What's a good bass blues exercise?

[Danny Poole]

1. Usual thing, start with your finger exercises (to warm up your fingers & get use to the fretboard) using your 1st 2nd 3rd & 4th fingers.

TAB
|-------------------------1-2-3-4-|
|-----------------1-2-3-4---------|
|---------1-2-3-4-----------------|
|-1-2-3-4-------------------------|

2. Learn you Major scale for the Bass (this is the 1st octave of the guitar Major scale [website members only] ). The following example is in the key of "A"

TAB
|-----------------|
|-----------4-6-7-|
|-----4-5-7-------|
|-5-7-------------|

3. Around this scales shape you will see a lot of common bass lines. The following is a common blues bass line.

TAB
||-------------------||
||*-------4-7-4-----*||
||*---4-7-------7-4-*||
||--5----------------||

....1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

4. Since you're starting this bass line on "A" you can simply move the shape to D & E just by starting on those notes. (Important: learn all the notes on the E & A string)

BASS FRETBOARD
||---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A||---|-B-|-C-|---|-D-|---|-E-|-F-|---|-G-|---|-A-|
E||-F-|---|-G-|---|-A-|---|-B-|-C-|---|-D-|---|-E-|

5. Then follow the simple chords progression of a 12 Bar Blues. (Extra 12 Bar Blues literature - Lesson - 12 Bar Blues [website members only])

| A | % | % | % |
| D | % | A | % |
| E | D | A | E |