What’s up guys and gals, Darrin Goodman here, I’m feeling a little low today. No I’m not depressed, I’m feeling like playing some bass guitar. Bass is not really my forte, but it is a secondary instrument for me so I thought I would share some bass guitar tips with you.
The electric bass guitar differs from guitar in many aspects, but one big one is in size. There seems to be a much bigger variety of sizes in bass guitars, more so than regular guitars. For me, since I have small hands, a lot of bass guitars are not really comfortable to me and I struggled for a long time trying to find a good fit for me with scale length and neck size. The bass I ended up with that I really like is an Ibanez Sound Gear. It has a really narrow feeling neck and a balanced scale length, fits me well. It also has an active EQ system which really helps with dialing in a good sound. It may not be the best fit for you, but I would check it out, you never know.
As far as playing the bass there are a couple of things I want to share with you to help you on your way.
A Pick or Fingers: I’m not one of those guys who is going to preach about weather or not you should use a pick or your fingers, there are plenty of great players from both schools of thought. Here is an exercise you can do to develop your picking hand, regardless if you use a pick or your fingers. The example is shown with using a pick, but to use your fingers you simple substitute down strokes for your first finger and up strokes for your second finger. The exercise is to develop alternate picking which I feel is very important.
For you fretting hand you will want to keep your thumb on the back of the neck to get plenty of leverage and be sure to use all of your fingers including your pinky finger, I know, I know, that’s hard, but you will be thankful later that you did.
Learning the major scale is really important too. You will find that most bass lines can be learned easier by knowing this scale and it will help you with composing your own.
Well, I hope this helps with your bass guitar journey. Check out the Bass Zone Formulas course to really dig deep into learning bass guitar.
Bass Zone Formulas Course
Off to practice some slappin’
Darrin
