How To Play Melodies On Bass (3 Melodies To Get Started With)

When I was about 17, a friend of mine gave me a copy of the self-titled Jaco album:

To be honest, at the time, I didn’t really understand the music – it was kind of beyond me.

But the bass playing? That blew me away!!!

The growl of his fretless, the chime of his harmonics, his sheer speed and chops on the instrument – I’d never heard anyone make those kinds of sounds on a bass before.

After hearing that first album, I went on a mission to find any and all Jaco recordings – his solo stuff, his big band stuff, the stuff where he was a sideman… I was voracious about tracking down everything Jaco.

It wasn’t long before I discovered that Jaco actually had an instructional tape where he actually sat down and went through how he does what he does, and being an industrious 17-year-old, it wasn’t long before I stumbled upon a copy of this tape:

It was low-res and had Japanese subtitles, but I didn’t care. I just wanted those Jaco pearls of wisdom.

I fired up the TV, put it in as I eagerly awaited to hear from the source. There was a bit of Jaco playing at the start, which was super cool, but I wanted to hear the man teach.

I thought I was so ready to hear everything he said, but one of the first things he says is this:

“The first thing was to learn the melody to every tune, which I feel like is ULTRA important”

It turns out, I wasn’t as eager to learn what Jaco had to say, because being the 17-year-old fool I was, I skipped right past that part looking for how to play all the harmonics, the licks, how to play fast…

This ‘ultra-important’ thing that a hero of mine was preaching went in one ear and out the other. I may not have been ready to actually learn what he was talking about.

It was about a full decade later – when I actually got serious about learning some melodies – that this sentence from Jaco made sense.

Jaco wasn’t this incredibly melodic bass player because he played bass lines all the time. He was melodic because he knew how to play melodies! It’s obvious in hindsight, but it took me a long time to figure out.

Learning melodies isn’t just for singers

The better you can play melodies, the better you are going to sound overall.

If you learn to play melodies really well, you’ll be able to create melodic bass lines that breathe and really contribute to the song.

You’ll be able to create and play melodic fills – after all, what is a fill if not a piece of melody in between chunks of bass line?

And of course if you want to take bass solos, learning melodies is practically essential, otherwise you won’t be able to pull yourself out of ‘bass line mode’ and actually be melodic.

If any of that sounds good to you, then be sure you don’t ignore the best Jaco advice around (like I did…) and start learning melodies.

You don’t have to start by learning super intense Jaco-level melodies though. In fact, in today’s video, we’re starting with a very simple, repetitive Beatles melody that I’m sure you’ve heard before.

In this lesson you’ll learn:

• 3 great melodies to get started with playing bass (that all teach you very different things)
• How John Lennon used repetition in his melodies – and how you can use it too
• All about the incredible ‘back-phrasing’ of Willie Nelson
• What ‘melodic sequencing’ is and how you can use it in your own melodies/fills/bass lines

Check out the lesson here:

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You’ll notice that the common thread running through all the melodies in this lesson is that there is so much more than can be learned just by looking at the tabs or notation.

Melodies are kind of a different game where some of the rules we follow as bassists don’t always apply – and that can be great fun!

So 2 things that are going to help a ton as you go through these are to #1 – open your ears and listen as intently as you can to the melodies you’re trying to recreate. You might be surprised at how much music you hear.

And #2 – Actually learn and practice these melodies for yourself and you can download the tabs, notation and backing tracks from this lesson by filling out the form above.

Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!

Cheers,