Soloing Over Bass Chord Progressions And Key Changes With Speed Is A Skill

Improvising bass lead lines over diatonic and non diatonic jazz, rock, blues or country chord structures requires bass music theory that puts together the musical knowledge of modes, tonality, key modulation, circle of fifths, intervals, scale sequencing, passing tones, melodic ideas and more.  Fast soloing over the bass fretboard while correctly following the various chord changes and key modulations that are happening in real time is a key ingredient to mastering the art of bass playing.

This in one of the reasons bass students often feel they do not have any other choice but to go to private lessons, a music school, college or university.  They are right in most cases.  Gaining the ability and knowledge to play the bass like an individual often desires is not an easy task.   There are so many variables and approaches to how one learns to play the bass at an advanced level and most often none of these approaches whether innovative, clear or not are not even available without a serious investment of time and money into very professional bass instruction.  Playing along with the music of various artist and figuring out the chord changes and lead lines whether with bass tablature, or audio slow down devices or simply by ear is always great practice and a great way to develop ones musical ear, but in most cases it fails to give the bass player any real understanding or insight into the actual musical knowledge and intent of what is being played to begin with. 

From an ear training and practice perspective, figuring out songs for example, can be quite frustrating especially when trying to understand the soloing over quite a number of chord and key changes as well as the use of substitutions and implied chords that can make the process of comprehending what is going on much more beyond the grasp of even more experienced students who do not have the kind of solid understanding and experience with these musical concepts that is necessary.  Implementation of your skills as a bass player will always be greatly improved and expanded by having a solid guidance into the study of bass and how music works at all levels.  There is bass software for example that is available, that will take you to that next level of real world knowing and hands on soloing and playing application more so than you ever thought possible without any comparable cost of money or away from home time that makes it even more frustrating and difficult for those achieve their bass playing goals who don't have the extra time or money to pursue that dream.