developing fingering technique

[darkshined]

i feel really bad that i always play on the same string during a song and i cant seem to develop my fingers to play on multiple strings. any tips from experienced players? such as recommended scales to play or finger exercices.

[Joe P]

Originally Posted by darkshined

i feel really bad that i always play on the same string during a song and i cant seem to develop my fingers to play on multiple strings. any tips from experienced players? such as recommended scales to play or finger exercices.

Hi, Darkshined - welcome

Well you should feel bad, but it's cool you're facing it and doing something about it.

Now doing a whole song on one string isn't 'the easy way', I'll tell ya. If many of us more experienced guys were told "OK, now play that whole song on one string", we might have a tough excercise ahead of us! (Don't get me wrong - these pros around here could do it in their sleep!)

This thread may get bounced-over to the general instruction forum, but whether it does or not, check out that forum. Pacman's 'sticky thread':
Pacman's sure-fire scale practice method
is great - you'll learn a lot from there. There are also tons of links and stuff also to get you right on track to mastery.

The main thing to do is scales. Just do'em and do'em and do'em, til your hand is like a machine - it's worth it, Man. Minor, major, and maybe pentatonic (but don't get too hung-up on pentatonic, because it's really 'regular' scale with with a couple notes missing).

It's good you're getting on this. You just don't even know how satisfying - what an absolute thrill - bass playing can be when you really begin to control that beast.

Wishing you the best, my bass-playing brother -

Joe

[darkshined]

thanks a lot for that joe P thanks fopr the encouragement and stuff. should i start slow with scales and woprk up to playing them as fast as i can?

[Joe P]

Originally Posted by darkshined

...should i start slow with scales and woprk up to playing them as fast as i can?

Yes, but before you work too hard on speed in one neck position, learn to smoothly move and flow between the different patterns that are used on different positions on the neck. (There are only a few positions, and then they repeat.)

Don't worry about speed. That really will just happen to a certain point as you learn and practice. You just want to start to turn those runs and intervals and patterns into 'muscle memory'; then you can think about the music instead of making your bass work.

Remember that the important thing in bass playing is groove - timing and groove; precision with the timing and beat. Listen to the drummer especially - try to just nail your notes along with the drum part. There's a place for bass that they call 'the pocket', get there and stay there!

Well - I'm off out-of-state for a week-and-a-day. I don't think internet access will be very available, so see y'all later.

My main problem is that for this trip a bass won't be available either!! This will be the longest I've gone without playing bass in a long time... I'm not kidding when I say that it's what I'm going to miss most (My wife is pretty high on the list, but 'sorry Honey').

Joe

[anomalybass]

Another thing you can do to get more familiar w/ using more than one string, is just re-learn a song you already know using only one fingering position. Try playing the song using all four strings above the first 5 fretts. Basically the first mode of any scale.

[Splanky]

Hi Darkshined!

Quite recently i was in the same position as you are.
Never took the time or effort to learn scales properly. But since 2 month i have been practising quite a lot. Not just scales but all kind of exercises. And i would like to stress one thing before you start. Warm up and cool down

Before you start to shed wood make shure your hands are warmed up. Take these 5 min in the beginning. Find some kind of finger exercise that suits you. (Prefered! No bass involved. There are plenty! Do a search) I do a Chi-Gong excercise i have learned from my wife. And i just can´t play if i am not properly warmed up. But the main reason is to prevent damage to your hands. I have been very carefull but have still had some minor issues with my hands. I rested for 3 days and it´s was gone.
So be carefull listen to your body, take a day of from playing every now and then. Then you are finished! Cool down by playing some fun simple tunes that make you smile. Don´t forget to stretch your hands. You will be rewarded!

Take care and good luck!

[peterjc]

there is one exercise I use to do years ago to develop my right hand,because for me skipping strings was the hardest thing to do so I used stick control exercises for drummers.
let me (try to) explain .for example the exercises in the book
-RRLL- for drummers it means 2X right stick and 2X left
I would do the RR 2 c's on the A-string then the LL 2 c's on the G-string and then again 2 C's on the A-string and then 2 G's on the D-string so I had the root,the octave and the 5th. there are many different exercises in that book
so my rule was R is the root and the L is first octave and second time the 5th and i can tell you,after some time the result was really amazing
If you planning to use this exercise you only can use the first 3 or 4 pages of the book so I think its better to copy these pages than buy it.
the name of the book is "stick control for the drummers"(if i remember it well)and you can also use it very well for slapping.
I hope you can do something with it