Walking Octaves
Walk up a scale and play the octave of each note. Using 4NPS requires you to shift positions a bit, building toward more advanced diagonal runs.
For each note of the selected scale (in this case D Major), play the note followed by its transpose up by one octave. Here are some of the benefits and focus areas of this exercise, with recommended extensions.
1. Dexterity
Playing octaves requires a significant stretch and precise finger placement, particularly on a bass guitar with its longer scale length. This exercise will strengthen your fretting hand and improve dexterity. When playing a run of notes like this using finger style, you'll often find yourself using one finger to play each root (e.g. your index) and the other to play each octave (e.g. your index). If slapping, it's convenient to thump each root and pop each octave. Finally when using a pick, this becomes a form of string skipping exercise.
2. Coordination
Synchronizing your fretting and plucking hands is crucial for clean, articulate playing. This exercise enhances your hand coordination, especially when you alternate quickly between the root note and its octave.
3. Ear Training
Developing a keen ear for intervals is essential for any musician. Playing octaves trains your ear to recognize this specific interval, which is foundational for improvisation and melody creation.
4. Consistency
Playing octaves across different strings encourages consistency in tone and volume. This is vital for maintaining a steady groove, whether you’re playing live or in the studio.
Simplifications
If your fretting fingers are getting tired of string skipping, or you're struggling to keep the strings quiet: reduce the interval to a fifth instead of an octave. In standard tuning this is still two frets up from the root, but you only need to stretch one string.
Extensions
Hammer the root note from an open string and change the time signature to 3/4 for a different feel. Then switch back to 4/4 and play triplets.
Add the diatonic 7th interval as well, then hammer to the octave. Combining with the previous suggestion (hammer-on the root from an open string) to get a sequence of four notes with only two plucks (one on each string). This will be similar to the All Diatonic 7ths Exercise.
Try adding the next octave up as well to extend the run.