Easy Bass Songs for Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide

So, you've decided to embark on the exciting journey of learning to play the bass guitar! Welcome to a vibrant community of talented and diverse musicians, including iconic figures like Flea, Paul McCartney, Sting, John Paul Jones, John Deacon, and Gene Simmons. If these names are new to you, take some time to explore their music and let their artistry inspire and motivate you as you begin learning easy bass guitar songs. With so much music to explore, where do you even begin? If you don't already have some favorite easy bass songs in mind, here are some suggestions that will help you learn the basics of notation or tablature, key signatures, and understanding the core components that make up the songs you love, all without boring you with endless repeats of the same eight bars.

Getting Started: Foundational Bass Lines

One of the most effective ways to improve as a beginner bass player is to learn songs. Fender Play offers a wide range of accessible lessons that focus on the basslines of notable songs in modern music. Whether you're aiming to refine a specific skill or simply want to learn a groove you enjoy, Fender Play's ever-expanding library has something for you.

Top 10 Easy Bass Songs for Beginners

Here are 20 easy songs that any new player can pick up and sound great on bass.

1. The Beatles: "She Loves You"

What better way to start a bass guitar journey than with some classic Paul McCartney?

Key: C Major
Rhythm: Dotted half note, quarter note
Challenge: A driving beat with minimal repetition. “She Loves You” has a fast and driving beat so you need to keep pushing your beginner bass guitar skills and build stamina. You can also play it McCartney-style using a pick, and if you’re so inclined, left-handed.

2. The White Stripes

This next song is a winner and it’s from a band that didn’t have a bass player! Huh? Yes, the White Stripes were a duo and notorious for their lack of a bassist in live performances.

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*Written in G Major.*The bass line stands out.*You have to count! This is a leap into a long, repetitive, yet simple bass guitar part that keeps you on your toes. You learn how to deal with triplets, eight notes, and rhythm variations.

3. Cream: "Sunshine of Your Love"

Few songs with bass are as recognizable as Jack Bruce’s iconic track on “Sunshine of Your Love.” It’s the beating engine of the song, sticks in your head, and is just darn fun to play.

Key: New key
Challenge: A strong bass line. Explore new rhythms. The part requires stamina and precision. Beginner bass guitar players will find it’s not hard to play but it is hard to play it right and keep it going for 110+ measures.

4. Deep Purple: "Smoke on the Water"

Rock music is interesting because it embraces characteristics from all different genres. “Smoke on the Water” is actually a four-note blues scale, and it introduces our first key with flats - G Minor.

Key: G Minor
Challenge: Repetitive eighth notes. The blues scale brings a different sound. Octaves galore. “Smoke on the Water” contains over 1,200 notes!

5. Queen: "Another One Bites the Dust"

Here’s another classic that will be hard to get out of your head, and the best part is that the song was written by Queen’s bassist, John Deacon, making it a prime example of a hit song with good bass.

Scale: Pentatonic
Key: Introducing a minor key.
Challenge: A clean but sophisticated rhythm. “Another One Bites the Dust” introduces new challenges for the beginner bass guitar player including an alternate tuning for the bass, the E Minor key, and advanced rhythms yet it remains approachable.

6. The Police: "Message in a Bottle"

It’s time to experience the monotony of being a bassist. Message in a Bottle is a great driving rock song written by a bassist, Sting, with a repetitive bass line that has two sections with four notes each.

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Bass Line: The song uses a true bass line.
Challenge: It’s time to turn on the speed. Watch the guy who wrote it, play it! For this song to work, it has to have a driving beat. If you slow it down or fall out of sync with the drummer, the song breaks quickly.

7. Pink Floyd: "Comfortably Numb"

When it comes to rock ballads, Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” is right at the top of the list, and the best part is that the simplistic bass line is prominent throughout.

Rhythm: The song has a solid rhythm.
Challenge: Practice those dotted eight sixteenth pairings. A dotted eight note paired with a sixteenth note is ubiquitous in bass notation. Build those fingers with slides! The key of C Major (2 sharps) and a tempo of 64 beats per minute don’t pose any particular problem for the aspiring bassist. The challenge comes from the over 6-minute song duration-that’s a long haul for untrained fingers on both hands.

8. The Who: "Baba O’Riley"

Every bassist needs a Who song in their repertoire, and this one is a good starter.

Challenge: Learn to deal with extended rests. Bass players have to learn to count rests and “Baba O’Riley” starts with 60 measures worth. There are rests, rhythms, whole notes, and more. Simplicity helps you focus.

9. Green Day: "When I Come Around"

One quality that defines an experienced rock bassist is the ability to play recognizable riffs, and the repeating two-bar bass riff in “When I Come Around” is as recognizable as it gets. It’s Green Day after all.

Riff: Just 2 bars to drill into your head.
Challenge: Experience alternate tunings. You don’t often have to tune your bass differently but it does come up from time to time. Once you learn the riff, you still have to deal with the fast tempo and the alternate tuning.

10. James Brown

Let’s end our top 10 with James Brown’s biggest hit, often cited as one of the best bass songs for getting into funk. This classic 12-bar blues riff drifts over into Brown's famous funk, honoring the contributions of influential Black musicians. You can play it comfortably at Brown’s original 144 BPM or test your metal at his more raucous recording speed of 195.

Genre: The blues is where it’s at.
Challenge: Learning to play the blues is one of the most important skills for a bassist. Let’s move further up the fingerboard. Simple but challenging. You may feel intimidated whenever you break away from standard rock chord structures, but in this song, you can work on the blues and infuse some funk.

11. Nirvana: "Come as You Are"

The second single from the influential album, Nevermind, "Come As You Are" was a huge success for Nirvana. Recorded in only a few takes, the guitar and bass riff is instantly recognizable.

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12. The O'Jays: "I Love Music"

R&B vocal group the O’Jays have been active since 1958 and are known for their soulful harmonies. In the ‘70s they had many hit singles including “Love Train,” “Back Stabbers,” and “Now That We Found Love.”

13. The Black Crowes: "She Talks to Angels"

1990's Shake Your Money Maker brought Southern rock back into the forefront, as The Black Crowes rattled off hit after hit, including the soaring "She Talks to Angels." The bluesy ballad rose to No. 1 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart and No. 30 on the Hot 100. Songwriters Chris and Rich Robinson tugged on the heartstrings with their emotional lyrics recounting people they knew from the Atlanta rock club scene. In this lesson, you'll work on finger placement and alternate plucking.

14. John Lee Hooker: "Boom Boom"

You've probably heard some iteration of John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom," as the 1962 track was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of "The Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll," and it was also inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame. The Detroit artist created a signature boogie rhythm style that still resonates today. Fender Play instructor Harley Duggan runs you through this bluesy rhythm to keep you grooving.

15. Green Day: "Longview"

"Longview" is the main single from Green Day's third album Dookie. The song was their first single to hit the top of the Modern Rock chart in the US and was their entrance into mainstream popularity.

16. Meghan Trainor: "Like I'm Gonna Lose You"

Meghan Trainor's R&B-infused pop tunes proved irresistible to audiences, giving her a number one album, Title, in 2015, which produced the hits "All About that Bass," "Lips Are Movin," and "Like I'm Gonna Lose You," a duet with John Legend. This lesson from Fender Play instructor Nikki Stevens is a great refresher on how to play walking bass, which will help in a wide variety of genres.

17. ZZ Top: "La Grange"

Blues-rock trio ZZ Top introduced Texas boogie to the public with a series of hits in the '70s and '80s. The biggest of which might just be "La Grange," which appeared on the 1973 album Tres Hombres. It actually calls back to Hooker's "Boom Boom" in the line "a-how-how-how-how," and the traditional rhythm has been heard in a few blues songs that preceded it. "La Grange" has three distinct bass lines that feature various rhythms and range from playing the open string to the 7th fret.

18. Robert Cray: "Phone Booth"

Fender Play instructor Pete Griffin runs you through bass techniques like string muting, eighth not rhythms and the notorious thumb slap in this lesson for Robert Cray's "Phone Booth." The song put the Stratocaster slinger on the map with contemporary blues fans with his soulful vocals and melding of blues, soul, gospel and jazz.

19. Salt-N-Pepa: "Push It"

If you're in the mood for some classic hip-hop, look no further than Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It," which pushed the all-female group to massive commercial success in the early and mid 1990's. If you're not up to speed on string muting, alternate plucking and raking on your bass, this lesson is where it's at.

20. The Ramones: "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker"

Punk pioneers the Ramones influenced legions of musicians by stripping rock music down to its core and playing at speedy tempos with contagious ferocity. But to play the bassline from "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker," along with all other Ramones tracks, you'll need a pick and the ability to downstroke with reckless abandon. Fender Play instructor Darren McGuire breaks it all down with this classic punk song that highlights the Ramones' machine-gun formula.

Additional Resources for Bass Players

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