10 best bass songs to learn

Music that’s as great to listen to as it is to play. That’s what we’re surveying in this article. Ten songs ranking among the greatest achievements in bass music, that will also take the aspiring bassist’s playing ability to the next level. 

If that’s you, prepare for ten songs here that will challenge your technique. Songs that offer engagement with diverse genres and playing styles. Songs that will introduce you to the masters and the innovators and the beautiful, pioneering music they played. Ten music lessons that will help you to become a better player. 

Or, if you’re not a bassist, simply ten massive bass-playing achievements to learn about. At any rate, to bear witness to their greatness, just follow the links to the app provided. Add the bass tabs to your library, save them offline, annotate to your heart’s content, and let nkoda help you become the musician you’re aiming to be. 
 

Best songs to learn on bass
 

1. ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ by Queen
2. ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ by Marvin Gaye
3. ‘Tom Sawyer’ by Rush
4. ‘December, 1963’ by The Four Seasons
5. ‘London Calling’ by The Clash
6. ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers
7. ‘Sunny Afternoon’ by The Kinks
8. ‘Hysteria’ by Muse
9. ‘Minnie the Moocher’ by Cab Calloway
10. ‘Come as You Are’ by Nirvana

1. ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ by Queen

The greatest bass hook ever? Could well be. John Deacon’s mystifyingly choppy line kicks off ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, and goes on to define the song’s entire mood and material, binding the drums, guitar, and even Freddie Mercury’s rebellious vocals into a tight groove. 

One of Deacon’s own compositions, the song appeared on Queen’s 1980 album, The Game, and was released as a single a few months later. Conquering pop charts all over the world, it soon became regarded as one of the band’s signature anthems. Now, it stands as their best-selling single ever.

Starting on the upbeat, Deacon’s motif descends from A through G to settle on E, the root note of the song’s minor key. He repeats that E three times, on the first three beats of the bar, firmly outlining the pulse. That note’s the lowest note on the bass - thick and muddy, it makes for solid ground on which the band develops the idea gradually, one section at a time.

2. ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ by Marvin Gaye

‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ is another gigantic tune, time and again voted by critics and listeners alike as one of the best songs ever recorded. It was co-written in 1966 by stalwart Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. The first of its many recordings was made by the Miracles. The second was Marvin Gaye’s iconic take.

But who’s playing bass on Gaye’s definitive version? None other than Motown’s legendary sideman, James Jamerson, who’s spotlighted in the best bass players article. His handling of the material in this song is typical of his masterful musicianship, and it’s precisely these techniques that have cemented his place as one of the great players of all time.

Gaye’s song, like Queen’s, also features a classic foundational riff. Introduced on the keys, it’s taken up by the strings, Gaye himself, his backing singers and Jamerson. But even as J.J. remains steady as a rock, playing that main lick to support the ensemble, he is always exploring ways to embellish and expand the material. Session-playing at its finest.

3. ‘Tom Sawyer’ by Rush

Mediating between Neil Peart’s straight drumbeat and Alex Lifeson’s sweeping guitar chords, Geddy Lee underpins the harmonies as he adds an extra melodic voice to the texture. In his vintage way, he works his way up, down, and across the fretboard, his speed matched only by his grace. 

This is Lee as he plays in ‘Tom Sawyer’, the opening track on Rush’s 1981 album, Moving Pictures. For many, the release marks the end of the band’s peak progressive-rock phase. Afterwards they began to move in a different, synth-led direction. If you happen to be a stranger to the high-octane music of Rush, then it’s an excellent place to dive in.

It’s these kinds of performances that make Lee one of the great players and writers of bass music of his generation - and ‘Tom Sawyer’ one of the best bass songs to learn. It’s not as impenetrable as some of Lee’s other work - of which the notorious show-stopper ‘YYZ’ is an outstanding example - but it epitomises his unique musicality.

4. ‘December, 1963’ by The Four Seasons

‘December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)’ was a smash hit for the Four Seasons - not in 1963, but in ’75. It was recorded in the age of disco, but it harks back nostalgically to the 60s, when the group first rose to fame. Distinctively fusing the sounds of the two eras in a winning combo, the song has long been a dance floor-filler. 

Written by keyboardist Bob Gaudio and his future wife Judy Parker, ‘December, 1963’ puts Frankie Valli’s vocals in the limelight, in predictable Four Seasons-style. Gaudio’s piano has a prominent part too, so listeners don’t tend to be drawn to the bass part. But oh, what a part. 

Bassist Don Ciccone gives the performance of his career. Taking off after Valli starts to tell his sentimental tale, he plays an acrobatic bassline, marked with the syncopation and palm-muting that gives disco its unmistakable groove. There are some incredible licks at the top of the fretboard - they’re included in the PepperHorn arrangement above.

5. ‘London Calling’ by The Clash

Now from December ’63 to December ’79, when the Clash released their magnum opus, London Calling. A landmark in the history of popular music, the album saw the group pioneer their established punk-rock sound, embracing fresh musical influences and paving the way for post-punk and new wave.

The title track, ‘London Calling’, is the album’s defiant opening statement, initiating all these innovations. And bassist Paul Simonon has the first word of this proclamation - of London’s call. Set up by strident guitar chords and a pulsating drumbeat, Simonon’s bass then rings out, powering right through the mix.

He slides up the fretboard to hit the root of the opening E-minor chord, before moving up to the C via that distinctive triplet motif. Simonon then repeats the movement, but hitting the C an octave below the second time around. So simple, but so effective. That’s punk in a nutshell, and you won’t find many better examples of it.

6. ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers

Soul legend Bill Withers released a string of hits in the 1970s, including the likes of ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and ‘Lean on Me’. But in many people’s books, the all-time pick of the bunch is ‘Lovely Day’, a feelgood anthem that brightened everybody’s day back in 1977. 

Co-written with Skip Scarborough, the song opens with a steady groove strung together by bass, guitar and drums. But of this trio, the bass is totally at the forefront, outlining the chord scheme, bringing the syncopation, and driving the ensemble. Even after Withers comes in, the bass continues to play prominently, competing for primacy in the texture.

It’s Jerry Knight playing this excellent part, himself an R&B vocalist who released a handful of solo albums in the early 1980s. The only time he’s truly upstaged on the track is when Withers holds that notorious note for eighteen seconds as the song fades out - one of the longest-held sung notes in popular-music history. 

7. ‘Sunny Afternoon’ by The Kinks

Although it’s been around for over 50 years, the Kinks’ classic ‘Sunny Afternoon’ has lost none of its edge. Without a doubt one of the finest works that Ray Davies ever produced, the song boasts that perfect blend of catchy tunes, deft wordplay, and the timeless feel of a stifling summer haze. It has to be one of the all-time great popular songs.

It also feels a bit like a music-hall number, which stems from a combination of musical features - like the off-beat hits, the honky-tonk piano and Davies’ style of singing. But bassist Peter Quaife has to take a lot of the credit for this as well. 

Emphasising every beat and utilising a lot of chromaticism, his bass part really injects that quirky and theatrical character. Those features also give it the flavour of a walking bass, a common device in jazz. Although there’s no real flavour of the genre in ‘Sunny Afternoon’, Quaife still manages to capture that forward thrust typical of jazz bass.

8. ‘Hysteria’ by Muse

Technical, powerful, iconic - Chris Wolstenholme’s bass-playing in ‘Hysteria’ exhibits just about everything that you’d expect of a great bass part. Released on Muse’s 2003 studio album, Absolution, the song cemented their status as one of the most exciting bands of the new millennium. 

Hailing from a sleepy town in southwest England, Muse had attracted acclaim for their virtuosity, compositional prowess and thrilling live performances. Listening to ‘Hysteria’, there can be no doubt as to the band’s pedigree as writers and players. And it’s just the kind of banger that absolutely comes into its own when it’s played to a packed arena.  

The instant the song starts, Wolstenholme is darting around the fretboard, navigating a stream of widely spaced notes at lightning speed. And he does not let up. Chords shift and the material he works through evolves, but the flood of notes only ceases when the song ends. Nearly four minutes of relentless semiquavers - a phenomenal feat.

9. ‘Minnie the Moocher’ by Cab Calloway

‘Minnie the Moocher’ has a long history. Cab Calloway - singer, bandleader, dancer and all-round entertainer of the highest order - first recorded the song back in 1931. It was loved and renowned for its characteristic call-and-response choruses, sultry melodic lines, and Cab’s fiery scat-singing. 

New life was breathed into the song in 1980 when it was performed by a 72-year-old Calloway in the motion picture The Blues Brothers. Two members of the Blues Brothers band were guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn, legendary for their session-playing for the Memphis-based Stax Records label. 

In this version of ‘Minnie the Moocher’ - transcribed in the PepperHorn arrangement for big band linked above - Dunn nods to walking bass as Quaife does in ‘Sunny Afternoon’, but he shapes his part around the kind of bass riffs common in the rhythm-and-blues genre. Cruising at a slow tempo, this bass part is one of the coolest you’ll find.

10. ‘Come as You Are’ by Nirvana

Although they were only active for seven years between 1987 and ’94, Nirvana rewrote most of the chapters in the rock-music playbook. Texture, melody, performance, style - the grunge outfit overhauled these aspects of the formula, and came to cast a huge shadow over all rock groups that followed. 

Bass-playing belongs on that list, too. Just as Kurt Cobain coaxed fresh sounds from his guitar, so Krist Novoselic handled the bass with originality and imagination, and few songs prove it better than ‘Come as You Are’. At times, Novoselic shadows Cobain’s famous riff, and together the two players supply a crisp, unified melodic statement.

Elsewhere he pounds out repeating power chords, which are rare to hear on the bass. These bring a dynamism that is matched by Cobain’s searing guitar. But in opposition to the distortion that Cobain uses so well, Novoselic opts to play with a cleaner tone, which establishes a really effective musical contrast within the song’s soundworld.

Your next steps for bass songs
 

That’s the long and the short of it. Hope you enjoyed this journey through some of the greatest bass music of all time. You can find all these incredible songs on nkoda, as part of the app’s  wider bass guitar sheet music collection. 

There are some more bass-related articles here on the blog that might be of interest to you: easy bass song for beginners, if you’re looking for something a little less intimidating; hard bass songs if you want to know how extreme things get; and best bass players if you want to find out who made it to the top of the pile. 

If you enjoyed the read but don’t know how to approach the sheet music that’s been linked into this article, you might find how to read bass sheet music useful. That tells you everything that you need to know in order to get to grips with this material.