Advice for a partially sighted (visually impaired) novice.

[EatS1stBassist]

Hi everyone,

I’m a relative novice with a visual impairment and thought I’d post to ask for any advice that you might have to help me improve my playing – particularly with locating my fretting-fingers.

My sight problems are a little tricky to explain, but basically I have lost much of my central vision, but have pretty good peripheral vision – so when I hold my hand out at arms length and look at my palm I can just about make out the tips of my fingers.

Here’s a more bass-relevant explanation: To see my hand playing the 1st to 3rd frets then I have to be looking at somewhere around the 8th or 10th which makes locating my fingers nicely behind the frets trickier than it might otherwise be - and multi-fret shifts trickier too. Give it a go and you’ll have an idea of what I’m up against.

I’ve found that putting black tape on the back of the neck helps with visual contrast and gives a nice tactile indication of where I am on the fingerboard and I’ve also been experimenting with black sticky-back plastic on the fretboard as a kind of poor-mans block inlays. (Sooner or later I’ll be asking about how to remove the finish from parts of the fretboard, stain the wood black and refinish it, but I think that’s for another day…)

I know that the real answer is to practice-practice-practice until it all becomes second nature, but anything to speed that along would be much appreciated.

Can anyone recommend any drills or lines that I could use to help bed in the muscle memory here?

Thanks in advance, Adrian.

I became
A better bass player when I just closed my eyes and felt and listened. Let your ears be your eyes. It comes faster than you would expect.

 

[craigie]

My simple advice to you is protect your ears! You rely on them even more than everyone else.

 

[TrevorR]

Hi Everyone - Thanks for all the advice so far.

Someone else (at Scott's Bass Lesons) recommended the Simandl method too so I will definitely check that out - a quick search through some of the threads here makes it seem quite promising - it's at the lower frets where I'm having the most trouble so it could help alot.

I'm in Brighton (south coast of England) if anyone knows any instructors around here, that would be great.

As for the tactile advice - I'm continuing to experiment with bits of tape - I'd rather not permanently alter the neck of the bass before I've got my hand position right.

You might consider contacting BIMM which is based in Brighton. They have a strong bass faculty there and may be able to suggest some local tutors who might have experience with students with visual orbother impairment. Some of their tutors might offer private tuition or, if not, st least they should be plugged into the local scene.

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[StatesideRambler]

Your fretted bass already has the physical guidance you need: the frets. To play cleanly you need to finger the note fairly close to the fret. Play a scale slowly while gently pressing strings down to the board and notice the feeling on your finger as you play near the fret or further behind it. Notice, too, the difference in sound. Do this slowly and regularly at first then gradually increase the tempo over days and weeks. HTH

 

[interp]

Hi,
I play bass for 20 years or so. I learned to play the bass guitar looking at the fretboard, which later, when I started to play sight reading, became an obstacle I'm struggling to unlearn. So I guess I want to say that you might take advantage of your handicap and probably save time in the end, if you start learning to play without looking at the fretboard.

When I later started to play double bass, I found that the double bass fingering (1-2-4 playing half steps) is helpful to orientate on the whole fretboard without looking, as you are making smaller jumps that are easier to muscle-memorize. You are jumping more often, and since you are constantly moving, your hand gets less stiff after long time of playing. (Actually, I use guitar fingering 1-2-3-4 more often when sight reading; you're gonna learn both in the end, but if you start with double bass fingering, you can't be wrong.)

If you are playing fretted bass, I wouldn't worry very much about fingering the exact spot behind the fret. This will come in time; more important is if you listen to what you are playing. If it sounds good, then your finger is in the right spot.

This seems like good advice to me. I have played electric bass for 50 years and don’t need to look at the fingerboard very much, but a few years ago I took a few lessons on upright from my son, who is an accomplished upright player and teacher.
When I looked at the fingerboard to find my bearings he would say: “Dad, why are you looking at the fingerboard, there’s no information there.”

In any case, good luck to the OP in his musical endeavors!

 

[jj.833]

“Dad, why are you looking at the fingerboard, there’s no information there.”

Hahaha. Couldn't be said better. I think I'm gonna carve it into my (bass) neck

 

[Adrian_D]

Thanks again for all the advice. I am already implementing the ear-training & scales approach that has been recommended by a number of you.

I will, however, be continuing to use the tactile tape and higher-visibility/contrast options as I also want to play some tunes and lines sooner rather than later and these definitely help with that!

 

[motoman]

I need to take notes here I am terrible at finding notes without looking. I try to play a video program without looking at the fretboard and it sounds so bad. Very frustrating

 

[EatS1stBassist]

I need to take notes here I am terrible at finding notes without looking. I try to play a video program without looking at the fretboard and it sounds so bad. Very frustrating

Keep on! It will come to you!!