Left-Hand Fingering for Maiden Voyage

[Uncle Lee]

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes: I've a questions about left-hand fingering for Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage. I wanna play the bassline written out in the real book (originally played on keys, I believe), which is basically the root, fifth and octave of the 4 chords found in the piece: D7sus4, F7sus4, Eb7sus4, Dbsus4.

The fingering I am using currently:

D7sus4 D - Open string, A - 7th stop, first finger, D - 7th stop, second finger

F7sus4 F - 8th stop (A string), first finger, C - 9th stop, 2nd finger, F - 9th stop, 3rd finger

Ebsus4 & Db sus4 - same "chord shape" as for F, but using 1st finger for the root, 3rd finger for the fifth, and 4th finger for the octave.

Any comments or suggestions? I think I am going okay (in terms of endurance and intonation), but always open to other ideas.

Cheers,

Markus

PS Any better way to notate what I just described above? A kind of "tab" for fingering, if you will... "fing" system?

[glivanos]

Why not just use 1st finger for root, 3rd finger for 5th and 4th finger for octave for all chords and just move your hand from the D position to the F position to the Eb position on the A string?

[Uncle Lee]

Originally Posted by glivanos

Why not just use 1st finger for root, 3rd finger for 5th and 4th finger for octave for all chords and just move your hand from the D position to the F position to the Eb position on the A string?

Well, mainly 2 reasons:

I like using the open D string because it gives me a reference pitch to make sure that I am still in tune (and it sounds much better than the D on the A string).

As for my using 2nd and 3rd fingers on the F chord, I seem to be able to get a firmer grip that way. My bass isn't exactly the most "resonant", so any extra weight pressing down on the string really helps to bring out the sound.

I'll try out your method when I get back from work though, thanks for the input!