Bass-Players – End the Hassle of Auditions!
– by Traktor Topaz
When I was in third grade, there was this one kid who had hardly any friends. He was a grade younger, so I didn’t know him well, but at recess he was generally puttering around by himself.
He seemed sad. And one morning in a frenzy of good-will I struck up a conversation even though he was in a grade lower than me and my pals.
He seemed happy to talk, and soon was telling me about this and that and what he did and stuff he had. I guess he was impressing me because I was older. He said he had a telescope.
“Really?” I asked. He nodded vigorously.
“Yes!” he said, “At night you can see the moon real clear, and during the day it makes things look like they’re right there.”
I had never seen a telescope. I was hooked.
“Could I come see it?” And his face brightened up.
And then his expression grew wistful.
“Well …” he said, “you can … but …”
But what?
THE GOOSE
“We have a goose,” he said.
Tapping on Bass – Six Strings? Eight Strings? Twelve Strings?
If you’re a bass player, I’d bet you’d agree that the power and precision of the bass is that it can play a single, low note.
You can play fast or slow, but learning bass technique initially is learning to play one note at a time. If you experiment with playing chords, you’ve learned that you must spread the notes out, because close-voiced notes sound muddy.
BASS PLAYERS BEGIN TAPPING ON BASS
With modern amplification, more and more bass-players are learning bass tapping – that is, just touching the strings to the frets, in order to sound a note. This touchstyle method allows playing the bass strings with both hands, because plucking is not needed.
And tapping on bass opens the door to chordal bass music, and to playing melodies. With two-handed tapping on bass you can be a better side-man, but you could also begin playing solo gigs, and it’s not all that difficult, with the Easy Touchstyle Method. At the end, I’ll tell you how to get a free bass-tapping method book that reveals how easy it can be.
Obviously, to play spread-out chords, and to play high-pitched melodies, you’re going to need more than a four-string bass, because you’re going to need more range.
The question is – how many strings make for easy learning to play bass tapping? And how many strings work best for melody playing?