The Hal Leonard Bass Method thread

#21
I'm in exactly the same boat at the moment, played guitar for years but decided to take up the bass and currently working on my right hand technique.

I've been thinking about getting these books as I've seen a few people say they are very good. Think I'll make the purchase!

Good luck!
 
#22
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#23
of 109 exercises in the first book, the cd covers 45 of them. for as much as i want every exercise to have a pre-recorded example, there's great value in learning how things are supposed to sound for yourself. none of the first 15 exercises have a track. so i listened to the first one on the disc, and it's at 80 bpm. i expect most of the exercises are at that speed, so i programmed a Garageband project for 80bpm in case i need to drop a track in and play along to it.

i expect to get started on this tomorrow. tonight i spent my time reading through the first book, burning the discs to my computer, and setting up the Garageband project. next i need to figure out what to upload to. both my Dropbox and Soundcloud are getting crowded.
 
#25
i worked on the first 10 pages this morning. as you know from the OP, i am a guitarist by trade. jazz guitarist Eddie Lang had his soloing style described as "a guy running with a pie in his pants". that's what my fingerstyle technique currently sounds like. needless to say, i will be working on it further before i post clips.

OTOH, i got some much needed vocal practice time in today. so, progress. :cool:
 
#29
still no clips. <_<

my biggest issue is anchoring my thumb and then moving it for the D and G strings. my instinct is to keep the thumb anchored on the pickup. Mr. Friedland's system calls for leaving the thumb on the pickup (btw, i play an MIM Precision) for the E and A strings. then moving to the E string while playing the D string. then again moving to the A string while playing the G string.

anybody have some helpful thumb anchoring hints to pass along?
 
#30
Greetings. Total noob here and my first post on TB.

I bought my first bass guitar, a 5 string, almost a year ago, and bought the Hal Leonard 3 in 1 book/cd shortly thereafter. I never touched a guitar prior to that. My only other musical experience was a couple of years playing trumpet in band back in my junior high school days (LONG time ago). So I am about as green as they come.

Right now I am on page 66 (I got away from it for a couple of months last spring). Finally digging into scales. When I first started EVERYTHING was a struggle, including learning how to anchor the thumb, mute strings etc. Just being able to fret and pluck in a coordinated fashion was a challenge. At first, it was just too much to try and nail everything (muting, anchoring, keeping a beat etc.). So I just kind of ignored it and focused on trying to develop fretting and plucking skills. I figured once I got comfortable with those two, I could go back and focus on those other things.

I really didn't consciously pick a thumb anchoring technique. As I got more comfortable with fretting and plucking, I noticed I was moving my thumb around, resting it one or two strings above the one I am playing. It seems to working pretty good as I am able to also use the rest of my thumb to mute the other strings.

One thing I am working on now is trying to reduce finger/string noise. I am using a pocketrockit headphone amp to practice at home and every movement of my fingers on the strings comes through my headphones. Sounds terribly sloppy. It would be nice to hear from the gurus on TB and get some advice on correcting these issues.

Sorry for the long winded post.:meh:
 
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#31
HelpImaRock said:
anybody have some helpful thumb anchoring hints to pass along?
Click to expand...

You could try not anchoring the thumb at all, but let it float, as in the "Floating Thumb" technique. This technique has two advantages over anchoring on the pick up.

1. The wrist is straight, thus helping to prevent any wrist/hand injuries at a later time.

2. The thumb mutes any unwanted string sounds.

Here is the technique demonstrated :



 
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#32
fearceol said:
You could try not anchoring the thumb at all, but let it float, as in the "Floating Thumb" technique. This technique has two advantages over anchoring on the pick up.

1. The wrist is straight, thus helping to prevent any wrist/hand injuries at a later time.

2. The thumb mutes any unwanted string sounds.

Here is the technique demonstrated :



Click to expand...


thanks for that!

i had read about the floating thumb technique in Greg Mooter's "Bass Guitar Handbook", but was still wondering about an E string anchor. the answer, it seems, is that the anchor is a crutch and it's all about muting.
 
#33
HelpImaRock said:
thanks for that!

i had read about the floating thumb technique in Greg Mooter's "Bass Guitar Handbook", but was still wondering about an E string anchor. the answer, it seems, is that the anchor is a crutch and it's all about muting.
Click to expand...

The "Moveable Anchor" that you described earlier ( resting the thumb on the string above the one being played) is equally as good as the FT. It is generally safe too, as the wrist is straight. It's just a matter of finding out which one suits you best.
 
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#34
fearceol said:
The "Moveable Anchor" that you described earlier ( resting the thumb on the string above the one being played) is equally as good as the FT. It is generally safe too, as the wrist is straight. It's just a matter of finding out which one suits you best.
Click to expand...

Since I'm digging in, I'm going to try the floating thumb technique. Maybe it'll help with my consistency as well.
 
#35
I tend to just move my thumb down as I play the A, D & G strings, and it seems to work well enough. String noise, or thundering, as I call it, is always worse if I play with a pick, so just finger-picking makes a big difference as the fingers mute the higher string as they come up, and this stops any resonance. Also when playing dead notes, I always use more than one finger to mute the string, as this stops any harmonic noise.

I'm on page 22 of the Hal Leonard book at the moment, and have just been playing through the 12 bar blues number. I have to say that this seems a good way of learning the notes and the note values, as it gives practical exercises, and I am having more success this way than with the theory books about reading music that I tried previously. :)
 
#36
LordDog said:
I tend to just move my thumb down as I play the A, D & G strings, and it seems to work well enough. String noise, or thundering, as I call it, is always worse if I play with a pick, so just finger-picking makes a big difference as the fingers mute the higher string as they come up, and this stops any resonance. Also when playing dead notes, I always use more than one finger to mute the string, as this stops any harmonic noise.

I'm on page 22 of the Hal Leonard book at the moment, and have just been playing through the 12 bar blues number. I have to say that this seems a good way of learning the notes and the note values, as it gives practical exercises, and I am having more success this way than with the theory books about reading music that I tried previously. :)
Click to expand...

My picking technique is really good. No string noise, good dynamics, great muting technique. But I'm trying to learn fingerstyle because I want to open up possibilities with the instrument.
 
#38
I checked out Ed Friedland's videos on UTube to see how he does it, since he wrote the lessons in the book. It looks like he moves his thumb around, going from the pickup to strings 1 and 2, and using fingers 4 & 5 to mute. This method definitely interests me, as I am kind of doing that already. But getting fingers 4 & 5 to follow my plucking fingers that quickly and accurately I am sure will take quite a bit of time to develop.

Ed is definitely "the man" when it comes to bass playing.
 
#40
SbassmanSpiff said:
I checked out Ed Friedland's videos on UTube to see how he does it, since he wrote the lessons in the book. It looks like he moves his thumb around, going from the pickup to strings 1 and 2, and using fingers 4 & 5 to mute. This method definitely interests me, as I am kind of doing that already. But getting fingers 4 & 5 to follow my plucking fingers that quickly and accurately I am sure will take quite a bit of time to develop.

Ed is definitely "the man" when it comes to bass playing.
Click to expand...

he does do that. but i find that when i put my thumb on the pickup, i have a tendency to leave it there. the floating method may afford me better muting on the higher strings. it's definitely worth a shot.

EDIT: after trying the floating thumb method for 30 seconds, i think we have a winner. my only question is, is it ok to rest the fleshy part of my palm on the bass? or could it exacerbate any hand issues/tendonitis i already have?
 
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