OWWWWW!!

[Matt Till]

I had a gig with my uncles band this weekend, and boy are my fingers tired (bah dumb chinggggggg). But they are achey, right here...




I don't dig into the strings too hard, probably harder than nessicary, I think I have pretty standard fingerstyle technique, the only real difference I know is I don't play as light as I should, and I don't anchor my hand on a pickup or the neck. Is this common? I've been playing for almost 2 and a half years, so it isn't beginner's pains.

[kirbywrx]

I have the exact same pain in the exact same spot. It happens to me after i have been playing alot, so i think (in both yours and my case) that it happens due to over-playing. Just give it a rest for a few days, and/or work on that lighter touch. Thats probably another factor contributing to it.

BTW nice pic

[Andavari]

That used to happen to me when I started playing bass. You absolutely must anchor your hand on the neck with a frim grip. Also you probably press to hard when you play. Don't worry, with some more practice you will be able to play super light and super fast and have the same effect as if you were playing without pressing so hard. I have been playing bass for 9 years now and after much practice my speed and correctness is fine now. Oh yeah, the part of your finger that hurts is because when you press to hard you add much pressure to the tendon in your finger.

[punkfunkfreak]

When playing live you dont really realise how hard youve been working yourself till afterwards.
Its probably just fatigue, itll probably be gone tommorrow.

Then again, you dont hold onto the neck atall whilst playing???

that IS weird.

then again i look at your pic and think...what the hell..

[Matt Till]

Originally posted by punkfunkfreak

Then again, you dont hold onto the neck atall whilst playing???

Err.... I don't rest my right hand on the end of the neck or pickups... well I do sometimes, but it depends on the tone I want. I tend to move around a bit. Yeah, I probably play too hard, I just need to crank the volume and work on a softer touch. It's just that when I started, I had no amp. So when I wanted to hear myself, (And it was before I knew how to slap!) I had to really dig in. I lightened up a bit since then, but I could stand to play softer. I'm fairly healed up after a few nights sleep. I just was worried this would result in future problems.



What you guys don't like my pink hair?

[Sheep Man]

Originally posted by Andavari
You absolutely must anchor your hand on the neck with a frim grip.

NO!
And I think you were looking to say "firm", not "frim".

Anyway, anchoring your plucking hand is not absolutely necessary to play soft/fast/loud/whatever.

I used to anchor my thumb on the neck pickup of my jazz bass, and then what ended up hurting was my wrist every time I had to play anything on the D or G strings.

And actually, not anchoring your thumb helps you to play lighter in itself. Just try tapping a table or something with your thumb planted on the edge, then try the same without your thumb touching the table at all, and you'll notice that you can't hit it as hard.
Of course, I'm just saying this. I don't really float my thumb completely, but I do move my entire hand when going from string to string, keeping my thumb on the string above the one I'm playing to help with muting etc.

But...if your finger is hurting, then it's probably just fatigue, like someone else mentioned here.

[Hategear]

You must have really done a number on that finger, Matt -- the veins and capillaries are sticking right out of it! You should have a doctor look at that!



The pink in your hair really brings out your eyebrows and Sleazy P. Martini-esque mustache!

[Matt Till]

... if only I could pull off Sleazy's Hair.



(edit damn gwar website... messin' my pic yo)

[Sheep Man]

...
?!?!?!

[Andavari]

There is absolutely no reason to be a dick SHEEP. I was simply trying to give help to someone who asked. Don't think you're high class because you're registered because that's far from the truth. jerk.
Go Give your trashy comments to someone who cares.

[Sheep Man]

Sorry, did I come across that way?
I didn't mean to.

It's just been my experience that anchoring doesn't always help to alleviate pain, nor does it help with muting strings, although that wasn't the problem here.

Just as with your post, I was giving my personal opinion. It just seemed to me that you were preaching thumb-anchoring as an absolute "truth" or "must" for bass playing. The words "...absolutely must..." are probably a little too strong to be used when giving your personal opinion.

If you read my first post in here again, you'll notice that I don't say that one "absolutely must not" anchor their thumb while playing.

If I offended you, I'm sorry. But you could have done this by PM, you know...

[Andavari]

my apologies sheep, thank you for your "cleanliness" in responding

[Sheep Man]

[Hategear]

Originally posted by Sheep Man
...you could have done this by PM, you know...

Yeah! Let's not have a simple misunderstanding turn into an "I love the c**k war!" Right, Matt?

[Matt Till]

Yeah, damn... poo poo heads.

[Matt Till]

Yeah, new gig. This time, I decided not to bring a pick (I use one occasionally on the root note blah songs) yeah. My finger aches only a little this morning. But last night I was carrying my amp with my right hand, and my finger felt like it had been broken. I couldn't move it! 5 minutes later it was ok and like I said... this morning, only a little achey.

[Matt Till]

Originally posted by StupidMatt



... if only I could pull off that hair.

WHOA!?!? This is nuts! I copied this picture off the Gwar website and now it's... this. It's suppose to be Sleazy P. Martini. I didn't know you could do that!