by teaching yourself, and your teacher will really be able to bring you to the next level.

Obviously there are multiple basses you can play, you may prefer the electric bass,  jazz bass, or bluegrass bass. Whichever one you prefer, if you want to take your playing further, having an expert critique your style and give you tips on what you can improve on is a great idea.

With technology where it is today, you can simply record a video of yourself playing and have a well renowned artist watch your video and critique you on it.

See if you recognize any of the experts here.

To start, what’s your skill level?

Beginner Bass Guitar Lessons

  1. How to restring a bass
  2. StudyBass fundamentals one (54 lessons)
  3. From the top: intro to music and the bass
  4. Basic bass technique
  5. Reading music (part 1)
  6. How to practice
  7. Common bass patterns
  8. The rhythmic pulse
  9. Intervals (part 1)
  10. Rhythmic subdivisions
  11. StudyBass fundamentals two (52 lessons)
  12. Introduction to scales
  13. Introduction to chord patterns
  14. Major scales and chord patterns
  15. Minor scales and chord patterns
  16. Reading music (part 2)
  17. Introduction to keys and harmony
  18. Beginning diatonic harmony
  19. Introduction to the blues
  20. Applying patterns to the blues
  21. Diminished chord patterns
  22. Memorizing the bass fretboard notes
  23. Practice reading classical notation
  24. Using a pick
  25. The walking bass line (part 1) (part 2)
  26. One of the most useful scales of them all – the pentatonic scale (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
  27. Setting up your bass strap height

Intermediate Bass Guitar Lessons

  1. Open string muting
  2. Palm muting on the bass
  3. Ghost notes (part 1) (part 2)
  4. The flying fingers problem
  5. Beginning melodic sequences
  6. Tapping bass chords (with Victor Wooten)
  7. Get that vintage tone
  8. The Pino Palladino double stop
  9. Double your soloing speed
  10. How to play slap bass (beginner and intermediate)
  11. Slap bass: secret triplets
  12. Soloing: how to use the entire fretboard
  13. Soloing: using simple shapes on the bass
  14. Awesome funk groove breakdown – for the funk in you
  15. The secret to great bass tone
  16. Exercise to learn dynamics
  17. How to practice arpeggios on the bass
  18. Letting the snare drum breath – when you’re playing with a band
  19. Victor Wooten bass technique (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)

Advanced Bass Guitar Lessons

  1. Victor Wooten super bass solo technique
  2. Jaco Pastorius style groove breakdowns
  3. Have an Expert Critique Your Style

Further Reading: