finger warm ups and training

[entertoexit]

What are some good finger warm up and training techniques to help me start using my pinky more while fretting? I have a tendancy to fall back on my ring finger too often as my pinky just isnt strong. When I use my pinky finger to fret I end up getting a terrible buzz.

 

[Mushroo]

The classic exercise is something called "the spider." If you do a Google search you'll find a few different variations, but the basic idea is that you play one-finger-per-fret, 1-2-3-4, across all the strings and in various positions.

Depending on the size of your hands, one-finger-per-fret may be painful in the lowest position (frets 1-4) therefore I recommend starting higher up the neck and gradually working the spider down to the lower frets as your hand relaxes and your reach widens.

You should also play in front of a mirror and take a look at how you hold the bass, the length of your strap, etc. to make sure your hands, wrists, arms, and shoulders are in an ergonomic position. A good teacher can help you adjust your technique so that the strength comes from your arm muscles, not from the tiny little finger muscles themselves.

Also IMHO there is nothing wrong with using "double-bass" fingering technique on the electric bass guitar. This means using your 1st, 2nd, and 4th fingers (pointer, middle, pinky) over a span of 3 frets (rather than one-finger-per-fret over a span of 4 frets). Your 3rd (ring) finger works together with the 4th finger to add its strength. The idea is that you have to move up and down the neck a bit more to reach certain notes, but your hand stays in a relaxed and comfortable position.

Above all, be patient--finger strength doesn't happen overnight. Take it slow and don't hurt yourself. The audience doesn't care what kind of weird fingerings you use, as long as the music sounds good!

 

[Spin Doctor]

The 24 variations.

 

[jamisonsalamand]

I saw this exercise on some website, and it would be too tedious to find out again what the site was. It's also a lot of work writing out tab, so I'm gonna hope you know a minor scale and what I mean by 5, 6, 7, etc. notes of the scale(corresponding to the fifth, sixth, and seventh notes of the scale.)

I usually do this at the fifth fret, so playing in A minor with one finger per fret. In terms of the notes of the scale, play:
1656, 7656, 8656, 7656, 1656, 7656.
All this as straight eighths or sixteenths, or whatever(I put the commas in there to get a better idea instead of a huge stream of numbers).

Then after that, I move up a string so it's in D minor and do the exact same thing. I go back and forth between D minor and A minor(4 string bass, but could easily be adapted to more strings), and continue for five minutes or however long, or increase the speed.

I feel this exercise is a lot more useful than 1234 type exercises and is more like an actual riff, and it really gets your muscles working on the weaker fingers.

 

[fourstringburn]

Mushroo advice is good but I would expand on it. Practice the complete chromatic scale and say the notes as you play them until you learn from all root note starting positions. This is a good way to learn the fretboard as notes as well as picking (pick or fingers, it doesn't matter!) notes up and down from string to string.

For those of you who don't know the chromatic scale it is a scale consisting of every note and I think it is one of the harder ones to play on Bass.

The chromatic scale is nothing more than these notes regardless of which note you start on.

A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G , G#

Play 4 notes per string to the octave and continue on if you have more than 5 strings. Try it starting on different notes. Obviously on 4 string you can only play 4 note patterns starting on the A on the E string but you can go up from there without any deviations.

When descending, think of the semi tones as flats instead of sharps. That's where it comes from, when a note is raised a semi tone it is said to be sharp and when the tone is lowered it is flattened. Of course their is no semi tones between B and C and E and F either sharp or flat in this scale. This doesn't apply to every scale because the whole tones and semi tones fall on different notes in different keys.

So now the scale descending is this,

A, Ab, G, Gb, F, E, Eb, D, Db, C, B, Bb,

Practice that a while and you should get a good workout mentally and physically!

 

[K2000]

What helped my pinky... play hammer-ons and trills (as best as possible) starting with the other 3 fingers (go back and forth between ring/pinky for a while, middle finger/pinky, and index/pinky hammerons). That helped me build up pinky strength. (Note - I only do this exercise mid- neck or higher, where I use a 1-finger-per-fret approach. I don't do this exercise on the lower frets because I don't use the 1-finger-per-fret technique on the lower frets).

Practice scooting up the neck to fret a high note and landing with the pinky, or sliding your way up there. That helped me build up strength, and confidence.

Make sure you're really warmed up before working your weak points hard. Weak points may be more susceptible to injury or long term stress issues, IMO.

I think everybody's pinkies are weak in relation to their other fingers - just the way our hands are built.

(Sorry if this is more basic than your skill level requires)

 

[SinSTAR]

Hope this topic isn't too old to bring up, but I used the search box *yay* and thought I'd save creating a new thread!

I've been working on these warm up techniques for a while now and have really noticed my left hand finger strength increasing!

I'm now concentrating on my picking fingers. I've recently starting to try and play with less force which has definately helped with my right hand stamina *ahem*, but I do notice that it takes a while for my fingers to loosen up when first picking up my bass.

Does anyone have any advice/warm ups for picking finger hand?

 

[stoob]

Buy a Gripmaster, your fingers will get stronger and have more dexterity

 

[fearceol]

Buy a Gripmaster, your fingers will get stronger and have more dexterity

I would advise against this. It does nothing for the hands from a bass playing aspect. You have enough natural strength to fret a string.

 

[stoob]

I can only talk about myself, it's done wonders

 

[fearceol]

I can only talk about myself, it's done wonders

I'd be interested to know in which way ?

 

[Jason P Bass]

When I started orchestra in the 2nd grade, they instructed us to practice "crushing" a tennis ball in one hand. Same principle as the other hand exercising devices. For a beginner, developing some strength is a good idea, IMO. For someone who has been playing 10+ years, it's probably a waste of time.

To focus on your 3rd and 4th finger strength and, more importantly, independence, try this drill. Billy Sheehan suggests something similar (or exactly the same) in a video that's on youtube.


-------------4-5-4----------------
---------4-5-------5-4------------
-----4-5---------------5-4--------
-4-5-----------------------5-4----


ALL left hand fingering is 3rd and 4th fingers. Obviously you can move this around the neck. A few minutes with a metronome once a day and you'll notice a significant improvement in a few days.

When that gets boring, you can move up to three fingers (2nd, 3rd, and 4th) or all four fingers of the left hand. Print a sheet of all the permutations (1234, 1243, 1423, 2134, 2143, 2413...) and practice those with a metronome.

When that gets easy, extend the patterns to 5 (and later, 6) frets with 4 fingers. This will require stretching the 1st finger back and/or stretching the 4th finger to reach the last fret. Again, print a list of all the permutations, and practice with a metronome.

With all of these drills, I would recommend short sessions (3 minutes tops) done consistently (every day). You don't have to kill yourself with boredom to develop this muscle memory. Just a few minutes a day...

 

[kr0n]

I though it would be obvious how to strengthen weak body parts... train them. Exclusively.

 

[stoob]

I'd be interested to know in which way ?

As Kron says, you need something to exercise individual fingers and the Gripmaster does that. It's freed up my fingers, added strength and helped to give independence to my fingers when playing up and down the neck.

It's great as an alternative to an instrument when you are travelling or can't play in public

 

[Fergie Fulton]

As Kron says, you need something to exercise individual fingers and the Gripmaster does that. It's freed up my fingers, added strength and helped to give independence to my fingers when playing up and down the neck.

It's great as an alternative to an instrument when you are travelling or can't play in public

The problem with a Gripmaster is in its name, it develops grip. If your hands are weak to start with then it is part of the remedy or cure, not all of it. There are many great exercises that work in the opposite plane to a gripmaster in developing fingers that have dexterity and the ability to lift of the fretboard with ease rather than gripping it. Elastic bands are great resistance for the hands and fingers and just a gentle resistance is enough to tone fingers.

If you need any proof of how your hands and fingers work then relax them.....the curl fine, the hand has a natural curl in it. Now open your fingers and spread them wide... to do that motion you need the opposite of what a Gripmaster does. Put you hand palm down flat on a table and lif the fingers up, again the opposite of what a gripmaster does. The secret to smooth bass playing is lifting the fingers off not putting them on, they will always return to the fretboard when relaxed. Players can often mis-understand fetting problems as the fingers not fretting fast enough, or bad notes and mistakes as notes not being fingered correctly....sometimes it is simply that the previous finger did not lift away in time to allow the next finger fretting to have clear access to the string and fret.

Closing the fingers is a natural reaction, opening, spreading and lifting the fingers need to be developed and a Gripmaster does not do that as it encourages and develops the wrong motions and muscle groups. Yes it will work for some even many, but remember that like a cure, continuing to take it after the problem has been fixed does nothing and in the long run will do damage.

Like 2 asprin will relieve a headache, taken 20 will not relieve it faster, and when your headache is gone continuing to take the asprin is pointless. If you use a gripmaster understand how and why it works or does not work for you. I am not against them, there are just so many better ways to exercise for bass.

 

[Staccato]

"The Spider" is controversial due to what some have called a potential for carpal tunnel symptoms that may result. I'm not sure about that, but there is plenty of reaching on the lower frets with this technique.

Gripmaster is available in different tension models (colors).

 

[Fergie Fulton]

"The Spider" is controversial due to what some have called a potential for carpal tunnel symptoms that may result. I'm not sure about that, but there is plenty of reaching on the lower frets with this technique.

Gripmaster is available in different tension models (colors).

The spider is only no more controversial than someone who just decides to run a marathon tommorow with no training...expect trouble, not controversy. Spider and one finger one fret, are exercices to work towards, not for anyone to just start. These two skills get developed and blended in to a players development.
As does finger picking and freting chords...you develop towards them.

The gripmaster..it does not matter how many tensions there are, they works the wrong muscle groups. Anything that develops the hand to close is not for bass. Muscles work in what we call antagonistic pairs. Muscles can only pull, so for every movement you get you have an opposite movement.
So as you develop the hands flexor muscles with a gripmaster, what is developing the opposite movement or the extensors?
Now if you need to move your fingers in both directions to "put on" and "lift off" then you are only making it easier to put on and harder to lift off. The muscle action will be developed to preference one particular movement ( the closing of the hand by the flexion of the fingers) toward making a fist or to make a grip or hold.

Part of the problem with hands is that full movement is never really used so is never developed. Yes we open and close our hands but we never full open them to there full extent, so the muscles become "shortened".
That is a phrase to describe a muscle that never ever gets its full range of movement, thats why athletes stretch muscles to give them a full range of movement and to loosen them up before and after use of them.

When you hold something you hold it with the full extent of that muscle group. Because the object you hold offer resistance, the hand and finger are now restricted from closing any further, activate the muscle more and the hands or finger do not close any more, but the tension builds in to the hand as a grip. When you release you do not extend you fingers fully to release, you only extend enough to to let go to the object, and thus the extension stops. The extensors to release never got the same use are the flexors to grip, because once you let go you cannot let go more, or let go harder, but you grip more or harder to any object you handle.

Because your hands always get more opportunities in modern life to allow the fingers to grip and hold, flexor groups get more than enough exercise, but extensor never do, unless it is pre-determined by the user, the user make a point of extending them. Now simply opening them and holding, is a stretch. But the fingers can open and spread, they can move towards and away from each other when spread in a side ways motion. There full range is when they are spread and open. Where as a grip is fingers tight together, no movement, no dexterity, actually the opposite. The fingers act as a fibre with each other to make one big fibre....for strength and stability...lack of movement. Similar to the way a rope works, the fingers combine to make strength.
Again this closed hand position is no good for playing bass, but a gripmaster will help develop it.

As i said, the thing about any exercise is knowing when to stop and let recovery happen...exercise is not for all, as is playing a bass, but thats a different subject all together.

 

[N.F.A.]

Find Greg Irwin's,"Finger Fitness" videos, etc. The best stuff I have ever seen on finger, hand dexterity.

 

[ThaSweet]

Damn, tried some of those Greg Irwin's finger exercises.
Looks like my 3th and 4th finger are glued together

You can find a couple on YouTube, there's also one with him from daddario.

I wonder, is this genetic, or can anybody do this with practice?

 

[N.F.A.]

Some will be better than others at them, but with practice you will get much better with his stuff.