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Originally Posted by cire113  Fergie what ur saying is what I was looking for.. thanks the only thing it is hard for me to keep my wrist straight at that attack.... |
Different problem as height and instrument design now come in to it. The attack you will get is pre determined by the position, you cannot get anything else but that shallow controlled attack to the strings.
Part of the problem about learning new ideas is stopping yourself going back to the old one or giving up because the results are not fat enough or you lack the trust to see it through.
Again i will repeat the ideal position for the plucking hand is to have a curl in the fingers with the thumb to the side, floating thumb, and a straightish wrist..... that's it in a nutshell.
Natural curl..the fingers have a curl to them when relaxed, you have to introduce muscle tension to straighten them or close them, but relaxed they adopt a natural curl.
We use this natural curl in playing, so to find the best finger position we bend and swing the movement from the middle knuckle ( there are 3 knuckles on the back of the hand) not the big first one from the wrist. That is the common mistake made.
To find the position you do is straighten the fingers, then bend them from that middle knuckle. from the bend back the bottom of the finger, wrist and forearm should be straightish back to the elbow joint.
In playing the strings it is the top part of the fingers that play, so that can be tips, the pads, any part really that come into even contact with the strings.
The order works like this.
1/The elbow raises and lowers the hand by virtue of it being connected to the wrist, so therefore the wrist has no job in this task and so should stay straight. The forearm is like the jib of a crane, it positions the hand and controls that position.
2/ Once in position, using the curl from the middle joint the fingers move or swing from that joint to hit the strings, their only function is to hit the strings. Any movement between strings is taken up but the elbow in lowering or raising the hand to allow the fingers access. There will be occasions when the big knuckle will act like a second mini jib and move to position the finger between closer strings. This saves the elbow moving up and down all the time. But in all situations it is the movement from that middle joint that does the work.
3/ The last joint in the fingers does not get used it just follows on with the movement from the middle finger, so resist trying to bend it. If it does bend you get a pluck of the string, because the angle of attack is now steeper and tighter when movement is from that middle knuckle, the movement is opposite the string being played, rather than swinging from a position that in all accounts is above it. So when you play the D string the middle finger joint is opposite the D string therefore the fingers is opposite the D strings.
In the same situation if you swing from that big first knuckle the action is a good couple of inches higher, in relation to coming up towards the top edge of the bass rather than away from it, than the E string. In a lot of instances the swinging action is not even near the string being played.
As the fingers have curl they are in effect the same length because the tips are level, they will access strings easier.
As the most efficient movement comes from that middle knuckle with a straightish wrist and the elbow controlling the position of the hand, this is where you should look to improve your technique.
Any questions post them or drop me a PM.
p.s. i have shot some video of all this and more but things have been so busy i have not had a chance to get in and edit it.
