Building up skill

Practice practice practice! Finger strength can only come through constant playing. Well, maybe you can fiddle your fingers during class or something... people might start to talk, though.

 

Make sure the bass is set up for you properly. It shouldn't take "a ton of pressure" for you to fret a note. Go to the bass shop you bought the bass from, and get them to set it up with low action - fretting notes should really only take minimal pressure. Playing bass is about dexterity, not strength.

 

What the Duck says is all there is. The bass is incredibly easy to play..............poorly

Having played guitar, I found it rather easy to play passably well. But playing the bass decently is difficult.

Dexterity, fluidity, and economy of motion, are much more important than strength to playing the bass well.

 

Practice? Ha! What a crock! What you need is the special bass player's drink. It's 1 part guitar pick,1 part pickguard, and 2 parts bass strings. Throw that into a blender, add a little orange juice and voila! Drink that and you will be as good as, if not better, Les Claypool, Flea, AND Jaco. Just send me $20 and I'll get you the "Bass Player's Recipes for Greatness"


Practice....HA!

 

I understand what you're saying, I've played nylon string acoustics and there is practically NO string tension.

You'll probably learn things like scales and whatnot with the lessons, so for now you might want to work on your finger dexterity. Even if you plan on using a pick, I would recommend taking up fingerstyle playing, for flexibility's sake. Practice alternating the two plucking fingers (index and middle) at an even tempo. It may seem boring, but you have to get the muscles used to that action.

As for your fretting hand, you probably have some dexterity from playing guitar, but you might want to work on your individual fingers, especially if you're used to chords. Try working with one pattern at a time, like 1-2-3-4, then switch to 1-3-2-4 and so on.

Of course, I don't know how much YOU know, so this might be old hat.

 

chromatic scales and scales in general are good dexterity builders.