Ring and Pinky fingers are weak.. help

bassAddict05 · #1 05-10-2005, 06:56 PM

ive been playing for about 10 months now, im pretty ok I would say. That ryhemd. I can slap pretty good but now i want to go into the nice walking bass lines. My ring and pinky fingers are preventing me from doing this as it gets kind of hard and i have to use my index and middle fingers for some parts when i shouldnt, any help would be nice, thanks.

pklima · #2 05-10-2005, 08:43 PM

Practice scales using some consistent fingering... either one finger per fret or 1-2-4 (using the pinky and ring finger together) in the lower register. After some practice this will become second nature. Simandl book 1 would work for drilling disciplined fingerings and positions shifts - it's pretty boring and unmusical though, someone can probably recommend something better.

bassAddict05 · #3 05-10-2005, 09:51 PM

thanks

tifa · #4 05-11-2005, 03:25 AM

There's a pretty good book called 'Bass Fitness' that has lots of useful exercises for moving across the fingerboard in every possible permutation - I'm just starting out and I find it useful!

10-15 mins a day of these exercises should help build up strength. Practicing scales will also help (dull, I know!)

The more you use the weak fingers, they will get slowly stronger.

bassAddict05 · #5 05-11-2005, 07:01 PM

thanks

JimK · #6 05-12-2005, 04:39 AM

See the "One Finger Per Fret" thread in the TECHNIQUE Forum(initiated by MinorPentatonic).

Personally & FME, just playing scales ain't gonna do it. I practiced scales for years & only cleaned up my technique when I forced myself to go back & do the boring stuff I posted in the above-mentioned thread.

str8_bourbon · #7 05-12-2005, 05:11 AM

A while ago I found a lesson on activebass.com that deals with this particular issue, and it was pretty useful. Anyway, give it a try, here's the link:

http://www.activebass.com/default.as...6p%3D1%26a%3D0

DaemonBass · #8 05-17-2005, 02:14 AM

Yeah, all the lessons by Wayne Grant are great! Definetly worth your time to sit down and work them out as best you can. I have a lesson on there too, maybe you will find it helpful. It's not really walking bass but if you play these like I play it you'll be using all 4 fingers especially the pinkie and ring finger.
http://www.activebass.com/cgi-bin/pa...=15356&p=1&a=0

GSPLBASSDC · #9 05-17-2005, 06:10 AM

Harmony Central
http://www.harmony-central.com/Bass/
has a wealth of information on instruction, reviews, etc.

Based on personal experience, I would certainly work on scales and warm up exercises to build dexterity and strength in your fingers..not as exciting as slap, but @ 10 months, I was trying to learn notes.

Good luck!

DaftCat · #10 05-19-2005, 08:34 AM

http://www.handhealth.com/

**Chris A** · #11 05-19-2005, 10:57 AM

I saw Billy Sheehan at a clinic a few years ago and he does an exercise on intervals. He goes across the fingerboard once on each string from one finger to the next, so he would go index finger to middle on all strings of the bass, then index to ring, then index to pinky. Next would be middle to ring, middle to pinky, then finally ring to pinky(which even he had some difficulty with and he'd been doing this exercise quite a few years.)

I don't actually do this exercise, but your question made me remember it.

Chris A.