Damping adjacent strings with left hand

[ToneMonkey]

Disclosure: I am primarily an electric guitarist who has been doubling on bass since HS (you don't want to know how long ago that was).

Question about left hand technique. I notice that some very good bassists tend to fret with the flat of their finger rather than playing right on the tips (as I would when playing guitar).

I was fooling around with that yesterday and noticed that playing that way tends to damp the adjacent string. It seemed as if doing that gave me a truer fundamental.

Do any of you guys do this?

[bombpop14]

Yes... and it helps you get those "ghost notes" which give you a percussive type sound.

[Blankandson]

Here's a cheap fix if you bass strings not being played tend to rattle or hum enough that the amp is projecting it. Get a cheap hair thing that ladies use to tie their hair back, one that has elastic in it. Put it around the neck next to the turning keys. When your playing and have unused strings making a racket, pull it down over the strings at the first fret. That will keep those open strings from vibrating. You can always just push it back up out of the way. Don't know what they are called but they work and they are cheap!

[Chrisk-K]

I notice that some very good bassists tend to fret with the flat of their finger rather than playing right on the tips (as I would when playing guitar).

I do exactly the same although I'm not a very good bassist. No one told me to do so. It is just natural for me to fret with the flat of my finger.

[Slax]

Originally Posted by Chrisk-K

I do exactly the same although I'm not a very good bassist. No one told me to do so. It is just natural for me to fret with the flat of my finger.

That was actually one of the most important "self lessons" i found out for myself. Left and right hand muting is usually very important with BG.

[Matthew_84]

Here's what I found, and take it for what it is, I wouldn't even call myself a good bassist. But, when I started playing, every book I read told me to use the pads of my fingers and not the tips for the very same reason.

Well, a couple of years later, I found that I still had a hard time staying accurate. Either I'd miss the sweet spot in the fret, or I didn't fret the string properly and therefore 10% of my notes sounded bad. And truth be told, even the ones I hit, didn't sound that good.

I spent a couple of days testing the waters between fretting with the pads and the tips. When I fretted with the tips, I found that I was a lot more accurate and the tone of the note somehow sounded punchier (don't ask me how, but it clearly did for me). And I even noticed that sometimes when I fretted with my pads, I sometimes had some unwanted noises from the string directly below.

I wanted to make the tips of my fingers be the way for me. I discovered that if I fret with the tip of my finger (not directly on the tip, more like a 55 degree angle from the fretboard), it's easier to roll my finger into a way where I can still get that tone and accuracy and dampen the string(s) below, without bending it enough to get that unwanted noise. I spent a couple of weeks alone working on this, from subconsciously knowing that when I transfer up the strings that the fretting finger should be rolled, to learning how to subconsciously mute with my fret hand, with whatever finger is not being used.

It's still really a process I'm going through (this re-learning process is only a couple of months old), but my speed, accuracy, muting, and most importantly my sound, has never been better.

Technique, is really something you have to learn for yourself. Everyone has different ways of doing things, you have to find what works for you. If there's two different ways of doing the same thing, really spend your time and figuring out the pros and cons of each. And work on reducing the cons until there's no more flaws in that area of your technique.

[PDGood]

Originally Posted by Blankandson

Here's a cheap fix if you bass strings not being played tend to rattle or hum enough that the amp is projecting it. Get a cheap hair thing that ladies use to tie their hair back, one that has elastic in it. Put it around the neck next to the turning keys. When your playing and have unused strings making a racket, pull it down over the strings at the first fret. That will keep those open strings from vibrating. You can always just push it back up out of the way. Don't know what they are called but they work and they are cheap!

I think they call 'em Scrunchies.
Cool idea, but would seem to eliminate the possibility of open strings.

[ToneMonkey]

I spent some time focusing on this yesterday (I play in church) and I really liked the results.

Of course some of the success might have been due to my brand spanking new Acme Low B2 cab.

[kr0n]

Mute higher strings with left hand, lower with right hand thumb & rest stroke. Watch out for harmonics when muting with left hand. Keep your left hand thumb behind the neck.