Practising without thumb on neck?

[Chansey]

Hi Patrick,

You mentioned before that the bass should be supported by both the thumb and the hip/waist where the bass meets with your body. However, on the forums, I have encountered posts where they advocate practising without using the left thumb so that the thumb is trained not to exert a "grip force". While I have tried that, I am unable to balance the bass properly without my left thumb on the neck (i am not "gripping the neck" however). May I ask how do i reconcile these two pieces of advice? Is there a secret to practising without the left hand thumb on the neck?

[PNeher]

Hi, and Happy Holidays!
I suspect those that advocate not using the thumb to support the bass are in a sitting position, or standing with the bass straight up-and-down (not angled as I with an angled pin do). You definitely can play the bass without the thumb touching the back of the bass, but the weight of the bass is therefore pressing against your fingers. Gary Karr and numerous others advocate this. It works for them. I like to have my fingers freely move on any part of the board, and therefore am a bit uncomfortable with this very upright position that puts weight on my fingers. I prefer to use the weight of my hands and arms to play the bass, so have a pretty good angle, bass-to-body, leaning into me, so that the weight of my arms drop through the bass (see my YouTube channel, "PNeher" for vids of my playing). Yes, the straight upright position allows you to release the weight of the bass from your thumb, but you sacrifice weight of the bow on the bass.
There are myriad ways to play the bass well. It is REALLY a challenge to "get it" from text forums. Videos help, but really what works is studying with people, one-to-one, so that you can try out all the different ways, and you can ask immediate questions as a reflection on what you are doing at the moment. No person's opinion on these forums is THE WAY (not even mine). Explore all avenues and you will develop YOUR approach.
Best!
PN

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by PNeher

Hi, and Happy Holidays!
I suspect those that advocate not using the thumb to support the bass are in a sitting position...

Hi Patrick - sorry to interrupt, but you nailed it.

Chansey - I often advocate this on the forum for students who play seated, as I feel that it's a very useful practice technique to break the bad habit of gripping too hard; it also promotes drawing the power to stop the strings from the bigger muscle groups like the chest, back, and shoulders rather than the small muscle groups in the forearm which control the flexor/extensor motions of the individual fingers. Obviously, this backward "rowing" approach only truly works for seated players. While I never try to steer students whose natural inclination is to stand to play seated (I believe that great music can be made from either position, and that all body types are different), I often encourage standing players who grip too hard with the LH to sit down and try this exercise just to get a feel for the difference between using the larger and smaller muscle groups in making string stops. Most of them report being able to use some of the technique when they resume playing in a standing position.

[Chansey]

Hey Patrick and Chris,

Thanks so much for the prompt explanations Happy Holidays!