Unless you want to sound *incredibly* cheesy, avoid the old I,V,I,V sequence (eg. if playing in A, picking "A - E - A - E" - or even worse, "A - E - A E F# G#"). The Postman Pat theme is the only tune for which this sequence is acceptable and you can get away with it by saying you're doing it for irony value.

You won't go too far wrong by starting just playing the tonic note for each chord on the beat (or every other beat, or every bar, depending on tune and speed). Don't bother with anything else until you can do that reliably.

Halfway up the fretboard on the E and A strings is actually a good place to be. But halfway up on the G and D strings starts to fight with the guitar for space, and in fact the D string generally can start getting into the guitar's space, so know what you're doing if you're up there. Those higher notes are *much* more prominent too, so if you're unsure then stick to plunking away on lower notes and turn any glitches into "passing notes". ;-)

Playing chords and other multi-note playing (thumb and fingers, etc.) *is* practical on basses, but whether it sounds good or not is 100% down to the instrument. If your instrument can't do it and sound good, forget about it.

Graham.

PS. Tried a *beautiful* Dean bass at the weekend. £750 unfortunately, so had to put it back on the rack! :-(