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Exactly how important is proper fingering?

BumbleB

BumbleB

Guest
Mar 19, 2013
251
36
aurora, colorado
#1
I've had a couple lessons now, and really appreciate the knowledge that my teacher is sharing with me, and he's one of the coolest old cats I've met :). I think we may be running into a smallish problem. He doesn't place any emphasis on finger placement. I know that I have developed some bad habits over my years of self teaching and he isn't catching them or correcting them. I can hit most of my notes but I know inside that I'm not having my fingers line up correctly and it kind of bugs me. Is this something that I can let slide, and go on playing in my mildly odd way, or should I get a new teacher?
 
#2
Sounds like you should have this conversation with your instructor. If he knows you want to correct your fingering, I bet he can help you there.

He is taking you down a road, and we must trust our instructors to know when to learn what and what roads to go down -- and in what order to take them. Talk to him.
 
#5
Hmmmm... Is your left hand moving all around the neck when you play? When learning a line, try to find alternate fingerings for the notes so you can play the line from the most comfortable position without moving all around the board so much. The fingerings should naturally fall into place then.

Make sense?
 
#7
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. In a couple hours I will be going to my lesson, and will hopefully have figured out exactly what I want to say. Part of the problem, too, might be that I'm still getting used to my new bass. She's a full size and my old one is 3/4 scale.
 
#8
Strengthen up your pinky on your left hand (if you are right handed) so you have a greater spread when playing up and down the neck. That way you don't have to jump around the neck so much.
 
#9
BumbleB said:
I've had a couple lessons now, and really appreciate the knowledge that my teacher is sharing with me, and he's one of the coolest old cats I've met :). I think we may be running into a smallish problem. He doesn't place any emphasis on finger placement. I know that I have developed some bad habits over my years of self teaching and he isn't catching them or correcting them. I can hit most of my notes but I know inside that I'm not having my fingers line up correctly and it kind of bugs me. Is this something that I can let slide, and go on playing in my mildly odd way, or should I get a new teacher?
Click to expand...

The first thing that comes to mind is that if you're aware you need to improve it then perhaps it's not something the teacher necessarily needs to address....it's something you just need to get to work on in front of a mirror.

The second thing is that the student/teacher relationship doesn't work if the student doesn't trust the teacher and second guesses him. Be straight up and ask him about it. You may not get the answer you were expecting but chances are it will be educational anyway.

The third thing is maybe it's not as bad as you think it is. I know that over the years I've gone from picture perfect college wiz kid technical prowess to a system where my fingers expand and contract and where I use 1 2 4 double bass fingerings a lot. It's not especially pretty but it's extremely functional.
 
#10
One thing to consider is: what have you been working on up to now?

Two lessons is really not much time to get to know all of a student's issues. There might be aspects of your playing that your teacher may have considered more important to focus on at this stage.

For example, I have a student who is a relative beginner and there's no way we could have adressed all his issues in just two lessons. We've been working together for a year now and he's improved a lot, but he still has many issues he needs to work on. This is not an instantaneous process and it takes time to get things right. A more experienced self-taught player like yourself can be even more challenging to teach because not only will you have to learn something, you'll actually have to unlearn any bad habits you may have picked up in order to relearn things the right way.

If learning about proper fingerings is a priority to you, make that goal clear to your teacher. That way, he or she can come up with a lesson plan that adresses this need. Unlike us, your teacher has seen and heard you play and is better equipped to adress your needs as a musician.

Above all, be patient with yourself and remember that learning to play an instrument is a process. Think long term. If it were easy it would not be so special. Good luck.
 
#11
Lots of different fingering options on bass. If you're getting to the note you want on time, and there is no discomfort, you're probably doing what's best for you. Keep it simple, keep it graceful. No extra moments. No extra thinking.
 
#12
It depends on what instrument you are playing and the complexity of the piece you are playing. the majority of stuff is far easier with a certain finger pattern...

I have come across very complex stuff on cello which is actually easier with a stupid looking fingering.

For example on fretless instruments you can get slightly different textures using different fingers on the same note (not so much on fretted bass).

Advice is to learn the proper fingering for things and especially scales. Then you can apply them to everything with a decent technique. With good technique playing will become very easy on your hands/fingers and playing will feel great. (developing a great technique usually takes years).

The joy of being a musician is that you never stop learning. I regularly meet with my friends who are playing similar music to me and we discuss fingerings (everyone is different and has different approaches!) tonality, phrasing and other aspects.
 
#13
Thanks for the further input! As it turns out, we didn't get the chance to discuss this issue. We continued work on the boogie scale exercise that he gave me at the first lesson, and we're making progress with it. He brought out one of his guitars and played along with me this time, though I was doing pretty rotten in my opinion. ;)

I hadn't thought to practice in front of a mirror or on video, perhaps I should try that.

He wants me to pick out a song to learn. I am overwhelmed because there are too many awesome songs and I can't seem to narrow it down to one! I think I've settled on Immigrant Song. It has a good, strong, driving beat and I think that it may be useful to help me with my timing problems. Plus, I have it in sheet music and tab form already so I don't need to go hunting it down on the web.

Another question I have is: How much practice time should I be aiming to put in each day? I've heard many say that one hour for a starter player is the minimum. Others say at least two. But with my busy life, some days I'm lucky to be able to squeeze in a mere 15 minutes! I'm struggling to find a reasonable goal in this matter.

Thanks again for the knowledge and support!
 
#14
For practice, it depends how far you want to go. You can still develop and be an awesome player in the long run with a half hour-hour of practice every day(provided it is useful practice). Naturally most people develop a bit faster with more time invested. Practice for as long as you can, just make sure you're doing something useful for as much of that time as you can ( but dont forget to do something fun with it too. Its a tough balance when strapped for time).
 
#16
Get a new teacher. If he is asking you to pick a song to learn that is a bad sign. You should be getting the basics down as related to technique and theory. Then you can learn any song much easier. You will learn where and why you are playing the notes you are playing instead of just wiggling your fingers and learning riffs. Have you learned the chordal scale yet?
 
#18
Proper fingering technique is VERY important. You can injure yourself doing it wrong, like I did after only a decade, and you will never gain the agility you're going to want. The proper fingering is proper for a reason. Learn the proper way, then alter it to be more comfortable for you, as no one is exactly the same as the guy who came up with the proper way.

Picking a song to learn is not a bad thing! My teacher wanted me to bring in a new one each week when I started out. He used them as examples to help me learn to train my own ear. A teacher can give you instruction and help you deconstruct the songs you learn, but he can't do your listening for you. A teacher that teaches only theory and gives technique exercises but does not prepare you for ear training isn't teaching everything.

Plus, a bass player that knows no tunes without a chart really isn't going to be in much demand.
 
#19
Proper fingering is important to a beginner as it helps them get around the fretboard and develop muscle memory. AS you grow as player you will find that proper fingering for one person may not work for the next person. That is you develop proper fingeriing for how you play. IMO after you reach a certain level proper fingering is very subjective. It's like Charlie Parker said, master your instrument, master the music, and then forget all that ******** and just play.

As far as teachers go, don't think you will become that bassist by just going to one teacher. If there are things you want to learn, go to a specialist or a person who plays and has mastered that particular style of playing. You can still have that one major person for things like theory etc but you should consider that not one person is the gateway to becoming an awesome player. If I want to know about chord theory, I'll work with a keyboard player or a guitarist. When I want to learn how to apply that theory I'll work with a bassist who plays the kind of music where that knowledge comes in handy. etc, etc.
 
#20
BumbleB said:
He wants me to pick out a song to learn. I am overwhelmed because there are too many awesome songs and I can't seem to narrow it down to one! I think I've settled on Immigrant Song. It has a good, strong, driving beat and I think that it may be useful to help me with my timing problems. Plus, I have it in sheet music and tab form already so I don't need to go hunting it down on the web.
Click to expand...

whoa! i don't think its a good idea to pick out that song as your first. the string skipping there is crazy! i dont think i can nail that main riff in one take, and i have a pretty good right hand.

anyway, i am +1 to the one who said that its not a good sign when your instructor tells you to "just pick a song." you'll just end up killing your sessions with muscle memory exercises.
 

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