Floating Thumb

[Panurge]

Hi Janek,
This is Eric the Canadian guy who lives in London and got a great lesson from you when you were touring here and played Charlie Wrights. I hope you're well and thanks again for the lesson.
My question is what is the thinking (or lack thereof) behind the floating thumb anchor on the right hand? I myself usually rest my thumb on the 5th string or the pick-up of my electric with the pinkie and ring finger muting lower strings if need be, and since I play upright, this feels very natural to me. I recently saw Laurence Cottle play at boaters and noticed he was floating his thumb and looked you up again and saw you're doing the same sort of thing, albeit a bit different as I get the feeling you actually rest your thumb on different strings depending on the need and LC's thumb is just "floating". Anyways...
In the end my question (or opening of discussion) is What are the advantages of such an approach and How do you approach learning to play that way?
I'm trying to decide whether or not to change my right-hand technique in that way. In the last year, I've changed my angle of attack to open up my wrist, but my thumb is still pretty much the anchor of the whole operation. Any insight would be very much appreciated.

Janek, thanks for your time, and your playing. I'll catch you next time you're in these parts for sure.
E.

[janekbass]

Hey Eric, thanks for the post.

I really have no idea about the floating thumb thing. I don't consider mine to float at all, it's anchored to a string or pickup at all times. The position changes for sure, but it's a really solid contact point with the bass at almost all time.

I've seen people who's thumbs don't touch the strings as an anchor point, they use it to mute the strings. I think that's pretty lazy as far as a muting technique goes, and it puts constant strain on the shoulder muscle because you have to use the shoulder to keep the elbow raised.

You need to conect with your instrument to have time and sound, and I think not anchoring the thumb somewhere when you play the bass weakens that aspect of your playing.

It's just my two cents, and what works for me, but I've yet to find someone with real balls as a bass player who has great time and great sound who's thumb doesn't rest on the strings or pick up when playing.

Maybe that can be the start of a search for someone who does have all that going on that I've totally missed......

Easy,

Janek

[jazzcrime]

garrison's techinque is pretty much floating, although by the looks of it he doesn't really use that as a muting technique or really lift at the shoulder...

[Sorax]

From my observation is seems that way when using the thumb to pluck, but otherwise when just using the fingers the thumb looks anchored to me. Bit of a hybrid thing going on

[jazzcrime]

he's kinda forming his hand like he'd be anchoring but it looks pretty light to me.

[Sorax]

I guess what I'm getting at is, the thumb is resting on a string (however lightly) while plucking with the fingers (generally speaking). To me that's anchoring, if "floating thumb" is not resting the thumb on any part of the bass? Anyhow I think the point here is that Matthew has incredible sound, time, technique, regardless of where his thumb is ha.

[metalstorm]

I think by floating thumb he means the technique of moving your anchor so that it is close to whichever string you are picking. For example, resting your thumb on the A string while plucking the G string and then moving it down to the E string when you pluck the D string.

[Jaydin Nathan]

Floating thumb means laying your thumb across the face of the strings to mute them, and as it keeps the wrist quite straight. The shoulder muscle group is quite large, and it barely strains them at all.
I'm by no means saying Janek isn't qualified to talk about this, but Todd Johnson frequently talks about it, he's like 'Ask A Pro' forums down.

[janekbass]

Yeah, I guess that's todd's thing, and it seems to work great for him. I just know when I get in the pocket, jumping up and down all over the stage with a funk band that's totally aggressive with the groove, there's no way you can move your body and just have your thumb lose in front of the plucking fingers without some serious strain on your shoulder. And it's just totally restricting for moving your body in my experience. I tried it today, there was no connection with the instrument at all.

Whatever, it really doesn't matter at the end of the day. There are some people who play right handed basses left handed... play electric bass with the neck almost vertical... and they are some bad dudes. So whatever. do what feels right for you, and never mind about everyone else.

Easy,

Janek

[Panurge]

Thanks Janek. I found a thread later on that exhaustively deals with the "floating" and "relative floating" and "moveable anchoring" and all of that and sort of decided I was happy as I was.
Be well, and thanks for your time!
E.