i am going to start a band soon with a guitar a bass vocals and drums.

i was wondering (as i have no experience) what does the bass play usally ie. what notes, rhythms

the way i see the bass since i played it in a cover band for Iron Maiden where the bass is very noticed, is mainly to keep the beat like the drums do, so you can see it as the drums playing an actual note, for some parts its cool to let the bass play the same thing as the rhythm guitar, or if you want to be lame like many of the new bands today is to just play a simple constant bass line that only plays the current note the song is in.

thanks, so basically bass can play the same rhythm as guitar with the ocasional riff. gotcha