Flat necks and wrist pain

[David Jayne]

Make sure you have some curve in your fingers and not laying them falt across the fingerboard. Also point your thumb toward the head as opposed to having it perpendicular to the neck. Good luck.

This.

It sounds to me like you either exert some extra force to fret the notes, or your thumb is behind your fingers (such as in between 1 or 2).

Ensure your thumb is to the left of your index and fret as lightly as you possibly can.

And this.

 

[Russell L]

Maybe try to rent a Fender Jazz for a bit and see if that shape works better. I don't know about the 5-string version, but the 4-string is much narrower than many basses.

 

[maxiegrant]

Here's a trick for fixing pain. Slow down, cowboy!

Your hand is working a neck where the notes are sometimes seemingly astronomical distances apart, and you have to stretch it a lot. I have found that playing things slowly helps me relax my death-grip during stressful passages, and when I speed up again my hand position is so much more relaxed.

Aside from avoiding obviously-awkward wrist bending, your fingers can get all tangled up especially if you work on strengthening them which can give you the ability to move them in ways that hurt. I have had this happen, so I slowed down some. I don't just mean slow down the fast passages. Slow down all passages. Make a chunk of your rehearsal time just doing things slowly with attention to exactly where you put your fingers.

With a new instrument this can get you over the learning curve of finding the feel for the new thing.