Jamming with Jimi Hendrix on “Hey Joe”
Today is April 16, 2025. I have been practicing electric bass for 6 months. I have been playing guitar for 18 months.
I can choose from 3 of my basses to play. The blue Deltatone, the titanium ESP LTD B50 or the Huntington PJ. I grabbed the Huntington PJ Bass today because it’s just a beautiful $50 bass. Just looks pretty with black body and red fake/real tortoise shell pickguard. And it plays nicely.
Today was special because I tried to jam to guitar songs with the Huntington bass and succeeded. It was fantastic.
The first song I jammed on with bass with Jimi Hendrix’s Hey Joe.
Why did it take me 6 months to Learn How to Jam with my Bass?
I have studied electric bass for 6 months. My contractor gave me a free 2008 blue Deltatone bass, I had it set-up, and I have been playing it since August 2024.
I have used the Fender Play App most every day, I read/skim various bass books, watch YouTube videos just like you do, and took one bass class at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, IL USA.
But no teacher, no video ever taught me how to jam with my bass to a song. Perhaps it’s my fault for not asking a teacher. But as a beginner bassist, or a beginner with anything, the hard part is knowing the right questions to ask and to guide your learning.
My Simple Bass Playing Along with a Track Method
Experienced bassists will laugh at my method. But the problem with studying bass too much by yourself is that you can’t learn things easier with other bassists. So here’s how I put 2 + 2 together.
Use Justin Guitar practice songs (I am a JG subscriber).
The guitar chords are shown on the computer and you can play the riff out loud. I have done this on guitar for about a year with Justin Guitar (look him up on the Internet).
- Snapshot courtesy of Justin Guitar on the Internet.
I grabbed my Huntington and played the single bass note for every guitar card. For example this version of the song Hey Joe uses chords E, C and G. The guitar chord fingering might be hard for a beginner. But for a beginner bassist finding notes E, C and G is easy.
“It’s that simple. Follow along with a song as long as you can see the guitar chords and you can easily substitute your bass notes.” – Shoshin Guitarist.
Magically, it all sounded good. For the first time ever, I was meaningfully using my bass to jam to a song.
The songs I jammed to today were:
- Hey Joe
- Sweet Home Chicago
- Folsom Prison Blues
Wow, they all sounded good.
So Beginner Bassists, Bass Jamming Over a Track Can Be Easy
Thanks for visiting Shoshin Guitarist today to learn a simple way of bass jamming over a track.