Hello There

[BenjaminW]

Hi everyone. My name's Benjamin and I recently picked up the bass a few months ago and decided to join TalkBass because I figured it would be nice to have somewhere that I can get more info about bass in general. I'm currently teaching myself how to play since I'm also a guitarist and I have a pretty good understanding of how to play although I'm no Charlie Parker or Geddy Lee for that matter. Anyways, I'm 15 years old which I'll say is quite young for anybody to be on a forum that's about 5 years older than I am. My favorite music includes Rush, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson to name a few. Geddy Lee, Paul McCartney, and Chris Squire are the reasons I play. My main bass is a G&L L-2000 and I use Tonebridge and GarageBand as my amps. Other than that, that's all I have to say and I look forward to talking with other bassists.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

The guitar sheet music you used will flow into the bass quite well. See a Cma7 chord coming up in the song, find the root C in first position (first 5 frets). Pound out roots one per beat. The lyric's syllables will help with this. Hap-py gets two beats, so would birth-day and the to and you would get one beat each. Not unlike what you did strumming the 6 string.

When this gets boring add the roots' 5th. Root on the first beat and the 5 on the 3rd beat. The 5 is up a string and over two frets, or down a string same fret as the root. Need more add the octave 8. It's over the 5 on the next string up same fret. That will get you asked back, and yes, there is more. The ole generic R-5-8-5 will play a lot of bass.

Find the C on the A string ---- that's I the IV is up a string and the V is down a string. Piece of cake.

Welcome.