How to play static dominant and functional dominant chords?

How to play Bass chords?

• I'm a self-taught bass player because I can't afford formal lessons right now. The good news is, I'm good at playing "root notes" but I don''t know how to play chords. Now my question is, how should I play Bass guitar chords without strumming all the strings like the electric guitar? For example, how would you play C, E, F, D in Bass.

• Answer:

  Bass chords typically don't sound very good because that low they get pretty muddy pretty fast. Unless you are into death metal, best to stay away from full chords. What does sound good sometimes is playing a root and a major or minor as the mood and key of the song dicate. If you play the root on the E string and play the note one fret higher on the G string, that is a major. Use your thumb to play the E and finger to play the G. You can slide up and down quite quickly to put different chords together. Alternately you can play them arpeggio. Bass players that are more skilled and want to add more depth to their music will use different notes to complement what the rhythm guitarist is playing. Instead of playing the root, maybe they will play the fifth or the major. By switching around you can start making a bass line of your own that will complement what the guitar is playing but be unique at the same time. Then there is 'lead' bass playing. Bass driven bands like Primus, Red Hot Chilli Peppers will often have very complicated bass lines with the guitar providing more of the 'background' music. Even other bands like the Who and Led Zeppplin and even Spinal Tap have intelligent bass lines that are anything but hiding behind a guitar. To get good at this kind of playing, you need to do scales. Over and over again, every scale there is until you are sick of them. Then do them some more so that you can just think of a note and immediately find it on the fretboard. Then you can not only write a complimentary bass line, but improvise one as well. The last thing is that the bass isn't always supposed to be front and center either. Sometimes a good bass roll on one note can be more powerful than the most complicated riff. Just listen to the bass in Streets Have No Name by U2. It's just a slide down to the first note then boom boom boom boom. Nowhere near as complex or engaging as the Edges delayed guitar riff, but every bit as essential.