Fretting

Hopefully by now everyone should know what a fret is. The "fret" are those little pieces of metal running up the front face of the neck of the guitar (called the fretboard). In between the frets are where you should be putting your fingers to play a note. Each fret is spaced so that if you go from one fret to another up the same string you go chromatically up the octave, or it goes up half a step in the 12 tone scale. Think of it as playing every note (including the black ones) on a keyboard or piano if you're confused. The important thing when placing your fingers (especially for bassists) is to place your finger just behind the fret of the note you are playing. In other words not on the fret but just behind it in order to hear the note without any "fret buzz" (that annoying buzzing noise that beginners will hear many times, and people changing to a new bass). You should only place one finger per fret (called OFPF) while you're playing, this may be tricky when starting out. If you can't manage this, practice playing up the octave to build up finger strength, then when you're ready move it back down. A good exercise to build finger strength is this: - Place you're index or pointing finger of you're fretting hand (left hand for right handed guitarists, right hand for lefties) in the first fret and strike the string (fingers or pick) with you're other hand. - Place you're second finger in the second fret, making sure to keep you're first finger in the first fret still, and strike the string. - Then place third finger in third fret while keeping the other two in place, and strike again. - Same for you're fourth finger (pinky). - Move up a string and repeat. When you've done this on all strings try going down: - Place all fingers in corresponding frets (1st finger in first, 2nd in 2nd etc), strike the string. - Then just remove you're pinky, and strike again. - Then just remove you're 3rd, strike, likewise for 2nd and index. - Move down a string and repeat. Keep practicing this over and over until you can build up some speed. If you hands get cramped (and they should) give it a rest for an hour and try again. If you feel sharp pains, stop immediately and move up a few frets (ie start with index on fret 5 or 10), then try the exercise. Here's the video: Thanks, Dr Warm

Tips

1. Get a metronome, or go to http://www.metronomeonline.com/ and practice in front of the computer. 2. Practice often, it doesn't have to be for long periods of time, but the more often the better and easier the bass will be. 3. Get power tab editor (http://www.power-tab.net/) then go to http://www.powertabs.net/ to find every song you'll ever need, and decently transcribed, the only thing is you have to make an account with them to download tabs. 4. When you practice always do the techniques correctly, never be lazy. Something played 99% right is 100% wrong. Also practicing like this is actually worse than practicing at all! 5. Start off slowly when first trying a riff, then as you get it right increase by 5 bpm (on that metronome!) until you get up to speed.

Welcome

Bass guitar is the coolest, sexiest instrument of any band, and although there are some bands out there without one, these are few and far between. The bassist is the sole of the band, who melds everything together. He/she connects the drummer and the guitarist, the music flows through them. They set the rythm, groove and feel of the song. And there's also never enough of them, decent bassists are hard to come by for any band, because for every bassist there's 10 guitarist's. No doubt if you've discovered this you already own a bass guitar, or are trying one out. Hopefully some of you are trying to further your technique (which you should be doing constantly). In this blog I'll try and help you with that. I've created this blog because I'm sick of trawling all over the web to get decent tips and info on playing the bass. I'm going to try and collaborate all I've learnt over the years and put it in easy to understand text and video (soon) lessons. I plan to cover all aspects of the bass, but personally my main interests are in slapping and tapping. Check back often as I will update as often as possible. Dr Warm