• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Jamming a Song!

I'm a beginner bass player and i would like to jam a song with my friend, he play guitar and i play bass. The problem is we only have chords for the songs, no bass tab.

we have the chords for the song "Hey Jude" and it have chords like D, A, Em etc

I was wondering how would i jam with my friend? Don't have to be very complex jamming since i'm beginner.
 
Well, I'm no Janek but I can give you a couple simple options. These are assuming you are not trying to play the bass from the song exactly, just using the chords as a structure to play with.

You can always just play the roots; play D while he is playing the D chord and then A when he plays A and E when he plays Emin.

Learn the D, A and E minor scales and then you can play with those over the appropriate chords. Look for common and close tones in the scales and try and use these to lead one chord into the next so it sounds smooth. For instance going from D into A you can play something like D, F, E, F, A where the A falls on the first beat of the A chord.



I'm bet you could get more information off of here if your question was a little more specific.
 
thats very helpful.

All i was doing was playing the root like you suggest before. I was jamming a song like that when i first started, but i think i'm up to a point where i can't just play the root only. Thats a good piece of info from you, i will try that.

Thank You for your help :)