Newb experimenting w/ Alt. Tunings

Well, first I would have to be the voice of dissent and say that as a new player, you should probably get to the point where you are comfortable with standard tuning before you try others. Standard tuning is EADG, which is in intervals in fourths, which is nice because all the strings are the same interval apart. CGCF will be really confusing, and should you go back to standard tuning, you will be confused because the fingering patterns will be much different.

BUT, if that's your bag, to play an E on your low string you would press down on the fourth fret. That won't do you much good, however, because none of your open strings are E. Instead you would fret at the seventh fret for a G, and tune your next string to that.

 

I have to advise against this also. You should at least wait until you have played bass long enough to know the difference between all the notes on the low E. When I first started, I couldnt hear the differences too well on those low notes either, so I had to figure everything out an octave higher and then transpose it an octave lower. You have to learn the bass in standard tuning to be familiar with everything on there. Wait about a year, then you can expiriment with alternate tunings. Most bands out there use standard tuning anyway.

Now heres some information about what those alternate tunings actually are: When you tune to CGCF, it is actually drop D tuning but transposed down one whole step. That means its DADG with all the strings tuned down one step lower than that. You may be familiar with drop D tuning because it is very popular with guitarists, and if you know any guitarists, they'll be mentioning tuning to drop D every now and then since about half the songs written on the guitar are in drop D. (well not really but its pretty close)

The other thing you should know about alternate tunings (as mentioned above) is that the notes are in all different places. You should memorize all the notes on the fretboard in standard tuning, and be able to figure out with simple math where these notes will be when you tune down. For example, a C is two full steps lower and an E, so when you want a certain note when you are tuned to C, you will need to play it four frets higher than you would when tuned to E. If you dont know what Im talking about, you should definately learn. Too many bass newbies have started out in CGCF learning Slipknot songs and then giving up the bass a few months later just from boredom and not knowing how to play in EADG. You have to start in standard, its really the only way to learn the bass. Just my two cents.