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05-23-2008, 05:08 PM
| | | | Did Jaco Pastorius have a huge hand?
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(I don't have double-jointed thumbs)
I have been practicing Portrait of Tracy for 3 months, and realized that some bars are really hard to play.
- 4th bar: D# harmonic. Play B on 2nd fret of A string, and with pinky play 6th fret.
--- After a lot of practicing, I compared my left hand against my right and realized it looks quite different. I think I am becoming a mutant. I can play this, but with some weird movement of my elbow.
- 28th bar: G#7flat5.
---I am cheating here, there is no way I can open my hand to keep my index in the 4th fret and move my middle and pink from 5/7 to 6/4...as fast as the song
- Last bar: Harmonic of 9th fret and 13th fret on G,D,A
---I can only play it on A string. Unless I try to do it with the side of my index finger. Anyhow this is the most painful position I have ever done.
If I keep on doing this I will be able to hold a kickball with my left hand only. |
05-23-2008, 05:16 PM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Marathon Man | | | His hands never looked huge, he was just good with them (though he did have very flexible thumbs!). |
05-23-2008, 06:30 PM
| | | Never looked huge?! His hands are very big! Guess we are not talking about the same Jaco 
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05-23-2008, 06:39 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bronx, NY | | | he had big hands but not big enough that nobody else can (on a technical level) play what he did
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...?!
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05-23-2008, 06:49 PM
| | | | Big hands will be only useful on a song like Portrait of Tracy, useful, but not necessary. Afterall what Anthony Jackson does with his small hands on a 36" scale bass i cant dream of doing with my big hands on a 34".
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"I have enough trouble playing bass and chewing gum at the same time." - Jeff Ament
Lefty Union Member #22 |
05-23-2008, 07:07 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi | | | Large hands and that SLIM jazz neck have a little to do with it. |
05-24-2008, 03:14 AM
| | | | fret D# on the A string and pinch the harmonic with your right hand. remember, that last chord was "punched in" when he recorded...... be easy on yourself and use your left thumb (over the fingerboard) to fret the G,D, and A strings..... Or even just the D and G.
It's no big deal, Jaco needed to make it seem harder than it really is....the main deal is making the music shine after the technical bull poop is mastered one way or another. |
05-24-2008, 10:20 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Worcester, MA, USA | | | One thing I noticed about Jaco's left hand is that his first two fingers appeared to be the same length, which allowed him to attack the strings without having to turn his wrist very much and still have an equal amount of flesh on the strings.
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05-24-2008, 10:55 PM
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05-24-2008, 11:51 PM
| | | As in other areas of human expression with the anatomy of the human body, size isn't everything.  |
05-25-2008, 12:29 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: Western Australia | | | Yep, he had fairly huge hands. And weirdly deformed thumbs :P
When I was first trying to learn PoT (still don't know it 100%), I was also like '*** how?' at that artificial harmonic in the first section. I would say I have fairly average sized hands. I ended up being able to kind of lay my index and pinky very flat along the neck, easily able to play the note. Could probably reach another couple of frets if I tried... |
05-25-2008, 02:31 AM
|  | Registered User
Endorsing Artist: Peavey, Conklin | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Ruston, LA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by MR PC  As in other areas of human expression with the anatomy of the human body, size isn't everything. | +1  |
05-25-2008, 11:43 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Vancouver, BC | | | !
Last edited by LM Bass : 05-26-2008 at 02:33 AM.
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05-26-2008, 02:25 AM
| | | | fretting D# at the sixth fret of the A string with the third finger of the right hand while fretting the octave harmonic with the right hand thumb and sounding the note with the right middle finger will give you the D# harmonic. You know, the old steel guitar method called chiming. This way the next note, (B harmonic) is easily reached on the G string smoothly with a minimum of motion by the left hand. This is one of a coupla' ways to play that section of PoT.
Last edited by MR PC : 05-26-2008 at 02:43 AM.
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05-26-2008, 02:31 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Vancouver, BC | | Jeez Louise!  |
05-26-2008, 02:39 AM
| | | | Whew!
Last edited by MR PC : 05-26-2008 at 02:46 AM.
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05-26-2008, 07:19 AM
|  | GOLD Supporting Member | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Queens NY | | I have pretty big hands or just long fingers, it's one if the two. I had a hard time why back when trying to play that tune as well. It's just getting your hand to do something that is completely unnatural. It's all about starching your fingers out. Kind of like Yoga when people put their foot behind their head. Some can do it right off the bat, and for others it takes time and practice. And just a point, I can play Portrait of Tracy but have never got my foot behind my head. Luckily I did know a few girls that could
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