Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Canada Lessons: 3 Karma: 3

Bass by ThePusher 22 May 2008 Views: 9979

Hey everyone this is my lesson to all aspiring bassists for the internet band deal if that ever works out, first thing I am a trained bassist and I can play quite well, now you'e gotta first choose whether you prefer finger slap or pick style bass, I am a finger style bassist so thats how I'll describe though most things that can be done with your fingers can be done with a pick however I use the saying fingering bass is like fingering a girl you don't do it with a pick. String gauge is a big thing, I like a 50-105 but a 40-95 will do fine for most people, you also need to choose how high to set your strings, you get better tone if they're higher but it can also make playing a little more difficult I keep mine high but its up to preference. I like I said am a finger style player and I play 2 fingers at all times so a huge thing is how long to keep your nails I like them to be 2-3mm on my index and middle fingers and about 5mm on my thumb, the fret hand of course should have virtually non existent nails. So with playing a fingerstyle bass you need to know where to place your picking hand I like to put it so that my thumb is resting with the pad on the pickguard and the side on the basses body it allows good attack but still a fair bit of flexability thats not always possible but 90% of the time it is. Now to get to some actual bass playing I'm going to give you a galloping Iron Maiden signature kindof bass line thats pretty simple played with an 8th note followed by 2 16th notes:

G----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

D----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E-111-111-111-111-444-444-444-444-777-777-777-777-555-555-555-555------------------------------

Well thats something it sounds good if you play it. I'll make a second lesson when I get home to my bass and my notebooks but I'm currently on vacation and this is what I was able to do.