Improve your plucking hand technique.

[Fergie Fulton]

Many people are posting about two finger technique and the best way to use it. Truth is there is the best way for you and the best way for someone else. It does not really matter what finger you start on, fore or middle finger is fine because it is your brain that will form the relationship to your playing, not the other way around.

To understand what i am going to ask of you look at the picture below in the link

http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/PICT0001.jpg


I am right handed so change hands if you are left handed.

You can see i am holding a small coin the the joint of my little finger, and in doing so the ring finger will follow, leaving the fore and middle finger free to operate, better and more efficient.

Now holding the coin in place run through some of the stuff you do, trying to hold the coin there through out.

Try it a see, most will find an improvement in minutes, some may take 10 or 20. The improvement will depend on whether your little and ring finger adopt this position naturaly in your playing.

So a quick why this is so, your hands, and therefore you fingers, are controled by two main muscle groups in the forearms, one for the power side and one for dexterity side. Dexterity side muscles can be seperated from power side muscles and vice versa. Thumb, fore and middle fingers are dexterity controlled, little and ring fingers are power controlled. Put the coin down and then pick it up, notice what happens to the power side....it curls in to let the dexterity side have control, the same as what you want in your plucking hand, better and more exact control. Try it in other things that require dexterity and you will notice how the power side gets out the way. Hand design is clever, but not perfect, so use it, don't fight it.
The beauty of this is that it lets your fingers work better because the other side of the hand has something to do, so it will not get involved, because if it does the coin will fall.
If you play three finger style give it a try as well it works just as good in that situation as well.

Because you are now targeting a specific muscle group that deals with your hand, the fingers may tire and the coin fall, if so take a break and let the hand recover.
Have fun with it and see what happens, i think you'll be surprised

[Billnc]

I will test this and get back to you!

[Gopher Bob]

going to give it a shot

[Nick Kay]

Just tried it for a little over half an hour. Puts unnecessary tension on your hand, inhibits ring-based three finger style, and reduces your muting options. It also feels clumsy as heck, but you can probably attribute that to lack of familiarity. What's the advantage, exactly?

[Gopher Bob]

When doing this with using the other three the ring finger tries to curl like the pinky and I can barely make it do anything while holding the dime with my pinky.

The other two fingers work just fine though with 0 difficulty holding the dime like that.

[lowendlover]

When doing this with using the other three the ring finger tries to curl like the pinky and I can barely make it do anything while holding the dime with my pinky.

The other two fingers work just fine though with 0 difficulty holding the dime like that.

I think he mentioned that this has to do with a two finger approach. I see what he's getting at and it defintely feels like it makes a difference in my speed and ease of movement.

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by Nick Kay

Just tried it for a little over half an hour. Puts unnecessary tension on your hand, inhibits ring-based three finger style, and reduces your muting options. It also feels clumsy as heck, but you can probably attribute that to lack of familiarity. What's the advantage, exactly?

Hi Nick, its not for everyone, so thanks for taking the time, that's why the results should be fast if it is for you to develop. Lack of familiarity has nothing to do with it. Like i said it deals with the muscle groups that control the main two functions of the hand, power and dexterity. The overlap point on these two functions is the middle finger, it share muscle groups and tendons with both of the two main functions.
By isolating the functions you target them better, so get better results. That's why giving the power side something to do by holding the coin, keeps it occupied so the dexterity side can function better.
Some may already have this position already so it will not be for them.
Here's a link to a previous post with a bit more detail

Your hands and their relationship to playing

[Fergie Fulton]

If your trying this, all i'm doing is showing you a way to make your fore and middle finger work in the manner they were designed. The picking up of the coin will show you that motion as will any fine or delicate motion you attempt to do. Thumb, fore and middle finger always lead, ring and little finger curl in towards the palm to get out of their way. This motion has taken hundreds of thousands of years to evolve and we have had use of it in its present form for over tens of thousands of years. So the anatomy of developing, reparing, healing these muscle and tendon groups has also been there for that length of time, if we could apply what we know know back then. As far as electric bass guitar technique goes, that application has only been around about seventy years for the hands, so it does not figure in what the hands were ment to do or their capabilities to handle this demand.

So most and that is most, not all, will find a difference in minutes, some may take 10-20 minutes. If not then i would assume you already have this in your technique.

Drop me a line or post if you have any questions alway happy to reply.

[Hiromakuta]

I've tried that for about 20 minutes, and it seems I've got faster in my plucking hand. I also noticed that my index and middle finger seemed to move less compared to before.

Thanks for the tip Fergie, your posts are always great. You could develop more on the fretting hand I believe. But keep up the good work!

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by Hiromakuta

. You could develop more on the fretting hand I believe. But keep up the good work!

Thanks and glad you found it of interest. It works on the fretting hand as well. Middle, ring or little finger, use the same principal to hold it, and the finger either side gets the benifit.
Because the coin has to be held, that finger is using the tendons and the muscles in the forearm to hold it so it is being used. The fingers either side have to work better because the one holding the coin is not helping or contrubuting to what they are doing.
So the tendons will have to stretch better and be more supple to get the range of movement to the fingers either side of the finger holding the coin. The finger holding the coin will in time be able to hold that gentle curl towards the fretboard during playing, ensuring the finger is always there ready to fret using the strong natural curl of the hand and fingers with joints in line, rather than the straight extented fingers which will led to problems.

Information is case specific, but some like this can be genaral as it is just body mechanics which we all share to some degree.
That is why i don't give out to much info because what is for one is not for all, i.e. case specific. At clinics it's a different matter i can demonstrate, inform, elaborate, dismiss or agree with points or questions in a practical way, on-line i can't, so if i am missunderstood or someone tries something ment for a problem they don't have, they could cause injury to themselves.

Any questions on any of the stuff i post are welcome.

[Byzcat]

I'm going to give this a try. My plucking fingers have been getting better this past week, but still need work.