Mike Gordon's Left Hand Technique

duke2004 · #1 03-07-2011, 08:55 PM

Recently looking at a live Phish DVD. Is Mike Gordon's left hand technique subtly different than a lot of players? I see moving postion to keep the four fretting fingers together as much as possible; even single note runs have several fingers supporting each other. Likely reduces hand fatigue and gives overall support the the finger that actually frets. Rarely see individual fingers reaching
Anyone hear Mike discuss his approach, or heard him talk about how he visualizes the fretboard?

superbassman2000 · #2 03-10-2011, 05:01 PM

watching a few clips, I don't see anything weird--he just uses all of his fingers so he doesn't have to shoot all around the fretboard. Don't most people do that?

ninepoundjammer · #3 03-10-2011, 05:01 PM

I can't say about Mike Gordon, but a lot of this sort of thing crept into my electric playing once I started playing double bass.

AlvarHanso · #4 03-22-2012, 04:18 PM

He does it that way because he's using the pads of his fingers to fret, not the tips. It must have taken many many years to develop strong enough fingers to do that and play as effortlessly as he appears to do. With his volume and the way he plays quickly, I don't get how he can play that way, but he does it and sounds great while doing it...