How to Do Fourth Fret Exercises for Bass Guitar

If you want to improve your manual dexterity and become a better Bass player, you have to work at it constantly. To enhance your coordination and other skills, you need to remember the most important step - practice. Learning to do and practicing fourth fret exercises will help you perfect your bass playing skills.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Learn the basic chords and finger positioning on the frets in order to correctly play the bass guitar. One technique to use is to do a major chord with an open string. To find the D major chord, use open string D and the eleventh fret of G.

2. Master finger picking techniques for playing the bass guitar. Use index and middle fingers when going up the scales, use alternative finger positions when switching notes. The easiest set up is the first note with the index finger, the second note with the middle finger, and so on.

3. Use the fourth fret exercise to learn the fourth fret on your bass for each string. Instead of doing them in a row, go from the first fret to the third fret, then the second to the fourth. Do that for each string and use a different finger for each fret. Coming back down is a little harder and definitely challenging as far as coordination. Use your index on the first fret and your middle on the second, ring finger on the third and pinky on the fourth.

4. Practice this technique to get the finger position and movement down better. The best way to learn to play the bass correctly, creatively and with confidence is to practice on a daily basis and with a band or background music.