Fretting fingering?

[PsyDocHill]

I started off on classical guitar before I fell in love with the bass guitar--where I have stayed--& only started to tinker with DB a few years ago. With her flamenco background, my guitar teacher drummed 1-2-3-4 into me for the fretting hand & 1-2-3-4-5 (in various permutations) for the plucking hand. This is etched in my mind forever. I found that there's no use fighting it; my hands are large enough. As many of you have written, no size fits everyone. Lots of variables come to play, yes.

 

[monsterthompson]

On low fret positions, I sometimes find 1 3 4 comfortable. I've got nerve damage which limits my dexterity, so the 1-2 stretch is a little challenging in some positions.

 

[Jeff Bonny]

Here's an alternative to pivoting from master technician Edgar Meyer who's playing 1-2-3-4 in the low positions on the double bass. What he's doing seems to be going into the fullest extension of a pivot and more or less staying there. I've been working on it some and it still feels a little foreign but it does translate directly to the electric in a very mechanically sound way. The key is doing what many of us were taught was a deadly sin: overhanging your thumb. But that's is the only practical way of angling your fingers enough to make it work.

 

[LowDownHawkeye]

OK, so it seems there's two schools of thought regarding fretting fingering. There's the one-finger-per-fret crowd (1-2-3-4), and the 3-finger people (1-2-4). (I reckon there's another group - the 1-thumb-per-fret punk crowd! Just kidding...)

The Ed Friedland book I'm working through promotes the 1-2-4 fingering, while the online StudyBass course pushes 1-2-3-4.

I see a huge benefit in 1-2-3-4 fingering. I can cover 2 octaves on a 5-string without changing hand positions. It makes sight reading easier for me, too. To me, using 3 fingers is like telling a keyboard player that he can't use his ring finger.

I can also see benefits in using both positions. For me, it's tough to use 1-2-3-4 near the nut, where the frets are further apart. So, perhaps a hybrid approach is best. Perhaps even occasionally wrapping the thumb around has its merits.

Comments, suggestions, experience, ideas regarding the two techniques?

I don't remember for certain, but thought that the Friedland books started 124 then switched to 1234. Will have to check when I get home.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

I always taught my students to use each finger - but I was teaching kids who needed to build up strength and good habits; I know that I don't always use all four, I don't always keep my thumb directly on the back of the neck, don't always alternate my plucking fingers, etc. I used to say "learn the rules so you know when to break the rules".

 

[Slevage]

I used 1 2 3 4, one finger per fret since 1971, when I learned on BG.

Then, around 1975, I started playing double bass in the HS orchestra--- using 4 fingers in all positions (except thumb position) was necessary to get proper intonation. G on E string, C on A string ...... 1/2 position
was very natural.

Now, on my BG, I can easily switch between the 2 technique, depending on the passages and written pieces (especially when dealing with lots of accidentals)-------- in any case it's important to use your pinky.

 

[rtav]

I always try to play 1-2-3-4 when the line calls for it (Dream Theater's "Erotomania" main riff is composed of half steps) because it sounds clean and there is less "slop" as the noting finger sliiiides from one position to the next. also, playing 1-2-3-4 makes it easier to punch the note cleanly (again "Erotomania" comes to mind, as does some Liquid Tension stuff, a good bit of Zappa, etc.)

OTOH, if I'm playing something rather simple then it really doesn't matter if I go 1-2-4 or whatever, but when the notes are all half steps, have to be played up tempo (and I'm thinking about some of the fills in the last section of "Dance of Eternity," one repeating FAST riff that is 11 half step notes across 3 strings), I will make sure it is all 1-2-3-4.

Generally, as a rule, I make myself do 1-2-3-4 no matter where on the fingerboard I am.

 

[SteveCS]

IME fingerings, including forwards and backwards extensions and shifts, should be worked out and planned around the line. Work out fingerings to minimise stress and strain, and don’t do anything that causes undue stretching or strain, especially not in the name of dogma.

 

[Old Garage-Bander]

OK, so it seems there's two schools of thought regarding fretting fingering. There's the one-finger-per-fret crowd (1-2-3-4), and the 3-finger people (1-2-4). (I reckon there's another group - the 1-thumb-per-fret punk crowd! Just kidding...)

The Ed Friedland book I'm working through promotes the 1-2-4 fingering, while the online StudyBass course pushes 1-2-3-4.

I see a huge benefit in 1-2-3-4 fingering. I can cover 2 octaves on a 5-string without changing hand positions. It makes sight reading easier for me, too. To me, using 3 fingers is like telling a keyboard player that he can't use his ring finger.

I can also see benefits in using both positions. For me, it's tough to use 1-2-3-4 near the nut, where the frets are further apart. So, perhaps a hybrid approach is best. Perhaps even occasionally wrapping the thumb around has its merits.

Comments, suggestions, experience, ideas regarding the two techniques?

Double Secret Hybrid fingering here. Rheumatoid Arthritis kind of forces me to modify fingering as needed.
Same with fingering. I tend to do a lot of thumb on the E String.

 

[injectbass]

124 comes from upright and I tend to use that on upright but for bass guitar 1234 is better because it allows you to be able to play more intricate fast basslines.


Even though it's being demonstrated for death metal you can apply it anywhere.

 

[Watchootognbout]

I started off on classical guitar before I fell in love with the bass guitar--where I have stayed--& only started to tinker with DB a few years ago. With her flamenco background, my guitar teacher drummed 1-2-3-4 into me for the fretting hand & 1-2-3-4-5 (in various permutations) for the plucking hand. This is etched in my mind forever. I found that there's no use fighting it; my hands are large enough. As many of you have written, no size fits everyone. Lots of variables come to play, yes.

I bet you can do some amazing things with your classical right hand technique on a bass!

 

[okcrum]

I bet you can do some amazing things with your classical right hand technique on a bass!

I have heard a bassist in a metal band from PHX (can't remember the name; we - a funk band - were booked last minute to fill the last slot in the show haha) playing a 6 with flamenco rakes. It was very cool.

 

[PsyDocHill]

I bet you can do some amazing things with your classical right hand technique on a bass!

Thank you! I'm working on it. I owe that teacher. The poor woman was shocked when I crossed to the dark side, going electric & bass. I wish I knew where to find her, just to thank her. I think it also helps that I'm a lefty who plays righty. One of those freaks . Fretting with my dominant hand came in very handy back in the flamenco hammer-on fast-&-furious classical guitar days & boy does it help now, with the bass guitar's long scale & thick strings. As for my plucking hand, those five fingers help with both phrasing & speed. I can do flamenco "rakes" along with alternating thumb with the other four fingers. Nowadays, I play in a duo with a classical pianist-vocalist, a long way from my funk-rock days. But it's a nice turn of events, since it's forcing me to go back to my roots, while not ignoring my rocking bass days of yore. No!

 

[Jeff Bonny]

124 comes from upright and I tend to use that on upright but for bass guitar 1234 is better because it allows you to be able to play more intricate fast basslines.

1-2-4 has been used from the very beginning on the bass guitar. Maybe it did originally migrate over from the DB but it's been used by many great electric players for almost seven decades and is a completely legitimate way of navigating the instrument.

Is it always the best way? **** no! Trying to play like Alex Webster or John Myung using 1-2-4 would be impossible (and sound like ass). But trying to play like Robbie Shakespeare you're going to be more comfortable and sound a lot more authentic.

Technique only exists to serve the music and whatever you don't learn you can't do.

 

[rufus.K]

I play whatever works in context of notes, speed, and clarity. I try not to have steadfast rules. Position on the neck sometimes tells me to do it one way down here, and another up there.

 

[srcTW]

I use 1-2-3-4. Makes waking lines much easier in position and allows you to stretch one above and one below your current position. As a result i play a sixer and tend to play higher on the neck.

 

[RustyAxe]

Kinda like flipping the turn signal when you're driving.

Hmmm ... that never quite caught on in Connecticut, I guess ...

 

[40Hz]

Hmmm ... that never quite caught on in Connecticut, I guess ...

LOL! I sometimes suspect it's illegal in CT considering how seldom people do signal for a turn although "flipping" other drivers remains fairly popular.

 

[tlc1976]

I use 1234 pretty much always. Only exception is when I'm doing patterns that aren't going to come back to the full scale shape, like octave jumps. I use 1234 even next to the nut. Playing things like F# major can be a workout but it's worth it to me. When I started playing, my uncle (who had been playing 25 years) said to stretch my fingers apart every night as an exercise. It definitely made an improvement especially playing those tricky scales next to the nut. Also especially on the fretless, the less hopping around you need to do, the better IMO.

 

[consectaneus]

I started off on classical guitar before I fell in love with the bass guitar--where I have stayed--& only started to tinker with DB a few years ago. With her flamenco background, my guitar teacher drummed 1-2-3-4 into me for the fretting hand & 1-2-3-4-5 (in various permutations) for the plucking hand. This is etched in my mind forever. I found that there's no use fighting it; my hands are large enough. As many of you have written, no size fits everyone. Lots of variables come to play, yes.

Interesting. I have felt like the fingers splayed out, one finger per fret approach came from classical guitar and a desire for economy of motion which accompanied increasingly virtuoso bass playing. I play mostly lower position, so I stick to 1-2-4. It comes a little more naturally to me perhaps because I have always had a strong pinky finger. I'm working with some Carol Kaye materials, and she advocates doing the bulk of the groove/meat and potatoes playing 1-2-4, especially at the lower frets, and adding the ring finger higher up--pretty much as the majority here do it--with the ring finger where appropriate or convenient for some passages.
This whole thing is in the interest of stamina and not hurting your hand--that's the bottom line--not to enforce hard and fast rules.