Approach to bass playing for a new-to-bass guy please?

[dave s]

First 'cry' for help here. I'm hoping some of the more experienced bassists can evaluate my approach to learning bass and help by pointing out where my direction is good and recommend other areas of concentration that would accellerate the learning curve for me.

Background: Guitarist with 30 years experience. Former drummer and played sousaphone for 6 years as well. I understand solid timing, have great sense of rhythm and have a keen 'awareness' of bass from years and years of live gigging as a guitarist.

I expect to hold myself out as a bass player in about 6 months, (this could be very optimistic) and be able to land a gig in a classic rock band doing 60s-90s music. Here's where I'm at today with learning:

Gear: I think I have a pretty decent rig that includes both a 4- and 5-string (backup) guitars, a solid amp with plenty enough horsepower to go live or direct to sound system.

Playing: Have gone 'cold turkey' away from a pick and am concentrating on playing solidly and without too much variation in volume eminating from my right hand technique. This is proving harder than anticipated.

Fretting: Concentrating on keeping my left hand in one general area on the neck (usually nearer the nut) as much as possible. I *think* this is a good idea, but this is mere conjecture on my part. Thoughts?

Competency: Currently spinning recorded classic rock CDs on the basement surround sound rig, listening and following along on bass. Some of the music is pretty easy, some more difficult and some completely out of scope at my level. Peg by Steeley Dan? We'll leave that to the trained professionals at this point! Is this a good idea? Eventually, I must be able to play songs from start to finish so starting off this way makes sense to me.

That's where I'm at today with sore fingers and a lot of unwanted noise still being created by two fingers on my right hand.

From playing guitar for so long, I pretty much know how to make a guitar cave to my bidding, but now clearly understand playing a bass competently takes similar experience to attain the level of competency I expect.

What else can you 'experts' recommend to shorten the learning curve if that is at all possible.

Thanks for your time, thoughts and patience with a relative noob!

dave s

[tjh]

dave ... welcome to the bottom end ... although I would not consider myself an expert, nor even 'competent' in many areas of bass playing, I did first pick it up over 35 years ago, and am currently 're-finding' myself, so I can very well relate to a lot of what you are asking ... I will leave the more 'developed' here to answer more credibly ... but here is what I am going thru ... I wish that early on (and am working at it) ... 1) that I would have incorporated more third finger usage (ring) into the mix on my right hand (I also came from pick use) ... 2) that I had spent more time developing better muting techniques ... 3) that I had better developed my musical ear ... and to a much smaller degree, 4) that I could fluently read musical notation on the fly ...

Having said that, I sense that you are probably more competent than many bass players (probably me too) with your drumming background and solid sense of timing, but if I could add anything, it would be to avoid the tendency to overplay (coming off of guitar) ... I also really think that playing the entire neck, and learning multi octave scales has helped me a great deal as of late ...

I look forward to learning along with you from the true 'experts' on board here ...

[Rattlehead]

Hello.
I'm no expert either, but I may be able to help. I've been playing for 5 years now and have finally found my ideal right hand picking technique. Around here we call it "floating thumb".
You can read it here:
floating thumb techniqe

The thread contains a detailed discussion of 3 techniques involving different things you can do with your thumb - and if you opt to choose the floating thumg technique I think it will really help you out with the "unwanted right hand noise" you are experiencing because it allows you to mute with the thumb.

Another right hand technique is discussed here:
A (Somewhat) Definitive Guide To The Matthew Garrison Technique And Playing Ramps

Although these right hand techniques will take time to master, I think they are worth learning (well not all of them silly!, unless you've got waaaayyy to much time on your hands), and the earlier you start the better. If I had read the floating thumb thread when I first started, it would have save me almost 5 years of unsuccessfully experimenting with different techniques to find what works for me.

The other source of "unwanted right hand noise" might occur because of how you're actually plucking the strings. Some new bass players (and some bass players that do it because they like the sound) tend to use a "typewriter" plucking style, essentially plucking toward the pickup and nailing the string hard enough to make it hit the frets and give a very metallic twang to the attack (for example, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden does this most of the time). If you don't want this, as most bass players do not, you should play with your fingers curved towards the bass, so that when you pick the strings you are picking "upward" rather than "inward".

As for fretting that should come fairly easy for someone who has played guitar for so long. Really the only difference I can think of between guitar and bass guitar is bass requires more strength to fret. It will come with time. I agree with the other person posting that you should get used to playing all over the neck of the bass. I (and alot of bass players) prefer to play to bass angled upwards and adjust the strap so the bass is fairly high. To me, this gives the best possible accessibilty along the entire neck.