A long root, then a climb through the 3rd, 5th and 6th to the octave — the melodic soul line of the 1960s.
Notes in order: C, C, E, G, A, C, G, G, B, D, E, G, A, A, C, E, F#, A, F, F, A, C, D, F.
How to practise a groove
- Slow first: drop the tempo until every note lands with the kick drum.
- Mind the rests: mute the string on a rest, so the gap is heard.
- Same shape, new chord: the pattern moves with the root, so learn it once and move it.
- Then speed up: raise the tempo a few BPM at a time.
About Bass Grooves
Guitar Tool Hub's bass grooves tool teaches 10 classic bass groove patterns — Motown, rock eighths, root–fifth country, disco octaves, boogie, funk sixteenths, reggae one drop, the metal gallop, bossa nova and roots with approach notes. Each groove is played over one of 6 chord progressions in any of the 12 keys, and shown as bass tab spaced by rhythm, with the chord tone of every note under it. Play it back from 50 to 200 BPM with a drum part in the same style, loop it, and watch each chord's notes on the bass neck.
- 0110 groove patterns, from Motown to metal
- 026 progressions: pop, rock, 12-bar blues, minor rock, minor vamp, one-chord vamp
- 03All 12 keys, with sharp or flat note names
- 04Bass tab spaced by rhythm, with the chord tone under each note
- 05Playback at 50–200 BPM with a matching drum part
- 06Each chord's notes shown on the bass neck as it plays
- 079 tunings for 4, 5 and 6-string bass
- 08Left-handed fretboard option
Frequently Asked Questions
A bass groove is a repeating rhythm and note pattern that locks in with the drums, usually one or two bars long. The same pattern follows the chords by moving with each root, so a groove is a rhythm plus a choice of chord tones, not a fixed set of frets. This tool writes each groove as chord tones (root, 3rd, 5th, octave) and places them on every chord of the progression.
Start with rock eighths (steady eighth-note roots) and the root–fifth country pattern, then disco octaves and roots with approach notes. They teach timing, moving between chords and the root–5th–octave shapes. After those, the Motown, boogie and funk grooves add the 3rd, the 6th, the flat 7th and syncopation.
Each bar of tab is 16 sixteenth notes wide, and every note sits where it is played, so a note that lasts a beat takes a quarter of the bar. Under each note is its chord tone: R root, 3 the 3rd, 5 the 5th, 6 the 6th, 8 the octave, flat 7 the minor 7th and A an approach note. Gaps with no fret number are rests.
In a swung groove, each beat is split long-short instead of into two equal halves: the second eighth note lands on the last third of the beat. The boogie groove is swung, as in blues and early rock and roll, and its drum part swings with it.
There are 6: I–V–vi–IV (the pop progression), I–IV–V–IV (rock), the 12-bar blues with dominant 7th chords, i–flat VII–flat VI–flat VII (minor rock), a i–iv minor vamp, and a one-chord vamp for drilling the pattern on its own. Each one works in any of the 12 keys.
Yes. Untick Drums to hear the bass line on its own. With the drums on, each groove gets a drum part in its own style: a four-on-the-floor kick for disco, a one-drop for reggae, a shuffle for the boogie and 16th-note hi-hats for funk.
Yes. Pick the tuning and the grooves are placed from the lowest string of that tuning, so on a 5-string they use the low B. The tab and the neck show the string and fret for every note.
Yes. Bass Grooves is free, runs in your browser and needs no account or download.