floating thumb techniqe

[Papageno]

Yes, floating thumb works well for me too. The lowest string (E in my case) needs special handling: on the electric BG, I put it on the pickup; on the acoustic BG, which has no pick up, simply resting the side of the thumb on the top of the bass works well.

 

[SteveCS]

Great post. Looks comfortable. Maybe something you can try is when going to the B string that your thumb is not resting on the pick up but stays floating. Especially when doing scale runs. If you stay longer on the B string you can rest on the pickup.

Just something to try and see if it works for you or not. There are no rules in this.

Yeah, I did that before, but it's just gravitated to that position naturally; it wasn't a conscious choice.

I think it's because it gives me abit of a sense of where I am, whereas if I leave it completely floating it feels a bit disconnected.

It can feel a little disconnected, but there is a huge difference between 'resting on' and 'being in contact with' something.

Floating Thumb is something I've been doing since the mid '80s, and one of the things I like about it is the sense of spatial reference from feeling something on the side of the thumb whilst being totally free from any kind of anchor. I think it helps to maintain good right hand posture, which in itself brings many other technical and musical benefits. Most of the time the thumb is sensing the unplayed strings, but when playing the lowest string it might be the edge of the pickup, or a pickguard screw, or something else. It is not a permanent contact at one place, but a set of 'landmarks' which can, with practice, be used instinctively and instantly to align the hand in three dimensions. The point is that there is no pressure or force in the contact, just enough 'laying on' to give an awareness of the hand position relative to the instrument.

This from 1989*:

* About 25 years before I'd even heard of Gary Willis. He may be credited with bringing the technique to wider attention but he absolutely did not invent it.

 

[Naigewron]

It can feel a little disconnected, but there is a huge difference between 'resting on' and 'being in contact with' something.

Absolutely. As you may or may not see clearly in the video, I'm not anchoring or resting my thumb on the pickup, it's just touching it; more as a point of reference than an anchor.

 

[SteveCS]

Absolutely. As you may or may not see clearly in the video, I'm not anchoring or resting my thumb on the pickup, it's just touching it; more as a point of reference than an anchor.

I had guessed as much. It looks good.

The only comment I would make - and if this is out of place please put me in mine - is about maybe being more consistent with your right-hand fingering. It is very index-focussed, and your use of the middle finger seems somewhat random - same things played differently for no apparent reason. Of course it may be totally deliberate and developed that way for good reason, but I can only go on what I can see, which as we've just shown is rarely the whole picture!

 

[Naigewron]

The only comment I would make - and if this is out of place please put me in mine - is about maybe being more consistent with your right-hand fingering. It is very index-focussed, and your use of the middle finger seems somewhat random - same things played differently for no apparent reason. Of course it may be totally deliberate and developed that way for good reason, but I can only go on what I can see, which as we've just shown is rarely the whole picture!

Yup, that's something I've noticed only as I've begun watching myself back on video lately.

I haven't specifically worked on alternating technique much, but if you had asked me a few months ago I would have told you with certainty that I alternate my picking fingers, combined with raking when moving back up the strings. Only recently have I noticed that this isn't actually the case.

It seems to be linked to speed for me. The faster I play, the more consistently my fingers will alternate. When I'm playing a constant 8th note pattern, the only break from alternating will be raking.

So yeah, it's a weird one, and I'll probably look into whether it's something I should work on, or whether it's "weird, but functional", since it seems to sort itself out when the part requires it.

 

[SteveCS]

Yup, that's something I've noticed only as I've begun watching myself back on video lately.

I haven't specifically worked on alternating technique much, but if you had asked me a few months ago I would have told you with certainty that I alternate my picking fingers, combined with raking when moving back up the strings. Only recently have I noticed that this isn't actually the case.

It seems to be linked to speed for me. The faster I play, the more consistently my fingers will alternate. When I'm playing a constant 8th note pattern, the only break from alternating will be raking.

So yeah, it's a weird one, and I'll probably look into whether it's something I should work on, or whether it's "weird, but functional", since it seems to sort itself out when the part requires it.

Something that really helped me was eliminating* hammer-ons and pull-offs, which also seem to be a big part of your playing. If you try to articulate every note with the right hand you will soon get tonal and workload balance between your right-hand fingers, which in turn reduces stress and improves stamina.

* I'm not saying don't use hammer-ons and pull-offs, they are a perfectly valid part of a rounded approach, but they have a different sound to a plucked note. I'm suggesting practicing exercises deliberately with and without them. Being proficient with both techniques expands your timbral palette.

 

[Naigewron]

Something that really helped me was eliminating* hammer-ons and pull-offs, which also seem to be a big part of your playing. If you try to articulate every note with the right hand you will soon get tonal and workload balance between your right-hand fingers, which in turn reduces stress and improves stamina.

* I'm not saying don't use hammer-ons and pull-offs, they are a perfectly valid part of a rounded approach, but they have a different sound to a plucked note. I'm suggesting practicing exercises deliberately with and without them. Being proficient with both techniques expands your timbral palette.

Tips well taken and appreciated. No matter what, I could definitely stand to be much more aware of how I play, even if I end up not necessarily seeing the need to change some specific aspect of it.

 

[Lobster11]

The trick with my wrist was to move away from resting it on top of the bass and push my elbow out a bit further, while still keeping my shoulder in a relaxed position. My wrist is still touching the forearm carve, but it's not resting there. This allows me to freely "slide" my forearm and wrist over the top of the bass in order to move my hand up and down across the strings. If you look at my right wrist as I jump between strings, you can see that it's not just hanging there.

When standing up, the technique doesn't change much. My wrist and forarm are a bit more vertical, but I still let them loosely touch the forearm contour of the bass and let my wrist slide freely across it. This really lets me keep in touch with the bass, instead of trying to let my arm not touch the bass at all.

Bonus tip: The wristband really helps with reducing friction too, especially on glossy finishes. Whether or not it's a good look is probably debatable, but in my rock band context it works visually as well.

This exactly. Extra points for the bit about the wristband, which I find to be essential when not wearing long sleeves.

 

[Les Fret]

Absolutely. As you may or may not see clearly in the video, I'm not anchoring or resting my thumb on the pickup, it's just touching it; more as a point of reference than an anchor.

It cannot harm to touch the pickup or body or resting on it slightly. But if you have fast runs or string jumps where you only play a few notes on the B string you don't really really have time to touch anything with your thumb. That's why I leave it completely floating in those cases. So the transition from the E to the B string is more natural and fluent (to me at least...)

 

[Yellow Bang66]

No it doesn't mean there is no muting going on, in fact it allows for you to pick and choose how you mute and when. I was really only trying to draw a destinction between anchoring and floating. When I play floating thumb my right thumb isn't anchoring anything anywhere and is often positioned either to use (as another plucking digit) or at rest (as an optional muting device). I tend to mute with what is available depending on what and how I am playing. I will even use one of my not-in-use left fingers to reach over and mute another string if my right hand is in use and not in a position to acurately mute a specific string. Now I will admit that I have not taken nor seen the instructor most closely related to the anchored thumb technique that is described in this thread. I am drawing on the postings themselves about how this works and using the literal deffinition of anchoring to mean something. If you don't believe that this is an accurate description don't worry about it. It is more important that you target what you want out of a technique, rooted in a real problem or outcome that you wish to have when you are playing. Once you start to solve specific problems when using a specific technique your playing will find its own high water mark and you will begin the process of making the technique your own. It should never be the other way around where the technique makes you a clone of someone else. Personal expression is still the name of this game.

I was under the impression "Floating thumb" meant no anchoring point! I usually Anchor down on the Pick up corner, almost like a nervous security point, to the point of leaving indents on my thumb! I press/push down pretty hard there to the point of pain, so I know its bad technique! Lately i have been practicing Steve Harris' "Gallop" and have learned to "Float" Much to my thumb's delight!doing the "gallop" I have learned it is essential to not anchor to get enough freedom to speed up!So now its just a matter of being mindful& breaking a bad habit!! But like all attachments, it is proving a hard habit to break, as I feel like i need to be anchor down some where! a couple of tutorials/video have said to Pin your forearm to the side of the bass but thats too restrictive for me! I'mtrying to "evolve my playing & style, so I'm trying some new uncomfortable things!!

 

[Yellow Bang66]

I never really gave this much thought, so now I'm probably going to be Paranoid next time I play!

I do different things with different basses and then different things on different songs. I tend to play my Fender differently than my Rick and depending upon the song, I'll move either closer or further from the bridge for different tones.

Truthfully, It never occured to me to Move my right hand to change tones, but I was aware i could, it just never presented it self nor did i have the need to do it! anchoring just was natural, "floating" just seems weird.

 

[Naigewron]

I was under the impression "Floating thumb" meant no anchoring point

I see different definitions, but that's my way of thinking about it too. The thumb really just floats and never anchors on a string.

 

[Lobster11]

I see different definitions, but that's my way of thinking about it too. The thumb really just floats and never anchors on a string.

No, it's a specific technique in which the thumb lays across the lower (pitched) strings to mute them when you're playing on higher (pitched) strings. Here's an oft-posted video about it (which probably has been posted at least once earlier in this thread):



The only time your thumb might be literally "floating" in the air is when you're playing on your lowest (pitched) string (e.g., E or B). In that case there are no "lower" strings against which to rest your thumb. Some players rest it against the pickup, some against the body of the bass, and some (including me, usually) let it just float in the air.

 

[SteveCS]

I was under the impression "Floating thumb" meant no anchoring point!...

The thumb really just floats and never anchors on a string.

Exactly right. Contact between the thumb and strings is from the side, with just enough pressure to mute them without pressing them down.

...
...
a couple of tutorials/video have said to Pin your forearm to the side of the bass but thats too restrictive for me!
...

Truthfully, It never occured to me to Move my right hand to change tones, but I was aware i could, it just never presented it self nor did i have the need to do it! anchoring just was natural, "floating" just seems weird.

Check out this example, where I 'hold' the bass with my forearm, float my thumb and move position from over the pickup all the way to the middle of the fingerboard and back (around 1:39 and 2:01) whilst still floating the thumb:

 

[Naigewron]

No, it's a specific technique in which the thumb lays across the lower (pitched) strings to mute them when you're playing on higher (pitched) strings. Here's an oft-posted video about it (which probably has been posted at least once earlier in this thread):



The only time your thumb might be literally "floating" in the air is when you're playing on your lowest (pitched) string (e.g., E or B). In that case there are no "lower" strings against which to rest your thumb. Some players rest it against the pickup, some against the body of the bass, and some (including me, usually) let it just float in the air.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

What I was trying to say was that I've also seen "floating thumb" being used to describe what I'd personally describe as "moving anchor"

 

[Lobster11]

Yeah, that's what I meant.

What I was trying to say was that I've also seen "floating thumb" being used to describe what I'd personally describe as "moving anchor"

Oh, I see -- and totally agree. A lot of folks do seem to confuse the "floating thumb" and the "moving [or moveable] anchor." I (mistakenly) thought that you were among several posters who seemed to think that "floating" literally meant "floating in the air" and not touching anything. My bad.

 

[mike buzzetti]

or just use a MUTE on the nut ?????

 

[NotAGardener]

Old guy drummer who is every bit of three weeks into learning bass. I have neither particularly large hands nor particularly long fingers and after messing around with fixed anchor via a couple of bass primer books, movable anchor and just the past few days of floating thumb (via Talkbass and Todd Johnson’s video) I’ve sorta been all over the place. But FT just feels right and more workable for me, so that’s where I’m going.

Both primers start with plucking open strings but quickly move to fretting. But without looking at my right hand I couldn’t reliably pluck the target string. I needed/wanted some kind of index, and (at least at this point) not just the position of “the mechanism” (right arm) when I realized that the joints on the side of my thumb, and a couple of other spots on it, could provide position indexing based on the number of lumps/troughs the joints encountered; to make reliable use of that I figured I just needed to do working drills until getting to get to the point that I’d instinctively know where my hand is (without consciously counting “lumps”). To that end I decided to spend the next couple of weeks (or however long it takes), just working my right hand with open strings (I mute with my left where needed, but nothing more).

I have a G&L Kiloton (Trib) and my thumb rests on the stepped edge of the PU for the E string; I don’t try to brace against the PU step but a little bit must occur; I'm not plucking hard (I think).

For plucking A I push my thumb and it sorta ramps up the step to bump into the E; it doesn’t fully rest on the top but almost; stops about where the edge if my thumbnail is so it’s mostly on the side of my thumb but a little bit of tip corner aspect is engaged. Not trying to push the E but, again, a tad must occur....there's a small vector in that direction.

For plucking D & G I push my thumb, minding my wrist/forearm/elbow alignment and work to keep the side of my thumb engaged with/resting on the strings, and it slides across with the joint feeling the up/down of the strings/troughs and stopping when it’s left side thumbnail edge (or that general area) kinda indexes on the adjacent string. Here my thumb really is fully resting on top of the string adjacent the one to be plucked.

For my drills I decide in advance which two strings I want to pluck, say E and then G, and I’ll do that a bunch of times, a dozen two, before picking a different pair. I’m trying to get to the point that I just know “that’s what going one string (or two or three) feels like”, instinctively. I don’t always start with E or G and I’m occasionally doing three strings but I think it better to focus on pairs for the time being; I want to get the associated “joint going over lump(s)” feedback fully imprinted in my brain/body before adding complexity. I’m definitely improving but not nearly where I want to be before starting fretting exercises.

Right ballpark?

 

[Mrtoodamnsabre]

what is floating thumb techniqe & how can i do it?

Floating Thumb is where you place your thumb on your plucking hand on the string below the one your playing. Or on the pickups if you're playing your lowest string. It helps to keep the lower strings you aren't playing quiet and helps you get a more consistent chug when you're playing fast.

Personally I can't get to grips with any other finger technique other than Floating Thumb.

its why a lot of goofballs switch out their pickups on stingrays cause they're not floating their hand and the stretch from the musicman pickup with your thumb to the g string causes it to sound weaker

 

[Les Fret]

its why a lot of goofballs switch out their pickups on stingrays cause they're not floating their hand and the stretch from the musicman pickup with your thumb to the g string causes it to sound weaker

I doubt the reasons for a weak g string is not doing floating thumb. Why do you think so? And what makes a Stingray special opposed to other basses in this regard?