Bass Notes for Beginners (Discuss this article on our message board)

A frequent question I have from beginners learning to play bluegrass rhythm is "which bass notes do I pick in between the strum?". 

This is a very good question considering the strum is just filler, but if you hit the wrong bass notes the guitar backup will sound horrible.  The following audio file will hopefully shed some light on this subject.  Remember this is by no means the only way, but it is a simple way to get started learning to play the bass notes in an alternating "pick strum" style of bluegrass rhythm playing.

In the audio file I simply pick from A to G.  I will not list the filler notes in the various chords being played... just the bass notes.

         A                    B (barre)               C                           D                         E                           F
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------0-------------------------------2----------3-------------|
|----0-----------------2---------------------3---------------------------------0---------------------------------------3----|
|------------0--------------------2--------------------3-----------------------------------0---------------------------------|

        G
---------------------|
---------------------|
---------------------|
-----------0--------|
---------------------|
----3----------------|

Click here to listen to me playing the bassnotes of A through G
(mp3 format, click save to send to desktop, or open to play immediately)

Thanks for taking the time to read this article on bass notes! (Discuss this article on our message board)


- SD