What about trying a Jazz Neck? About $500 American dollars for a Fender Jazz Bass. I believe you said you had short fingers, not short arms. A thinner more playable neck might work.
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do i have any chance with normal bass ?
- Thread starter wishforbass
- Start date
My hands are small, I don't stretch my fingers that much, I prefer to move more quickly, doing efficients moves.
I'm also a pro piano and keyboard player, without 'pianist type long and thin fingers'.
My favorite youtube bass player happen to be 5 foot 2, with small hands (type Martin Letendre bass cover).
I'm also a pro piano and keyboard player, without 'pianist type long and thin fingers'.
My favorite youtube bass player happen to be 5 foot 2, with small hands (type Martin Letendre bass cover).
I use to have a Dean Edge 09 Bass. Very basic, one Dean Humbucker and very comfortable neck. Body is Basswood. Very cheap, but a very good beginning Bass. That might be the ticket.
My hands are average size and I have some nerve damage in my left pinky (I am right handed) from an old injury. I always wanted to play the bass but was told I couldn't so played drums and did pretty well and had a lot of fun. One day I talked to my music shop about my problem and walked out with a narrow necked bass (Washburn Bantam). At first I pretty much fretted with three fingers while playing songs, but practiced scales as best I could with all four fingers. There was quite a bit of pain with my damaged finger but I kept at it. After about 6-7 years of this my pinky had developed to the point where I could stretch and use it almost normally on a 5 string P bass with a gloriously chunky neck. One thing I still can't do is finger consecutive notes on different strings with my left pinky, but I have developed workarounds. One thing that really helped was playing in bands and getting advice from other guitarists about workarounds.
So wishforbass, get a bass with a narrow neck, practice, have fun and if there's anything that you find especially challenging, work out a way to play it that suits your particular hands. Don't let something as trivial as small hands and arrogant teachers stop you from achieving your ambition.
So wishforbass, get a bass with a narrow neck, practice, have fun and if there's anything that you find especially challenging, work out a way to play it that suits your particular hands. Don't let something as trivial as small hands and arrogant teachers stop you from achieving your ambition.
Narrow neck +1
You don't want to be a drummer.....
You can do anything you put your mind to. Don't give up if playing bass is what interests you. Here's more small hand inspiration... in case you haven't received enough encouragement from the TB community yet....
You might look for a teacher who can teach you Simandl method on short scale electric.
Simandl Method for Bass is the standard for teaching upright, but is used much for teaching electric bass as well. The cool thing for you about Simandl is that you will use only your 1st, 2nd and 4th fingers to cover three frets. You only start using your 3rd (ring) finger in the upper registers.
One finger per fret in more of an electric thing that, I think, gravitated over from guitar.
I use both techniques, works fine.
But as everyone here says, a good teacher will assess your strengths and weaknesses and go from there.
And for what it's worth, Stanley Clarke, who has fingers the length of my arm, played a short scale bass.
Geddy Lee's four fingers at most span three frets. However, by keeping it simple and playing fewer notes than most he is able to get by somehow as a passable bass player.
I measured my fingers due to reading this thread. Index 2.375 inches, middle 2.75, ring finger 2.5, pinky 2.0 inches. My hands are smaller than yours. I play an Ibanez SR 500. Very thin neck, 34 inch. No problems. Shift a bit more when necessary. As others have said, find a new teacher. You can be taught proper positioning of arm, shoulder, hand, fingering to make it easier.
This girl looks younger than 10 and short fingers don't seem to be limiting her too much.
Gday Wish,
Get a bass, find a song you like or even just a riff and practice.
If you have to move your hand, then move your hand. I do
All the best.
A friend of mine lost his lower legs and most of both his hands. His fretting hand now contains essentially what is one finger and a thumb.
He still plays bass.
Don't let anyone stop you from playing if that's what you love doing.
Bill Wyman has extremely short hands - and he became rather successful as the bass player for the rolling stones.
All instrumentalists, not just bassists benefit from dexterity more than size. Your teacher should have known that.
Your post has me concerned for you. Like most have said, your teacher is the problem. It isn't you. He may be a great bass player in his own right, but he isn't a good teacher.
There are two fundementals that he either doesn't know or hasn't properly communite to you. One is bass position and two is fretting hand thumb position. If your bass is too low on your body, it will be harder to play. Search the net for proper bass position. There are a ton of free vidies that teach that.
And if you don't learn proper thumb position on the fretting hand, you'll have a hard time "stretching," which you really don't need to do if you are taught proper technique. I have very small hands. I play long scale basses. I learned with practice that the best tumb position is in the middle of the back of the neck; on the skunk stripe on my basses that have one. There are two basic techniques to learn after that: 1. how to pivot the thumb from an essentially vertical to a horizontal position when you need to "stretch" the second through fourth fingers to higher positions on the neck; and 2. how to move your whole left hand smoothly up the neck with the thumb remaining in a vertical position. Both Scott Devine (Scott's Bass Lessons) and Mark Smith (Talkingbass) have posted free lessons that explain these concepts in considerable detail. There others on the net as well. Try searching for these lessons and work on them until you have it figuered out. It won't take but a few weeks of constant work before you have an "epiphany." After that, you'll progress much faster.
PLEASE, don' get frustrated. The bass is a fun and versatile instrument that not many people know how to play and which can bring you years of enjoyment.
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