JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Bass and Drum Forum My Retarded Bass Question

Great stuff here! This thread is terrific.

Polly, I once had a student who was afraid to play up the neck. I'm not saying you are afraid...but he was. This guy made two of me, he was a firefighter and and a decorated combat veteran. I told him, "It's your guitar, you paid for it. You could smash it against the wall if you want to so don't be afraid to play up the neck." LOL.

Anyway, playing up the neck is important also. Yes, there are some tones there that are different from open strings or lower strings. There are also slides up and down that really spice up a line. Then, there's what I call "eyewash."

"Eyewash," in a musical performance, is when you do something that is visual which entertains and enhances the performance. Playing up the neck without looking is great eyewash. A while back, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. Playing up the neck without looking would not only be great eyewash, it would be a real plus in the studio when reading charts. So I started working on it. It is fun to smile at the audience and make a jump up to the middle of the neck and come back down, catching some eyes of folks who "get" what just happened and, if nothing else, connecting with folks just by looking at them and smiling.

So here's a little exercise.

Try Broooooce's "Pink Cadillac" riff (or for us old farts, it's the Peter Gunn riff.) It's done all on one string, makes no difference which one for now, just do it for fun.

The timing is: one and two and three and four and played with straight eights, not a shuffle.

Here is the fretting: 0 0 2 0 3 0 5 3

That's open string, open string, second fret, open string, third fret, open string, fifth fret, third fret.

Repeat.

If using a pick, try: down up down up etc. and also down down down, etc. For fingers, use Index middle index middle. and just index index index.

My usual left had fingering is second fret, first finger; third fret, second finger; fifth fret little finger. I also use just the first finger for all, sometimes, and use the third finger for the fifth fret, then come down with the first finger on the third fret.

Play that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over
over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over over and over and over and over and over and over...and then some more.

Then, hey, it's your bass, go ahead and do it without looking. Here's my technique for learning stuff:

Do it five times perfectly without looking. If you do it four times and make a mistake, then you start over....until you do it five times perfectly. Once you hit five times, yell "Yeah Me...I did it!!!" And get yourself a cookie. Reward yourself.

Then go for ten times.

Have fun, God bless, knock 'em dead.

Mike