.....I am however not confident I will be able to play it like a true bassist
Leaning curve from 6 string guitar to bass is not that big a deal. Rhythm is normally the hardest to get down, but, coming from guitar you already have this in your bag of tricks.
How to make sound? Pick, thumb or fingers? All three work it's your choice. Sting, Sr. Paul and I use thumb.... You will want to try all three and see what fits you best. Notice how I worked in that name drop.
You will find that 90% of the time we follow the chords. Chords are usually made of 3 to 4 notes, with the bass we do not strum them, but, play their notes one note at a time. So you will need the "spelling" on the chords you will be coming up on. I've given you a link below for this and what I mean by spelling follows.
Cmaj7 = R-3-5-7, C7 = R-3-5-b7, Cm7 = R-b3-5-b7
The fake chord sheet music you used on guitar can be used on your bass. Gather your roots in the first five frets of your bass neck, then if you want something more add the scale degree number you want, i.e. R-5-8-5 or R-3-5-7, etc.
This will come in handy:
Major scale box showing scale degree numbers
and the root note on the 4th string.
...Index...Middle..Ring….Little
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string
C chord coming up. Find a C and put the box's R
over that C note then play as many of it's chord
tones as the song needs. Roots and fives have
played a bunch of bass. Need a 3 it will always
be - from your root, up a string and back a fret.
And the 8 will always be up a string same fret as
the 5.
Need help on the numbers go to
How to get started?
That's dirt simple bass 101. Welcome and good luck.
