Starting on a 5-String

[Spolodaface]

I recently purchased a second-hand 5 String bass of a fellow Basschat member and, after looking at various online resources (of which there are surprisingly many) I can't find many relating to 5-string learning; nor are there many tabs for a 5-string bass. Can anybody advise me of how to tackle the extra string while learning from 4-tring resources?

[Conan]

[quote name='Spolodaface' post='700485' date='Jan 4 2010, 02:22 PM']I recently purchased a second-hand 5 String bass of a fellow Basschat member and, after looking at various online resources (of which there are surprisingly many) I can't find many relating to 5-string learning; nor are there many tabs for a 5-string bass. Can anybody advise me of how to tackle the extra string while learning from 4-tring resources?[/quote]

Presumably your "4-string resources" won't mention the 5th string (which I assume is a low B rather than a high C) as there is no need for them to do so!

From my own personal experience (which I would not necessarily recommend!), I just sat down with the 5string and played it as much as I could! Very frustrating at first, but it is getting better! It is taking me a long time to get used to the extra string as I played for about 25 years before getting a 5 and my hands (as well as my brain!) get confused... Often I am plucking one string but fretting another!

[stevebasshead]

I don't know if this helps but when I went from 4 to 5 it was my plucking hand that was the confused one. I found that concentrating more on where I was plucking and less on where I was fretting helped me.

I think this is because the fretting hand has to make a definite movement to reach the low B because it's coming from underneath the neck, if you see what I mean, so to all intents and purposes it behaves as if it were fretting a 4 string until you need to play something on the low B. The plucking hand on the other hand (no pun intended) finds the low B string first and the brain expects this to be the E, so it takes a definite concentration on the plucking hand. Once the brain adjusts to this extra string being the first thing it finds it'll make the co-ordination of the two hands come together more easily.

I actually had more trouble going back from 5 to 4 a couple of years later...weird...

[Sarah5string]

The easiest was to learn I found was to play stuff I already knew, but transposing some of the notes onto the B instead of the E for example. Drop D you wouldn't need to retune for so if you start playing drop D songs just using the bottom strings instead of downtuning.
Eventually it'll just click and if you're anything like me, you won't go back to a 4!

Edited January 4, 2010 by Sarah5string

[OldGit]

[quote name='Conan' post='700510' date='Jan 4 2010, 02:57 PM']Presumably your "4-string resources" won't mention the 5th string (which I assume is a low B rather than a high C) as there is no need for them to do so!

From my own personal experience (which I would not necessarily recommend!), I just sat down with the 5string and played it as much as I could! Very frustrating at first, but it is getting better! It is taking me a long time to get used to the extra string as I played for about 25 years before getting a 5 and my hands (as well as my brain!) get confused... Often I am plucking one string but fretting another![/quote]


+1

When I got mine I just locked the 4 away and only played the 5 for about 6 months. I released it then and now I can switch relatively easy.
I do make sure I'm fretting the right string when I'm starting a tune loudly on stage 'cos I've had a few embarrasing moments

However I just spotted this on ebid:
[url="http://uk.ebid.net/perl/auction.cgi?auction=14972890&mo=auction#pic"]http://uk.ebid.net/perl/auction.cgi?auctio...;mo=auction#pic[/url]

[WarPig]

[quote name='Sarah5string' post='700562' date='Jan 4 2010, 03:45 PM']The easiest was to learn I found was to play stuff I already knew, but transposing some of the notes onto the B instead of the E for example. Drop D you wouldn't need to retune for so if you start playing drop D songs just using the bottom strings instead of downtuning.[/quote]

+1

Thats basically what i did. You'll find some dropped-D songs are easier on 5, but some like Velvet Revolvers ''Slither'' can be quite a work out . It all helps with your fretboard work.

And with standard songs i started playing on the 5th fret of the B, just to test my brain.

[Spolodaface]

I have been considering playing the lower 4 strings as if I were on a four-string but the issue I've been thinking about is that if I were to do this in practice later dow the line with a band, i'd be playing in the wrong key to everybody else. That said, my music theory isn't up to scratch so I may be wrong.

Thanks for the advice so far though! Reassuring to know i'm not the only perosn facing this challenge.

[stevebasshead]

[quote name='Spolodaface' post='700611' date='Jan 4 2010, 04:35 PM']I have been considering playing the lower 4 strings as if I were on a four-string but the issue I've been thinking about is that if I were to do this in practice later dow the line with a band, i'd be playing in the wrong key to everybody else. That said, my music theory isn't up to scratch so I may be wrong.

Thanks for the advice so far though! Reassuring to know i'm not the only perosn facing this challenge.[/quote]
If you play the E-A-D-G the same then yes, this will be fine for the band and the key. But if you mean playing the B-E-A-D in the same fret position as you would on a 4 then you will be out of key, however all you need to do is play higher up the neck and you'll be fine.

Either way you'll still need to adapt to the extra string being there but just get stuck in and it will come to you

[Doddy]

[quote name='Spolodaface' post='700611' date='Jan 4 2010, 04:35 PM']I have been considering playing the lower 4 strings as if I were on a four-string but the issue I've been thinking about is that if I were to do this in practice later dow the line with a band, i'd be playing in the wrong key to everybody else. That said, my music theory isn't up to scratch so I may be wrong.

Thanks for the advice so far though! Reassuring to know i'm not the only perosn facing this challenge.[/quote]


If you know what the notes on the 'board are,there is no reason to play out of key. If you don't, I'd suggest
that you learn that first without worrying about patterns.

Practice things like arpeggios over two octaves,so that you are getting comfortable playing over all
five strings.