in the 6th, 6.5 and 7TH positions vibrato

[pacojastorius]

in the 6th, 6.5 and 7TH positions do you lift your thumb off the side of the board so that you can get a better vibrato or do you always keep the left hand thumb against the side of the board. im bowing a lot at the moment and need to get this right, i have enugh bad habits!

[jallenbass]

I keep my thumb on the back of the neck until it gets to the crook of the neck. Then it goes on top of the string.

[Aaron Saunders]

Originally Posted by jallenbass

I keep my thumb on the back of the neck until it gets to the crook of the neck. Then it goes on top of the string.

Yep, me too. My teacher who usually will POUNCE when he sees technical flaws has said nothing about this. I have seen videos where bassists do what you mention, though...good luck .


Note: Actually, I was just playing around, and I actually do the thumb-on-the-side-of-the-fingerboard thing in 6th position. For vibrato in the upper positions, I lift my thumb and use the very tip of my finger for the vibrato-ing.

[pacojastorius]

so its okey to lift your thumb up? or should i practise using vabrato now with the thumb down?
cheers

[Aaron Saunders]

Well, I'm a student who's not even auditioned to colleges yet, so I am not a role model for technique by any means. Keep in mind that I've only been working on thumb position for about 2 and a half, maybe 3 weeks now -- and not even that long arco. I'm still working on playing in tune up there myself, so I'm not even sure if what I'm doing is hurting my intonation.