hammerons and some left hand cramping

Soverntear · #1 06-24-2010, 03:46 PM

so ive finally gotten my but in gear to start working on slapping. early on its teaching hammerons having you go from 5th fret and hammeron to 7th. all good i can do it, even started getting it at 16ths. but there lies a problem, after about 5-10 min of this my left hand cramps up pretty bad. should this go away with time?

boogie8008 · #2 06-24-2010, 03:56 PM

you just need to build up dexterity. make sure that while you are playing you are relaxed and breathing deeply, make sure you are not tensing up you left hand. also start stretching before you play, hold your arms straight out to your sides (making a T with your body) with your palms facing forward and gently bend your hands back at the wrist and your arms back at the shoulders. you should feel the muscles in your for arms stretch. hope this helps

Eminentbass · #3 06-24-2010, 04:43 PM

Also, even though it's a hammer on, try applying economy of motion(if you aren't already doing so) and relaxing your hand. You don't need to lift your finger too high off the fretboard to get the technique right. Maybe your hand is just not used to that kind of speed yet either because you're not relying on having to match each note with your right hand and are playing faster than normal.

Soverntear · #4 06-24-2010, 05:39 PM

eminentbass, i think you hit the nail on the head with the speed. im trying to employ everything in here and it helped with todays go at it. almost got double the time out of it which was great. thanks again guys

HaVIC5 · #5 06-24-2010, 11:31 PM

This doesn't directly address hammer ons, but it might help you out in general regarding left hand technique.

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

Keeping the hand, wrist, arm and shoulder as relaxed as possible (yes all four of them are equally important) is what you want to strive for as far in developing technique on the bass. Hammer ons/legato technique especially.

tobie · #6 06-25-2010, 01:06 AM

Lifting the neck (into a more vertical position) might put less stress on the left hand.

Take regular breaks (e.g. after every 10 minutes of play) to rest & stretch the fingers.