Appraise My Progress?

[neutron619]

So I've returned to bass playing after about 22 years away - the story behind that is here - Picked up a bass again after 22 years... - for anyone who's interested but I won't repeat it here.

I'm writing this post because I'm basically teaching myself how to play bass again. I've got some previous experience from my childhood and I'm a classically trained singer / pianist / organist, so general music theory / score reading and so on isn't a problem for me.

However, I'm hoping that some experienced players might be able to tell me if it sounds like I'm on track with the bass-specific bits of what I'm doing as I'm worried that I might be rushing through the material a bit and also that I'm developing some bad technique.

I've been playing a Squier Jazz Bass for about the last 4-5 weeks. It's a 5-string, but I don't think that's particularly caused me any trouble (and that B string has been quite useful for playing in the church band where everything seems to be in C, D and Eb!).

I've been working through the Ed Friedland "Hal Leonard Bass Method" books and I've managed to get into about the middle of book two where it starts to introduce one finger per fret and major scales etc. I've had to do some work to nail down the earlier exercises, but I'm basically fluent up to the point of box shapes and 5th position, with a few slips and twangs every now and again as my under-developed muscle memory fails me.

However, I'm finding several things difficult:

• I know I'm pressing too hard with my thumb on the back of the neck and I'm trying not to, but when I'm playing down on 1st and 2nd fret of the A, E and B strings, I seem to have a trade-off between my left hand getting tired fast and pushing hard for clean notes, or the slips and twangs I mentioned above creeping in.
• I'm really struggling with the stretching / pivoting required for OFPF - which I think might be to do with the point above, but perhaps also because I've got really short index fingers? Or is it perhaps that I've only been playing 5 weeks and haven't developed the stamina / flexibility required?
• I think I probably suffer from the "flying fingers disease". As an organist, I always want to keep my fingers clear of the keys I'm not playing so that they don't interfere, but I get the impression that with bass, if you're fretting with your pinky, the index / middle fingers should be pushing down on the frets behind wherever the pinky is to be ready to descend a scale / make for economy of movement? If that's true, I'm finding it really hard to get all the fingers down in a line (lots of tension, feels uncomfortable).

I am playing in my wife's church with their band, but the music isn't particularly complicated, so I'm trying to push forward on my own. I wonder if I'm reaching the limit of what I can do without a tutor (difficult, for various reasons at this point), and / or whether I might now be hitting a plateau?

They talk about the bass being easy to pick up and hard to master, so does it sound like I'm at the end of the easy beginning stage? Or just too impatient for my finger strength to develop and that if I just keep going over these exercises for another 3 months, I'll suddenly be flexible enough for OFPF and moving on?

Any guidance anyone can offer will be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Adam.

 

[Mushroo]

Welcome back to the wonderful world of bass!

A few thoughts:

• The vast majority of bassists do not use the "One Finger Per Fret" technique exclusively, so please feel free to treat those exercises as optional/extra-credit.
• You shouldn't need to "develop finger strength" unless you are recovering from a serious hand injury or disability. The average person is already plenty strong enough to play the bass. The amount of strength to fret a bass string is about the same amount of strength it takes to type on a computer keyboard, no more.
• No, you do not need to force your unused fingers into an uncomfortable position. The only finger that matters is the finger that is currently fretting the note. There is no need to contort your other fingers! "Economy of movement" is highly overrated. You have my permission to reposition your hand in between notes, so that it is always in the most comfortable position for the actively-sounding note.

Good luck! If you want to post some pics or a video, we can maybe give you some more targeted pointers.

I'll leave you with this photo of one of my favorite bassists, John McVie of Fleetwood Mac, playing low F at the 1st fret of the E string. Notice how his thumb and his 3 unused fingers are in a relaxed and neutral position, so they are not creating tension in his 1st finger that is doing the actual fretting. Also notice that his wrists are straight, his elbows are hanging freely away from his body (not pressed into his side), and his shoulders aren't hunched or uneven.

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[neutron619]

Hi Mushroo and thank you for your thoughts - much appreciated.

I'll try to take the OFPF stuff as you say - as an optional extra. I can't remember exactly what I did when I was younger. It was probably a bastardized version of 1-2-4 that used my pinky as little as possible and doubled up 2+3 quite a lot. Whatever it was, it seemed to work on the short scale Fender Musicmaster I borrowed from the band leader.

I say that only because the 1-2-4 technique in the Hal Leonard book seems comfortable and reasonably "familliar" whereas OFPF is really downright uncomfortable below about 7th fret. Admittedly I mention it also because I miss that Musicmaster too. The other two guitarists in the school band both played electro-acoustics, which meant all the girls wanted to stand next to the guy with the cool electric guitar.... about the only time in my life that that ever happened!

Going out of order for a moment, thanks for the reassurance on the "unused fingers". I've been watching some YouTube videos and some of the guys playing - virtuosii, I'm sure - seem to barely move their hands and yet are playing semiquaver riffs (or faster) which sound like they're all over the place. Something to aspire to, perhaps, but I guess if you're playing the right notes at the right times, it doesn't matter what it looks like.

Back to "finger strength": presumably placement and the right degree of pressure comes with more practice? I'm OK most of the time, although as I said, I have a tendency to push too hard. Other times though, I end up with dead notes from a "muted" string not fretted hard enough. From what you say, I guess I just need to work on being consistently firm enough to press a computer key but no more or less.

I'm going to go pick up the bass (and put on a cool hat) and compare my playing position to that picture. Probably can't send video / pictures tonight as the kids are asleep, but if I can work out how to do so, I might get a chance over the weekend.

Thank you again for your advice and comments.