How to Play Blues Bass (in 5 Levels)

Рет қаралды 106,758

3 ай бұрын

👉 My full beginner bass course: yeah.bassbuzz.com/blues-bass
Wanna get started with blues bass? These stupidly simple exercises will take you from basic fundamentals to off-the-cuff improv mastery.
Get the free PDF with blues song suggestions + more - www.bassbuzz.com/go/blues-levels
All the blues riffs played in the video - www.noteflight.com/scores/vie...
Bass-free backing track - / bfzfgiw9typwddjn9
If you're fixin' to get your dancin' fingers on that blues bass, you've come to the right place. This here video's gonna take you on a journey through five layers of true-blue, down-home bass lines.
We'll start at level 1, where we'll getcha to lay down the groundwork o’ dem fundamentals, and we'll climb all the way up to level 5, where you'll be strummin' and thumbin' your way through free-wheelin' improvisations…
clears throat
Oh sorry, Josh here, possessed by Willie Dixon. What I meant to say was…
Blues bass f**king rules. In this video, you’ll learn:
- The fundamentals of blues bass.
- The I-IV-V progression.
- How to use chromaticism to add spice.
- How blues inspired a trillion famous “rock” songs.
- How practicing blues bass can help you learn music theory.
- How to play real blues songs.
- How to break out of the “blues box”
- How Tommy Shannon’s playing set a rock solid foundation for Stevie Ray Vaughn
- How to impress old dads at the local blues jam.
You read all the way through this video description… you must really like bass lessons. Subscribe so you don’t miss the next one - yeah.bassbuzz.com/subscribe
#BluesBassLesson #BassBuzz

Пікірлер: 216

@BassBuzz 3 ай бұрын

Who’s your favorite blues bassist? 🎸 🕶

@exoticalpha5894 3 ай бұрын

Jimi Hendrix

@AlessandroCassano 3 ай бұрын

Donald Dunn!

@KRUX71 3 ай бұрын

JJ Burnell. AMAZING

@kimmorgan379 3 ай бұрын

John McVie from Fleetwood Mac

@acebrawler 3 ай бұрын

Carl Radle

@Tragic_TV 3 ай бұрын

I thought you would like to know that I won best bassist at battle of the bands yesterday. Thanks for everything Josh!

@BassBuzz 3 ай бұрын

Congrats!

@RealEstateChris56 2 ай бұрын

Cool!

@billyjeffersoniv4344 2 ай бұрын

So awesome!

@ElDami 3 ай бұрын

Just wanted to say that Beginner to Badass is an amazing course, and Josh is an incredible teacher. Thanks man

@DropsofDiamond 3 ай бұрын

I'm planning to get it next month! So excited to learn bass from him

@ElDami 3 ай бұрын

@@DropsofDiamond Tons of fun and learning ahead!

@DahcipheR 3 ай бұрын

Totally agree. His course, combined with Rocksmith, changed my damn life. It's so accessible and really gives you a sense of direction.

@robertfuller2196 2 ай бұрын

You ain't lyin'

@randomgdyoutuber6538 3 ай бұрын

It is a good day when Josh uploads

@Fortnite87463 3 ай бұрын

Your videos are unreal. I have learnt bass so quickly. You are a master teacher. Thank you

@scottstanley4378 3 ай бұрын

I have to say that your video quality has gone way up over the years. I dig that you provide genuinely free resources for practicing what your videos cover. Thanks for existing and helping to promote bass learning!

@phelinephrenzy2358 3 ай бұрын

Haha! The drunk lady inching closer to the stage!! That's so real. 😂

@TPT1126 3 ай бұрын

The Blues is THE reason I picked up the bass. Fortunately, I know enough theory to understand what you were saying! This is a great condensed version of exactly what I want to learn...sent along a little $ because I do love all the BassBuzz free stuff and this video especially deserves support! THANKS!!!❤

@YWHsDaughter 3 ай бұрын

A beginner at 50+ and this is just what I needed to help me understand. Thank you!

@allgems Ай бұрын

This is a solid way to learn a lot of the concepts of being a good blues Bass player.

@Gregor9043 3 ай бұрын

I like Donald Dunn, not a pure blues player but his lines are blues style bass lines. Solid, solid, solid.

@ArleyMcBlain 3 ай бұрын

the perfect sounding use of a Squier bass makes your stuff so accessible. when i was getting started twenty years ago everyone was using high end gear always. great stuff.

@Andronicus2007 3 ай бұрын

Fender U.S.A: assembled in the U.S, with Chinese hardware. Fender Mexico: Assembled in Mexico with Chinese hardware. Squire: Assembled in Indonesia with Chinese hardware.

@christimko9296 3 ай бұрын

Started playing around with the bass when I was 23… bought a couple beginner books, learned all by ear, which is good as long as you play every day… flash forward I’m 59 now and decided try and learn correctly! Thank you for the inspiration, this video is perfect, I will memorize it front and back!!!✌️❤️🤙

@StevenClubb-uw6zl 3 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for putting these out. Only been playing four months and your videos are such a great help.

@jonhillman871 3 ай бұрын

josh is so good at breaking things down into understandable chunks. i wish he could have my high school and university math classes.

@bozzerwolf1595 3 ай бұрын

Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for to exercise more, thank you Josh. I've started B2B in November and now I'm in Modul 12, My Sharona. 👌🤘

@suesaraswati 3 ай бұрын

Thanks again to Josh for the Beginner to Badass Course. I went from complete newbie to playing in the pub, in 3 months. You are a great teacher Josh, I can't wait for your next course.

@coloaten6682 3 ай бұрын

That's great, well done!!!

@iduncanw 3 ай бұрын

Impressive, nice work 😎

@phelinephrenzy2358 3 ай бұрын

Damn! I tried playing with a blues band about 35 years ago. I bored myself to death and went back to metal and rock. Had I known what you are teaching in this video, I may have tried with another band. I also found blues bass players had to stay in the shadows and let the egos of the lead guitarist and vocalist shine. Especially if you're a female bass player. I hated that! Thank you for this video. It's inspirational and gives creative encouragement. Plus, now I have some patterns that can be added to my freestyle rock and metal. You really are a Bass God!! 🖤🤘🤘🤘🤘🖤

@Andronicus2007 3 ай бұрын

Well, unless you're Jaco Pastorius!

@frololal6142 3 ай бұрын

I've been waiting for this!

@Bassman1964 3 ай бұрын

Just want to say thank you for everything you do & teach 👏🏼👏🏼 , been playing Bass for 40 something years now and wish there was someone like you to each, inspire and breakdown what you do… I’m sure would have cleared up a bunch of stumbling blocks as I learned, you are one of the best instructors I’ve seen online as you truly make everything you plain, simple, fun & to understandable I still pick up many tips and tricks from you that help inspire me to continue learning and evolving. I truly believe you can never learn enough.. any young players who watch and learn from you channel are extremely lucky to have you, a far cry from say watching “Stu Hamm’s” Slap, Pop Bass instructional video and after watching wondering why you are even rying to play Bass 😳😂🤣 seriously just a thank you and keep up the amazing work

@Legomanfred 3 ай бұрын

Great video Josh! Comprehensive and thorough. Always a pleasure. Thanks for this. 👍❤️💪

@barrysrcdump3557 3 ай бұрын

How did you know what I was looking for yesterday? Thanks dude. 🤝🤝

@larikoproduzimentos4501 3 ай бұрын

That's gorgeous, awesome work

@thomasfioriglio 3 ай бұрын

Another fantastic lesson Josh. Some really great ideas here that you can plug and play and get started with the blues. And I like your advice about really spending time with these. Thanks for sharing!

@davidwood351 3 ай бұрын

Excellent lesson. It’s good to reinforce the basics, especially for newbies to this channel.

@dsharton 3 ай бұрын

Thank you Josh! Great lesson and humor as usual

@nextabe1 2 ай бұрын

Love the SRV shirt. Not a bassist but a blues legend.

@hanelmarte8249 3 ай бұрын

Thanks, Josh, you've helped me out a TON!

@blackswandominiscis7715 3 ай бұрын

Absolutely great video. Thanks a lot for putting everything in the same place. I will spend several month on this one !

@owenconant 3 ай бұрын

How serendipitous. I just was looking into blues bass a couple days ago.

@CL_Audio_Tuning 3 ай бұрын

Awesome video as always sir!! Thanks for making learning the bass fun! :D

@brenofig 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for teaching us with so much talent and fun!

@dylanaird4437 3 ай бұрын

Huge helpful tips as I’m going to my first Blues jam this week! Thanks!

@jimjamjul 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for another great vid Josh! Also, i love the jazz bass you use

@hydroman99 3 ай бұрын

Great vid, as always Josh.

@user-lg2xe5er7f 3 ай бұрын

As always…amazing video. I always learn so much.

@neilmeadowcroft7569 3 ай бұрын

Wow, i did not expect to see a Father Ted reference here! Down with this sort of thing.

@rogers8085 3 ай бұрын

These are very useful Josh, thanks man!

@CotalCosta 3 ай бұрын

No kidding, tomorrow I'm going to pick my first bass cause I want to understand blues better (I'm a harmonica player). You're a blessing!

@swconnexion 3 ай бұрын

Thank you a lot Josh !

@stefanroth4458 3 ай бұрын

Thank's a lot! Great Video.

@dejancela 2 ай бұрын

love your tone

@MartyWilson100 3 ай бұрын

As always, a great video. I joined a blues jam earlier today before watching this video

@tark126 3 ай бұрын

After a month i took my guitar and opened youtube to search literally "blues bass" and before searching i just saw this in my homepage uploaded just now and i think it happened a couple of times before with this channel only. Are u a wizard sir?

@jstnxprsn 3 ай бұрын

No, but KZfaq's algorithm is. LOLOL

@1234drums 3 ай бұрын

I especially enjoyed this one, let's see what's next ❤❤❤❤

@TPT1126 3 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@markbass354 3 ай бұрын

AWESOME JOSH

@mohamedabdul1544 3 ай бұрын

❤u r a good teacher thanks I have learn a lot from u

@kwb402 3 ай бұрын

I love it, Josh speaks to all of the kids that ask for tabs! 😂 I have to get back on my bass buzz account

@AlexMusicOvery 3 ай бұрын

Cool lesson thanks :)

@JustRob96 3 ай бұрын

I know it's not strictly blues, but if you want to practise the chord triad shapes, as well as practise in ancitipating a chord change, I'd highly recommend practising with the song "I'd Rather Go Blind" by Etta James. The whole song is a simple back and forth between the I and the ii. If you get lost you can immediately come home, giving you the freedom to try new things. You have both a major and a minor chord to practise with. And while you can use the triads shown in this video, you also have the recorded bassline to learn the inverted shapes for those triads too. It's pretty great!

@aletnieuwoudt2717 3 ай бұрын

Thank you 🤘👌

@Ontelmonkeundkylo 3 ай бұрын

Finally!!!

@ZaryaMain 3 ай бұрын

Quality content as always.

@ZaryaMain 3 ай бұрын

I'd love for you to do a series of this for various styles. Ska, jazz, rock, metal etc.

@karccrn 3 ай бұрын

Loved this lesson! I have played guitar for 40 years but now find myself as the bass player in the band. It would be cool if you did a lesson on mistakes guitar players make when playing bass. Also, I am also lead singer and there are some songs that I just cannot sing and play bass at the same time. Frustrating. Any tips for singers who play bass? You are awesome and I love your style. Now I am going to go pursue your videos and do a marathon! Thanks!

@brianermovick5944 3 ай бұрын

Josh's videos are awesome, as always (as is his course!). I just always seem to get stuck with putting it all together. So frustrating - like there's some secret trick everyone else knows that I can't grasp 😆

@kushking420 3 ай бұрын

I have to learn/play a lot more. I've been playing my drums about 4 hours a day, on my days off. I'm just so tired after work to pick up my bass. I feel like I'm playing my drums so much because I've been playing for so long, it's second nature to me. I have a Fender jazz bass (MIM) and really love it for my first bass, was playing for hours, the first few months, and then just stopped out of nowhere

@marcyotei 3 ай бұрын

Hi teacher! I'm enjoying the course, I haven't reached the end yet, but I hope you are thinking about a second part, from Badass to hyper super mega badass. Thanks.

@caios.dosanjos7148 2 ай бұрын

I love how you teaches us like we are a bunch os apes. Amazing!

@johnnyharperscoutstable5386 3 ай бұрын

Favorite blues lately. Black keys🐸🍺🔪🔥

@NelsonMontana1234 3 ай бұрын

Tommy Shanon seems to be the only guy who is specifically a blues bass guitarist and is a cut above the rest. Beyond that, any good bass player can play a decent blues. Or should be able to.

@BlackJackLopez 3 ай бұрын

Great video! And great timing, too; I'm about to sub for a cool bassist of local lore, and the band plays covers from Deep Purple and Status Quo, heavlly based on blues, so this one comes in handy! Let's be frank, blues bass is one of the first things you actually learn when you're self-thought and just passed the point of mere 'copy phase' (the first songs you learn), but somehow that makes you underestimate its importance. I think one of the best songs to 'catch the blues vibe' is "The thrill is gone" by B. B. King, it really let's you get creative when you get it, but also teaches you when to do it, not overplay and where to let the vocals and the guitar solos do their thing without 'getting in the way'.

@leonangel6020 3 ай бұрын

Grazie Genio

@ruthespiritu502 Ай бұрын

The “Shuffle” is actually a bass rhythm in Taiko (Japanese drums). Which makes sense. The person who popularised modern taiko playing is a Jazz musician :)

@regislourenso 3 ай бұрын

You summed up Duff's carrer on Guns N' Roses. On 12 minutes! Thanks, Josh. 😂

@Bassplayer18 3 ай бұрын

It would be nice if we had a bass collection video

@coloaten6682 3 ай бұрын

You really are such a great teacher because you cut out all the fluffy cr*p. Those patterns are so helpful - I use similar on guitar. It's really frustrating that music is often taught from a scales perspective because people then get 'scared' to use the chromatic notes UNTIL someone teaches them Chromaticism! 🤣🤣. Well done Josh. :)

@KyleLeMaster 21 күн бұрын

The Rhombus of Rock!

@stevenpetranyi2902 3 ай бұрын

I'm starting a four-piece Blues band I've just bought a bass guitar and amp but I'll be playing rhythm guitar and vocals

@aibluefox4309 3 ай бұрын

Where were you in 1978 when I started, LoL? Another great video, Josh. After decades of playing parrot fashion, I'm finally learning to actually play.

@Roberto-nn6kb 3 ай бұрын

8:32 DUTCH VAN DER LIENDE MENTIONED🗣🗣🗣

@Upsetkiller456 2 ай бұрын

Hey! I have been using your stuff for a while now as I think you are a great teacher and I have a potentially weird question about finger plucking. I have been playing bass for a long time now and I can play quick enough but is it normal for my Index finger to not fully "curl" when I am plucking with it? It is not entirely straight of course but I wonder if it that is that cause of my index/middle finger accent differences when playing besides finger strength. Cheers~!

@Fyshmc 3 ай бұрын

can you PLEASE do a video tutorial for the bass line for "Notion" by The Rare Occasions?

@Swindrim. 3 ай бұрын

That little blues acepella at the end lol

@natespringer9934 3 ай бұрын

Hey I absolutely love your videos and was wondering if you’d be willing to do a video either covering fretless bass or on Jaco Pastorius. I’ve heard a lot of people recommend them to me but I could never quite understand his music. Similarly, I don’t get why anyone would play a fretless or what tonal differences there are with a fretless.

@salty_3k506 3 ай бұрын

what about the music do you not understand? and a fretless bass doesn't have frets so you have an infinite amount of notes, like on a violin. you have a lot more options to slide around, play around the pitches, etc

@325spoon 3 ай бұрын

To play a fretless bass you have to be deadly accurate on where you press to get your note. Whereas on a fretted bass you can get away with not being smack dead on the note and it’ll still be in tune. Another notable thing about fretless bass is the tone is very different since there’s 1) no metal frets vibrating against the string 2) typically fretless players use different chord variations given there’s more “freedom” albeit this is subjective to the player. Overall it’s just a different feel, style, and sound. Jaco understood his instrument better than most but to a lot of people it just kinda sounds like a jumbled mess, music is subjective, sound is subjective- go to your local guitar shop and try one out yourself to really get an understanding of the tonal differences and feel

@joeg2132 2 ай бұрын

This is a great video but I feel like it could evolve into more exercises for practice!

@BoobToobJohnny 3 ай бұрын

Hi Josh. Love your videos! I'm off to a good start playing bass using a few of them. Would you be willing to share what software you use and/or how you add all the graphics to your videos? Wondering if it takes you 20 minutes or 2 weeks to produce one.

@Дмитро_Л 2 ай бұрын

Can you tell please why my bass rattle at open stirngs but when I touch strings (even behind the nut) or unplug second pickup - rattling disappears? Is it some electricity problem of cheap guitar?

@michalkbass 3 ай бұрын

Is Josh's voice deeper? A great video as always!

@Matt-is8qj 3 ай бұрын

8:15 Fathed Ted in action! If I wasn't already subscribed you'd have gained one more believer with this one.

@JobGreer 3 ай бұрын

What's going on bro I dig the show.🤘' I'm gonna buy a bass soon. I'm going buying the Yamaha TRBX304, and I really need to know to Does Bass string matters matter???? 🤔

@m.s.8489 3 ай бұрын

Please make a video on how to get rid of focal dystonia in a bass player.

@alexclementi5111 3 ай бұрын

Hi Josh, any new course coming? Beginner2Badass was great!

@saemikneu 25 күн бұрын

With my former bass teacher I learned a shape called First finger, fourth finger (on the same string, e.g. E) and then the first on the next string (eg A). Whats that?

@drintro 3 ай бұрын

So I think I noticed some alternate tuning going on here. Is that done to better match the singer's range or is there some other reason known only to those cool enough?

@justhalog3318 3 ай бұрын

Do you have any videos on reggae bass lines?

@Minionman2166 3 ай бұрын

Wait, the blues box makes cmon girl by rhcp?

@hpk4917 3 ай бұрын

Hello, great video. i can watch your channel for huors. Some videos with a bass ukulele would be nice ;) greetings from austria 👋

@IanTaylor-np7xy 3 ай бұрын

How did this get to me just now also hi

@willwalters8391 3 ай бұрын

Now one for jazz

@SirDude555 3 ай бұрын

Hey Josh, I just started the VERY first step in becoming a bassist, that's clicking the Subscribe button! More serious, what's your pick for a "Blues" bass? (budget friendly) You have a number of videos about bass guitars in different price ranges, and even cover the ones for playing metal and rock, but what if a beginner is mostly interested in playing the Blues. Thanks!

@John-yn2wt 3 ай бұрын

Hey man could you do me a massive favor and make a video just like the 5 levels of smells like teen spirit, but could you play American idiot by green day. If you could make that video that would help me out so much, i have a gig in a week and i don’t have time to pool hours into learning it. i learned smells like teen spirit in 20 minutes after you made that 5 levels video.

@scottkretsch4887 3 ай бұрын

This may be a dumb question, but are most, if not all, blues songs in a minor key? I’m thinking no because I’m guessing it’s the structure and shuffle feel that makes it more bluesy than actually being in a minor key.