Advice on agility! View and respond!

[martyr of obscu]

What exercises can I do in order to build speed for my LEFT hand.....im a RIGHTY. Im a bit slow.....and i love to play fast things! So give me a link or something to where I can find this type of exercise!

[PrimusNut]

make up your own excersise, what feels right to you. just be sure to get your pinky in there too.. all i do is sit down and jam using all my fingers on my left hand.. plus, just practicing will build speed in left hand..

do you pick, pluck, or slap?

[ric1312]

Good old fashioned scale work, backwards and forwards at different tempos, with one finger for for each for frets.

A little less boring if you do it to a drum machine or at least tap your foot for tempo and play the scale musically.

[PrimusNut]

lol i guess im just a newb.. i dont knw any scales or chords or any of that.. lol... gotta get learning... ust confuses me.. but the best advice i ever recieved when starting to play bass is do your own thing, and what feels right to you.. and most of all, practice..

[Scott McC]

Make love to the metronome. As mentioned above, scales are the stuff for this. Play them in 3rds, 4ths, and any other pattern you like. Start slow, and work your way up. I find speed is the easiest element to work on, because it is simple repitition. For my college audition I played Charlie Parker's solo from Confirmation (on electric). It seemed impossible at first, but that 16th run at 165bpm came together pretty quick. Thinking of the cool fast lines is the hard part. Have fun practicing, I do.

[Jeff Martinez]

Here's what I've been doing for years. It's not the most exciting thing, but it works for me.

Use 1st finger on first fret, middle finger on second, etc...

|-------------------------1-2-3-4-3-2-1------------------|
|-----------------1-2-3-4---------------4-3-2-1----------|
|---------1-2-3-4-------------------------------4-3-2-1--|
|-1-2-3-4-------------------------------------------------|


|-------------------1-2-4-2-1-------------------|
|-------------1-2-4-----------4-2-1-------------|
|-------1-2-4-----------------------4-2-1-------|
|-1-2-4-----------------------------------4-2-1-|


|-------------------1-3-4-3-1-------------------|
|-------------1-3-4-----------4-3-1-------------|
|-------1-3-4-----------------------4-3-1-------|
|-1-3-4-----------------------------------4-3-1-|


|-------------------2-3-4-3-2-------------------|
|-------------2-3-4-----------4-3-2-------------|
|-------2-3-4-----------------------4-3-2-------|
|-2-3-4-----------------------------------4-3-2-|


|-------------2-4-2-------------|
|---------2-4-------4-2---------|
|-----2-4---------------4-2-----|
|-2-4-----------------------4-2-|

(this is the most important part one)
|-------------3-4-3-------------|
|---------3-4-------4-3---------|
|-----3-4---------------4-3-----|
|-3-4-----------------------4-3-|


Try these starting on different frets all up and down the fret board, using the same finger positions. Try it without plucking/picking. Do it until your left hand gets cramps, then do it some more. Most important...USE A METRONOME, or some form of timing. Also, get creative with variations of this.

[ogrossman]

Oh man, is that a killer! I don't think I'd get through it three times without cramping. Thanks for the tip.

[martyr of obscu]

I pick.....thanx for all the help...more help is welcome :P

[werbo1]

Also practice cross stringing - I'll use E A D G to represent strings cuz i dont have time for a tab

1E 3A 2E 4A 1A 3D 2A 4A etc

then switch it up

[ric1312]

Originally Posted by PrimusNut

lol i guess im just a newb.. i dont knw any scales or chords or any of that.. lol... gotta get learning... ust confuses me.. but the best advice i ever recieved when starting to play bass is do your own thing, and what feels right to you.. and most of all, practice..

"do your own thing, or what feels right," is great to a point, but you really need to learn at least a little bit of the musical language.

Not that I know a whole lot of music theory, but I've found just knowing the major and minor scale patterns around the circle of fifths has gave me enough knowledge and dexderity to play most basic songs. and know where enough the fret board to find notes when the guitarist and I are putting something together.

Most of what you play will be around the circle of fifths, so learn the root notes for that at least. I've learned 10 of my own originals that I just used to sing on, and five covers, all of them fell somewhere in the circle of fifths.

Also get some tabs and learn some songs, much more fun than just scales and going back between the song and and scales will show you how you can do the song with proper finger position and if possible how to do certan songs without moving your hand up and down the neck constantly.

I really would learn some scales, otherwise you'll end up being one of those one fingered players that just constantly plays the root every song and nothing else.

Here is what I do:

warmup 1234.....1234 one finger for one fret up and down the neck until I start to feel smooth and relaxed.

Major and minor scale around the circle of fifths.
1. just the root.
2. triad/ 1,3,5.
3. 1,3,5,octave
4. then I hit all the outside notes of the scaler pattern (forgot the techincal term for this)
5. then I do the whole scale.
6. Play my set of songs I do

More often then not I'll start to hear things and write line, or even start a whole new song.

Then I'll jerk around with slap / pop for a while and then bemoan the fact that I am not wooten.

Pretty basic practice, easy for me now and I'm going to add different scaler patterns and music theory to my routine. but this has made me a decent bass player that can hold down the bottom end.

[I am Domokun]

Originally Posted by Jeff in Winter

Here's what I've been doing for years. It's not the most exciting thing, but it works for me.

Use 1st finger on first fret, middle finger on second, etc...

|-------------------------1-2-3-4-3-2-1------------------|
|-----------------1-2-3-4---------------4-3-2-1----------|
|---------1-2-3-4-------------------------------4-3-2-1--|
|-1-2-3-4-------------------------------------------------|


|-------------------1-2-4-2-1-------------------|
|-------------1-2-4-----------4-2-1-------------|
|-------1-2-4-----------------------4-2-1-------|
|-1-2-4-----------------------------------4-2-1-|


|-------------------1-3-4-3-1-------------------|
|-------------1-3-4-----------4-3-1-------------|
|-------1-3-4-----------------------4-3-1-------|
|-1-3-4-----------------------------------4-3-1-|


|-------------------2-3-4-3-2-------------------|
|-------------2-3-4-----------4-3-2-------------|
|-------2-3-4-----------------------4-3-2-------|
|-2-3-4-----------------------------------4-3-2-|


|-------------2-4-2-------------|
|---------2-4-------4-2---------|
|-----2-4---------------4-2-----|
|-2-4-----------------------4-2-|

(this is the most important part one)
|-------------3-4-3-------------|
|---------3-4-------4-3---------|
|-----3-4---------------4-3-----|
|-3-4-----------------------4-3-|


Try these starting on different frets all up and down the fret board, using the same finger positions. Try it without plucking/picking. Do it until your left hand gets cramps, then do it some more. Most important...USE A METRONOME, or some form of timing. Also, get creative with variations of this.

I've just started using this excerice, and I gotta say it's BRILLIANT for me. I've got some problems controlling my 3rd and 4th fingers when I'm trying to fret fast, and this is really helping me to control them. Thanks!

[morf]

Jeff in winter posted a great exercise, I made one up somewhat like that for myself, and its greatly helped!

[Steve Clark]

Originally Posted by Scott McC

Make love to the metronome. As mentioned above, scales are the stuff for this. Play them in 3rds, 4ths, and any other pattern you like. Start slow, and work your way up. I find speed is the easiest element to work on, because it is simple repitition. For my college audition I played Charlie Parker's solo from Confirmation (on electric). It seemed impossible at first, but that 16th run at 165bpm came together pretty quick. Thinking of the cool fast lines is the hard part. Have fun practicing, I do.

For sure use the metronome. There are lots of good books out there, or at least used to be out there. I have a couple called Left Hand Gymnastics for Bass. These days I work on scales and apreggios built on the scale tones. Start on the roots, 3rds and 7ths. Great memory work for harmony as well as practical applications as well as dexterity.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by PrimusNut

make up your own excersise, what feels right to you.

The problem with that is-
It's only human nature to 'practice' what exercises feel right; trust me, for years...been there, done that.
What's required is doing some things that don't feel right. Personally, I would look into exercises that feature independence...stuff like having all 4 fingers on the neck, finger-per-fret...and moving ONLY the 3rd & 4th fingers one-at-a-time.
Also, pay attention to the angle of your fretting hand's wrist...too much of an angle = a guitarist (good for chording, not so good for playing solonotes).
Also, don't play with flat fingers on the neck...a bit of a curl & try to aim for economy of motion/muscle memory.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Jeff in Winter

Also, get creative with variations of this.

Nice work.
A variation would be string skipping, i.e 1st run of 4 notes on the "E", 2nd run of 4 notes on the "D", etc.
...or 1st 2 notes on the "E", 2nd 2 notes on the "D", etc.

Also, to get your plucking hand in-shape...
Doubletime-
1-1-2-2-3-3-4-4 etc

Use triplets-
1-1-1-2-2-2-3-3-3-4-4-4 etc

Quadrupletime-
1-1-1-1-2-2-2-2-3-3-3-4-4-4-4 etc

[ostrich]

what i did when i started playin and even still is. Find a tune that i want to learn but am nowhere near agile enough to play learn it at a tempo im comfortable to play it at.

it is frustrating at first but its human nature to become faster the more a routine is done or in this cas a riff is played