Basic Fingerstyle
Hello, again, people. now that we've covered basic tab reading we're
gonna move on to what I think is the most important playing technique.
Fingerstyle, or as some people refer to it as, the walking bassline.
It's called that because when you use this technique it looks like your fingers are "walking"
across the strings. This, in my opinion, should be the foundation of all
bass technique. Slapping is great and using a pick has it's place, but it
should all begin here. This is just my opinion, but you're here reading this
so you must value it at least slightly. So let's get on with it.
Alright, so what do we do now? Let's get into position. Take your
left thumb and place it on the pickup of your bass, so that your fingers
are pointed downward toward the floor. Note that this isn't a requirement
and some fingerstylists don't do this; this is merely a way to give you some
support for your hand. I prefer this method but you don't have to. Anyway....
So now that your hand is here what you want to do is use your first
two fingers to pluck the strings. All you have to do is sort of curl your
fingers at the ends and brush across the strings. Alternate between your
forefinger and your middle when playing. There are many players out there
that use three fingers and some that even use all four(!), but for the sake
of simplicity we're just going to use these two for now. Two points right
now, first of all if you need a thumb rest use the pickups or the body (or
the actual thumbrest if you happen to be lucky enough to
have one), Don't use the lower strings. This is a really
hard habit to break and it can really hinder your playing when you're forced
to play descending (higher pitched strings to lower pitched strings) basslines.
The second point is this - try to play on all the strings constantly, don't
lock yourself into one string basslines. We want you to come out of
this being a really versatile player and it really bugs me to see a great
song ruined by a weak bass player.
Okay so let's move on to exercise one. This is a simple riff, just
straight quarter notes on a blues scale in E. It's not hard and it's a good
starter riff. Also, from this point on we're going to use numbers
above the tab to indicate which finger to use to pluck the string.
1 = forefinger, 2 = middle finger (and so on when we start using other
fingers) check this out....
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
G----------9-------7--------|--------------------------|
D------------------------9--|--8------7----------------|
A---7-----------------------|---------------10------7--|
E---------------------------|--------------------------|
Okay, then. See how that works? Simple concept, but it can get
quite difficult later on. We'll work up to that too, but for now let's stick
to simple stuff. You'll thank me for it later. One more note before
moving on, as I've said 406,972 times before TAKE IT SLOW.
I can't emphasize this enough. It is very hard to play with
massive, painful blisters on the tips of your fingers, so take it slow.
I know you're anxious to get playing hard, but believe me, when you've got
blisters the size of Mt. St. Helens on your fingers, you won't
be playing. So be good and take it in moderation. I promise you before you
know it, you'll be playing with the greats.
Next exercise. Okay so now I want to give you some descending and
ascending basslines. You'll find that these can be harder than other lines,
which is why we want to work on these. So just start off playing these
slowly and work your way up to more speed. It's much better to play slow and
clean, than fast and sloppy, cause then people don't hear the speed they just
hear the sloppiness (which is a good principle applied to any technique, I
don't know why I don't use it more). So let's try these out.
1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2
G------------------10--10-------------------
D--------------9------------10--------------
A---------7-----------------------8---------
E----5---------------------------------7----
There we go. No problem.
I think I should mention that the above piece is also a great
stretching exercise for your left hand fingers. Anyway....see, that was
no problem for you. Just keep practicing until you can play it comfortably
and (fairly) quickly. Alright, I think I've said enough now. I'm going to
leave you with one more exercise before I go though. This comes from Cliff
Burton's solo "Anesthesia" from the Metallica demo Garage Days.
It's just the first little part, but it's great and ya gotta love it.
1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1
G-------10---14--------10---14--------10---14--------10---14--
D--12--------------12------------12-------------12------------
A-------------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1
G-------10---14-----------------------9----11--------9----11--
D--12--------------12------------10-------------10------------
A-------------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1
G-------9----11---------9---11--------9----11--------9----11--
D--10--------------10------------10-------------10------------
A-------------------------------------------------------------
E-------------------------------------------------------------
Okay, people, there you go. As always, enjoy that you're learning
a new technique and if you have any questions or comments e-mail me below.
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