The bass guitar is one of the youngest instruments, without which contemporary music can not be imagined. First models appeared in the late 1940s, and from 1953 a bass became a commercial product. These were American "Fender" basses of till now popular model "Fender Precision". So as the bass start functioning as a double bass, it immediately became widely popular, thanks to its compactness (in the first place) and considerably increased sound volume, owing to the application of sound-amplifying equipment. As well as a double bass, first bass' models had four strings, tuned similar to a double bass. The first string (the thinnest one) is a note G of the great octave, the second string is the note D of the great octave, the third string - a note A of a contra octave, the fourth string (the thickest) is the note E, based in the contra octave.
The bass is the foundation of a harmony. When we want to know the name of a chord, we have to find, firstly, the lowest note in this shape, this names the chord. All other notes, which a chord includes, only specify its mode functions, in one or another chord sequence.
So, chords are named "by the bass". The double bass as a lowest-pitched instrument in the orchestra is called to create a harmonic foundation for different music structures. The expansion of musical views, which took place in the twenties century on the basis of the scientific and technological advance, and a considerably increased role of music in the life of modern society allow to put practically every instrument in an orchestra or a band in the forefront. The bass guitar is not an exception; it is used in different music styles as an accompanying and as soloing instrument. Five- and six-string bass guitar models were developed and put on sale to extend the range of an instrument. The low B string of the sub-contra octave is usually used in five strings. The low B string of the sub-contra octave and the high C string of a small octave are usually used in six-strings, extending the range of an instrument to four octaves. So as the bass is tuned in fourth, all fingerings are universal in any part of the neck, from any string. This circumstance facilitates the process of mastering any number of strings on the bass.
On the one hand, a bass is generally a four-string instrument in our perception, and there is no difference between basses with various numbers of strings except the range. On the other hand, I want to learn to play the bass, but I have only five- or six-string model!? On the basis of these reasons and the more integral perception of every range separately (it gives a possibility for the most efficient usage of five- and six-string basses advantages), fingerings for basic musical figures, viewed in the theoretical part (scales, triads, seventh chords, pentatonics), are given for the 4-, 5- and 6-string bass in this textbook.
The role of the bass in the band is mostly rhythmic and harmonic. It links drums rhythm to the music harmony. The concept of music style is first of all the rhythmical concept, that is why exactly the bass with percussive instruments creates a sense of one or another music style (samba, rumba, swing, bossa nova, ballad, etc). A contemporary bass player often has to devise his part by himself on the basis of the guitar "harmony" and one or another style. A guitar "harmony" means here a chord sequence for a song or another musical composition, for example: Gm7 | C9 | Fmaj7 |Bbmaj7 | Gm7 | A7 |Dm | Dm :||. This is rather easy, you only should learn basic music structures (scales, triads, seventh chords and a pentatonic) in major and minor variants, and also listen a lot of different music, to have an idea of styles.
From the objective viewpoint an art of improvisation on any music instrument can be divided into three constituent parts: 1. Sense of rhyme, 2. Sense of the tonality,
3. Sense of the form.
A sense of rhyme arises from the realization of the "rhythmic temperament". It should be formed a clear sensation of multilevel duplet-triplet division of tempo-rhythm. This gives a possibility to play fast and slow patterns in the same tempo.
Sense of the tonality arises from learning musical figures (scales, triads, seventh chords, pentatonics…) viewed in this textbook.
A practice of scales, arpeggios and so on gives a possibility to hear their sound, a melody which is the result of the performing. The importance of such exercises can scarcely be overestimated. It is a solfeggio on the guitar. From the start a connection of those exercises with music is unobvious, but it proves to be the shortest way to understand the highest level of music art at the end. The improvisation eventually is a matter of an ear. Consequently an ear should be developed first of all.
A sense of a form arises from the recognition of the basic logical music structure called a chorus. The simplest chorus is one measure. The duration of a chorus can be different, and depends on kind of music. Commonly there are differed such choruses: one measure, two measures, hypermeasure (4 measures), two hypermeasures (8 measures), hypermeasure verse (16 measures)…etc.
Suggested methods aimed to form and develop the above mentioned qualities. Firstly learn thoroughly the fingering of a scale for example, and then try to play it as in the notation under a tabulature. It is important to tap your foot in time while playing exercises. First of all this allows to hear and play the melody more correctly and then provides better and faster understanding of the rhythmic temperament. The performance of given exercises in time is the "foundation stone" of this methods.
Before you start practice, have a good look at the picture showing the constituent part of the bass guitar. The same picture is shown here in the four string bass school, like in five- and six-strings schools. This specially emphasize, that these instruments differs from each other only with number of strings, all other their constituent parts have identical names.