Bass Lesson 07 - Finger Strength

After practicing the major scales lesson a few times, you have most likely come into a problem with your fingers becoming fatigued. They might also be slipping off of the strings and becoming a bit inaccurate. This is normal for bassists and traditional guitarists alike. These problems are directly related to your finger strength. When you first begin playing bass, your fingers will get very tired and difficult to use after an hour or less. This lesson gives you a few tips and exercises that you can do to help coordinate your right and left hands as well as help strengthen your fingers. Some exercises are also mentally challenging.

The first exercise is taken from John Petrucci; even though he plays guitar, the finger exercises he uses relate to what you should be doing on the bass. This exercise resembles a staircase look. When you play it, you will find out why. You may have to go back and review the lesson about tablature if you have forgotten how to read it. The bottom line is the low E string, and the number one tells us to put our finger on the first fret on that string. The same goes for the second to bottom line except that it represents the A string, with the 2 meaning to fret the 2nd fret. Follow along with the video if you are struggling. Then, practice this exercise over and over until you feel you have mastered it and you can play it at a moderately brisk pace.

 

 

The next exercise will help the fingers on your left hand to become independent of each other. If you look at this tab, you will see that it is very possible to play it by just sliding your fingers up using only your pointer and middle fretting fingers. Instead of taking the easy way out, make sure you use your pointer and middle finger for the first bar/measure, or first four notes. However, for the second bar, use your middle finger on the Eb and your ring finger on the A (D string). In the third and the last measures, you use your ring and pinky fingers. The more parallel you can keep your hand to the fretboard, the more you will work your muscles.
 

 

 

As a beginner, it is very important that you do some type of finger exercise frequently. You could practice nothing but exercises for a whole week and not waste a bit of your time. The stronger your fingers become, the easier it will be for you to play the bass guitar, especially since the bass has bigger strings which make playing bass more difficult. Don't be afraid: your fingers will not get huge and over-sized so that you look like a body builder. You will just be able to play your bass more effectively. Learn these exercises and practice them at the beginning of your practice session for a good warm up.