Exercises/basslines for building endurance?

[Hamlet7768]

I'm interested in learning, but I find that my plucking wrist (ie finger muscles) gets hurt and stiff after a short while. Is there any particular exercise I can use to start building endurance for faster plucking and not getting stiff?

[jmattbassplaya]

Play with a lighter touch and practice, practice, practice!

[Hamlet7768]

Sounds simple enough. Thanks!

How do you mean "lighter touch"? Right now I'm kind of sliding my fingertip and letting my nail hit it slightly for a little extra punch.

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by Hamlet7768

Sounds simple enough. Thanks!

How do you mean "lighter touch"? Right now I'm kind of sliding my fingertip and letting my nail hit it slightly for a little extra punch.

Easy exercise is to play without your thumb on the back of the neck. This will lighten your touch, work out the muscles in the forearm, as it should be, help build dexterity and strength as well as lighten your touch. The thumb in no way shape or form grips or holds the neck, it rests on it to support the fingers......that is one of the reasons your wrist hurts, and when that happens stop, never play through pain. In fact there is no pain involved is a healthy persons technique, the only real pain if there is to be any will be in the forearms as a sort of "burning" as the muscles build lactic acid, but that passes with more and more practice and playing......and is normal if it happens. Like I said stop playing for 5mins, drink some water and have a quick bite to eat, energy bar, energy drink, banana, etc...and then continue.....never play through pain.

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by Fergie Fulton

Easy exercise is to play without your thumb on the back of the neck. This will lighten your touch, work out the muscles in the forearm, as it should be, help build dexterity and strength as well as lighten your touch. The thumb in no way shape or form grips or holds the neck, it rests on it to support the fingers......that is one of the reasons your wrist hurts, and when that happens stop, never play through pain. In fact there is no pain involved is a healthy persons technique, the only real pain if there is to be any will be in the forearms as a sort of "burning" as the muscles build lactic acid, but that passes with more and more practice and playing......and is normal if it happens. Like I said stop playing for 5mins, drink some water and have a quick bite to eat, energy bar, energy drink, banana, etc...and then continue.....never play through pain.

Sorry previous post was incomplete when accidentally posted, working on an iPad and finding it frustrating at times.

So this feeling you have in your fretting hand should be the same as your plucking hand, and the best technique to mirror the fretting hand is floating thumb...of which are many threads on this form. In floating thumb, as the name suggests, the thumb rests on the strings, much as the fretting hand thumb rests on the neck, and allows the fingers to play freely. The movement is controlled by the elbow lowering and raising the hand, not the fingers stretching from a fixed point secured by the thumb, or any other technique that involves a moveable anchor. It can be this stretching from an anchor that causes the finger movement to come from the hand rather than the forearm, so when the hand tires, because it has small muscle groups, then so does the wrist tire as its small muscle groups get involved, along with the back of the hand, the wrist muscles will tire. Where as when the big muscle groups are used, as in the forearms, they will not tire so fast, and the key to this is not allowing the thumb to activate what is called a pinch reflex. A pinch reflex primes the fingers to work and is in the that dark mystic art to grip pressure, because it cannot be seen. Because it cannot be seen as such it has to be learned in order to feel and understand it which is why I gave you the fretting hand as well as the plucking hand...because in the fretting hand the principal is the same, but you will learn to feel it with the thumb on thumb off exercise......so apply what you feel to the plucking hand.