How to spice up my playing?

[Cako53]

Hey.  I am new to the site, and am also relatively new to the bass.  I have played the drums for a while, and play them with my church.  I have recently started playing the bass.  I am getting bored, and I'm sure everyone else is, of simply playing the notes of the chords.  I know that there is tons of ways to make the playing more fun and sound better, I just don't know what those ways are or how to do them.  If you guys could give me some advice, that would be great.  Dumbing it down would also be appreciated, I'm not exactly the most proficient at the bass yet.  Thank you guys so much for your help.  God Bless you.

[dhagler]

Welcome to LGM!

Here are some suggestions (I am going to use the numbering system; if you don't know what that is, I can re-post and explain):

1. Walk up (or down) from one chord note to the next. For example, if the song is in B-flat then the "4" is E-flat and you can play B-flat/C/D/E-flat. Of if the song is in B-flat then the "5" is F and you can play B-flat/A/G/F.

2. Bounce between the root and the "5" or the root and the "4" (depends on where you are in the song).

3. Play octaves. Your octave is two strings and two frets up from your root.

4. Two websites (if they are not exactly right, you might do a Google search):
www.gospelbasslines.com
www.uriahsmusic.com

[kevmove02]

While I agree that it can be boring to play only root notes, try listening to music that has no bass notes of any kind, then you will be begging for a root note. On the other end of the spectrum, Bassist Larry Graham played a single bass note for an entire song. He "spiced it up" by playing rhythmic accents (like muted notes, ghost notes) that copied what the drummer was playing.

You can spice things up more by playing the arpeggio of the chord in rhythm with the drum beat. So you see a C chord, play C E G in rhythm with the drummer. The fun is altering the order of the notes (CEG, ECG, GCE, etc) in a way that reinforces the harmony of the song. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as it looks, which is why we practice, practice, practice.