Right Wrist Angle

[DRay521]

Hey everybody. I've been playing for over 10 years, and as everyone does, I'm constantly improving and altering technique. I wear my bass as close to its "seated" height as possible, and find my playing is much more precise. However, recently, I've developed some slight pains in my right wrist. I notice that when playing on the lower strings, my wrist is about 90 degrees. I also find that the pain is worsened by playing too hard or too fast. I don't want to change anything drastically because my playing is much better. I'm just looking for suggestions to keep me from injuring myself. Thanks.

DRay

[Fergie Fulton]

Go to www.myspace.com/vintageprecisionbass and read the blogs on the physicalities of playing bass for some ideas. Leave a message if you have any questions or want to be more specific.

[jellymax]

there is a gary willis instruction on youtube that discusses this
its pretty good

[mambo4]

not a doc, but 90 degrees sounds pretty bad to me. The general ergonomic rule is to keep both wrists more or less straight. You may have to throw your elbow forward and learn to support your wrist with your arm instead of the body of your bass. Sadly keeping your right wrist straight is easier with the bass a little lower.

Adjusting your strap to match the bass's sitting position is useful if you want to be able to play either standing or sitting, and not get messed up by a change in position. I always gig standing up, so I never bother with such an adjustment. My personal feeling is that one should only practice sitting if that's how you gig. YMMV.

[unclejane]

You probably do need to change your RH technique after all, I was in a similar situation where partly I couldn't play worth a damn and partly because I was starting to have mild problems with my RH.

Todd Johnson describes the floating thumb technique here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPVMBPmrblU

This has completely fixed the problems I was beginning to have with my right hand and dramatically improved my playing as well....

LS

[DRay521]

Thanks for the replies everybody. I'm in the process of checking out those links as we speak.

I think alot of the problem is how hard I play. When I practice, I'm relaxed and easy. But when the intensity builds live, I dig in pretty hard. That's the main time I notice the problem. Anyone else had the same issue?

[beelzelboss]

I have, when i play seated i raise my shoulder so my elbow is at a 90, i can only do that for one or two songs. i found that dropping your bass slightly and instead of it being straight against your belly, make it slanted so the head is up and the strings are down. that should straighten out your wrist. Thats all you need to do is to figure out how to straighten your wrist... keep me posted!

[groove pump]

I don't play with my bass way up under my chin, but if it gets too low, I really get to feeling like my left wrist becomes too much of a question mark. Not enough mobility around the frets that way.

I've tried to remember to turn up enough when I play live so that I'm not digging in too hard and physically trying to make more volume with my finger pressure. We played out last night and my fingers got a little sore from playing on one of my older basses that has sort of sketchy action, but when I switched to my J bass, I was really surprised by how much more touch I had. With my amp still turned up a little more, I could really play comfortably and put out big sound without straining.