free jam tracks - brought to you by nick cresswell

Bass Guitar Lessons

OK, it's time to give the bass player some!

If you are looking for online bass guitar lessons then you are in the right place. The pages below have and are being carefully constructed with beginner to intermediate musicians in mind.

Each lesson carries on from the previous one and will step you through playing from the ground up. If you are new to playing, start from the top and work your way through each class. You can skip lessons and go to later ones but you might find that there is something to learn, a different angle perhaps, from each and every lesson, even if you have been playing for a while.

The bass backing tracks that come with the lessons are stripped back so you can focus more on playing through the material show in the lessons. As you learn new concepts and notes to add to your playing, it's a good idea to go back to the jam tracks pages and try out your new bass lines with random tracks.

And remember, above all, when learning to play bass; learn to play in time, find the groove and most importantly, have fun!

Downloads to Get You Started

Use the below two bass backing tracks to play all of the bass lines from lessons 01 to 11.

E Blues Bass Backing Track
mp3: E Blues Bass Backing Track
wma: E Blues Bass Backing Track
Time/size: 6 mins 24 secs/8.79mb
Time signature: 4/4 time blues shuffle played at 108 beats per minute.
Blues backing track: 12 bar blues progression in the key of E.
Backing track instruments: electric rhythm guitar and drums.
Suggestions: Start with playing the root note of each chord; E, A and B.

Here's the same track above but with the drums only:

Shuffle Backing Track 108 BPM
mp3: Shuffle Backing Track 108 BPM
wma: Shuffle Backing Track 108 BPM
Time/size: 5 mins 26 secs/7.48mb
Time signature: 4/4 time blues shuffle played at 108 beats per minute.
Blues backing track: shuffle beat.
Backing track instruments: drums only.
Suggestions: I've put this track up so you can play in time in any key you want. When you are playing with this track pay close attention to the drums and make sure that you lock in with the rhythm. After you have that down you should focus on playing with feel and finding a groove. Use this for simple bass lines, start by just playing one note.

Bass Lessons for Beginners

What's next?

After you learn each lesson you can then use the bass lines to play along with the backing tracks from the Play Bass pages:

I'm working on lessons on constructing walking bass lines that I will post when they are completed.

Jam on!