One thing I like to caution people on is to not obsess over the one-finger-per-fret reach. A lot of emphasis is placed on it online and it’s complete crap. It’s good when it is in your natural range but should be abandoned in favor of a three-fret span and shifting when it is not.
Hi @IIIQuaZIII, welcome to the forum and the bass. Don’t stress yourself out about scales, learning the notes on the fretboard and impossible stretches. Just take it one step at a time and enjoy the process.
A song that I really liked to play along when I started out is She Brings the Rain by Can. Apart from the intro, it’s just the same four notes over and over again. Might be some good practice to get that pinky working
yeah for sure, a good example is the 1FPF orthodoxy of fretting root-5th with index-ring… when the pinky is much more comfortable for me, and just sitting there naturally.
Is that what they say? Sounds really unnecessary. If anything it should be middle-pinky if you’d want to stick to the scale shape as Josh teaches it.
I actually have most trouble operating my ring finger.
Good point about the middle-pinky – more broadly what I meant is one-finger-per-fret wants you to keep your 4 fingers assigned to a range of 4 frets at all times (which can shift as a group up and down the fretboard). So yeah root-5 would either be index-ring or middle-pinky depending on your hand position. I get the idea behind it and there are definitely advantages to being able to play that way comfortably, but like howard said it’s overly strict, not really necessary, and can actually be harmful if your hands aren’t naturally suited for it. Just doesn’t 100% work for me.
And economy of motion only helps if it is a motion you can comfortably and cleanly fret in the first place. Otherwise it is just a risk for poor fretting at best.
The one other thing I am really noticing that I dont have a feel for yet, is how to pluck the strings! Pluck it to hard, and I get a fret buzz, pluck it not hard enough, or partially miss it, and I get a short clipped note, or a chirp. I’m sure that comes with practice too. I am not a sports player nor an instrument player by nature. My hobbies, and pursuits, and career skills have always been purely intellectual and mostly knowledge based. I do IT/Networking/PC repair, electronic repair, race and repair a muscle car, and work on ham radio. Manual dexterity, and learning and knowing how to physically move my body, and being physically coordinated in general has never been my strong suite. This is an interesting and HUMBLING thing to try to learn!
There is also a thread on Josh’s videos ordered by skill level and topic so maybe it could give you some guidance: BassBuzz YouTube Video Guide
And not to advertise something I eventually dropped out of but Fender Play do a 14-day free trial period. I found their very basic lessons helpful and structured but left eventually because I got bored.
Since I picked up the bass, I had to micro-shift with my pinky to make the note ring clear. I just fret then shift the finger closer to the fret I am playing. Cleans up the tone and after a few times, you barely notice you are doing it. I did it not because of short fingers, but because I could not stretch the pinky far enough to sound the note clean. I think as my technique gets better, micro-shifts will still be needed for getting the note to ring clear.
I shamelessly and unapologetically micro-shift ALWAYS. I long ago gave up on the notion of being able to span several frets without moving my hand, as many people here do. I also keep my fretting fingers close to the strings for muting purposes, so when you watch one of my cover videos, it sometimes looks like I’m not even fretting. I don’t care, I only care about producing the proper tones and rhythm.
I do not offer an apology for my unorthodox plucking, picking, or fretting style, and neither should you. If the music sounds right, it doesn’t matter if you play it with your tongue.
I have come to this conclusion this week, working through the 25 Bass Grooves on talkingbass. They of course are designed to work all 4 fingers across, well, 4 frets. My pinky fretting sounds horrible and I’m microshifting and its all good. I decided just now not to focus on the pinky but rather proper muting, fretting etc with the three well behaved fingers instead.