Good Technique Lesson

SSINTENSE · #1 12-17-2008, 01:17 PM

Hello all,

For the past few months I have been taking good lessons and have been sharing a few at activebass.com. I will post all of what I posted at activebass and share them here. I will continue to post what I continue to learn here and at activebass.com. Here was my first post:

So I figured I would start sharing what I learn from my instructor and share it with fellow bass students. What I learned last night hit home and is already making my playing easier and faster.

This may seem like a simple concept, but it seems to be overlooked by alot of novice bassists: Play with your entire torso, not just your fingers!

I learned this technique last night which I can tell is going to become my favorite. I was told that there are more fretting techniques and positions to be learned but this one makes a world of a difference for me.

First, you have to learn how to gain control of your pinky. This was the main point of the lesson he gave me two weeks ago. In order to start implementing your wrist effectively into your playing, you have to gain finger independence for ALL of your fingers. Simply fret one fret one finger at a time. Start at the first fret and go from fret 1 - 4. Then go up the strings. When you do all 4 frets in that position go to frets 2-5. What you want to do while you are doing this is make sure that your pinky and ring finger NOT fly off the fretboard and keep them close to the strings at all times. It may be difficult at first, so practice slow. After a few days your speed will pickup and you will gain finger independence.

Now on to the cool part.

The wrist!

A good wrist position on the E string is to have your wrist slightly pointing outwards (away from you) to the point where your fingers barely use any effort to fret. Don't bend too much. You will feel what is right. Now, as move down the strings, imagine a string from your torso pulling that wrist towards you. Whenever you cross a new string you want your wrist to slightly come towards you. You will notice after a few hours of practicing this that your wrist is actually what is controlling your string crossings! This made life so much easier for me already because it relieved so much stress on my fingers.

It's gonna feel weird having your wrist outward like that at first, but believe me, it is worth it! I just learned this last night and I am already understanding why I was taught this and why it is important.

Try practicing the same excercise you did regarding pinky independence but this time maintain this wrist position. You will be amazed how much faster and easier you will play once this is down.

Different people may find this approach to be difficult given that the size of everyone's hand is different. I am no teacher. I am a student. I am just sharing what I am learning from a teacher. Experts, feel free to comment with further suggestions for those who may not understand or may be incompatible with this technique.

My instructor told me that one of the most important things in learning bass is learning how to use your entire arm and shoulder rather than just your hand. this will lead the way to a healthier hand (less chance of RSI), more precision, and speed. Not only that, but I was told that using more than just your hand allows you to "feel" the bounce of the music more and really improves your timing. My instructor told me that playing with just your fingers and hand is like throwing a football like a girl.

My next post will be about proper bending. I was told last night that bending too much with your fingers can lead to serious RSI and that the fingers should be used for little vibratos. I was taught how to bend with the wrist but it was difficult and unnatural as I never encountered any motion on the bass like it before. When I get it down I will post what I learned.

Enjoy! Remember to practice the motions even if they seem difficult. When you go to the gym and weightlift, you don't swing the weights up and down, do you? You lift with the correct motion regardless of how difficult it is. You want to do this when practicing technique so that it eventually dwells in your secondary nature.

Crunktacular · #2 12-17-2008, 02:09 PM

Can you and\or anyone else elaborate more on "using the arm and shoulder" statement? What pros\cons are there to using more shoulder action while fretting?

I was taught to keep my shoulders\torso still, and pivot my fretting arm at the elbow only. The reason for this was to limit fatigue and have the exact same body movements while sitting or standing.

Thanks for the post. I like comparing and contrasting my technique with others.

SSINTENSE · #3 12-17-2008, 02:30 PM

From what I understand from my instructor's explanations, there is a balance between strength and speed with all of your limbs.

Fingers - high speed low strength
Wrists - lower speed than fingers but more strength
elbows - lower speed than wrists but more strength
shoulders - lower speed than elbows but more strength.

And the goal is to utilize all these parts for when you need to and balance it all out with the bounce of the music in mind. My technique still isn't perfect but it continues to get better in this respect.

My instructors understand that some things work for others and don't work for the rest. This was just the advice they gave me. Their teaching philosophy is not to force a style onto someone but help guide the natural learning process. That is, improve what works best for me via suggestions and I will take certain things out from which they give me and apply.

That lesson was so long ago I forget the entire explanation. I remember the above aspect of it.

They asked me what I wanted at the first lesson and analyzed my playing and then they seem to come up with their plan. What they try to do for me is switch among technique, rhythm, and theory. They don't want me to get the whole of the concept when we go over one concept and onto the next, but take from what I gathered in that lesson. After that lesson my technique improved immensely but still wasn't perfect. Later on they analyzed my technique again and took it further with the "balancing hand" lesson which I also posted here. They also want to analyze me just jamming out to see how I apply these things they teach me so that they can plan their lessons accordingly.

They basically customize their lessons around what you want as a musician and your apparent needs. I honestly can't explain it fully because I what I ultimately got out of that lesson was finger independence (ring and pinky finger stopped flying off the fretboard) which was big. Then later when we went back to technique I learned to get more strength out of my pinky and now I can easily do pulloffs with it no problem.

I'm sure when they decide to come back to it again I will better be able to explain it.

Hope that helps!

SSINTENSE · #4 12-17-2008, 02:34 PM

And most importantly, they want to "show" me the most natural technique for me, which they have been drilling in my head. First they have me shake around my hand like a first grader and then completely relax it. Then, while it is in its open and natural relaxed position, they ask me to slowly use only my elbow to raise my hand as is to the fretboard. At first I was screwing this up alot because I would move something in my left hand.

Above all else they preach the need to relax. that is one thing that I continue to try to improve upon. I get real tense and that can lead to injuries.