Why is my wrist hurting?

[tabufx50]

So after this weekends gig, I was approached by this kid who asked me.."How do you play with your left hand so relaxed on the neck?"

He goes on to tell me, that he is a newbie bassist and his wrist starts to hurt after like 2 songs. So I show him that he has to place his wrist so that it bends at a correct 90 degree angle when bending it and holding the neck and NOT rotating it before he bends it. To demonstrate..hold your hand out flat...and then just bend your wrist up..don't turn it to the inside so as to make your thumb rotate up and over.

In other words, if you're finding that when you're playing a root note on the A string with your first finger..and your other fingers are an inch away from the strings..thats wrong. The correct way..is to have your fingers almost touch the other strings but not to entirely mute the strings. When you're rotating your wrist to the side first, this causes the discomfort in your wrist because it is cocked to the side.

It was when I should him this..that he got the "ah ha" moment..and I thought that would make a good thread on here since so many new bassists tend to tense up and cramp up and not know why.

[Poor Tom]

I only feel some pain when I am playing up near the first 3 or 4 frets without moving around the neck. My comfort zone seems to be between the 7th and 12th frets. I was reading your description on how the hand/wrist placement should be, and it is kind of confusing. Pictures would help this topic out I think.

[Fetusyolk]

90 degree angel? i believe the more proper way to bass is to keep as straight a wrist as possible as opposed to a right angle....

straight wrist = unrestricted blood flow.

[Saetia]

Originally Posted by Fetusyolk

90 degree angel? i believe the more proper way to bass is to keep as straight a wrist as possible as opposed to a right angle....

straight wrist = unrestricted blood flow.

+1

I only get pain in my wrists when they arn't straight.

-Benny

[tabufx50]

yeah I figured my description might cause some scratching of heads...

Not really a 90 degree angle per say...but more of an idea of if you're going to bend you wrist, to bend it at a right angle vs cocked sideways. So in reality you're holding the neck with your wrist pretty straight, but some movements with your wrist are easier if you bend at this angle. I think that as long as you try and think of keeping your thumb directly behind your middle finger while squeezing the neck...should help. Also when doing this exercise, sit on a chair next to a desk and lay your arm on the desk with your arm touching the desk from the elbow to your wrist. Next, pretend you can only move your wrist in an upward motion...as if you're in a kung fu movie taunting your opponent to come and get you.

Get it?

[mimaz]

Originally Posted by Fetusyolk

I believe the more proper way to bass is to keep as straight a wrist as possible as opposed to a right angle....

straight wrist = unrestricted blood flow.

Absolutely! I'm wondering if the written description by the OP is not being interpreted properly????

The left wrist should be fairly straight, no tension, no severe bend, etc, A 90 degree bend would significantly limit mobility of the fretting hand.

Anyone have some pics handy to properly illustrate?

[mimaz]

Originally Posted by tabufx50

I think that as long as you try and think of keeping your thumb directly behind your middle finger while squeezing the neck...should help. Also when doing this exercise, sit on a chair next to a desk and lay your arm on the desk with your arm touching the desk from the elbow to your wrist. Next, pretend you can only move your wrist in an upward motion...as if you're in a kung fu movie taunting your opponent to come and get you.

Get it?

I completely agree with the first part of what you are saying here........the thumb should be on the neck opposite the middle finger. Additionally, IMO, the thumb should be behind the neck, not hanging up and over the fret board. (I know some folks may not agree with that, especially guitarists, and possibly bassists that primarily play 4 strings. The wider necks of 5, 6, etc string basses start to prevent the hanging thumb.)

The second part that you mention..........

having the arm lay flat, and the wrist bend up to the neck??? That position creates much more tenison, and limits mobility. I generally see it the most in players that wear the instrument much too low. I guess they may think it looks cool, but I would rather play better. In a "perfect" left arm/hand position, you would draw a straight line along the back of the left hand, and down the left forearm. (It wouldn't necessarily be totally straight, but it certainly wouldn't form a 90 degree angle.)

I hope my description helps, instead of futher confusing the issue.

[newbold]

the thing to remember is that 90% of the strength on your hands is in your thumb.

if you keep your thumb in the middle of the neck it is much easier to fret/grab the neck and you'll have much more range of motion as you can pivot more on your thumb than a soft palm.

The more effort you put into it than you need, the more of a chance there is to create pain.

getting into it heavier than that is wasting your time and mine.

[mimaz]

I re-read the OP several times, and I think I get what he was trying to describe: The wrist may bend FORWARD (towards the palm) when playing notes on the lower (B or E) strings. I think that 90 degrees would still be excessisve, but there would be bend involved. As you move towards the higher (G or C) strings, the wrist would flatten out, but NOT go into a "reverse" angle, i.e. bending towards the back of the hand.......I believe that's the part he was explaining to the viewer in his original post......and I agree!

[Audiophage]

I would probably just say that their technique sucks. You say it much nicer though.

Your fingers don't need to be touching the other strings though, in some situations that can cause unwanted tension and extra string noises when shifting position. I think it's more accurate to be more aware of how relaxed you are than anything else.

[nitewalker]

this is from Carol Kaye's website - plenty of good things there. She also talks about the subject more if you poke around and search the site.
This is from her tips section:
tip 103

About playing the pick with the technique I use. It's just a natural flat wrist technique that lets ANYONE play HARD on the bass, getting big hard sounds (jimp?) without working at it. ANYONE can easily play that way ALL DAY AND NIGHT (which I had to do in the 60s studios for years) and NEVER get tired....the only thing we all got tired of was boredom and *sitting*, that was tough. When you have the easy correct picking technique (and yes the hard pick does help with good sounds and ease of picking too), then it's really nothing to do that, NO EFFORT AT ALL. When I watch how others play so awful with their arched wrists, or pinkie laying on the board (ugh!), it just amazes me that they have no idea how to use the pick on bass at all, it's all so simple. Lay your hand down on the strings (no never as a "mute" but as a guide for the thumb muscle) and keep the pinkie up in the air slightly to cock your right wrist so you naturally use the natural tough strength in the wrist to pick the bass. This technique is shown at great length on BOTH video courses: Bass Video Course and "Music Reading Pracitce" split-screen 2-video set. Boogaloo and deep bass sounds are easy and you hardly have to hit the string to get a "man's" sound as one confused pro put it.....no you don't have to be built like a "man" to get a "man's" sound.

Carol

Submitted at: 15:06 on Monday, July 12, 1999

[mambo4]

At first glance the OP seems to say that relaxed left hand technique means bending your wrist at 90 degrees. But after closer reading, I see that The OP is NOT saying you have to bend your left hand wrist at 90 degrees to play well.

To any newbie reading this thread: KEEP YOUR WRIST STRAIGHT, more or less. This is generally accepted as the best thing to do for good left hand technique.

What the Op is talking of is the wrist bend sometimes required to reach those lower strings, not always 90 degrees per se, but a necessary deviation from a perfectly straight wrist. I believe the OP is saying you need to bend your wrist on an axis parallel to the neck, so your palm is not rotating towards the head or body.

In other words, keeping your arm/wrist/hand oriented 90 degrees to the neck (ie, straight,) NOT bending your wrist 90 degrees.

[amandolin]

+1 for Mambo's diagram. Scares me how many times I see bassists doing the 90-degree bend in the left wrist.

[standupright]

Originally Posted by mambo4

At first glance the OP seems to say that relaxed left hand technique means bending your wrist at 90 degrees. But after closer reading, I see that The OP is NOT saying you have to bend your left hand wrist at 90 degrees to play well.

To any newbie reading this thread: KEEP YOUR WRIST STRAIGHT, more or less. This is generally accepted as the best thing to do for good left hand technique.

What the Op is talking of is the wrist bend sometimes required to reach those lower strings, not always 90 degrees per se, but a necessary deviation from a perfectly straight wrist. I believe the OP is saying you need to bend your wrist on an axis parallel to the neck, so your palm is not rotating towards the head or body.

In other words, keeping your arm/wrist/hand oriented 90 degrees to the neck (ie, straight,) NOT bending your wrist 90 degrees.

yep....that's it......here's a real life example

[Dellers]

I don't get it why people have trouble with their left arms....I cannot make my left arm/hand hurt no matter how I play, but I have serious tendon problems in my right arm (I'm right-handed, so yeah - that's my plucking one).

[Araillac]

i fought the tenseness and did a lot of finger stretches while playing when i was new. i think i just made myself have a flexible wrist. is that possible? am i making sense?

[spade2you]

Originally Posted by mambo4

Goes for both hands!!! Is bending "bad"? Depends on if you're a fan of carpal tunnel! Besides, the bend makes the fingers not as strong. Gary Willis illustrates this in his instructional vid.