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Left hand position
- Thread starter WrapRough
- Start date
It harder to do fast runs with your thumb over the edge.
You need to be able to spread your fingers open.
You need to be able to spread your fingers open.
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Very true.
Well at the moment I have two pieces I am working on, Dean Town and Kuru. Both quick lines and both are causing my "issue", so I think the tension being caused by playing beyond my current ability is a great call out, in addition to the posture. As someone mentioned, it's likely gonna be a combination of a few things
I tend to have a look at old vids of Spanish guitarists like Paco de Lucia when I need to remind myself what good technique looks like.
Maybe I'll get laughed at or roasted for saying that cause I know, apples and oranges and all, but I started on guitar and watching those guys almost always answers my questions.
I know what you mean.
There are many who say that guitar fretting technique doesn't apply to bass.
For example:Why is it acceptable for guitarists to do this
and not acceptable for bass players?
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Nah I think the prohibition against stretching for notes is a holdover from DB technique where it easily throws position and therefore pitch off.
On a double bass,sure!
But the electric bass is basically a guitar.
It has frets(some don't)
And is much smaller in scale.
So that wouldn't apply.
That's what I meant to imply by saying 'holdover.'
Also, reaching on a fretless electric bass definitely leads to problems.
The scale length. The distance between frets is 36% greater on bass with a 34" scale than a guitar with a 25" scale.
That's also why the 1-2-4 fingering is used on DB, with scale lengths of about 42" the distance between notes is 68% greater than on a guitar with a 25" scale.
I disagree, but not entirely. Once you have a good general technique down there is some merit in this approach - after all, necessity is the mother of invention. But without a solid set of skills built on sound fundamentals of known good practice it is not a philosophy I would recommend. IME and IMHO, good general technique underpinned by formal methods will cover far more musical situations than re-inventing the wheel for each new musical challenge.
YMMV
I usually play with my hand slanted like that for most sounds, especially if I want the note to have a full solid sound for more than a split second. I'm for the most part using the pads of my fingers for those. I switch to the "straight up, thumb on the back of the neck with fingers curled" position when doing fast accurate runs where I'm not holding the note out. I've done it this way since I started playing bass back in 1965.
There was a neat video from Scott's Bass Lessons with Bobby Vega and he pointed out to Bobby that he changed his hand position as he was playing and asked why. Bobby explained it to him and that's when I realized I was doing the same thing.
Playing with your hand at an angle and using the pads of your fingers is a very relaxed way to play the bass with very little muscle tension in the wrist and no tension on the muscle between the thumb and forefinger. It's certainly easier to play a 4-hour gig when you can finger the notes in this manner.
Moving your thumb to the back of the neck and fingering the notes with your fingers straight up while using the tips of your fingers to play the notes puts more tension in your hand. It is most noticeable in the muscle between your thumb and forefinger, but is also noticeable in the wrist and along the back of your hand because you are typically bending your wrist at an angle to finger the notes that way. If I had to play with that "straight up" method all night, my hands would be killing me at the end of the night...usually it's my lower back that is killing me.
It is generally more accurate with fast lines using the tips of your curled fingers although if you want a note to ring out, using the pad with that relaxed angle is better. Odds are that you are, or you will if you practice that, start making that change without even thinking about it.
What I mean is some are saying stretching your fingers out is good for guitarists hands,but it's bad for bassists hands.
Good for one should be good for both.
Bad for one should be bad for the other.
Fretting mechanics are the same.
Regardless of scale.
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Stretching fingers out, like that woman above for example, has got to be bad, for everybody!
That's just not natural, for anybody!
