If you're playing a song you don't know, you could do well to simply slide your fingers along the string in sympathy with the symphony. The frets will strike the sounds and you'll sound like you're going along with the story. Doing this in the appropriate way is very likely to cross the established pattern many times, even in roughened translations of pitch.

As you slide, also pluck. Sliding will get the tamber. Plucking will get the melody and help your tempo, as will the speed of your slide. You can also take the time to hop on notes as you slide to try the area out for some internal melodizing. This sound is pretty good/tight/sly on the electric guitar. Lots of fun and very useful for accompanying an acoutsic or a lead with many good chords that bass has a difficult time rhythming with.

Sliding for more than a few minutes will also build up excellent callouses on the fingers.

As stated before, a song is a wave, and the notes are merely level marks on that wave. Sliding is a very good way to produce or duplicate this wave without knowing the notes. The sympathy between the two waves will be ~constant, and can then be defined.

Do be and believe what you can be proud of!!

Quote from the mouth of a groovy chick: "Ladies love the thump of the bass on the vagina."