Hi

I'm a bit new to playing bass, but have played a lot of classical music before (wind instrument 😉 ). And I have noticed, that some songs do a lot of moving the hand back and forth. And I was wondering... why not just use another string?

Specific I'm trying to learn Soldier Side by System of a Down. At a point I'm told (in the game) to use yellow string (tuned down to Ab) at 10th fret... the jump to 5th, 7th, 5th and back to 10th again. It's not fast, so I can manage, but it would be easier to use the "blue string" (tuned to Db) on 5th fret from the start (at this point). Then I don't have to move my hand at all... 🙂

Is there a reason for moving the hand instead of using another string?

It's not just this song. Hypnotize (also System of a Down (came with the game)) goes 5th, 3rd, 2nd and 0... and then 8th and 10th... back to 5, 3, 2...

Can anyone explain it to me...?

5 hours ago, Orkkongen said:

Is there a reason for moving the hand instead of using another string?

 

Most of the time it's just the preference of whoever tabbed it and what they find easiest (unless they looked up live footage of the band and tabbed off that). You can play it however you want and the game will still pick it up. The way I look at it there's no one "right" way to play it. Do what you want how, you want.

But...

Using the lower strings will give a slightly "heavier" sound  and being all on one string can make it easier to play with consistent timing (at least on faster stuff, provided you can handle the fingering). I find it's a convention of the genre and part of the playstyle of metal stuff, whereas more classical/jazz stuff tends to play the opposite by changing strings more and utilizing more open strings.

Hypnotize being ODLC means it should be fairly accurate but it's almost impossible to make a 100% fingering accurate tab unless you wrote the song yourself and tabbed it right after or something. Even live they might not play it the same way when they recorded it in the studio if they even used that as a reference.
 

There's no real set reason so I'm afraid there's no proper answer, so just some stuff to consider. 

On 12/31/2020 at 3:47 AM, coldrampage said:

Hypnotize being ODLC means it should be fairly accurate but it's almost impossible to make a 100% fingering accurate tab unless you wrote the song yourself and tabbed it right after or something. Even live they might not play it the same way when they recorded it in the studio if they even used that as a reference.
 

Thank you for the answer. It kind'a makes sense. I had a feeling that people did it because they they just prefer it that way. Maybe I should just learn both things...

And this quote tells about one of the downside of learning through RS. In some tracks they have brought all the small "taste" to the music, small graces and details... but we learn it in a very strict way to get 100% "perfection". In other words, we play it like notes, not living the music. The small details should appear because I have this feeling, not because I'm instructed to do so. 😉  The solution should be to find a band...

Anyway, this is a great game, and a great way of learning. And fun to play with a band, that don't make mistakes (being a recording). 🙂

15 hours ago, MattP598 said:

Well also there is a tonal difference between the same notes played on different strings.  Each string has its own timbre because of varying thicknesses and lengths.

Sometimes I just think that is a theoretical answer, when drums, guitars and everything are just loud. 😛