Guide To Bass Guitar String Bends & Vibrato

[@OnlineBassCourses]

Bass Guitar Technique Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLdXYrUzLRVdoiAbJQ1bRkwqzh2M4BF8RF

[@jyotiprakashnaik9758]

I had requested for this video and you responded immediately, thank you very much.

[@OnlineBassCourses]

No problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@johnfollis2357]

Yes. I do this all the time. Makes the bass sing.

[@OnlineBassCourses]

Sure does!

[@johnfollis2357]

Is there any bass lines that come to mind that use bends and/or vibrato? I want to hear some.

[@OnlineBassCourses]

@@johnfollis2357 There's a really cool solo I like that contains them: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJ7Nd4N6a5uIbKc

[@johnfollis2357]

Thank you. That was cool. I was playing for the college ministry at my church and we play mostly contemporary Christian music. But most of the time the bass lines are very simple. So at certain parts where you could put a fill in, I would seriously vibrato certain notes to make the thing stand out along with all the slides and what not.

[@robinkoutakis7020]

Could You Do a video on artificial Harmonics, would like To be able To play The Birdland intro by Weather Report (Jaco Pastorius on bass)

[@OnlineBassCourses]

Hi Robin. I have a lesson here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJvbaKOGZrR1ga8. Once you have the technique down try and figure Birdland out by ear (you can do it!). Let me know if you’re having trouble.

[@thehumbleservant2010]

This was very helpful

[@OnlineBassCourses]

Thanks for watching!

[@anacecilia5972]

everytime i try to do it, it looks like the string is gonna break in my eye and the sound doesn't come right (bend)

[@OnlineBassCourses]

Don’t worry - it won’t!

[@DougieD_Funk]

Hey guys how are ya?! I figured I’d leave this here just from experience for anybody who wants to read it. I would suggest trying your best to not get in the habit of using your third finger to bend or vibrato and in fact using your pinky. Is it difficult in the beginning? Yup. But I promise it will be worth it down the line once your vibrato technique is fluid. The reason being, getting comfortable with your third finger rather than your pinky encourages awkward, uncomfortable, impractical, non-ergonomic and totally non-economical left hand (or right for all you lefty’s out there)technique. When using your third finger, what is your pinky doing? Jack shit lol just sitting there immobile and in pain doing nothing which is silly and impractical when you can just utilize it! It also enables just the most general good left hand technique when playing anything at all. Totally your call though. And if ya have any questions or anything at all, don’t ever hesitate to send me a message on FB which is just my name as you see it here. Take care!

[@johnfollis2357]

That is a good point. I am certainly guilty of using my ring finger with the middle and index fingers behind it. I will say that using it on the higher frets for bends and vibrato is very tricky. To me I just feel like my hand is all squashed together in the very high register. So I tend to revert back to the ring finger. Perhaps this will take some work getting used too.

[@DougieD_Funk]

@@johnfollis2357 hey brotha how are ya! Dude I TOTALLY feel ya on that. I think it’s because it feels “do-able”. But if ya keep grinding and trying as much as you can to use your pinky for vibrato, ESPECIALLY in the second register of the neck, you will notice your hand and wrist kind of ‘level off’ and become almost perpendicular to the fingerboard which is much much healthier for your tendons as well but the even cooler and far more practical ability it opens up is now enabling not only more comfortable but more accurate “finger per fret” fingerings and instead of being stuck with 3 notes per finger if you’re doing a little run or just playing a groove, now you can properly(and quickly if necessary) cover FOUR notes or frets. And I think over time you’ll notice it opens up much more potential for other things like having extra fingers now to mute or play ghost notes, dead notes etc. So it’s definitely not gonna hurt you that’s for sure! Awesome observation John you’re 10000% right man! Good luck my man! Hope everything’s great!

[@johnfollis2357]

@@DougieD_Funk Yep I have been making a habit of using the pinkie for bending and vibrato. Now I can do some very serious vibrato with all for fingers verses three. Generally it is harder to do bends and vibrato on bass verses guitar. And that's because on guitar the strings are small thin and tiny, but on bass the strings are big huge and manly. So it is a matter of applying the right amount of strength for each instrument. If you apply too much strength on guitar, your bends and vibrato will be hindered. But if you apply little strength on bass, you'll have a hard time maneuvering the strings. So each is slightly different from each other but not by much. Of course this is my opinion and what I have found at least for me. And maybe after all, guitars are for girls. (Ahaha just kidding.) Anyway, I am doing well and I hope you are as well.