Help With Bass Technique for a Newbie

[Mushroo]

Wrong. Because left hand muting.

Good point!

Although, I could make the counter argument, if you are using the "left hand muting" technique (which not all players do) then whichever fingers you are "using" to mute are not, technically, "unused."

So I would stand by my original "Devil's advocate" statement, with the slight clarification, "It is perfectly okay for your unused fingers (i.e. fingers that are neither fretting a note, nor muting the unplayed strings) to go wherever they feel most comfortable."

 

[tb4sbp]

Try to:
Keep your thumb (of your fretting hand) pointed towards the head stock
Keep your elbow out
This relieves the pressure on your wrist
And I have found it keeps my fingers flat on the fretboard as well
These comments so far have all been great and I hope they can help you out

Best of luck to you

Also these do not happen overnight
I still find myself tucking my pinky under the fretboard from time to time
A habit that I am trying to break

 

[peter nicholas]

Wrong. Because left hand muting.

wrong. because of lefties.

 

[SmokinJoe992]

As some others have mentioned the dreaded "flying fingers" is a common problem with new players and can usually be overcome with practice and experience. You also might find that it naturally goes away the longer you play and as your technique improves. It does not really in and of itself create any problems with your sound, but I found that when I was doing this, and trying to play faster lines, it would cause my fingers to slap the string more which created some undesirable excess noise. Keeping your "unused' fingers closer to the strings increases your ability to play faster and reduces extra unwanted noise.

 

[mrcbass]

I see a lot of folks have tried to describe how to work on this, perhaps some visuals will help. Scott Devine did a lesson on this which is on YouTube:



SBL is a great resource for advice on stuff like this. He has a lot of his short lessons on YouTube, but subscribing to his site is well worth it - at least for my money. Lots of content for every level player.

 

[MonetBass]

Try to:
Keep your thumb (of your fretting hand) pointed towards the head stock
Keep your elbow out
This relieves the pressure on your wrist
And I have found it keeps my fingers flat on the fretboard as well
These comments so far have all been great and I hope they can help you out

Best of luck to you

Also these do not happen overnight
I still find myself tucking my pinky under the fretboard from time to time
A habit that I am trying to break

Regarding the thumb and elbow positions, this varies from person to person depending on their physiology. For me, my left hand thumb is directly behind my middle finger, pointing towards the ceiling. My elbow is in a relaxed position close to my side. But whatever is most comfortable is the most important.

 

[sawzalot]

You can work on this anytime, even without a bass: Just practice touching each finger on your left hand to the tip of your thumb, one at a time. Focus on just moving the one finger to the thumb, and pay attention to the others, trying to keep them close, but not touching, your thumb also. The idea is just for your brain to get used to moving only the finger that's necessary, and only just the amount necessary, to get to the neck. It's strictly a mental brain-training exercise. Do it at work, watching TV, in the car, etc.---anytime at all--and nobody will notice you doing it. Gradually your brain will "get it" and it'll become second nature.

 

[JohnDL]

Hi everyone,

I have recently rekindled my love for playing bass but been out of the game for 8 years. I noticed I habit I got into that I would like people's input on.

So, when I press a fret the rest of my fingers seem to want to rise up instead of staying close to the fret board. I can keep my fingers down when I'm pressing with my index finger (with a fair amount of effort) but it is almost impossible for me to keep the rest of my fingers down when I am fretting with my pinky.

I am just wondering if this is normal for a beginner and are there any excersizes I can do to help with that.

Thank you!

I used to have this problem as beginner. Pressing too hard. I think what can be very helpful is to do some of your practice or exercises really slowly. That way you can think about every little thing you're doing and analyze exactly what is happening If you do some of your work slowly because there is no pressure you can practice the lighter touch. Try playing really quietly using technique not the volume knob. This will help get a lighter touch at both ends so to speak. Best of luck.

 

[Mushroo]

You can work on this anytime, even without a bass: Just practice touching each finger on your left hand to the tip of your thumb, one at a time. Focus on just moving the one finger to the thumb, and pay attention to the others, trying to keep them close, but not touching, your thumb also. The idea is just for your brain to get used to moving only the finger that's necessary, and only just the amount necessary, to get to the neck. It's strictly a mental brain-training exercise. Do it at work, watching TV, in the car, etc.---anytime at all--and nobody will notice you doing it. Gradually your brain will "get it" and it'll become second nature.

Yikes, be careful with this exercise!

Touch your pinky to the tip of your thumb. Now look at your palm. Do you see how there is a deep crease down the middle of your palm, like a butt crack or a palm reader's "life line"? This is un-ergonomic and potentially damaging for your hands and wrists.

A better exercise (in my opinion) is this: Sit comfortably at your desk and put your hands on your computer keyboard, in the standard typing position, with your fingers on the "home row" ( asdf jkl; ) and your thumbs resting near the center of the space bar. The amount of force it takes to type is about the same force you need to fret a note on the bass. Now, without changing the shape of your fingers and thumb, rotate your forearms, so your hands are palm up. Do you see how your palms are wide and smooth? There is no "life line crease" or "butt crack" like in the first exercise. You could gently cradle a baby's head in your palm. This is a much healthier and more natural hand position for playing the bass.

 

[SteveCS]

For general flexibility, even muscle tone and equal dexterity of all 4 fingers plus thumb, get a set of these. They also help develop and maintain a light touch - too much pressure and they don't roll...

 

[sawzalot]

Yikes, be careful with this exercise!

Touch your pinky to the tip of your thumb. Now look at your palm. Do you see how there is a deep crease down the middle of your palm, like a butt crack or a palm reader's "life line"? This is un-ergonomic and potentially damaging for your hands and wrists.

A better exercise (in my opinion) is this: Sit comfortably at your desk and put your hands on your computer keyboard, in the standard typing position, with your fingers on the "home row" ( asdf jkl; ) and your thumbs resting near the center of the space bar. The amount of force it takes to type is about the same force you need to fret a note on the bass. Now, without changing the shape of your fingers and thumb, rotate your forearms, so your hands are palm up. Do you see how your palms are wide and smooth? There is no "life line crease" or "butt crack" like in the first exercise. You could gently cradle a baby's head in your palm. This is a much healthier and more natural hand position for playing the bass.

This shouldn't put strain on your hand *at all*. If it does then there's something wrong, it's very easy and natural.

 

[Mushroo]

This shouldn't put strain on your hand *at all*. If it does then there's something wrong, it's very easy and natural.

Everyone's hands are a little different size and shape, of course.

Personally I find it impossible to touch the tips of my thumb and pinky, without compressing my life line.

If I had a baby's head in my hand, the baby would wake up screaming if I tried your exercise!

 

[sawzalot]

Everyone's hands are a little different size and shape, of course.

Personally I find it impossible to touch the tips of my thumb and pinky, without compressing my life line.

If I had a baby's head in my hand, the baby would wake up screaming if I tried your exercise!

I think maybe we are misunderstanding each other. Here’s what I do. It’s super gentle, super easy, no squeezing, you should only just touch your finger to your thumb. The idea is to just get your brain to pay attention to getting the thumb to contact each finger while leaving the others mostly in place. Maybe my hands are flexible—I feel no pressure, stretching, nothing adverse at all.

 

[Mushroo]

I think maybe we are misunderstanding each other. Here’s what I do. It’s super gentle, super easy, no squeezing, you should only just touch your finger to your thumb. The idea is to just get your brain to pay attention to getting the thumb to contact each finger while leaving the others mostly in place. Maybe my hands are flexible—I feel no pressure, stretching, nothing adverse at all.
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Thanks for the photos. Your palm looks compressed and creased to me. We can agree to disagree whether that is good bass playing technique.

 

[Hardbassjunkie]

Just practice some songs I been playing but with "proper technique" as much as I could. Your hand is supposed to be a bit sore right? Haha