How do I play the bass guitar?

On bass you do not typically play chords (chords with the "ch" at the beginning are a combination of 3 or more notes - cord with just a "c" at the beginning is like the cable you use to plug your guitar into the amplifier - there is no such thing as coord with "oo" in the middle). I wouldn't point that out except the rest of your question had no spelling errors and was well composed but you typed coord every time, so you must actually think that's the proper spelling and I wanted to clear that up. Anyway, back to playing bass. You typically pluck the strings on the bass with your index and middle fingers as opposed to using a pick to play power chords on the guitar. You typically play only one note at a time, usually to set a driving rhythm for the song (ie. quarter notes, eighth notes, etc), where you're plucking a note on every beat or twice per beat or maybe every other beat. Bass is really a rhythm instrument. The strings on the bass, from thickest to thinnest, are tuned to E A D and G. Each fret is a half step, so the first fret on the low E string would be the note F, the next fret is F#, the 3rd fret is G, the 4th is G# or Ab, and the 5th is A. The next string down is the A string and the notes Bb on the 1st fret, then B on the 2nd, C on the 3rd, C# or Db on the 4th, and D on the 5th. Then on the next string you have D (open), D# or Eb on the 1st fret, E on the 2nd fret, F on the 3rd fret, F# or Gb on the 4th fret, and G on the 5th fret. Finally, on the G string you have G# or Ab on the 1st fret, A on the 2nd fret, A# or Bb on the 3rd fret, B on the 4th fret and C on the 5th fret. Note that each fret is a half step, but in the musical scale there is only a half step between B to C and E to F so there are no sharps or flats between those notes. With all that said, the easiest way to start playing bass is to look at the chord name and play the root note of that chord on the bass. So if the chord chart says to play a C chord, the guitar would play the C chord and the bass player would play a C on the bass (ie. 3rd fret of the A string). If the chord chart has a chord like D/F#, the bass would play the note to the right of the slash (the F#), which would be on either the 2nd fret of the low E string or the 4th fret of the G string depending on whether you wanted to play the lower note or the one an octave higher. Once you get better and learn scales and chord theory you can start filling in with other notes from the chords and scales the song uses. When you start taking lessons, first learn the notes very well. You should continue learning the notes further up the neck beyond the 5th fret (that was just to get you started). Learn to read music written in bass clef as well. Then start learning the major and minor scales all up the neck and be able to improvise in various keys. It will make sense when you sit down with your teacher and get to that point. FWIW, I taught my daughter to play bass in a couple days and she played well enough to play with the praise band in church on Sunday just playing the root notes of the chords as I described. Of course she is very musical and has been playing cello for years, but my point is it's pretty easy just to pluck out a basic bass line if you don't want anything too fancy. From there, the sky is the limit and you could become an amazing bass player like Billy Sheehan or Norm Stockton if you learn the theory and practice like crazy (and have a lot of natural musical ability!). Good luck.

You need classes

http://www.studybass.com/ http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-play-bass-guitar-for-newbies/ http://www.youtube.com/user/CoolBear777 http://www.joerocha.com/Sitemap.php Here are 2 websites that will help you memorize the fretboard. Fretboard Trainer For Guitar And Bass http://www.fretboard-trainer.com/ Fretboard Master Game http://www.fretboardmaster.com/