Notes of the C Major Chord. This limited reliance on the E or 3rd to make a natural sounding chord is very important for bass players to take note of. Using the 3rd of a scale too often or hanging on the 3rd will make your bass playing sound awkward and off key. Therefore, playing the pattern shown above in the C chord over and over again is not the best choice. Bass players should stick to the 1st, 5th, and octave of the scale.
Simple bass run.
This may be a lot easier for many of you. I often use the 1st and the 3rd fingers myself as we will see in the later examples. Simple run using first and third finger. By bouncing between the 1st, 5th and the octave, we have improved our sound over just sitting on the root and pounding out quarter notes as so many bass players do. However, this too will soon become boring and tedious on the ears.