Greetings everyone!

When I started learning the bass, I was told to constantly stick with the one finger per fret technique at all times. Though it was perfect for practice and slow songs, I am now finding difficulty moving the fingers for quicker pieces.

Should I stick with the one finger a fret technique and try hard at improving speed and accuracy, and muting techniques or should I start fretting like guitarists or somewhere midway between the two techniques?

I was watching Randy Johnson's Mastering the Groove video the other day, and he was also saying it is easier muting and other stuff with close grip than with one finger a fret, and he was playing like that as well. I also see a lot of bassists playing like that.

Now is a critical moment in my learning phase where I do have to make a good decision and stick with it.

So, tell me which one you follow, and why. Also, mention what kind of music you play using the technique, since I see more jazz players using one finger a fret and more rock players using a closed hand technique. Mention the advantages and demerits of each if you could.

Thanks in advance.
Stanley Lyndon.

P.S.: If you use both, please explain which situations warrant the use of which method. Thanks.

I'm not voting because I do both.

usually, near the nut I'll do 1,2,4 (but some lines I like work better for me using 1 finger/per - i.e. f minor)

Above oh saaaay.... the 5th fret I'll generally switch to 1 finger per or possibly n frets/finger, to get the full 2 octives scales out of my 5 string. But hell, then again alot of times I'm just doing fingers 1 and 4 on 2 frets and occasionally reaching out with the pinky grab an extra fret (think minor pentatonic).

Anyone who tells you that there is only one 'right' way to do anything is a fool. Different techniques work better for different situaltions, learn them all.

not voting either the correct answer for this guy is
C. both

seeing as the poll question was asking what i use i voted b, but both are good

Its already been mentioned you need to use both. and for good reason.

are you simply laying down a groove? then it is very economical and easy to use your 1,2 and 4 fingers.

you starting to take solos and walk along a chord chart? then it tends to be more accurate to use one finger per fret.

however, you should be using one finger per fret when you do your technical exercises.

I think the important thing is not that you ALWAYS use one finger per fret, but that you can do it well enough that your left-hand technique isn't ever a limitation.

I always practiced the one-finger-per-fret thing, and I still teach that as a general practice technique to my students.

However, I also learned early in my playing, when I took a gig playing dance covers with players WAY more experienced and advanced than I, that the most important thing was to get to the note. Period.

No one in the band was watching my fingers to see if I used proper fingering techniques to get to all the notes on Stevie Wonder's "I Wish," for example, but they certainly were listening to what came out of my hands, bass, and amp during the shows. If they heard me screwing up a line, they didn't give me style points for having attemped to play the line using the finger-per-fret technique. They couldn't have cared less about that. Therefore, I learned to practice proper technique on my own, but if I was incapable of playing a line the "proper" way, if the only way I could make the line come out sounding right was to use my index finger only all the way up and down the neck, let's say, then that's what I did.

Of course, now that I think about it, "I Wish" was probably the one song where I actually had to use the finger-per-fret technique to get the song right, so that's a bad example. "Play That Funky Music, White Boy" perhaps? I don't know. But I'm sure you get the point. When you're under the gun, you do what you have to do to get the song right. Nobody's watching your technique, but they most certainly are listening to the song.

Matt

It's nice to look proper,,,,,
But it's proper to sound nice too.
Sometimes near the nut small hands just can't reach.
I'd vote for both. My hands are big and the fingers are long. Still, I'll mix and match as the conditions required.
I'd think 1 finger per fret on a 35" fretless wouldbe "interesting" even for me. :crying:

It's nice to look proper,,,,,
But it's proper to sound nice too.
Sometimes near the nut small hands just can't reach.
I'd vote for both. My hands are big and the fingers are long. Still, I'll mix and match as the conditions required.
I'd think 1 finger per fret on a 35" fretless wouldbe "interesting" even for me. :crying:

Nothing to add to your comments, but your sig is absolutely hilarious! I can totally relate!

Matt

C. Both

I do both, depending on what I'm playing and how (technique, style, etc.). Actually, I use 3 different ones:

1 finger per fret
More than one finger per fret
and stretch over more than 4 frets without moving my thumb.

I use both. Are there any bassists that only use one "system"? I think that if we start naming pro-bassists that play one-finger-per-fret, we'll probably find examples where those players aren't using it.

I use the 1, 2, 4 fingering in the lower register (my 3rd and 4th finger act as a unit).

I use one-finger-per-fret in the upper register.

Joe

I find myself using a finger for more than one fret fairly often. That didn't seem to be a choice in your poll. When I am doing a bass line at the 5th fret that has an occasional note on one string at the 4th fret I will reach back for it, playing 4th and 5th with my index finger.

I play an ERB (a 7-string), and playing anything other than 124 in the lower several positions is quite awkward. As a general rule of thumb, I start using 1-finger-per-fret past the fifth fret like everybody has said, although really 124 will suit anybody fine up until the 12th fret.

the answer is c/both

and that was true when i studied classical guitar too
more than once i was taught differently than the convention and told
that we will now break the rule
and we did

Thanks a lot everyone here for the replies. Quite a few were really enlightening. Also, thanks to bburk for his PMs.

I will post the PMs here in hope that it might help players who get to the stage I am in.

Here they are:
Hi Stan,
I'm always happy to help.

I just typed up a big long reply before my computer randomly rebooted on me erasing everything... I should know better than to compose replies in this little webform text area... So please excuse my terseness and grammer/spelling. I'm retyping almost everything from memory.

First, I want to acknowledge that i can understand why a teacher would push the 1finger/fret technique. pound for pound, it's going to develop your dextetiry and finger independance the best by forcing you to use ALL of your fingers. Of course, that's a good thing. It's what I learned when I started out, it's a solid technique, and I still probably use it more than anything else.

Now that that's out of the way, I'll try to show you a few of the other scale fingerings I use, why/when I use them and give some quick examples.


134 fingering -

Like I said, I started out using the 1finger/fret technique. When I got a 35" scale bass, I found that doing this up near the nut was a little uncomfortable due to the longer distance between the frets. My instructor at the time noticed this. He told me that a lot of upright players use just the index, middle and pinky especially near the nut because they have even more ground to cover (scale-wise). It works something like this.

You use your index and middle fingers as you would in 1finger/fret, but instead of using your ring finger to fret a note by itself, you 'marry' it to your pinky and use that to fret. This is a pretty natural way to use your fingers since most people have difficulty moving their ring and pinky independantly anyway. This whole arrangement of your fingers easily covers 3 frets at the nut, but some scales require you to cover 4 (or more) frets. In such a case, a small shift in your hand may be required. However, this small shift is often easier than splaying your hand out to try to reach with your pinky.

here I'm going to try to give some rudimentary tab in attempt to show you what I mean. Numbers represent the fret and lowercase letters indicate the finger to use.
i = index
m = middle
r = ring
p = pinky

F Major at the nut

------------------------
---------------0-2m-3p-
-------0-1i-3p----------
-1i-3p------------------


Notice how with the open strings, all of the scale is available withing 3 frets? IMO this is a perfect opportunity to use the 134 method. However, some scales require some shifting to use this method effectively.

F natural minor at the nut

---------------------------
---------------------1i-3p-
-----------1i-3m-4p--------
-1i-3m-4p------------------


Notice the long stretches between the index and middle finger? This may require some hand shifting to feel smooth. When doing scales, I practice both 134 and 1finger/fret, but when playing music, I choose a method based on the particular phrasing I'm aiming for.

Extended scale technique

This is a method I picked up because it allows full 2 octave scales on my 5 string. The basic idea is as follows. It seems to be more common a technique for those with guitar background and electric bassists who take a more melodic/solo style. I generally use it for similar effect.

1) start the scale with your index finger.
2) always play 3 scale notes on one string before moving to the next.

Often this will require you to play 3 notes that span 5 frets. That's more than 1finger/fret allows. When you make the 2 fret jumps, do the first one index -> middle since those are usually the two fingers that can splay out the farthest.

I'm going to tab out a GMajor scale to demonstrate the 2 octave span. I'll leave transposition to 4 strings as an exersise for you if that's what you play.

G Major (* indicates a 'g' note)

--------------------------------------------------9i-11r-12p*
--------------------------------------9i-10m-12p-----------
--------------------------9i-10m*-12p-----------------------
-------------8i-10m-12p------------------------------------
-8i*-10m-12p------------------------------------------------


I've marked every 'G' with a * so you can easily see the 2 octave range. Notice here how certain fingers are sometimes responsible for more than 1 fret In this case the index finger is responsible for the 8th and 9th frets depending on the string. Also notice how we've basically switched over to a 1 octive 1finger/fret major scale at the 'g' on the 10th fret of the 'A' string.

This one takes a little practice to get the stretches to sound smooth, and I'll be the first to admit that I haven't mastered it yet. However, since I've been studying these, I'm noticing that I am seeing new patterns and connections between and within the scales and modes.

Normally, I don't recommend a book that is nothing but charts, but I did learn this from such a book.

check out Fretboard Alchemy by Scott Hubbell. It's full of these types of scales, with a little basic theory blurbs thrown in. In fact, I'm noticing that in the samples section there is a picture from the book describing the exact scale I just tabbed out.
http://www.scotthubbell.com/Book/sample.pdf

If you don't get the book, but know your fretboard well enough, you should be able to figure out all of the 7 modes in the major scale by extrapolating the rules I've laid out above along the fretboard.


Another type of fingering I use often is really just a variation of the 124. I use it often when playing 'boxy' shaped patterns such as 2 string crossing octaves or pentatonic scales. Basically I just use index and pinky to finger notes 2 frets apart and shift when i need to go futher.

Example: A minor pentatonic up and down


--------------------------------------
------------------7i------------------
---------5i-7i-9p-----9p-7p-5i--------
--5i-7p------------------------7p-5i--


note that I'm only using my index and pinky, and that I'm shifting my hand as I ascend and descend on the 'A' string. Also note here that it would be really easy to just use your middle finger to fret the chromatic tones between these notes as well (e.g the tri-tone on the 8th from of the 'A' string.

This is a really basic and comfortable technique that works well in a lot of situations. I use it alot when I'm jjust grooving on 1/5/7 chord tones and such Also, with a little practice, it's not at all hard to open up your hand a little bit and switch to the 1finger/fret or even extended scale technique from here.


In the end, it's all about ergonomics and economy of motion. As bassists we are often called upon to play the same line repeatedly for a long while with accuracy and style. Therefore, endurance and phrasing are extremely important. So, picking a fingering that both sounds smooth, and requires the least amount of physical effort is key. If you flub a line because you insist on fingering it a certain way that someone told you is the ONLY way, isn't a valid excuse. It's all just tools in the toolbox. You use the right one for the right job. So, my advice is to learn them all. Experiment with your own fingerings too.

Well, i hope I've answered your questions.

Good luck.

Brian.

Thanks Brian!

Thanks Brian!

Of course. Always glad to be of service. :)

*edit:

Now that I'm looking back over my message, I'm noticing errors. Like I mentioned, I retyped probably 75% of it from memory and kinda rushed through. Apparently, I wasn't thinking clearly when I re-tabbed out the minor pentatonic scale... :confused:

Anyway, I hope you still get the general idea

On my four string I use one finger per fret in all positions (my band plays a lot in G, so I am not usually going from first to forth fret, although I can make that stretch). I used to use my index and ring to play octaves, but I have since switched to using my index and pinky because it is easier on my hands and for muting IMO. On five or more strings I use 124 up until 5th position.

lowsound

I generally use one finger per fret.

I also use DB (124) fingering usually near the lower part of the fretboard just because it's a little more comfortable - a hold over from standup days.

I also use extended fingerings if I'm working my way up the neck. I don't use 'em a lot because it requires shifting back and forth, but can be fun when doing little slides into intervals (ie: sliding from minor third into major third, b6 into M6, M6 into b7.... and backwards as well).

Hope that makes sense!