How to Play a Fast Bass Guitar
Bass guitar players are not typically known for speed playing like lead guitar players. The bass is often thought of, mistakenly, as an instrument used only as a rhythm section instrument. While this is true much of the time, bass players such as Billy Sheehan, Stanley Clarke and Cliff Burton are legendary for bringing speed and lead playing techniques to the bass guitar. With practice, you can speed your bass up and maybe play alongside the pros.
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Instructions
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Strengthen your fingers. Learning a few bass scales and playing them regularly will help you get familiar with your keyboard and make your fingers stronger. You can purchase a book of scales at a music store or find bass scales online at no charge. Don't just play scales, though. Play exercise patterns built around scales that force you to stretch your fingers. One of the best ways to speed up your bass playing is enhancing your ability to get to more of the available notes on your bass.
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Introduce tapping to your playing style. Once you've added strength to the fingers you use to fret (push the strings down on the neck) your notes, you can play notes with those fingers while tapping notes with your picking hand. This technique involves using the index or middle finger of your picking hand to push notes down on the neck of the bass in addition to the notes you fret with your other hand. Not only does this allow you to play more notes, it allows you to play low notes and high notes you normally couldn't reach in the same musical phrase. This is one of the quickest ways to speed up your bass notes.
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Set a metronome and practice playing bass lines at around 60 beats per minute. This is a reasonably slow pace that will allow you to build up your accuracy as you practice. The more efficient you become, the faster you can set the tempo. Don't raise the tempo of the metronome until you are comfortable at your current setting. This is a good way to gradually build up you ability to play fast and in time.
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Work on your picking and plucking technique. Some bass players use a pick while others pluck with one or two fingers. If you pluck the strings of your bass, consider using your index, middle and third finger. Adding just one additional finger can greatly increase the speed of your playing. For pick users, try gripping your base pick high, leaving very little distance between your fingers and the tip of the pick, then practice up and down pick action on your strings. A high grip on the pick will speed up your picking action, which in turn speeds up your playing.
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References
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- Photo Credit bass guitar image by Istvan Ferge from Fotolia.com
