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Vox Worship

Learn Bass,
Serve at Vox

Bass is the instrument that holds an entire band together. It is the midpoint between the rhythms of the drum set and the harmony of the guitars and piano. Whether you have never picked one up or have been playing for years, there is a next step for you here.

Start where you actually are

Words we use a lot

A chart: The page of chords you learn a song from. Not sheet music, and not tab. Planning Center sends it out already in the key the band is playing that week, two weeks before your rehearsal. Songs are memorized by the time you are on stage.
A chord symbol: The letter above the bar tells you your note. G means play G. A slash chord like D/F# means the band is playing D while you play the note after the slash, so your note is F#.
A click: A metronome playing in your ears during the service so the whole band stays locked to the same tempo. The congregation never hears it.
The pocket: When the bass and the drums lock together so tightly that the groove feels effortless.
A set: The songs for one service, usually four or five, sent out two weeks before your rehearsal.

What you are working toward

Know every note on the first four frets of all four strings, including the open strings and the sharps and flats.
Play root notes cleanly in time.
Learn simple bass rhythms by ear.
Read a chord chart and play from it.
Play to a click.
Play with dynamics.
Learn a set of four or five songs on your own in two weeks.
Follow a leader's in-the-moment cue.

What you will need

Two different lists here: what you need to practice at home, and what you bring on a Sunday. Neither is long.

The bass: The Fender P, or Precision, bass is one of the most common and popular basses in recorded music. Its warm sound fits into worship music seamlessly. A 4 string P Bass is a great purchase for any beginner, and they are sold at a range of price points. The entry level Squier Sonic Precision Bass runs around $270 and is more than enough to serve on Sundays. If you want to spend more, the Fender Standard Precision Bass runs around $680. Start on a 4 string.
To practice at home: Besides the bass you need a tuner, a cable, and a way to actually hear yourself. A small practice amp is the usual answer. A headphone amp that plugs straight into the bass works just as well and keeps the house quiet. You also want a metronome and a way to play songs along with you, both of which are free on a phone.
On a Sunday: You bring your bass, your strap, and your in ear monitors. The campus provides the cable and a preamp that you plug into, and your sound goes direct from there to the in ears. You do not need an amp at Vox.
In ear monitors: The earpieces you wear on stage. They carry the click and the rest of the band. Players buy their own, and wired is standard. Wait until after you audition to buy a pair. When you do, around $50 gets a solid working set such as the MEE audio M6 PRO, and the Shure SE215, usually between $100 and $120, is the common standard on worship teams.
Before you play it: Budget for a setup at a local shop, usually $50 to $80. A setup adjusts the string height and the intonation so the instrument plays easily and in tune. Rough fret ends are a separate job and cost more, so ask the shop to look at both when you bring it in.

Path A

Starting from zero

This is a very common path, and a good one. Bass rewards consistency more than talent, and the first useful milestone arrives sooner than most people expect. You will be playing along with real songs well before you feel like a bass player.

Start with these two videos

Free, and the best use of your first few weeks. Watch them before your first lesson if you can.

Beginner Bass Lesson (Your Very First Steps)

Scott's Bass Lessons · 23 min

A patient, complete first lesson. Parts of the bass, plugging in, tuning, posture and plucking, clean fretting, root notes, and a first bass line played against a drum track.

Learn Your Bass Fretboard Notes (Easy Starter Method)

BassBuzz · 20 min

The step beyond the video above. The musical alphabet, the string names, and a method for finding every natural note in the first few frets, ending in a guided play along. This is the piece that turns a chord chart into something you can actually follow.

How long this takes

These are rough expectations rather than a schedule, and people move at very different speeds. With a weekly lesson and twenty to thirty minutes of practice most days, many people are playing simple songs somewhere around three to six months in, and working through the whole list above often takes about a year. What matters is what you can do, not how long it took you. You are also welcome to get in touch long before you are ready, with questions or just to say you have started.

Find a teacher

Community music schools in your area. The most dependable option, with faculty, published rates, and often a trial lesson package.
Local music stores. Many run a lesson studio in the back and can match you with a teacher quickly. Bass teachers are often easier to find this way than through a school.
Your town's public school music department. School music teachers frequently teach privately, and they know who else in town does.
A nearby college or university music department, which often runs a community lessons program.
Ask at your campus. Someone on the worship team probably knows a teacher, and that is usually the fastest introduction you will get.
Online platforms like Lessonface, if local options are thin where you live. Teachers are listed with their rates and many offer a free trial lesson. lessonface.com
Expect to pay roughly $35 to $70 for a weekly thirty minute lesson, depending on the teacher and the town.
These are all outside providers. Vox does not vet or endorse them, so choose your teacher yourself.

Questions to ask at a trial lesson

Ask whether they are comfortable teaching from chord charts and by ear, not only reading notation or tab.The one that matters most for this goal. You want someone who will teach you to read a chord chart and find parts by ear, which is what everything on this page is built around.
Ask what they expect from you between lessons.

If you would rather start online

Both of these are built around learning songs rather than teaching you from scratch, though Worship Artistry does include a structured Bass 101 section. Once you can play a little they are the fastest way to learn the songs we actually do on a Sunday. Both are worship specific and both cover bass properly.

Worship Artistry, around $15 a month or $135 a year. Song by song bass tutorials with multi angle video, practice loops, and transposable tab and chord charts, plus a structured Bass 101 section.
Worship Online, around $18 a month, or $13 a month billed annually. Album accurate bass tutorials for current worship songs, with a mixer that lets you solo the bass or mute it and play the part yourself.

Your first ninety days

Sort out a bass, using the guidance above.
Book a trial lesson.
Put a twenty minute practice window in your calendar, on the same days every week.Consistency is the whole game. Protect the twenty minutes rather than aiming for an hour you will skip.
Work on clean fretting, and learn where the notes are.Fingertips just behind the fret so notes ring without buzzing. Start with the open strings and the first four frets on all four strings, sharps and flats included.
Practice alternating your pointer and middle finger in your plucking hand.Evenness matters more than speed.
Practice with a metronome to work on your rhythm.
Learn the audition songs.The audition page has two songs with chord charts and recordings, at voxchurch.org/voxworship/audition. Those are the ones to work on, and you can start them long before you plan to audition.
Move on to Path B once you have worked through the two videos above and can play along with a song.Path B is about how bass functions inside a worship band. You can learn a good deal of that at home, and the rest develops once you are playing with other people.

Ready? Sign up to audition ›

Path B

You already play bass

You can already play the bass. What you are missing is the vocabulary of playing bass in a worship band.

Sounding like worship music

Tips and Techniques for Your Worship Bass Players

Worship Ministry Training · 42 min

Long, and worth it. Builds a clear argument for what the job actually is: hold the harmonic and rhythmic foundation, serve the vocal and the congregation, leave room in a layered arrangement, and put rhythm ahead of melody. The opening stretch covers the thinking (6:06 to 14:16). The most directly useful part is plucking, register, note length and articulation (15:18 to 24:54), followed by building an arrangement through rhythm and dynamics (25:16 to 30:29).

If you want to go further

6 Practical Playing Tips for Worship Bass

Worship Bass Tutorials · 6 min

The next level. Palm muting with a pick to hold energy in half time sections, using the high register to build tension and saving the low note for the drop, fingers against pick and clean against driven, and keeping it simple when the temptation is to fill.

A progress check you can do on your own

This is not the audition. It is a milestone on the way to it. Record yourself playing one full song along with the original recording or a drum track, so there is a kick drum to lock to, then listen back for four things.

Did you land on the right notes through the chord changes?
Did the tempo stay consistent through the whole song?
Did the part lock with the kick drum?
When you did make a mistake, did you keep going and find your way back in?

Ready? Sign up to audition ›

Path C

Bass for guitarists

A lot of what you know carries over. The fretboard logic is familiar, and the four lowest strings are tuned the same way you already know. The differences are in the right hand, in note length and muting, and most of all in the job itself. Start with the video below, then work through Path B.

What Guitar Players NEED To Know About Playing Bass

Ryan Madora · 9 min

Built for exactly this reader. The fretboard looks familiar and the technique is not, so it covers the right hand approach, touch, note length and muting, and how to think about the role rather than just the notes.

Ready? Sign up to audition ›

What playing bass at Vox actually looks like

The gear: You bring your bass, your strap, and your in ear monitors. The campus provides the cable and a preamp that you plug into, and your sound goes direct from there to the in ears. You do not need an amp.
The charts: Charts come out of Planning Center as chord charts, already transposed into the key the band is playing that week. You will not have to transpose anything yourself.
The click: All songs run to a click in your in ear monitors. Practice with a metronome at home until playing to one feels normal, because it is part of the job rather than an optional extra. Every player here does it.
The rhythm: Rehearsal cadence and Sunday call times vary by campus. Your campus worship director will walk you through what it looks like where you are.
The team: You are joining volunteers who prepare during the week so that Sunday works. Most of the growth happens in that preparation.

Your next step

When you are ready to audition, sign up at voxchurch.org/voxworship/audition. Tell us where you are and what you have been working on, and we will take it from there. If you have questions before that, email worship@voxchurch.org.