The Hal Leonard Bass Method thread

[Drestakil]

I'll be joining the party, as I started book 1 this week.

I'm starting over after almost 30 years without playing. At 54 I've noticed I process and commit to memory a little bit slower than I used to. My biggest concern is staying commited and on task with a hectic schedule. I'm hoping this group will help keep me motivated.

I'm currently working exercises 5 through 9 until I instinctively recognize the open string notes.

I'm sure you'll get plenty of encouragement on here. Seems like a great group on this thread. Don't get discouraged when you hit the bumps in the road. Sometimes I have to spend a whole practice session or even more trying to work through some of the exercises. But then, you'll hit 2 or 3 easier ones that will make you feel like a champ again.

 

[Drestakil]

I'm finally leveling up to OFPF, a feat that's been delayed quite a bit by work and chores. "All Together Now" was a tough one for me but I can see it becoming one of my favorites.

Anyway, OFPF has me stumped. I have no idea what "learn to use the pivot in the left hand between the 2nd and 3rd finger" means. I'm hoping someone who has already figured this out can help. Or maybe @edfriedland will check in on this thread again and offer a little insight. It's either that or wait for an epiphany that may never come.

 

[mambo4]

I have no idea what "learn to use the pivot in the left hand between the 2nd and 3rd finger" means.

Many beginners make the mistaken assumption that one finger per fret means your left hand is fixed at some spot on the neck, and only the 1234 fingers move and stretch. This just creates unneeded limitation.

you are allowed to move your left hand to reach the higher frets with fingers 3 and 4
but if you move your hand, its gets hard to return accurately to the right spot for fingers 1 and 2
so the solution is to use the tip of your thumb on the back of the neck as an anchor point or pivot

in other words the left thumb tip stays put, while the rest of the left hand slides up as needed for your fingers to fret effectively.

 

[Drestakil]

Many beginners make the mistaken assumption that one finger per fret means your left hand is fixed at some spot on the neck, and only the 1234 fingers move and stretch. This just creates unneeded limitation.

you are allowed to move your left hand to reach the higher frets with fingers 3 and 4
but if you move your hand, its gets hard to return accurately to the right spot for fingers 1 and 2
so the solution is to use the tip of your thumb on the back of the neck as an anchor point or pivot

in other words the left thumb tip stays put, while the rest of the left hand slides up as needed for your fingers to fret effectively.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding what Ed meant. It reads like to play a note with the 3rd finger, you put your 2nd finger down first, pivot from it, then play the note. It seems like that would add a lot of movement and slow you way down. Maybe he just meant that you put your 2nd finger down first to play the exercise shown below the explanation.

 

[Chili_Time]

Congrats @Drestakil !! To me pivot means as said above your thumb remains in the more or less in same place on the back of the neck but your palm and fingers swing up the neck a little or down the neck depending on that finger you are fretting with at the time. Try putting your thumb on the back of fret 5 and index finger on fret 3. Then release the index finger and swing your palm toward the pickups and hit fret 7 with your pinky. You just sort of rotate your wrist and swing your palm a bit to make it an easier reach for whatever finger needs to stretch a bit. Your thumb remains in the same place and is the pivot point as you swing your palm up or down the neck a little. Hope that helps.

Update for me... I've gotten fairly good at the 4 scale sequence tracks (page 67, 71) in the book this week. I agree with @Dres that All Together Now is a great tune and I also like Da Blues and Swing Time a lot. This weekend I'll be working Tracks 23, 24 and 25 (B-Flat Jump) so we will see how that goes. About the half way point of book 2 now and I'm getting better at scales but still need work of course. On a side detour I'm playing around a little with using chord sheets to play along to songs. Here is a video that helped me a little with reading chord charts if anyone is interested. Skip to 3:50 unless you want to hear some basic sheet music instruction. Good, fun way to use rhythm patterns Ed has taught us and scale notes Ed has taught us.

 

[Chili_Time]

My head is spinning with sharps and flats. Going slow and saying the note names out loud sems to help. I finally got a pencil and wrote #'s or b's next to the appropriate notes in the book to help my brain for play along tracks 20 to 25.

 

[George1962]

My head is spinning with sharps and flats. Going slow and saying the note names out loud sems to help. I finally got a pencil and wrote #'s or b's next to the appropriate notes in the book to help my brain for play along tracks 20 to 25.

I know how you feel!!! Those sharps and flats are driving me crazy too! It's purposeful torture!!!

 

[BassFisher887]

Just finished with book 2. It took me about two weeks with the last 3 exercises to get to a point where I felt I could move on to book 3. Though exercise 83, Bumpin' is still not as solid as I would like it. I'm good at 90% tempo, but 100% is still a bit too fast for me to be satisfied with my fingering. I'll be jumping back to it from time to time to work on it.

 

[Drestakil]

At least you all are not losing ground. I went back to the exercises in book 1 for a bit. This time playing them OFPF. Since I'm already familiar with the notes, this time through I'm just making a conscious effort to use my 3rd finger and pivot. It's different. My had instinctively wants to play them 1-2-4.

By the time I get back to where I was I'm hoping to be comfortable with both fingering methods.

 

[dhbailey52]

One way to look at it is to not think of them as two different fingering modes -- in reality it doesn't matter whether you use 124 or 1234 (OFPF). What matters is whether you can play the bass lines you want to play. And if that means that in some parts of a song you use 124 and in other parts you use 1234, great. Use what works for you in any given situation and don't obsess about which finger you're using -- but always keep in mind where you're going when you play a note and use the fingering which gives you the fluid motion you need to play well.

 

[Drestakil]

One way to look at it is to not think of them as two different fingering modes -- in reality it doesn't matter whether you use 124 or 1234 (OFPF). What matters is whether you can play the bass lines you want to play. And if that means that in some parts of a song you use 124 and in other parts you use 1234, great. Use what works for you in any given situation and don't obsess about which finger you're using -- but always keep in mind where you're going when you play a note and use the fingering which gives you the fluid motion you need to play well.

That's kind of what I thought, too, but I've been using 124 from the beginning and it's going to take a little bit of practice to get my 3rd finger back in the game. Playing 124 didn't come naturally for me but now it's pretty well ingrained. I'm not complaining, I'm looking forward to being proficient in using both. The idea of going back to book 1 was that I'm already familiar with what I'm playing. For now, it's taking a conscious effort to use my third finger. I don't expect that to last long, I'm sure I'll be comfortable with it after a few practice sessions.

 

[Chili_Time]

When you play some of the tracks after the section where scales are introduced you use all 4 fingers if you play in what Ed calls Universal Position. Those tracks as well as playing scales and scale sequences in universal position are very good practice for OFPF. I found it awkward at first but after a few days of woodshedding I'm getting more comfotable. I made some ugly noise (really ugly) while mis-fretting notes at first but after a week I'm better able to read the chart and fret accuratly without looking using the pivot method. I still mis-fret some notes but less often than when I began the scales section of book 2. I think I'll spend this week on Scales, sequences and play alongs 20 to 25 on page 72, 73 until I get a little better at them.

Great advice from @dhbaily to "use the fingering which gives you the fluid motion you need to play well".

 

[Low i Cue]

For me, 124 or 1234 fingering, depends on where I'm playing on the neck. Below the 5th fret I use 124, (short fingers).

Billy Sheehan shows some very good finger exercises in this video:


I might add, since I'm 'starting over'. I forget what I already know and adhere strictly to the book.

 

[5544]

I have an on again / off again relationship with this book. Every time I start on again, I start from the beginning and barely pass the section I previously got up to before stopping.

Since I am currently off again, I decided I am going to take a different approach towards working through the book.

1) Learn all the note names on the fretboard. Actually commit them to memory by playing them randomly with a bunch of random flash cards.
2) Learn how to read music at a basic level. Memorize the staff line and space note names. Actually commit the them to memory by using random flash cards.

I figure once I know those two "basic" things, I shouldn't have such a problem with the whole book afterwards.

 

[BassFisher887]

One way to look at it is to not think of them as two different fingering modes -- in reality it doesn't matter whether you use 124 or 1234 (OFPF). What matters is whether you can play the bass lines you want to play. And if that means that in some parts of a song you use 124 and in other parts you use 1234, great. Use what works for you in any given situation and don't obsess about which finger you're using -- but always keep in mind where you're going when you play a note and use the fingering which gives you the fluid motion you need to play well.

This is great advice. I would play many of the exercises with different fingerings until I found the one that worked best for me.

If I can find a shape that fits the notes, then that's what I usually go with. I've also gotten better at recognizing note patterns ahead of time. Triad patterns for example are a shape that's becoming second nature.

I've found that I'll often use the 5th fret and higher versus an open string and frets 1 to 4 because the higher frets fit the shapes I want to use much better. The only issue is when there are notes below the lower A. Then it's all about shifting.

 

[Chili_Time]

I have an on again / off again relationship with this book. Every time I start on again, I start from the beginning and barely pass the section I previously got up to before stopping.

Since I am currently off again, I decided I am going to take a different approach towards working through the book.

1) Learn all the note names on the fretboard. Actually commit them to memory by playing them randomly with a bunch of random flash cards.
2) Learn how to read music at a basic level. Memorize the staff line and space note names. Actually commit the them to memory by using random flash cards.

I figure once I know those two "basic" things, I shouldn't have such a problem with the whole book afterwards.

Flash Cards helped me, so this may help you. It was created for the bass clef on a Piano keyboard but you can use it for electric bass too. If you have a 5 string you can use the first 2 cards, otherwise for a 4 string just throw out the cards you don't need (low C and low D first 2 cards) and use the low E up to the high E in bass clef and it may help you out. When I use these I also find the correct string and fret on the fret board and play it. So for "A" play it open on the A string and the 5th fret E string too. Mix the deck up and do it again. I printed extra cards and used a marker to make cards for the sharps and flats too. I'll get these out when watching a ball game and go through them during commercial too and visualize playing the notes. Anyway it helped me so maybe it will help someone else too.

https://www.lessonface.com/sites/de...essonface_flashcards_templates_both_clefs.pdf

I need to do the same thing for the key signatures.

 

[edfriedland]

Ultimately you need to be able to go between 1-2-4 and 1-2-3-4 fingering systems - it depends on what you are playing at the moment. For R58 and box shapes, I tend to default to 1-2-4, for scales and chromatic runs 1-2-3-4. If I have to play a box pattern with a chromatic run.... I use both!

 

[Chili_Time]

Ultimately you need to be able to go between 1-2-4 and 1-2-3-4 fingering systems - it depends on what you are playing at the moment. For R58 and box shapes, I tend to default to 1-2-4, for scales and chromatic runs 1-2-3-4. If I have to play a box pattern with a chromatic run.... I use both!

THE MAN! Love your books. So glad I found them.

 

[Drestakil]

I finally got a chance to get the bass out again tonight after about a 4 or 5 day break because of work. After a short warm up I started on scales. The first couple of pages weren't too bad but the next few could really take awhile. At least Ed left out the F# and Gb major scales. Although, if you get comfortable with the 11 that he does cover the other 2 wouldn't be that much harder. Others have made it past this so I guess I will, too.

 

[Chili_Time]

The improvement in scales for me after 1 week was noticable. The OFPF took a while to get going. Once you memorize that universal fingering pattern you basically just move to different starting points on the fretboard. I also do the scales in other patterns on one string then on 2 strings as a way to memorize note locations on the fretboard. I can see the importance but it is not as much fun as learning practice tracks or songs. Speaking of OFPF I came across this yesterday so posting for anyone who may be interested.