bass tutorial

7/31/2019 Bass Tutorial

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Technique Is About Adapting

No one was physically born to play bass (or any instrument but voice for that matter). As a bass player

you are adapting your hands and body to this musical instrument. A musical instrument is designed the

way it is because of 1) the sound it needs to create, coupled with 2) the average human body in mind.

The technique to play it lies somewhere in-between the two.

In my opinion, there is no single, correct way of playing the bass only better and worse ways. Rigidly

thinking there is only one way to play the bass can really stunt you as a bassist and crush the

development of an original voice. Just because something works for one bassist doesnt make it so for all

of them.

Results of Bass Technique

While there are no correct ways of playing the bass guitar, what does exist are correct results of

playing the bass guitar. It needs to sound and feel good. How you accomplish those results is up to you.

If you find a way to achieve those results by throwing rocks at your bass, more power to you! (Maybe

practice that with someone elses bass first.)

Thinking about the results end of things gives you creative freedom to experiment. Try things your own

way. Try things the way other successful bassists before you have.

Why do so many great bass players sound so different from one another? The most revered bassists

rarely sound exactly like any other bassist you can point to. If you examine the bass technique of many

of the greatest bass players, you will see each has a different approach than the other. Often times he or

she has a wildly different approach. And, it is often this different approach that brought about his or her

greatness or uniqueness.

If you look more closely at these great bassists you will notice there are a lot of common results from all

of their different bass techniques. It is these results we need to pay attention to and figure out various

ways to accomplish them whether we copy the techniques of other bassists, or blaze our own path.

Studying bass technique is about examining the better and worse ways of producing good bass-playing

results.


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Be Deliberate

You should deliberately choose the bass techniques you use for the results they produce. A big mistake,

especially for the self-taught, is to choose what comes easiest. The path of least resistance doesnt

always work so well. Some results are going to be hard to achieve. Youre going to have to work at it.

When people listen to you play they dont care how easy it is for you. They only care about the results of

your bass playing. Does it sound good? That is what should determine the bass techniques you use.

The Goals of Bass Technique

In my opinion, these are the 4 main bass technique goals from which good bass technique will flow:

Goal #1: Avoiding Injury and Musician Health Problems

The most important goal of your bass technique is to avoid injuring your hands, back, ears, or anything

else that may arrest your ability to play bass. You want to play bass for the rest of your life. Your bass

technique must support this goal or you are doomed to a very short career.

Goal #2: Clarity and Good Tone

Each note you play should ring clearly with a full, pleasing tone. That means:

No unwanted buzzing

No unintentional muffled, or muted, notes

No unwelcome open strings ringing in the background

No unintentional harmonics, and

No other accidentally produced extraneous noises

It is quite a tall order, but you have to learn to control all of these aspects of the bass guitar. Notice I say

unintentional a lot here. These are all valid sounds the bass guitar can make. Make sure you are making

them intentionally.


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Goal #3: Efficiency/Economy

I tell students all the time I want them to be lazy when they play. You should use the least amount of

effort possible to produce the desired results. This will help you play more quickly, more accurately, and

more comfortably for longer periods of time.

Early on this is difficult. Your attention is divided and youre just trying so hard to play something. With

time and practice, things will become more and more effortless. But, you must develop a relaxed

technique by consciously working on and thinking about it. You need to make a habit of being relaxed. It

takes work to not work so much!

Goal #4: Accuracy

You need to develop accuracy with where you place your fingers, your tone, and your rhythm. Its

important to know exactly what is about to come out of your fingers. If you dont know what to expect

from your playing, you will lack confidence as you play. That lack of confidence will translate into some

shaky bass playing.

Accuracy comes from a lot of patient, mindful practice. Early in your playing you will have a lot of

problems with consistency. Time and experience are your greatest teachers.

About the Bass Technique Lessons

As I said earlier, there are better and worse ways of accomplishing all of these goals and results Ive

outlined. In the forthcoming bass technique lessons, I will show you ways I approach accomplishing

these bass-playing goals and results. Ive taught these techniques to hundreds of bass students with

much success. Mainly, it is the logic behind each bass technique I want to convey. I dont want you to

take my word that these are the ways to play bass. They arent. They are just some ways that work

pretty well for me and might for you. Apply and practice the techniques one-by-one and see if you

experience the difference and effectiveness of each approach. If it works for you, use it. But, never stop

looking for better ways! I highly encourage you to hunt high and low for different bass playingapproaches and bass techniques. The bass guitar is only 50 years old or so. There are many things to be

discovered. Practice a lot and always keep an open mind.


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On the Bass Guitar, Up is Down and Down is Up!

One of the first things to confuse students on the bass guitar is the use of the terms up, down, high and

low. These terms all refer to pitch, or how high or low a note sounds.

If someone says go up one string or one note, he or she means to go up in pitch not in physical space

on your instrument. On the bass going "up a string" means your fretting hand is moving toward the

floor. That seems backwards, but if you listen, you will hear the pitch goes higher in this direction.

To go "up the neck" means to move towards the body of the bass. Again, that makes the pitch go higher,

or up.

The sooner you get this straight, the better. If you understand what up in pitch and down in pitch mean

and you LISTEN, then you wont have any problems with this concept. If you're new to playing bass

guitar, then this may take some getting used to.

Holding The Bass

How you hold and support your bass guitar is very important and should not be over-looked. Poorly

holding your bass will negatively influence all other bass technique.

Strap In

You should use a guitar strap 100% of the time when you play your bass. The strap is an essential part of

your bass technique. Your strap should hold your bass for you. Your hands shouldnt be doing any of the

bass holding or balancing. Your hands need to be free to play. I can't emphasize enough that you should

always be using a strap!

Purchase a very comfortable strap. You, your back and your shoulders will be glad you did.

Bass Height

The strap should comfortably hold your bass somewhere above your hips and below your collarbone.

Most people have it belly button level. Everyone is a bit different. Experiment.

Try to adjust your bass so that it sits at the same height whether you are sitting or standing. If you sit

while practicing and stand while playing, this will help you play just like you practice. Being consistent is

a big part of learning to play bass well.

The Cool Factor

You will see a lot of people letting the bass hang around their ankles thinking it looks cool. Don't. It

doesnt look that cool and you will cause yourself many back problems, technique problems and hand

injuries. Eventually people will think its cool how well you play bass.


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Posture

Your mother was right sit or stand up straight. You shouldn't be leaning back in a chair or hunching

over as you play.

Angle of the Bass Guitar

Hold your bass guitar at about a 30-degree angle. You will notice if you hold the bass perfectly level your

plucking hand/arm is forced upwards while your fretting hand/arm is forced to reach down and around

more and at a bad angle. This can cause a lot of posture problems and forces you to bend your wrists

more. Sharply bent wrists lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. By angling the bass guitar you help straighten

out your wrists, straightening your back, and leveling your shoulders.

Don't underestimate the importance of how you hold the bass guitar.

Plucking

Finger Numbering

Unlike on piano and some other instruments, on bass your fingers are numbered:

T = thumb

1 = index finger

2 = middle finger

3 = ring finger

4 = pinky finger

Fingernails

You will need to keep your fingernails trimmed short to avoid your nail catching the string. (Unless, of

course, you like the sound of it.)

Avoiding Hand Injuries

Keep your wrists as straight as possible to keep from getting carpal tunnel syndrome and other nasty

hand injuries.

Most musicians don't discover they've injured their hands until after 10-20 years of playing. By then it's

too late. The damage is done. And, it will be difficult to break those old habits.


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Just because it doesn't hurt now, doesn't mean it won't later.

Relax Your Hand

Let your plucking hand hang limp. This is the natural shape of your hand. Keep your hand in that loose,

relaxed shape as much as you can. There's no need for tension...

Alternating Fingers

To develop plucking speed and efficiency, it is important that you use at least two fingers to pluck. Most

people use their index (1) and middle (2) fingers and alternate them.

Using two fingers is half the work for each finger. Always do as little work as possible. Using two fingers

is sufficient for most playing styles.

Work on consistently alternating your fingers 1-2-1-2 (or 2-1-2-1). It doesn't matter on which finger youstart. It might be a good idea to be able to start on either one. Just don't use one finger for a while, then

the other, or one finger by itself. It might seem easier in the beginning to use one finger, but you will

quickly hit a ceiling and you will have learned a very hard habit to break...

Where to Pluck

You will discover the bass guitar has a wide range of tones depending on where, along the string, you

pluck. Plucking nearer to the neck offers a fatter, warmer tone. Plucking nearer to the bridge of the bass

provides a brighter, more percussive tone.

As you develop, you will become more comfortable with moving your plucking hand around to accessthese different tones. In the beginning, I recommend finding one place and staying there while you

develop other, more important plucking habits...

Positioning Your Thumb

Place your thumb on the face (not on top) of your pickup closest to the neck. Let your thumb linger just

above the E-string. You will see why shortly.

On most bass guitars this should put your plucking fingers in a central position between the neck and

the bridge. You should get a good, all-purpose tone from your bass in this area.

Muting the Strings

Playing the bass requires about as much work keeping the strings quiet as it does getting the notes to

ring out. Most of the time you only want one string ringing at a time. That means on a 4-string bass you

have 3 strings to keep quiet. You can't just let open strings ring freely in the background. This will muddy


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up your sound and often create some unwanted dissonance. You should strive to have control over

every sound that comes out of your bass. This requires you to develop a solid string muting strategy...

Muting with the Thumb

Your thumb will be sliding down to help mute the E-string whenever it is not being played. To be

efficient, you will want your thumb as close to the E-string as possible. That's why you want to keep your

thumb on the face of the pickup. It will be much easier to slide your thumb down to mute the string. If

you're on top, your thumb has to hop.

You only need to lightly touch the E-string to mute it. No need to waste energy pushing on the E-string...

Plucking Motion

When you pluck the string your finger should roll over the top over the string. Most beginners and

converting guitar players have the tendency to pull out away from the strings. This results in a very thin,

scratchy tone. You will get a meatier, bassier tone by rolling over the string. It is much like the stroke of

a paintbrush. Your plucking finger should follow through towards your palm, or to rest on the next string

below the one you are plucking.

There's no need to pluck very hard. Let your bass amplifier do the work. That's what it's for. Your fingers

aren't amplifiers! Developing a light touch is a very important part of developing speed and accuracy...

Follow-Through Muting

After plucking a string, follow-through with your plucking motion letting your plucking finger come to

rest on the string below. Letting your finger rest on the string below mutes that string. As you pluck

using alternating fingers, one finger is plucking while the other one is muting. This is essential to keeping

the strings quiet. Use this same motion for plucking on each string.

Yet More Muting...

As you ascend the strings (going from the fattest string to the skinniest) or skip strings, you will find you

can't mute them all with these techniques alone.

There are two solutions I show students: (1) use another finger to help with muting or, (2) use your

thumb to mute more strings.

Let's look at these two solutions...

Ring Finger Muting

The technique I prefer uses your ring finger (3) to mute the A-string whenever you are plucking on the

G-string. This is the only time you'll need it on a 4-string bass. Your ring finger (3) just needs to lightly

touch the A-string to keep it from ringing. Placing your ring finger on the A-string every time you switch

to pluck the G-string may seem awkward at first. With practice the motion will become automatic.


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When you are plucking the G-string the muting will be as follows:

E-string is muted with thumb (T)

A-string is muted with ring finger (3)

D-string is muted with plucking fingers (1 or 2) landing on the D-string

Wandering Thumb Muting

Another popular way of muting the bass strings is what I call the Wandering Thumb Method. Instead of

leaving your thumb on the E-string, your thumb moves up the strings muting them. This is very useful to

develop especially if you play, or plan to play, 5-string or 6-string bass.

Either string muting method is effective. You will have to decide which you prefer and stick with it. If you

are just starting or trying to change some old habits, it will be strange and frustrating no matter what.

Practice slowly and accurately. It will come.

When plucking the G-string with this method the muting will be as follows:

E-string is muted with thumb (T)

A-string is muted with thumb (T)

D-string is muted with plucking fingers (1 or 2) landing on the D-string

Bass Plucking Video

Now, watch the video and see it all put together.

Bass Plucking Exercises

Now that you have an idea of what to do, you need something to practice! Follow the link below for

bass plucking exercises which work on these basic techniques.

Remember to play slowly and accurately. Don't rush through this stuff. You use it in everything you play!

You are practicing every song you will ever play.

Legato And Staccato

One of the earliest technique issues bass players have to focus on is developing control over the

length and sustain of the notes they play. In music, the Italian terms legato and staccato indicate how

much silence is to be left between notes played one after another.

The point of this bass technique lesson is to firstly understand the concept of legato vs. staccato

notes, and secondly to focus on and develop these articulations in your playing.


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What is Legato? What is Staccato?

The term legato (pronounced "leh-gaw-toe") means connected, or joined, notes. That means there is

no perceivable silence between two notes played one after another. To remember legato means

connected, think your leg is connected to your body.

The term staccato (pronounced "stuh-caw-toe") means detached, or separated, notes. Staccato notes

have space, or silence, between them. There are different degrees of staccato notes. Staccato notes

can range from short to very short (staccatissimo). To remember what staccato means, associate it

with to stop.

Notes of any rhythm can be played legato or staccato. Legato and staccato simply refer to whether or

not a note's length runs into the next note being played. It has nothing to do with the start of a note.

It's about the duration of the note.

Playing and Practicing with a Legato Bass Sound

It takes a good bit of attention to gain control over these two ways of articulating notes on the bass.

Most beginning bassists, without realizing, play leaving a lot of space between the notes. This comes

from releasing notes before playing the next one. Releasing a note prematurely is easier to do since it

requires less stretching in the fretting hand. To play legato you must sustain a note right up until the

next note sounds. It doesnt matter if its on the same string or on different strings.

To play legato, dont let go of a note until right when the next one starts.

Being able to play notes legato is essential. You will have a fuller bass tone and beefier overall sound.

Uncontrolled staccato notes sounds sloppy and weak.You should practice all scales and chord patterns

legato. Dont allow any space between the notes. I know it seems a little harder at first, but youllappreciate the results. Focus on sustaining the notes. Practice slowly so that you can hear whether

youre picking up your fingers too soon. Its less obvious when you play faster. If stretching is an issue,

remember you can play on the higher frets (maybe between the 7th and 12th frets) where they are

spaced more closely. Then, slowly work your way down to the lower frets (1st through 5th frets). Your

hands will get more limber. Stretching seems impossible at first. Eventually youll be able to stretch

and relax at the same time.


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Developing a Staccato Bass Sound

A lot of bass playing uses staccato notes of varying degrees. Like everything, this needs to be a

controlled, intentional sound.

As a musician, an essential thing to realize is that rhythm and feel not only come from where notes

begin, but where they end. When you play staccato notes, you are shortening their duration creating

various rhythmic effects. An excellent example of staccato notes everyone has heard is in the main

bass part of Another One Bites the Dust by Queen (John Deacon playing bass). The first 3 notes are

quarter notes played staccato. If you play them legato, the whole bass groove is destroyed.

How Do You Play Staccato Notes?

To make a note staccato, you have to stop the string from ringing. Lightly touching a string usually

stops it. Youll find you can completely stop a string from ringing when you touch it in more than one

spot along its length. If you touch a vibrating string in only one spot, you risk getting a harmonic.

Harmonics are bell-like tones that ring along certain points of a string. (Well discuss bass harmonics

later.)

You can use either hand to stop the ringing note, or both. What you use will depend on what you are

playing.

With your plucking hand you can touch the ringing string with one of your plucking fingers. Hopefully

you are using an alternating plucking technique. You can use either finger to stop the string. Try to

keep your alternate plucking consistent. If you use a pick, you need to use the heel of your hand to

stop the string.

In your fretting hand you can release a note off the fretboard while never letting go of the string. Thatis, your finger should not come off the string. Let your fretting hand lightly touch the strings to keep

them silent.

This all takes consistent, conscious practice.


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How Are Legato and Staccato Notes Notated in Music?

When you see written music the notes are assumed legato unless otherwise specified. Staccato notes

are indicated with a dot above or below the notehead. (Dots to the right of a notehead mean

something else. Dont get confused!)

Sometimes, to point out the importance of holding out a note, a tenuto mark is written above or

below a note. Tenuto indicates hold for the notes full length. It is a horizontal line written above or

below the notehead.

Some of you may wonder why you can't simply notate a staccato note with a really short rhythm like

a 16th or 32nd note. First, you want to think of this as a feel type thing rather than a specific rhythm.

Secondly, the staccato mark is written much more cleanly and is easier to read.

String Crossing

Developing Bass String Crossing Skills

One technical skill you will always need on bass is to be able to cleanly jump from one string to any

other string. Going from one string to a neighboring string is not too challenging. But, when you have to

skip one or more strings, you may find muting and accuracy challenging.

Your aim is to develop control over your bass plucking technique. By control I am talking about:

rhythmic accuracy

tonal consistency

dynamic balance (volume) between different plucking fingers

dynamic balance between strings

string muting technique between both hands

To work on this practice the string crossing exercises. They can be played as fast or slow as you want.

Aim for accuracy before speed. If it sounds sloppy slowly, it will sound sloppy at faster tempos, too.


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Some Tips on String Crossing Technique...

Students have a tendency to rush the rhythm of the note prior to the string skip. Probably so they have

more time to get to the other string. Try to pay attention to that. Use a metronome!

Try to get an even tone between your different plucking fingers. You don't want one finger sounding

much different than the others (or at least you want control over it if you do).

Try to keep the volume even on each string and between strings. Sometimes your bass strings and setup

can create an uneven response between the strings. If you are struggling with this, try another bass to

see if it's you or your bass.

Remember, to get a clear sound you need to allow just one string to ring at a time. Both hands help

mute the strings. When you pluck follow through and land on the string below. Use your plucking hand

thumb to mute the E-string. If you're using my ring-finger technique, mute the A-string with it whenever

you play the G-string. Or, mute with the wandering thumb technique. Finally, use your fretting hand to

mute the strings by letting it lightly touch/rest on the strings above the string you are playing.

(Remember, above in pitch.)

Getting all of this down doesn't happen overnight. Take your time with these exercises.

Expanding the String Crossing Exercises

If you have a 5- or 6-string bass, expand the exercises to include all your strings.

You can alter these exercises by applying any rhythm you want. You can also try groups of 3 notes, or 4,

or 5. How about 1 note per string? Or, 1 note on the main string and 3 on the others. Challenge yourself.

There are limitless possibilities and permutations.

I know these exercises are boring, but they help a lot. To play them cleany is not as easy as it sounds. Do

them for a few minutes a day and you'll see a difference.

Reading Music Part One

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