Right hand fingering

[pierreganseman]

Hello there Janek, first of all, thx for the music, discovered your music recently, it's really cool!! :-)

Just if you could take a few minutes to explain your right hand fingering. Cuz i'm under the impression that you sometimes use 3 fingers, and sometimes 2... I have a doubt(but i could be totally wrong); and if you are actually using 3 fingers, what did you practice to get there??

I've started a while ago to play with 3 fingers, and with the good old finger ramp. I'm pretty much trying to do evry single possible combination. And to determing if the use of the 3rd finger actually saves time or not.

cheers
let me know!!

[janekbass]

Right hand finger technique is pretty simple on my end. I use two fingers almost exclusively. There are some times when I'm playing chords that I will use a classical tremolo technique involving three fingers and my thumb, but that's pretty rare, and used very sparsely. A lot of people will try to liken it to the technique of Dominique di Piazza or Matt Garrison, but it's really something I was doing since I was about 12 years old and studying the classical guitar. I really try to stay away from it as it's a very defining part of some other incredible players voices and not really what my own music is about at all. Both dominique and Matteo do such incredible things with it that it's rather pointless me using it, and I hope I have far more to say for myself with two fingers without employing that technique. And I also think that if the number of fingers one uses on either hand is something that is discussed before music is discussed then there are some serious issues to be addressed. Mainly the issue of "it doesn't matter how many fingers you use!!!" because music is music. And if it touches people and speaks to them then what is the point worrying about technique?

I use the ramp because I can express myself in a way that I like, and with greater ease than without it. I don't use it because Gary Willis or Matteo Garrison use it. I was actually inspired by my original bass mentor - Laurence Cottle - to use it because I saw it on his bass and when I asked him about it he said it stopped his fingers from falling through the strings. And sh*t, he was right. It's worked great for me for years.

Asking me whether using the third finger saves time or not is not what you should be concerning yourself with in my opinion. Asking YOURSELF "does my music sound cool?" and "would I pay money to go listen to this?" might be questions I would start with. And if the answer is no to either of those questions then perhaps you might want to work on writing melodies that people you play for or with can relate to. And then work on hiring great musicians around you to play those melodies and express the emotions you want to hear from your own music. I think the third finger on your right hand is the absolute last thing in the history of music that you should ever concern yourself with.

Once you have a vibe, a sound, some music of your own, and a band together.... IF there are then still some things you want to execute on the bass and are having difficulty with... MAYBE.... you could look into the third finger on the right hand. But i think there are a lot of things to get to before that.

Easy,

Janek

[pierreganseman]

All of this is VERY true, I was interested in having your opinion over this, must say it's really interesting and a lot more "inside", that i was hoping . Ramp is the same for me. I tried and went "holy **** it works"

Just so you know :-); I'm not that much of a geek, don't spend that much time over technical stuff.
Anyway thx for your time :-)

[jazzcrime]

just a small follow-up question, janek - is your ramp a radiused one or a flat one? i've seen guys like garrison using radiused ones but bass players like hadrien feraud opting for a flat ramp... just wondering your preference?