*plays chord root note*

>*plays chord root note*

I'm a beginner guitar player and I've always wondered: is that seriously all bassisth do?

I mean, I know that if you want you can be some kind of virtuoso, but if you just want to be a discrete bass player?

yes
the simplest bass lines are just the root note of whatever the guitar is doing
really it doesn't have to be any more complicated

*plays chord third note*

>third as in the third note of a triad (5th to root) or third to the root in an inverted chord?

Major/minor 3rd of the chord

If you're talentless

*descends chromatically*

Op is a dum dum and u listn to the dum dum songs

Depends on the music you listen to. When I was in high school my parents forced me to play in the church's praise band, which was just chord notes. I also played in the school jazz band and that was much more than root notes. So it all depends

*walks up to the next chord note*
i'm the most important member of the band... looser..

redpill: playing bass in a band is 10x harder than playing lead guitar because you actually need to keep tempo and can't just fuck around doing whatever you want

>implying bassists don't just leave that to the drummer and pretend like their the lead guitar

>implying it's not the opposite
drummers love showing off

Lol that's just what bassists who can't play any other instruments tell each other. No multi instrumentalist had ever held the opinion that normal, non-soloist bass playing is more difficult than lead guitar.

If you're leading guitar player is "just fucking around" out of tempo, it's not a good band.

Some do, not all. Those that do tend to have a pretty distinct variation amongst themselves, mostly rhythmic - sure, one could play them in in quarters/eights, but generally give how rhythmic bass is a bassline doesn't need to be super note-heavy to be memorable; the Smells Like Teen Spirit one is super memorable but it is just root notes, though in all honesty that's the strong point of Krist Novoselic. It can work.

But in all honesty, most bands would kill for a Jack Bruce or a Jaco Pastorious, but they'd loathe someone trying to be either of them. Generally it's better to be minimal at first, then understand how to fit yourself better in the group. It's why bass is sort of a complex instrument to get really good at; a bassist with no band training will be able to do like all sorts of crazy shit but he won't know how to fit into the band, while one with lots of band practice may be more mediocre but his stuff will fit better.

>plays something other than the root, 3rd or 5th

Can someone recommend me a good book/pdf on learning the bass? Also, which YT channels are good for beginners?

Scott's Bass Lessons is a good channel for bass tips and general beginner stuff. Although he talks so much fucking garbage so be prepared to skip through a lot of filler to get to the point