Fretting Fingers

[eclipseyou]

Im just wondering.. i can HARDLY stretch to 2 frets at one time so im constantly jumping even 2 frets away.. and i know theres people that can reach 4 frets.. its not that my hands are small its that i cant get my fingers to stay straight so far away, do your fingers eventually form to be able to stretch more or? asking cause alot of the times when i want to switch one finger from 1 fret to another and do it quick its make an eerie sound of my finger moving away from it.. unless theres a way to prevent that

[Mark Wilson]

How long have you been playing?

None the less it's all a matter of pratice. No matter what you do on the bass, it all boils down to praticing. Changing strings, setting up etc etc.

As far as your fingering problem goes, it could be your technique. Study up on where your thumb should go, what parts of your fingers to play with etc etc.

Keep on shakin the floor

Mark

[Peter Squire]

Agreed.
(Perhaps this should be moved to technique, mods)

Its a matter of practice. Generally speaking, your thumb should be positioned in the middle of the back of the neck, in line with your second finger. Therefore, your first finger is playing back of your thumb.

Learn exercises, like one finger/one fret and neck jumps etc.
It will get easier, believe me.

Good luck

[Warwickman0810]

Try doing warm-ups before practising for about 15 minutes, do some stretches, then switch to massaging your hands and even fingers (even rubbing one hand against the other for a minute helps quite a lot). I used to play the piano for 8 years so for me it's not a problem to strech 5 frets but i rarely do that, i dont really know how that improves with beginner musicians, especially bassists.

[Iruleonbass]

I've been playing for about a year now, and when I first started playing it was on a knockoff squire start, (guitar yes) and I could barely reach 2 frets, but within a few weeks it got easier and than I started playing bass and going back to guitar I can reach like 5 or 6 frets now, abuot 3 or 4 on the bass, I never used anything to help it along, just kept playing and didn't worry about it, and I didn't notice it but I have to trouble reaching now.

[Lorenzini]

Continue ruling on the bass, and practice a lot!
Your hands will stretch.

[Red Wonder]

If you haven't been playing too terribly long you can't expect your fingers and wrist to conforn to the physics of bass overnight. Thats the secret of killer bass playing (among many other things) is the sweet finesse of fingering frets.

Like everybody else said practice is the most important thing.
In first position F try to strive for a solid A and eventually it'll be butter.

[Tash]

I can only make it from F to G#, and that's a stretch. But that's without my pinky, so I'm happy.