I found Online Bass Lessons at StudyBass.com and Ed's book "Building Walking Bass Lines" to be on track and both have great value. There is one more bass line book I would recommend, "Bass lines in minutes" by Kris Berg. "Bass Guitar for Dummies" is a good refresher book, as it has a little bit of everything you will be using. Your public library will probably have a copy.
My old standby chart of generic bass lines using the major scale box as a Rosetta stone may help:
Code:
Bass Patterns based upon the Major Scale box.
Major Scale Box.
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string
Have a Cmaj7 chord coming up. Place the R (root note) on a C on
your fretboard and play the R-3-5-7 scale degrees of the major
scale box. How about on the 3rd string, 3rd fret. That gets your Cmaj7,
chord. I bet the next chord is going to be an F or G. Where is the F & G
note on your fretboard? Above and below the C. Never made that
connection playing 6 string guitar. Live with it on the bass.
Place your I on the 3rd string and your IV and V await you above and
below your I. That was a hugh WOW for me.
Basic Chords
• Major Triad = R-3-5 If you like place the R on the 4th string, I use both 3rd and 4th as "target" strings.
• Minor Triad = R-b3-5
• Diminished Chord = R-b3-b5
7th Chords
• Maj7 = R-3-5-7
• Minor 7 = R-b3-5-b7
• Dominant 7 = R-3-5-b7
• ½ diminished = R-b3-b5-b7
• Full diminished = R-b3-b5-bb7
See a chord and play it's chord tones. As every key will have two major, one dominant seven, three minor and one diminished chord it's a good idea to get your major, dominant seven, minor and diminished bass line chord tones into muscle memory so when you see a chord your fingers just know what will work. Now the song may only give you enough room for the root, or root five - adapt and get as many chord tones into your bass line as needed.
Root on 1 and a steady groove from the other chord tones plus something to call attention to the chord change will keep you gigging.
Scales
• Major Scale = R-2-3-4-5-6-7 Home base
• Major Pentatonic = R-2-3-5-6 Leave out the 4 & 7
• Natural Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7 Major scale with the 3, 6 & 7 flatted.
• Minor Pentatonic = R-b3-4-5-b7 Leave out the 2 & 6.
• Blues = R-b3-4-b5-5-b7 Minor pentatonic with the blue note b5 added.
• Harmonic Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-b6-7 Natural minor with a natural 7.
• Melodic Minor Scale = R-2-b3-4-5-6-7 Major scale with a b3.
Let the major scale be your home base then change a few notes and you have something different. No need to memorize a zillion patterns. Let the major scale pattern be your go to pattern - then adapt/adjust from there.
Major modes - forget modes until you start getting lead breaks. Leave modes for the 6 string guitar guys. We play chord trones till we get a solo break, then we move to melody notes.
Generic Notes - for your bass line.
• The root, five and eight are generic and fit most any chord. Remember the diminished has a flatted 5.
• The 3 is generic to all major chords. So R-3-5-3 will fit under any major chord. My go to groove.
• The b3 is generic to all minor chords. And R-b3-5-8 will fit under any minor chord. Why the 8? Well the 8 is just another root in the next octave.
• The 7 is generic to all maj7 chords. Yep, R-3-5-7 fits nicely.
• The b7 is generic to all dominant seventh and minor seventh chords. G7 = R-3-5-b7 or Gm7 = R-b3-5-b7.
• The 6 is neutral and adds color, help yourself to 6’s. Love the sound of R-3-5-6 with a major chord.
• The 2 and 4 make good passing notes. Don’t linger on them or stop on them, keep them passing.
• In making your bass line help yourself to those notes, just use them correctly.
• Roots, fives, eights and the correct 3 & 7 will play a lot of bass.
