Left thumb too low?

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by Ric5

Ian Anderson is considered by some to be a great flute player ... even a virtuoso ... his daughter was taking flute lessons and he started showing here how to get a certain note and she pointed out in her book the fingering was different. So He spent 35 years fingering his flute incorrectly with fantastic results.

I play very fast and very clean ... I am considered by those who hear me play as a Very Good Bass Player ... and yet here I am told my technique is incorrect ...

Here you are encouraging people who don't know any better to adopt poor technical skills because it makes you feel better about your own approach. I can't see at all how your approach is going to be an advantage. People that hook their thumb over the neck can span less on the fingerboard, are more likely to over-flex their wrist and risk injury, and are more likely to have issues with timing and other technical issues due to the restricted movement of their hands. I don't care how long you have been playing your advice on this matter is poor. You really have no right to encourage bad technique just because it makes you feel more adequate. Even Onlyclave apparently agrees with me on this one and that is saying something.

As for your "clean fast playing" with all due respect that mp3 you posted was full of fudged notes and sloppy playing, there was definitely room for improvement.

[Ric5]

I am willing to keep an open mind ... I never thought about my left thumb except to sometimes fret a note with it ...

I will see is using it differently will improve my playing ...

I have been playing that way for a long time ...

[Michael Campbel]

As someone who knows essentially nothing about this, is there a medical danger of hooking the thumb over the fretboard?

I'm paranoid about wrist/finger damage in general since I type for a living. If there's a possibility of causing some injury with this technique, someone please let me know? I get from the thread that there is, but it seems that it's some common knowledge I'm simply too new to have acquired.

Thanks

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by Michael Campbel

As someone who knows essentially nothing about this, is there a medical danger of hooking the thumb over the fretboard?

I'm paranoid about wrist/finger damage in general since I type for a living. If there's a possibility of causing some injury with this technique, someone please let me know? I get from the thread that there is, but it seems that it's some common knowledge I'm simply too new to have acquired.

Thanks

Well, I would say to be fair that playing an instrument in itself could possibly increase the chances of arthritis or repetitive stress injury of some sort. There are a lot of people that do tend to hook their thumb over the top of the fretboard. I lot of them probably never injure themselves as a result.

The one risk of injury I can see being enhanced is flexing the wrist "downwards" too much. That's not really my main concern here though, though it is definitely worth consideration. My main concern is, especially in the case of Ric5 that this is not good technical application at all. That's not to say that I think doing this will make you a necessarily bad player, but I can see how it will almost certainly be a limitation. I would never ever teach that approach or even allow a student to use that approach for any good reason I can think of. As I said before it is often the first thing I address with a student in terms of technique since it limits the way they use their hand.

The main issue with Ric5's posts I have is that I don't think anyone should be championing this as good technique, since I can't see how it could effectively be argued that it is either safer or more efficient than positioning the thumb as illustrated by Adam Nitti. Also see "Essential Bass Technique", Peter Murray (Hal Leonard).

The bottom line is that if you do it and get away with it, fine. Just don't go encouraging other people that it is in any way a superior technique.