The General advice thread

[thebassmuchacho]

Anyone have any general advice that they have found out that they want to share regarding to technique? I figured it would be a good idea to have a thread that consists bassically of little things that have helped people out along the way.
For example:
For all those begginer bassists, one good thing to do is to curl the fretboard hand so that the tips of your fingers are fretting. Keeping your fingers curled or clawlike will allow you to play faster and cleaner becuase then the movement is in your fingers, not your arm(which is what usually happens when you play with flat fingers).


Just small little tips like this, anyone got any good ones?

[Howard K]

1) rest your forearm on your knee so that the wrist lies flat and your palm faces upwards
2) relax your hand so that you fingers sit in their natural position - this should give about a four fret reach (when your hand is around the middle of the neck) between 1st and 4th finger.
3) lightly pinch your 1st finger and thumb together
4) place the pinched 1st finger and thumb around the neck, keeping your hand relaxed and your wrist straight, each finger should be located over a fret (one finger per fret)

That's the ideal fretting hand technique. It should be almost completely effortless

One more bit of advice.. dont feel pressured into playing more complicated lines when root notes sound great!

[Hellsgamerz]

How about: don't waste your time here trying to find shortcuts that will make you a good player . Practice!


And also: I like this program called Guitar Pro. It has separate tracks for all instruments, and volume control for each track so I can mute the bass player. I'll just download the songs I want to (http://www.mysongbook.com), and I can play along, slow it down or speed it up. Better then playing along with the recording because if you lose the rhythm, you can't relate to the bass on the record and have to find a way to 'get back' into the song.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by Howard K

1) rest your forearm on your knee so that the wrist lies flat and your palm faces upwards

Woah How low do you keep your bass! I would have to bend over to put my forearm on my knee!

[Matt Till]

Fieldy is like a gateway drug to bad technique.

[mac_the_sac]

Originally Posted by seanm

Woah How low do you keep your bass! I would have to bend over to put my forearm on my knee!

I think he means sitting down.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by mac_the_sac

I think he means sitting down.

I never play the bass sitting down, so I didn't even think of that!

[Howard K]

it's just to get the right position, nice n relaxed etc.. as always doesnt quite work online...

[josh_m]

Learn proper technique and then start to modify it little by little to get sound that you want. For Example: I don't always use my finger tips, if I want a softer sound i'll use another part (the part under my fingernail usually.)

Also learn how to do very basic set up, such as adjusting your bridge properly.