Keep Your Options Open
From Fender Frontline's "Artist Advice" Series
by Bryan Beller
Published Winter, 1996

Being a bassist isn't easy sometimes. Guitarists and keyboardists write licks that don't always translate well onto your fretboard, often causing your left hand to jump around from position to position in a Beavis-like blur (my taskmaster, Dweezil Zappa, is a key offender in this area). However, the whole point of position-playing is to maximize the location of your left hand, reaching as many notes as possible before having to move it. If a difficult lick contains a G, D, A or E in it, simply substitute the open string for that note. Meanwhile, your left hand is temporarily free to switch to an insanely faraway part of the neck, or even rest for just a second.

Examples #1 and #2 (from the Z tunes "Purple Guitar" and "In My Mind" [respectively]) will help you make sense of this. In the first one, the open G allows you to make one smooth position jump as opposed to two or three silly ones. Example #2 is fast and furious; the open D's and A's, combined with some hammer-ons, make a beastly lick more manageable.

(Click HERE to see a full-page version of the musical examples referred to above.)

Remember: it's OK to use open strings. You won't grow hairy palms, get a beating, or even ruin your technique. In music, as in life, rules are meant to be broken.

Note: That's the end of the piece, but for a special treat, click HERE for a large-size picture of the entire article as it ran, featuring the most ill-advised photo I've ever allowed into print.

This copyrighted article first appeared in the Winter 1996 issue of Fender Musical Instruments' quarterly publication, Fender Frontline. Fender Frontline has since ceased to exist, and has evolved into a smaller, bass-focused web/print publication entitled Fender's BassStreet.com. Visit it at www.bassstreet.com, as well as Fender's main website at www.fender.com.