No matter how long ago a piece of music was written, there has always been a musical line written or implied for a bass part. From the pedal board for the bass notes of an organ, the orchestra double bass, contra bassoon or tuba, bass instruments serve as a needed harmonic reference point and a bass foundation for the music. Some music works without a bass line, but usually in those cases bass line is cleverly implied by the arrangement and performer. Generally music tends to feel incomplete in the absence of a solid bass part. As music styles evolved into modern jazz, blues, rock and roll and r&b, there was a need for a new type of bass instrument to provide the necessary strong bass line support. This is how the electric bass guitar era came into being.
Bass guitars have been around since the 1930′s though not quite in the exact same form as the Fender bass guitars that we know today, but you could say that their predecessors, the acoustic Basses, have been around for many years longer. The bass guitar was different from the bass that everyone had been familiar with for many years though. Held and played horizontally like a regular guitar, the electric bass differed from it’s predecessor, the upright bass not only in it’s orientation during playing but also in it’s ease of use and portability. Electric bass players were no longer burdened with a huge lumbering akward instrument to carry and protect. From a distance, the electric bass guitar could easily be mistaken for an electric guitar as the both look very similar with the same solid body shape, however the bass usually has a longer neck. Also, unlike an acoustic guitar which is hollow, with a sound hole to allow for amplification, the sound of a Fender bass guitar is amplified by plugging it in to an amplifier and speaker. The electric bass generally has four strings which are tuned in 4ths like the 4 lowest strings on the guitar but they are tuned an octave lower than those on the guitar. It is played with a variety of techniques including fingering, thumping, picking, slapping and thumbing. Advanced players can also play certain chords and creatively use harmonics. The bass is in all probability one of the closest interacting instruments to the drums; it’s because of this relationship that the bass guitar is a prominent rhythm section instrument. The combination of bass and drums and their unique interaction can completely influence the feel and vibe of the music.
