stress balls

[padresfan311]

do stress balls help my finger strength for bass?

[Osama_Spears]

nope,the only thing that does is well...playing.

[Redhotbassist]

practice, practice, practice.

[Pacman]

You don't need finger strength to play bass - you need finger dexterity.

Practice.

[egotistical]

a gripmaster will help if you really need it

[Finger Blister]

It's not 'stress balls,' but Chinese hand excerise balls helped me.

I especially found them useful when I broke the
5th metatarsal in my left hand.

They got me up a playing again much, much quicker.

IMHO these really can improve strength and dexerity.

They can be found in Karate Supply stores,
Chinese Medicine markets, and even sometimes at
Sports shops.




Chinese Baoding Balls, were developed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) and are revered for their healing properties with Arthritis, blood circulation, hypertension, and muscle/joint relaxation.

The exercise will keep all of the points in one's hand in constant motion, with the muscles in one's fingers and forearms contracting and relaxing harmoniously.
They are well known for not only their theraputic benefits because of the pressure points in the hands being massaged,
and recommeded for arthritic conditions and carpel tunnel.

Used by marital arts to improve the 'grab arts' and by
sports medicine to rehabilitate and strengthen hands.

[ampeglb100]

I bought some Chinese Balls several years ago to use before I practiced and played to help relax and to loosen up my hand a little. I think they are great - you can use them for a few minutes for each hand and it really feels better and I am ready to play. It is cool too because it is a circular motion and very natural feeling, plus your whole hand, wrist, and forearm gets a wake-up.

Finger weights, gripmasters, and whatever else I think is not a good idea. They are more aimed at trying to make you actually play faster and build strength, etc. That you must do by playing alone. If you want to play faster then learn to play something slow very, very well and then increase the metronome until you can do it as fast as you would like. You need to develop and maintain a certain amount of strength to play well, but that should all come from playing. It takes very little actual strength to fret a string, but much more coordination and dexterity. Using too much effort to fret will only strain your hand and slow you down. You should be able to, as a rule of thumb, be able to fret a string WITHOUT your thumb on the back of the neck, that is how little tension should be in your hand.

Andy

PS - Go here for more info -
http://basslessons.com/basslessons/nitti/technique.html

[PilbaraBass]

I just use a pair of golf balls. I discovered one day while playing golf that holding two balls in my hand and rolling them around helped to keep my forearm muscles warm and relaxed. This paid off BIG during my round.

I keep a couple of golf balls in the console in my car and will often just pick them up when I'm feeling a bit bored.

It's GREAT for reducing RSI (repetitive stress injury a.k.a carpal tunnel syndrome) as well. and...GOLF BALLS are cheap