Exercises for ring finger?

[Tabzoid]

I've been playing bass for about three years now, and the first 2 1/2 were in the school band and jazz band. So, basically nothing that required the use of anything other than my pointer and middle finger on my right hand to hit the strings. I've started getting into more playing real music right now, and most of it I can do fine, but there's just a few faster and harder segments(YYZ) that I can't quite hit everything with those two fingers. I've tried to work my ring finger into it more, but it hasnt' been working that well. Does anyone have any techniques for getting to use my ring finger more in playing? thanks.

[jschwalls]

plucking hand or fretting hand ??

[Tabzoid]

plucking hand. Sorry.

[jschwalls]

This is how i explain/teach 3 finger to my students...

possible 3 finger solution

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I was forced to play 3 finger because of hand problems and the fact that i am constantly cutting my fingers..

I started an odd way...I totally had no use of my middle finger so I played everything with my ring and index...

After several months I regained "control" of my middle finger again... then I noticed a HUGE problem.. everything I played was accented as triplets... YUCK.

I had to fix this... so what I did was use the metronome and put a HEAVY accent on 1... then I started slowly playing with my right hand.. as follows;

ring, middle, index, ring
middle, index, ring, middle
index, ring, middle, index

so now i had 3 groups of 4..

i ONLY played the same note for each group of four.. example..

DDDD...D#D#D#D#...EEEE

This way I could concentrate on my accents and not have to worry about what my left was doing as well.. changing notes after each group of 4 worked great for a while..

BUT there are still alot of cool things to be done...like playing ring, index (x4) middle, index (x4).. creating alternating groups of 8, works well for long songs pumping 8th notes all night..
OR something else fun to do..
ring, index, middle, index...
You get the idea... making even number groupings out of odd number fingers. As with most of my practicing, Permutations have gotten the best of me,.

Remember to try to keep the accents from sounding like triplets...


As I had stated in many previous posts, I have learned alot from my doctor who is the reason I am still playing today.
( 36 years old, grrr.)

He showed me that the natural muscle motion of the hand was to go from outside to inside.. or pinky to index... BOTH HANDS.

He demonstrated this by "drumming" his fingers... like when someone is bored or pissed off... tapping the fingernails/fingertips on the table... and naturally it was pinky to index...

I show this to all my students as well to help them understand why playing middle-index should be more natural than the other way..

ANYWAY...
this post just got too long.. so it will end..

Any more questions feel free to email me...or ask here.

JSchwalls@comcast.net....

[Tabzoid]

Wow, thanks for all the info and tips. I'll give them a try. I think the, "Forcing me to use my ring finger" is working right now, as my middle finger was split a couple days ago by the 20-degree weather and a hard hit from a basketball. So basically, a small gash pretty much preventing me from using that finger without being in pain. I've started to use my ring finger more and get more comfortable with it.

[El-Bob]

check out the demystifying death metal styles thread stickied in the technique forum. even if you're not into death metal, it's got tons of info on 3-finget picking. infact that thread iis the most helpful thread i've ever read on right hand technique (imo)