Time for the next chapter: “Rhythm and Stuff” (pp. 22-26). The first revelation is that you can play more than quarter notes. Eighth notes and the 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & count are explained, along with riff #1 in doubled eighths. I like the way the book keeps on circling back to earlier concepts and doing the same thing again but with just the one extra tweak.
I’m a little less keen on the following page, which illustrates right hand technique. Some lovely line drawings are used but the book is very clear that you rest your thumb on the E string or let it float well out of the way when you want that string and that all strokes on higher strings should come to rest on the string below. There’s some mileage in that but I think they are missing some important nuances. I’m not sure how long I persisted with this method because, on the Hohner 500/3 bass I started on, it was easy to slide the strings off the little bits of fretwire they went over at the bridge if you rested on them too hard! I think I went to the “rest on the pickup approach” and was more than ready when I heard about the way of the floating thumb!
I’m also a bit surprised to find that, although alternating the fingers is introduced, they start off with the middle finger leading (although index-leading patterns are introduced before long). Anyway, we’re back into action with another variant of the riff, all in eighths (A A E E G E G a). That is written out in full but followed by a series of other riffs that you are left to move around on your own. The first covers a four fret range (A A C# C# E E F# E) and then we get further riffs that alternate quarter and eighth notes and even introduce ties, giving our first taste of syncopation, although that fancy word isn’t mentioned.
All of these are meant to be played along with the backing track on the record. As I recall, this was the second section where the learning curve seemed suddenly steeper (the first was going from open strings to fretted notes). Nowadays, it all looks very basic but it felt like scaling heady heights when I was starting off.
One other point I’d note is at the bottom of p. 23. Apparently “Many studio players favor using the pick because of the crispness of the attack. In rock, however, the use of the pick causes the bass to lose some of its punch.” To me, that’s another reminder that this book was written long, long ago in a galaxy quite far away and that it wasn’t entirely to be trusted in its sweeping statements. Even looking at the photos included with the book, I’d be inclined to say that approaching a third of the ones showing people playing bass are making use of a pick (although I’m sometimes judging that from the overall hand position – not many picking / plucking hand close-ups).
Anyway, we’ve certainly reached the point where you could head out and start gigging, as long as that gig consisted entirely of 12 bar blues in A and you could approach every song by playing each bar as a repeated riff starting on the appropriate note! We’re going to be climbing further soon though.