Learn the various versions of “the 4 chord song” and you can play tons of songs together right away. Check out Axis of Awesome YouTube about it. In a nutshell, if you play the Do Re Me song, that’s the major scale, so you count up as you play...Do 1, Re 2, Me 3, etc. The ubiquitous 4 chord song is this: 1 5 6 4. In the way chords work with the major scale, the 6 chord is minor. That’s basic music theory: in a major key, the 2 3 and 6 are minor chords. The 1 4 5 are major. The 7 is the only weird one, being a diminished chord but don’t worry about that one because most modern popular songs don’t ever use the 7. So for example, if you start in the key of G major, the song would be 1G 5D 6Em 4C, so G > D > Em > C. All basic beginner guitar chords. Here are the easiest 4 chord songs for noobs:
G D Em C (easiest one because no barre chords required) :::: C G Am F :::: D A Bm G :::: A E F#m D :::: E B C#m A :::: the formula works for any note you start with.
These are the easiest because there’s only one barre chord req’d (except the G version). Barre chords are a little hard for noobs but you get the hang of it quickly. It’s not an issue on bass for you BUT you have to remember that the minor chord needs you to play a minor 3rd instead of a natural 3rd. The minor 3rd is simply one fret lower than the 3rd. So for example, a typical bass line is the arpeggio of the chord—the three notes that are the triad—the 1 3 and 5, or “root, third, fifth”. Any of those notes will work with the relative chord, so you don’t always have to start with the root, for example. All three of the 1 3 5 are in the chord the guitar is playing. The difference for you on the bass is that on minor chords you need to play a flat 3rd because that’s the formula for a minor triad: 1 b3 5. Notice that the 1 and 5 are in both triads, so that means you’re always good with the 1 5 and 8 (octave) on anything. Sounds boring, right, just 3 notes? You can get really good with just those three notes and sound great pretty early on as a bassist. Lots of YouTube videos on playing well and sounding good with just the simple notes. Since you also know about the 3/b3 thing now, you already have good knowledge of how to be even better and you learned that in the 1 minute it took you to read this. So get on it, bro!