Is the bass guitar hard to learn?

When I hear the question “is the Bass guitar hard to learn?” I often think of a quote “Easy to learn, Hard (almost impossible) to master” – Nolan Bushnell. This quote refers to game design and what will make people enjoy the game to keep them coming back, but it most definitely applies to learning the bass guitar as well.

Certain aspects of the bass make it easier to start out and jam along to some easy songs but when you get into the nitty gritty details of the instrument and the musical aspects it emphasises, it as just as hard to master as any other instrument.

The bass guitar is an amazing instrument

The bass is often overlooked because it is not front and centre stage, so it doesn’t give off a flashy look and generate lots of popularity by grabbing the attention of the listener and viewer. But the bass is a very versatile instrument, its one part a rhythm instrument, creating the groove with the drums and one part a harmonic instrument, laying down the harmonic foundation for the rest of the band to play alongside with. I would recommend anyone interested in music to pick up the bass.

When looking into if you would like to pick up the bass, you will inevitably ask yourself, is it hard to learn the bass? That’s what we'll investigate today going over two main aspects. The practical/ physical aspects of playing bass and the theoretical aspects of music that are emphasised on the bass. Also, when asking, is the bass guitar hard to learn? It’s probably best to compare it to other instruments so we have a reference for the difficulty.

The physical instrument

There are many physical aspects of the instrument that can make starting off on the bass a little easier than say, the guitar. The bass guitar only has 4 strings, with around 22 frets. Comparing this to guitar with an extra 2 strings means learning your way around the fretboard and getting to know the notes will be a little easier.

Bass Strings

The interval relation between each string on a bass is a 4 th (meaning each consecutive string is a 4 th interval apart from each other) E, A, D and G. Whereas the guitar has a 3 rd interval between one set of strings (G and B strings). This makes learning shapes (scales) or intervals (such as octaves) all over the bass simpler than the guitar. The shapes stay the same when you move up the neck and when you move up and down the strings. When you’re starting out on an instrument, learning shapes is a great visual way to understand different musical concepts like scales and intervals, so picking up the bass can be a great benefit to any musician.

The Bass guitar has thick strings that are well spaced apart. This lends itself to being practically easier as you are able to physically feel each string better and you’re less likely to hit a wrong string. The thick round strings makes it less painful on your fretting hand when pressing on the strings (even though you may need a little more pressure than on a guitar to fret the strings).

Muting

An important technique on stringed instruments is muting (Having pressure on a string somewhere without fretting it so it doesn’t start to ring out freely when it’s not being played). Again, compared to guitar, the fact there are less strings and size of the strings makes muting the strings you’re not using easier to manage on the bass.

Musical aspects

Rhythm

The bass is known as being part of the rhythm section of a band alongside the drums. This puts a lot of emphasis on rhythm and timing when you want to play the bass. Everybody grows up with a sense of rhythm (some more than others) so starting off again is easy to play along with an easy groove. When you delve deeper into rhythm, looking at breaking beats into 16 th or 32 nd notes. Or even playing behind or in front of the drum beat to create a different feel to the groove. These aspects will take long hours of practice and experience over time to get better at.

Harmony

Knowing harmony if you want to be a great bass player is very important. As before, at the start it may be easy. When first learning songs you may follow the bass notes of the chords and use different rhythms to create a groove. When starting to learn about music theory, practically all instruments will learn the same basics about notes, intervals, chords, keys etc. but when you want to keep progressing on your particular instrument there may be certain aspects of musical harmony that are emphasised on your instrument.

Moving past the beginner stage

As you progress through learning the bass you will learn the notes of each chord (3rds, 5ths, 7ths etc.) and their relation to the roots. You will encounter passing tones that will lead you to the next chords in the progression, even notes outside of the chords and how they will affect the harmony over the chords the rest of the band is playing. There is so much to dive into when it comes to harmony. It will again take long hours of practice and study to learn this, but it is all worth it if you put in the time.

So, is the bass hard to learn?

Picking up the bass and playing a few notes along with friends is easy, yes. The physical layout of the bass and the most basic forms of the harmony available on it allow you to without much practice, play along with a few tunes.

I suspect this will slowly become a little mundane after a while so would highly recommend diving deeper into the instrument as you start to have more fun. Learn about theory, listen to some bass players, practice at home with drum tracks or a metronome. As you keep putting in the work to become a better musician you will reap more rewards from your efforts. If you are questioning whether to pick up the bass, I highly recommend you give it a go.

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Connect with other Bassists

Once you,ve started learning the bass and want to play with others/ continue learning. Head over to musician search. Find like talented and like minded musicians in your area. All totally free of charge and easy to navigate! Or just take a look at another article and maybe learn something about the flute, the drums or the violin.