When it comes to bass guitar technique these two techniques are fundamental. Rest strokes are generally used for plucking and free strokes for playing more than one note at the same time (double stops and chords).
If playing fingerstyle, for the majority of the time you will be using rest strokes. If you like playing about with chords and using double stops then free strokes are what you need.
Learn more in the following bass guitar technique lesson:
How To Hold The Bass
This is an often overlooked but crucial aspect of playing bass properly. This video takes you through how to do it plus what to do with your hands.
Here's a very easy bass guitar technique exercise to work on:
For a greater challenge and 70 really cool sounding (and not boring!) sounding bass guitar exercises, check out my book Creative Bass Technique Exercises.
The blurb for the book...
More Bass Guitar Chords To Experiment With
Here's another lesson that will dramatically expand your chordal knowledge. Harmonics sound amazing on bass.
More Bass Fingerstyle...
Here's a lesson going into more depth on playing chords on bass guitar.
Laying a strong technical foundation will mean, in the future you being able to play whatever you want. Take your time, improve a little bit every day and before you know it you will have the technique that you dream of.
