More alternating bass

The alternating bass technique was already discussed here. A variation of this technique is to alternate between more than two bass notes. The bass lines produced by this technique are complex and very interesting and can also be found in several musical styles, e.g. Country/Blues/Folk (Tommy Emmanuel).

Video with all exercises

Exercise 1: Blues in G

Tips:

• Bar 1: For the G chord I use the fingering described here as variation 1, which makes it really easy to change from C to G and vice versa.
• Bar 2, 6 and 8: Use your thumb to play the bass notes on beats 2 and 4 (Yes, usually this is index finger territory, but the thumb produces a better, more consistent sound).
• Bar 3 and 4: Move your ring finger from the 3rd fret of the A string to the 3rd fred of the E string right before beat 3.

Exercise 2: Blues in G

Exercise 3: Blues in G

Tips:

• Bar 4 and 7: Use your pinky on the 3rd fret of the B string and also on the 3rd fret of the G string.

Exercise 4: Blues in C

Tips:

• Bar 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8: Use your pinky on the 3rd fret of the B string and also on the 3rd fret of the G string.
• Bar 3 and 4: The 3rd and 4th bars do not have the same bass pattern as the other bars. If you want to play the same bass pattern, you can't fred additional notes (4th bar, B string 3rd fret) with your pinky. For the F chord I use the fingering described here as variation 4, which gives the pinky the freedom to fret additional notes.

Exercise 5: Blues in E

Tips:

• Bar 2, 6 and 8: Move your middle finger from the 2rd fret of the A string to the 2rd fred of the E string right before beat 3.

Downloads

• Tabs as PDF file
• Tabs as TuxGuitar files
• Tabs as Guitar Pro files

See also

• Thumb independence basics
• Steady bass
• Alternating bass
• More steady bass (shuffle)