I've been playing Hot Stuff recently, the Donna Summers version and when I play it I get a lot of pain in my wrist.

I am playing it with my index/pinky and regardless of if I root my hand or if I switch index to pinky I eventually get the same pain. In the meantime I'm driving root notes through parts but I'd like to get through it. Any advice welcome.

Oh, the way I play it is just this over and over, with the changes of course, but I can get the pain just from this part long enough:

G -----------------------
D ---5-----5-----5-----5
A -----------------------
E 3-----3-----3-----3--

Thanks,

You didn't say whether that is left or right wrist - plucking hand or fretting ...?

If we're talking about those funky octave parts - I always tended to play them with my thumb and first finger - helps with stamina - I saw a lot of bass players in the 70s do this! :)

You didn't say whether that is left or right wrist - plucking hand or fretting ...?

If we're talking about those funky octave parts - I always tended to play them with my thumb and first finger - helps with stamina - I saw a lot of bass players in the 70s do this! :)

Sorry, I should have been clearer. The pain happens in my fretting hand when I play more than a few bars of this particular back/forth technique. The pain starts in my wrist and if I play it too long, becomes unbearable then I need to stop for a break. In short, I can't play through the whole song like that.

I always thought thumb over the neck was frowned upon, but I'll give it a go this song is for an audition this Friday so I want to nail it.

Cheers,

Sorry, I should have been clearer. The pain happens in my fretting hand when I play more than a few bars of this particular back/forth technique. The pain starts in my wrist and if I play it too long, becomes unbearable then I need to stop for a break. In short, I can't play through the whole song like that.

I always thought thumb over the neck was frowned upon, but I'll give it a go this song is for an audition this Friday so I want to nail it.

Cheers,

No, no - I meant thumb on my plucking hand - not fretting hand!

Given what you say - it is probably down to your left wrist position - bass maybe needs to be a bit higher?

Without seeing what you are doing though - anybody is just guessing! :hmm:

You really need to see a good teacher who will sort this out!

You might be sqeezing the neck. Try playing with your thumb not touching the neck. You will see how little pressure it takes to make the strings sound.

But I think that Bruce is on to something, too. Your bass may be strapped to low, causing your wrist to collapse.

:bassist:

Only thing I can think of is are you anchoring your thumb on something solid like the pickup or something. That could be a problem, if you need to anchor use the string above the one your playing on.

Also in doing lots of repetive notes like octaves or 16th's try moving your elbow out (away from body) a little on your right arm. I picked that up from Gary Willis. I know for me it reduces the tension and helps relax the wrist and hand with different angle.

Anytime your getting unusual soreness, tension, etc when playing start moving things to find a better position. Move elbow, shoulder, raise angle of the neck, I even shift my bass move to my left or right to find a more comfortable position. Left arm too there drop elbow more. Most the time the problem is your wrist is bending more than it should and need to reposition to straighten it out some. Sometimes I do these things just to get through a song others I adjust my strap for long term change. Playing should not be painful, if it is listen to your body it is telling you time to change something.

That song is going to require some serious stamina training. I still have trouble, so I just rock it up a bit with mostly quarter note roots, and throw in the octaves on the C and D keys, and during the guitar solo.

This is a good example of why I keep my strings as low as I can (without fret buzz, of course).

1. Check how you hold the neck. The most important thing is to keep your hand(s) in a comfortable position and minimize your wrist angle. That can be done by shortening your bass strap or just lift the neck so the bass hangs in another angle. This song should not be that hard to play, I personally think your hand position is causing this problem for you.
2. Try playing both standing and sitting down. If one work better than the other, check what the difference is.
3. Check your string height and the general setup bass.
4. Try other basses to see if you can play this better on other ones.


:bassist:

can you play it with your middle / pinky? ... octaves i generally play that way as that is how you're fingering would be during a normal scale. it's hard to do to start .. but once your fingers stretch enough you'll get good position doing it. Try playing Gimme Some Lovin'. That song is the same way .. octaves over and over .. string height could cause pain .. also try keeping the fingers actually ON the strings if they're fast notes .. that might ease some tension too.. I've found that I press my thumb sometimes too hard against the neck and it gets sore .. if i move around a bit but still stay in the same position, just rotate your wrist at different angles of attack .. it helps ..

I remember playing Disco songs with those octave bass lines the whole song, and it was hard because my wrist got so tired and achy. If it's not a bad form in technique, I'd just say it's stamin and your hand is just getting tired.
The only way to solve that is to just play it, and strengthen your hands and increase your stamina.

Good luck!

Don't over look breathing! Lots of folks hold their breath when they play difficult stuff. Starves the muscles of needed oxygen and BANG! CRAMP! Very important to remain relaxed when playing. That said, keep working on it. Takes a lot of practice to build stamina and to make those lines effortless and groovy.

I messed with that song a little after I read your post. Been thinking about it today and I have a suggestion for you to try.

I wondered if you are holding both your index and pinky fingers on or in position for the two notes all the time you are playing. You don't have to keep the notes fretted with both fingers at the same time, or even keep the fingers exactly in position for the notes for that matter.

I don't know if I can express this idea very well..., but here goes:

It is all about relaxing your hand and wrist. (maybe position too as others have suggested).

Try thinking of it more as playing one note at a time instead of the octave thing. Play the low G with your index (comfortably) and let your pinky be relaxed, release/relax the index and play the upper G with your pinky (comfortably). Then when you play the low G again, release the pinky so that it is relaxed while the index plays the low G... etc... , relax your hand, move your wrist slightly so you're not holding your fingers in a stretched position the whole time. Play it slowly, very slowly until your muscles get the hang of it and it will become second nature. Only one finger at a time has a job here, so while one is fretting a note, the other is getting a well earned (if short) break. Relax, relax, relax is the bottom line. It will even translate into how the line sounds when you play it relaxed. It helps it have some "bounce". :)

I hope this can be of some help.

It's Friday now so I hope you made out ok with your audition.

Good luck.

Al

:bassist:

Bass height and wrist position is very important and not just for playing octaves. You got to get this right or your technique will suffer

Try playing octaves on different places on the neck..

If your playing G on the E string and the octave on the D string, try playing G on the A string 10th fret and the octave on the G string 12th fret. The frets are a little closer.

I use to get extreme pain playing octaves. My problem was that my hand was bunching up because my thumb was not positioned correctly. I found this out by reversing the octave patten by playing the high octave first.

Also, for the plucking hand, I also use my thumb and first finger as Bruce mentioned earlier in the post.

Playing clean octave patterns for a long periods of time is not easy to do.

First off the audition went great. I got through Hot Stuff with only minimal discomfort at the end of it and that went away in seconds.

I played it with full note intro...quarter notes on the verses with a few drives or octaves thrown in at the last bar, and only really went to town on the octaves during the chorus and outro.

Taking on some of the suggestions here really helped me prepare for the song, so thanks a lot guys!

My bass sits a little higher than I'm used to now and it feels a little "loose" when I push my elbow out, but it's helped relieve tension on my fretting wrist/fingers.

Oh, and the other songs we played went really well I nailed most of them relatively well for never playing them in a band scenario, and I got invited into the band afterwards. So it's all good!! :bassist: