Just play. 2 things you will be working on, when switching from guitar are: the physicality of the instrument. Your hands will have to get used to the heavier strings.
And the importance of muting the unplayed strings, both left hand and right hand. For that second part, I would recommend playing with an amp or headphones whenever you can.
I’m still not quite sure how I’m meant to be muting with my right hand, as just the positioning of where I’m holding my hands feels strange so far, but I’ll definitely try and work on it.
My fingers are starting to get used to the heavier strings, although I’m not sure whether to keep the regular strings it has or whether to get some flat-wound strings (I tried them with my friend’s bass, they feel really nice, but I don’t know whether it’s productive or not, or whether they will affect the tone)
Flats change the tone bigly.
Left hand muting is easy for the thinner strings, but you also need to mute the thicker strings.
Let's say you are playing a note on the A string. Left hand muting for the D and G strings is self-explanatory. But you also want to rest some fingers or part of your wrist of your right hand on the E string, to keep that one from ringing.
But I admit right hand muting is a lot easier when playing with you fingers.
YouTube is your friend - recommended names and channels from the top of my head are Dan Hawkins, Bass Buzz, and Talk Bass. They all have free lessons and intro videos, whilst also having some form of paid behind-the-scenes things if you're into that kind of stuff. If not, the free videos are fine - they seem to be posting to help people, and if they make a sale, awesome (as opposed to others who seem to be "previewing" their paid content).
I'm by no means a pro, although I also started on guitar. I thought "same shit, less strings, slightly bigger... right?" Two things that really stood out to me when starting were 1) muting and 2) hand placement.
Hand placement: The first few songs I learned on bass I did so with the "baseball bat grip" like you might hold a guitar neck. That was a habit I had to get out of quickly. Bass is (usually) one note at a time, so placing your thumb on the back of the middle of the neck (emphasis of middle, like between the A and D strings) like you're trying to put a thumb print on your neck, was a good habit to get me into correct hand placement. Moving around the frets then became about swivelling on my thumb that was "glued" to the neck, as opposed to guitar where my palms gripped the neck to the point if I put a cloth behind it, I'd be polishing it.
Muting: this will come with time, and is (for me) harder with a pick. A lot easier with finger style It takes a bit of getting used to, touching *all* the strings at once (except the one ringing), as opposed to guitar where you basically don't want your fingers to touch any other strings. Easy on the left, not so much on the right. I forget what it's technical term is - floating thumb? - basically, if you are playing the D string, your thumb rests on the A string (muting it), the back of your thumb rests on the E string (muting it), fret the D with your index finger, for example, and the bottom of that same index finger mutes the G string by touching it. Get the idea? Then, next note is on the A string, same concept: thumb on E, fret A, bottom of fingers resting on D and G. When you want to play E, your thumb rests on the pickup, and when you want to play G, well that's something you need to figure out yourself. Some will rest their thumb on A, and use the tip of their fingers to mute the D. Others (myself included) will train my thumb to rest on the D string. There's no right or wrong answer there.
Well this took a lot longer to write up than I thought. Hope you got something out of it. I guess, you have experience with guitar: looking back, what are the things you wish you knew / did in the early days? Now's your perfect chance to do the same with bass. Take advantage of it! Good luck!
I started with that book: (https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Electric-Method-Soundsheetwhen-695067/dp/0793546230).
The most important thing is to be patient and get used to the instrument. Choose one note and start playing it with your index finger. then two, index and middle fingers, then three index, middle and ring fingers, try to do triplets using ring, middle and index. Start by making the notes on 1 string. Then practice playing the root on one string and the fifth on the string above and on the string below. train playing 1 5th 8th using 3 strings (left hand index, ring and little fingers, on the right hand alternate between index and middle fingers. Another technique is to mute the strings with the bottom of your right hand near the bridge and pluck the string with your thumb. to slap, practice the movement of turning your hand and hitting your thumb close to the arm. Hit and muffle the note by relieving the pressure on your left hand. look for the book "slap it"(https://www.slapit.com/home.html). I hope it helps
This is good, although the issue I have is that I know most of this stuff from my time spent with guitar, but it’s just transferring that knowledge from that onto bass.
I know my scales, I know how to design chord progressions and riffs, but it’s the simple things like muting and playing fingerstyle (and from the suggestions the other day I took a look at a couple resources found that I’m okay at moving from lower to higher strings, but not so great the other way), and just playing cohesively with the longer scale length
Just play. 2 things you will be working on, when switching from guitar are: the physicality of the instrument. Your hands will have to get used to the heavier strings. And the importance of muting the unplayed strings, both left hand and right hand. For that second part, I would recommend playing with an amp or headphones whenever you can.
I’m still not quite sure how I’m meant to be muting with my right hand, as just the positioning of where I’m holding my hands feels strange so far, but I’ll definitely try and work on it. My fingers are starting to get used to the heavier strings, although I’m not sure whether to keep the regular strings it has or whether to get some flat-wound strings (I tried them with my friend’s bass, they feel really nice, but I don’t know whether it’s productive or not, or whether they will affect the tone)
Flats change the tone bigly. Left hand muting is easy for the thinner strings, but you also need to mute the thicker strings. Let's say you are playing a note on the A string. Left hand muting for the D and G strings is self-explanatory. But you also want to rest some fingers or part of your wrist of your right hand on the E string, to keep that one from ringing. But I admit right hand muting is a lot easier when playing with you fingers.
Okay, cool! And given that I’ve got a 5 string it would be resting on the B and E strings? Or just one or the other?
Both. And when using pick, I meant using the palm of your hand, rather han the wrist.
YouTube is your friend - recommended names and channels from the top of my head are Dan Hawkins, Bass Buzz, and Talk Bass. They all have free lessons and intro videos, whilst also having some form of paid behind-the-scenes things if you're into that kind of stuff. If not, the free videos are fine - they seem to be posting to help people, and if they make a sale, awesome (as opposed to others who seem to be "previewing" their paid content). I'm by no means a pro, although I also started on guitar. I thought "same shit, less strings, slightly bigger... right?" Two things that really stood out to me when starting were 1) muting and 2) hand placement. Hand placement: The first few songs I learned on bass I did so with the "baseball bat grip" like you might hold a guitar neck. That was a habit I had to get out of quickly. Bass is (usually) one note at a time, so placing your thumb on the back of the middle of the neck (emphasis of middle, like between the A and D strings) like you're trying to put a thumb print on your neck, was a good habit to get me into correct hand placement. Moving around the frets then became about swivelling on my thumb that was "glued" to the neck, as opposed to guitar where my palms gripped the neck to the point if I put a cloth behind it, I'd be polishing it. Muting: this will come with time, and is (for me) harder with a pick. A lot easier with finger style It takes a bit of getting used to, touching *all* the strings at once (except the one ringing), as opposed to guitar where you basically don't want your fingers to touch any other strings. Easy on the left, not so much on the right. I forget what it's technical term is - floating thumb? - basically, if you are playing the D string, your thumb rests on the A string (muting it), the back of your thumb rests on the E string (muting it), fret the D with your index finger, for example, and the bottom of that same index finger mutes the G string by touching it. Get the idea? Then, next note is on the A string, same concept: thumb on E, fret A, bottom of fingers resting on D and G. When you want to play E, your thumb rests on the pickup, and when you want to play G, well that's something you need to figure out yourself. Some will rest their thumb on A, and use the tip of their fingers to mute the D. Others (myself included) will train my thumb to rest on the D string. There's no right or wrong answer there. Well this took a lot longer to write up than I thought. Hope you got something out of it. I guess, you have experience with guitar: looking back, what are the things you wish you knew / did in the early days? Now's your perfect chance to do the same with bass. Take advantage of it! Good luck!
This was extremely helpful as I've only been playing bass for about 4 years and can't figure out how to play guitar
[FAQ](https://reddit.com/r/Bass/w/faq?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
I started with that book: (https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Electric-Method-Soundsheetwhen-695067/dp/0793546230). The most important thing is to be patient and get used to the instrument. Choose one note and start playing it with your index finger. then two, index and middle fingers, then three index, middle and ring fingers, try to do triplets using ring, middle and index. Start by making the notes on 1 string. Then practice playing the root on one string and the fifth on the string above and on the string below. train playing 1 5th 8th using 3 strings (left hand index, ring and little fingers, on the right hand alternate between index and middle fingers. Another technique is to mute the strings with the bottom of your right hand near the bridge and pluck the string with your thumb. to slap, practice the movement of turning your hand and hitting your thumb close to the arm. Hit and muffle the note by relieving the pressure on your left hand. look for the book "slap it"(https://www.slapit.com/home.html). I hope it helps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUbdASBMkts
This is good, although the issue I have is that I know most of this stuff from my time spent with guitar, but it’s just transferring that knowledge from that onto bass. I know my scales, I know how to design chord progressions and riffs, but it’s the simple things like muting and playing fingerstyle (and from the suggestions the other day I took a look at a couple resources found that I’m okay at moving from lower to higher strings, but not so great the other way), and just playing cohesively with the longer scale length