Do You Pull The Bass Neck Towards You?

[Groover]

I'm playing a somewhat easy, but repetitive bass line in this one song that completely kills my left hand.

The riff revolves around A, D, C using a fretted A on the E string, and D & C on the A string. I've tried using the open string for the A, but this particular riff works best for me (because of the beat) if I play all fretted notes.

Last night, I noticed that if I pull the neck towards my body (as in like pulling the bass back), helps me go through the song without (or with less pain).

Is this what I'm supposed to do? I've never pulled the bass back towards me, but I tried it on a few other songs last night, and just made things a little easier for certain patterns.

My thumb position may needs some work, but I try to keep it centered between my fingers, and somewhere around the centerline of the neck.

I find myself squeezing the neck, which is I think why this riff would hurt so much, but by pulling the bass back with some force using my fretting fingers, I didn't need to squeeze the neck anymore.

This discovery was almost like finally seeing the light, and I'm trying to figure out if this is what I should have been doing from the beginning, but I never noticed or was told to try that.

Any pointers or things I should be aware of using this technique?

[doctorjazz]

Just relax and don't press so hard with your thumb. If it hurts when you play, you're doing something wrong.

[0rion]

Are you talking about pulling the neck up and making the bass more upright? If so you might need to adjust your strap to bring your bass higher.

[Groover]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I'm pulling the bass back, sort of like doing a set of lats at the gym

[theshadow2001]

I don't think you should be squeezing the neck as hard as you do. You shouldn't need to pull the neck towards you either.
Sounds to me you either have extremely high action on your bass requiring too much effort to pull down or your simply squeezing too hard.

You need to put very very little pressure on the string to actually sound a note. As a demonstration rest your finger on a note dont sound it just rest it as though you are muting. Start plucking straight eights now very slowly apply more and more pressure stop applying pressure as soon as you hear the note sound properly. Now compare the amount of force used in this case to how much you normally use

[LPpt]

Usually, when playing in the lower register of the neck, i tend to have it closer to me, and when playing higher notes, i have it further away.
It has to do with keeping a straight(er) wrist angle (left hand) , wich is pretty important when playing repetitive lines like that (or anything, for that matter), as you'll have less stress on your wrist.
Another important thing is trying to have a lighter attack, and letting the amp do the work, it helps playing more even, and having more dynamic space to play with.
IMHO, IME
(sorry for poor english, not my native language)

[Groover]

Thanks for the suggestions. I do need to lighten up my attack, as I think I'm just too "intense" overall when I play. Not sure what you mean by keeping the wrist straight, but I will experiment a little keeping that in mind.

I definitely have some bad habits I need to work on getting rid of.

[lemur821]

That's how you're supposed to fret. You shouldn't pull hard, but it needs to be all the weight of your arm, and none of your thumb.

[LPpt]

I mean the angle between your wrist and your forearm