I categorize myself as a new "serious" bass player, meaning I'm now spending about 80% of my time developing my bass skills. Many of the things I do were habitual, but most were unintentional and doing something right or wrong was a process of discovery.
I never developed the habit of planting my thumb tip anywhere on the bass. Perhaps (previously) as a guitar who played bass and would use a pick, my thumb, sometimes a finger or two I never had a picking style. Never thought about muting before. Enter the 5-string and a real bass amp. Muting became a necessity.
As I developed my alternating finger plucking I never got the urge to plant my thumb anywhere so as I adopted the 5 string I because aware of how strings could ring incidentally. My ears told me I had to stop the ringing and my thumb was just sort of hanging there so it was a matter of just moving it closer to the strings to stop errant vibrations...
What I discovered was that my thumb resting gently against the strings, though moving was creating a pseudo-anchor. In other words, the back of my thumb provides stability in plucking, but not parallel to the direction of the pluck, but perpendicular to the pluck. So as I move to the higher strings the relationship of my fingers to my thumb doesn't change, but slides along the strings, unless I'm skipping strings quickly and I'm able to mute most of the unplayed strings, never leaving more than two unplayed strings free to vibrate at any time.
In other words, as I am plucking the back of my thumb moves gently into the bass, still free to move from string to string with my other fingers, but against the strings just enough to provide muting and a sense of something that my plucking fingers have to pull against.
As an interesting detail, when I move back to the 4 string and have to go down to the low E my thumb is floating in air and takes a moment to adjust to that feeling of not having anything to rest against.
Just thought I'd share this discovery for those who might have an interest in the subject.
I never developed the habit of planting my thumb tip anywhere on the bass. Perhaps (previously) as a guitar who played bass and would use a pick, my thumb, sometimes a finger or two I never had a picking style. Never thought about muting before. Enter the 5-string and a real bass amp. Muting became a necessity.
As I developed my alternating finger plucking I never got the urge to plant my thumb anywhere so as I adopted the 5 string I because aware of how strings could ring incidentally. My ears told me I had to stop the ringing and my thumb was just sort of hanging there so it was a matter of just moving it closer to the strings to stop errant vibrations...
What I discovered was that my thumb resting gently against the strings, though moving was creating a pseudo-anchor. In other words, the back of my thumb provides stability in plucking, but not parallel to the direction of the pluck, but perpendicular to the pluck. So as I move to the higher strings the relationship of my fingers to my thumb doesn't change, but slides along the strings, unless I'm skipping strings quickly and I'm able to mute most of the unplayed strings, never leaving more than two unplayed strings free to vibrate at any time.
In other words, as I am plucking the back of my thumb moves gently into the bass, still free to move from string to string with my other fingers, but against the strings just enough to provide muting and a sense of something that my plucking fingers have to pull against.
As an interesting detail, when I move back to the 4 string and have to go down to the low E my thumb is floating in air and takes a moment to adjust to that feeling of not having anything to rest against.
Just thought I'd share this discovery for those who might have an interest in the subject.
