Right Hand Technique

Right hand technique is very important for and bassist but many struggle with speed and precision especially with the D and G string but its ok we all have issues there. next we need to find a solution with a few exercises. make sure you have a solid point to keep you thumb on the bass such as on the pick ups or on your E string just find a consistent spot to keep your thumb

the first exercise is to make sure you alternate your two fingers. Start by muting the strings with your left hand and alternating your fingers play the E A D and G up and down with a metronome. Then after you have that down, begin to switch it up by playing the E then the D the A then the G. mixing it up will be more realistic because when you play songs you don't just go up and down the strings.

another good exercise is to play only on the D and G string to strengthen your hand. Start by playing on the D string 5th fret then the 7th and do the same on G and back down. and just repeat that over and over till you got it.

Efficient Practicing

Most beginners intermediate and professionals all have a hard time practicing efficiently. When i say efficiently i dont mean jaming or just doodling around on the bass I mean sitting down and trying to truly get better at bass. There should be 3 states of mind when playing bass. The first is practice.  Practicing should involve lost of repitition, learning new rhythms and forcing your self to learn things you cant play. You need to be distraction free and only focused on bass . The second is jaming around where theres room for errors  and experimentation which could turn into songs and new ideas. And last is playing songs where you need to be in the pocket and theres no room for errors. 

Part of practing is learning to seperate these states of mind. The best way to grow musically and technically on bass is to set yourself a scheduled practice time that you will do everyday no matter what for at least 1 hour. First warm up then for a solid 30 minutes play scales, difficult patterns or find a weakness that you have and isolate it. For example i noticed in my own playing that some bass lines I played were a little bit sloppy when i used my pinky. From then on for about 2 weeks i would sit down and focus on playing with my pinky more to build up dexterity and before i knew it my pinking was stronger and i could play a bit cleaner. And for the last 30 min play to some music or jam over a track. 

By the way you will mess up a lot at first but you have to keep playing to find your groove.

There are a few things I like to do during my focused practice. Ill take a scale and I will play it up and down in in multiple positions across the neck with a metronome. Then I will do the same but with 8th notes then 16th notes, triplets, and 16th note triplets. The point of this is to force you to learn the scale and tighten up your playing. But the key to this is slowing it down so you can play it. Find a comfy tempo and play and when you can nail it at that tempo then you can speed it up. And remember even billy sheehan, geddy lee, and dave ellefson slow down things to learn new stuff so you should too.

And lastly it is a fact that you will come across many things you cant play, you will make tons of errors, and also you will get frustrated but remember every great bassist sucked at one point.

for questions you can email me at papabea8211@gmail.com.

Warming Up

one of the biggest problems bass players have is not warming up. warming up isn't just playing songs you know your playing scales its about getting the blood pumping in your fingers and hands. Think of it like your working out at the gym, before you get into the workout your stretch and warm up your body. Yours hands are the same because if you don't warm up your hand can cramp up or you can cause damage to your hands. so lets dive right into the warm up.

to begin your warm up stretch your fingers. literally put down your bass take a miniute and strech your fingers out. The next step is to do something that makes no musical sense at all. for example begin by playing 1234 on the E then on the A,D and G string and then play the same thing back down. doing this for a minute or so will get for fingers going. next take the same concept playing 4 notes per string but instead of playing 1234 switch up the finger ordering such as 1324,2314,4312 ect. and go up and down the strings.

Now when doing this if your hand is hurting at all stop and strech because you could do damage to your hands. also if you are just starting dont play these starting at the first fret begin somewhere around the middle of then neck because that is where the least amount of string tension is. The last warm up technique is isolating fingers that you struggle with. for example one of my weaknesses and just about all other bassisist  have a problem with their third and fourth finger. to work on this just alternate between the two up and down then neck. if you just take 10 miniutes to force yourself to warm up your playing will be tighter and more consistiant. also if you dont have a bass near by you can strentgthen your fingers with hand and grip exercisers.
thats all for this lesson if you have more questions you can email me at papabear82191@gmail.com