what am I doing?

[bassinplace]

Hello,

I am pretty much a newbie at bass, and recently I seem to be developing this method of playing where if I want to move up or down in pitch, I just go up or down either one half or whole step and one string. This causes my fretting hand to be moving in a diagonal direction at all times.

It seems to sound pretty good, but I'm not sure why. Is this valid or am I just goofing off? Thanks for answering my dumb question.

[fearceol]

Not sure I know exactly what you mean. It is correct that if you want to go up or down in pitch you do so by a whole/half step on one string. Ideally, your fingers should be parallel with the frets, with your thumb behind the neck, in line with the middle and ring fingers.

No rules are written in stone, if something works for you, that's fine, however, there is a tried and trusted technique for the left hand. This allows you to get the best out of your playing, and also helps to prevent physical injury (carpel tunnell) at a later stage. Below is a link that shows good L/H technique.

http://www.adamnitti.com/bass_player_03.shtml


For R/H technique you could also search You Tube for "Floating Thumb" technique by Todd Johnson.

[bassinplace]

Cool, thanks for the links. Yeah, it's hard for me to describe without showing it. It's basically founded on a diagonal pattern across the strings to move up or down to the desired pitch.

[One Bad Monkey]

I "think" I know what you're talking about, because I do the same thing...I think. If I'm playing a descending C major scale, I'll play C, B on the G string, then A, G on the D string, F, E on the A string and finally D and C on the E string. So, while you're descending in pitch, your hand is actually moving up the fretboard.

I don't see anything wrong with that; it's a tool I use to warm up and keep my fluency over the entire fretboard up and running. The more ways you know how to work around the fretboard can only help you.

[bassinplace]

Originally Posted by One Bad Monkey

I "think" I know what you're talking about, because I do the same thing...I think. If I'm playing a descending C major scale, I'll play C, B on the G string, then A, G on the D string, F, E on the A string and finally D and C on the E string. So, while you're descending in pitch, your hand is actually moving up the fretboard.

I don't see anything wrong with that; it's a tool I use to warm up and keep my fluency over the entire fretboard up and running. The more ways you know how to work around the fretboard can only help you.

Yeah, you've got the picture. I seem to naturally fall into this pattern a lot. It seems to work pretty well a lot of times, but just don't want to fall into any bad habits.