Easy Bass Ballad
In this free bass lesson, you’ll learn how to play an easy bass ballad.
The tempo is slow and you’ll be playing root notes to outline the chord changes, so this lesson is perfect for absolute beginners on bass.
Learning how to play this bass line will help you develop:
- Skill to keep a steady rhythm
- Counting beats to play notes at the right time
- How to play root notes to outline chord changes
- Practice playing whole notes on bass
- Simple muting technique to clean up your sound
This lesson features an emotional-sounding backing track with a famous chord progression used in many ballads.
Let’s get into it!
Easy Bass Ballad Tab & Performance
The chord progression: Bm – A – E
Tempo: 85 BPM
There are a couple of things I want you to pay attention to when learning this tune.
First important thing: notice how the bass is playing the root note of each chord in the backing track. You are playing whole notes duration, so that means plucking a note and keeping it ringing for a full bar of music.
Count the rhythm like this: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4
Pluck a note on beat 1 and keep it ringing by pressing down on the string with the fretting hand and being careful not to touch the vibrating string with your plucking hand.
Second important thing: when you are moving from open A string to open E string, you need to stop the A string from vibrating the moment you pluck the open E string for the last chord.
To do this, rest the index finger of the fretting hand on the A string at the same time you pluck the low E string open.
That should kill off any unwanted noise and stop the A string from vibrating further.
This step is important as if you don’t do it – the sound of the low E string will be affected as you don’t want both open A and open E strings vibrating at the same time!
Handy Resources For Download
To help you follow the material I’ve covered in this lesson, I’ve created a handy free package that includes PDF that summarizes everything in this lesson PLUS you get practice backing track so that you can play it on your computer or living room audio system and improvise over.DOWNLOAD LESSON RESOURCES PACK
Suggested Bass Courses
Bass Guitar 101
START HERE: This is a course for absolute beginners. Learn notes on bass, develop essential technique and rhythm skills & perform bass lines.
If you’re serious about bass and would enjoy step-by-step online bass lessons and courses, then I strongly suggest checking out how Bass Road Academy online bass courses can help you get results.
Hope you’ll find this bass lesson helpful for practicing playing over ballad chord changes.
If you want to start learning bass from scratch, check out bass courses available inside the Bass Road Academy.
Want to get better at playing bass and make steady progress?
Level up your bass skills with online bass courses and lesson series at Bass Road Academy.
Learn why behind the bass lines you play, have a strategy when improvising and make progress faster.