Stage 1: Getting Started

Welcome to the pinky boot camp. If you go through the painful torture of these exercises and devote 3 weeks of your bass practice routine to developing your pinky, it will benefit your playing tremendeously. Below you see short 3 chromatic exercises, separated by 2 bars. Don't play this as one line; they are 3 separate exercise in one line to save space! Play each exercise slowly at first, at the indicated tempo. I highly recommend that you use a metronome to keep time. Each fret corresponds to one finger:

1 - index

2 - middle

3 - ring

4 - pinky

After finishing the downward part of the line, immediately shift up your hand position by 1/2 step (one fret), and repeat the exercise. Continue this all the way up to the 12th fret, and back down to the first fret. Do this for each exercise, each day of this practice week.

Increase the tempo at the following rate (only if you're comfortable and able to play the exercise cleanly):

Day 1 - 60 BPM

Day 2 - 65 BPM

Day 3 - 75 BPM

Day 4 - 85 BPM

Day 5 - 90 BPM

Day 6 - 95 BPM

Day 7 -100 BPM