New to bass. Need help!

[LambChop95]

Howdy people. I just got my first bass this week.

I've played guitar for 3 years, played in church, in a band for a while, as lead guitarist, and got moderately decent. I know theory, how to write, and how music works as a whole.

However, i've always thought it would be fun to play bass.

So this week I did it. I bought a bass.

I got a fender mim jazz of clist, a gk600, and a gk 210blx cab, with speakers swapped to eminence legends.

So far I love it.

I'm a mostly self taught person, prefer it over lessons, and need some help.

I looked up some proper fingerstyle technique videos, and learned HOW to do it right, and mute. I basically just have a movable anchor (which is how I imagine most do it) with my thumb.

I tried picking some, and obviously that was easier for me being a former guitar player, but I feel like i'm cheating, plus I think fingerstyle is funner for everthing that I don't have to play fast. I'm SUPER slow with fingers haha.

My left hand technique, as far as i can tell from videos and stuff, is fine.

I just don't know where to go from here. What should I do? Learn slap? How do i get good at slap, pick, or finger? Any good sites for teaching myself?

I just don't know what to learn.

Thanks,
Nathan

[GM60466]

Practice every day. 1 hour of scales min.

[bassistjoe93]

I would suggest getting finger speed and technique up by running scales at increasing but consistent speeds. That's what I did. I personally feel finger style is more a bass fundamental than slapping/popping is (which isn't to say its not important in its own place, I enjoy it but I think finger playing/technique is more important)... that's my two cents. There are people on here that know WAY more than me and can give you some good advice! Either way have fun with it and welcome to bass

[prd004]

For fingerstyle, use a hammer stroke. That is pull all the way through until your finger comes to rest on the next lowest string or your thumb for the E string.

For your left hand, keep your thumb towards the center of the neck and avoid the "wrap around" guitarists tend to use. This gives you the most reach and allows the one finger per fret technique with the least amount of left hand movement.

Listen to bass players that inspire and learn what they do!

[LambChop95]

Originally Posted by prd004

For fingerstyle, use a hammer stroke. That is pull all the way through until your finger comes to rest on the next lowest string or your thumb for the E string.

For your left hand, keep your thumb towards the center of the neck and avoid the "wrap around" guitarists tend to use. This gives you the most reach and allows the one finger per fret technique with the least amount of left hand movement.

Listen to bass players that inspire and learn what they do!

Hahaha yeah my first day of bass I kept doing the "death" grip as i call it. I play a lot of blues guitar, ala hendrix style, and I used my thumb for the bass not of almost everything i played.

Any i'm doing scales now a lot, and learning rhythyms a lot more (never was my strong point with guitar. but. i'm making lots of pprogress)

Any other advice?

I feel like i'm going nowhere. Maybe cause the only thing i feel left for me to learn is just straight technique. I feel like i'm not moving anywhere just playing sales and getting faster, though i do need to get technique up to speed

[SurferJoe46]

I played guitar for a while - years really - and just followed through with using a pick too.

I like the fat thick felt ukelele picks on a bass as they deliver great thumb-type tone and lots of speed.

I think a pick player has the speed thing already worked out, and my teacher was very relieved to find that I am a thumb-er too. I tend to not use my finger tips as they produce a lot of upper harsh sounds, which although a good thing sometimes, I cannot get a well-rounded and solid thump outta them.

Play as you see fit, but you should really keep all your technique doors open for variety and speed, let alone tone and control.

[bassbenj]

Originally Posted by LambChop95

Any other advice?

I feel like i'm going nowhere. Maybe cause the only thing i feel left for me to learn is just straight technique. I feel like i'm not moving anywhere just playing sales and getting faster, though i do need to get technique up to speed

Sure. You seem to have forgotten that bass is a MUSICAL instrument. Technique is only that which enables you to do the musical things you hear in your head! Important but not the goal!

Since I also play guitar, I would give you some other advice. One is to NOT use a pick on bass UNTIL you've got finger style down. Your experience with guitar will shade your bass playing if you aren't careful to avoid it. Hence FIRST try to figure out fingerstyle. Try different ways of plucking. Try alternating two fingers smoothly. Try using a flamenco three finger pluck for fast notes. try plucking near the bridge and then near the neck. Try plucking with the finger tips and then with the side of your fingers (sort of upright-style) In short what you are trying to do is learn all the different SOUNDS you can pull from that bass. And after that do likewise with various kinds of picks. Each way of playing is a different sound that can usefully be applied to music later! Learn how to damp the unplayed strings.

And note that bass (except for solos) is NOT a melody instrument like lead. It is FAR closer to rhythm guitar except that it's moved a notch closer to drums than rhythm guitar is. Listen to your favorite MUSIC and mental try to extract the bass part. Go get the Tab or written music for it online if you can find it and try to practice what it's all about. Note how bass and drums work together to DRIVE the band! Note how the bass note can set the musical tone by the single note the bass plays out of a given chord. By simply changing from the root to another note you can force big changes all over the place. Listen to your favorite music and try to hear how this is being done. Note the bass drum pattern. Note that when the bass drum plays WITH the bass note it gives great force to that note. When the bass plays alone the force is much less.

I know this sounds like a bunch of technique too, but it's really about music. As someone who plays guitar and bass you sort of have to develop "compartments" in your brain where you sort guitar stuff and bass stuff. You don't want to let them mix too much or things then start not working so well.

For a master class in how drums, bass and rhythm guitar all go together to create a monster GROOVE, I suggest studying the book "the funkmasters", which has the drum, bass and rhythm guitar parts written out for a large number of James Brown hits.

Good luck!

[maxgrant]

Originally Posted by LambChop95

I feel like i'm going nowhere. Maybe cause the only thing i feel left for me to learn is just straight technique. I feel like i'm not moving anywhere just playing sales and getting faster, though i do need to get technique up to speed

I would offer up that your right-hand technique is going to be much more important than it was to you when you played guitar. The reason is, that right hand can't miss a lick. Ever. So practice some really boring stuff -- 8th notes or 16th notes or whatever just rumbling on your low E. Then your A. See just how long you can keep playing that rumble. Do it on all four strings. See how fast you can do it.

See how long you can handle it before your hand gets tired. And when you think you've had enough, do it again.

This is how you get the strength and stamina to be a kick-ass bass player. Scales & chords & **** are good, and necessary, but you have to be able to hit that downbeat every time, with the right tone. I have been doing a crazy amount of right-hand technique lately (I am a lefty that plays righty) and I've noticed that the rest of the playing just seems to magnify around my improved right-hand chops.

Edited to add: that doesn't mean I am advocating using ball-peen hammer-style plucking with the right hand. I have also gained a lot of finesse as I've strengthened those fingers, and I am playing with the different angles of attack on the string, and how I can change my tone by minutely adjusting how steeply I come at the string. And it also feels like the bass is smaller, and closer to me, more a part of me. I sat out of playing for about four/five months earlier this year while I was mixing our CD, and when I came back to it the bass seemed huge, heavy, and far away in my hands. The more I build up the strength in those hands, the closer and smaller it seems to get, and the easier it seems to be to make it do what I want.