Left hand position

[Wasnex]

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.

Who's to say it's actually good for guitarists in general. Some people can get away with doing crazy stretches without injury. Some can do crazy stretches for awhile without injury, and then they get a nasty surprise. Others would incur an injury fairly early.

I use one finger per fret on my #1 bass probably >95% of the time. That does not mean every bass player can or should use one finger per fret.

There are also times high on the neck where I might stretched to cover 5 frets on bass or 6 frets on guitar.

I suspect doing this would destroy my wrist in a matter of seconds.

It's okay for people to explore their personal limits, but it's advisable to do it carefully because you can actually hurt yourself.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Who's to say it's actually good for guitarists in general. Some people can get away with doing crazy stretches without injury. Some can do crazy stretches for awhile without injury, and then they get a nasty surprise. Others would incur an injury fairly early.

I use one finger per fret on my #1 bass probably >95% of the time. That does not mean every bass player can or should use one finger per fret.

There are also times high on the neck where I might stretched to cover 5 frets on bass or 6 frets on guitar.

I suspect doing this would destroy my wrist in a matter of seconds.

View attachment 4202064

It's okay for people to explore their personal limits, but it's advisable to do it carefully because you can actually hurt yourself.

Someone else who did that "chord"

 

[Wasnex]

Someone else who did that "chord"
View attachment 4202115

Doesn't prove it's good for guitarists "in general."

If you can get away with doing that sort of thing on bass, good for you. I can't. I can't do it on guitar either, at least not in that range of the neck.

 

[eddybuzzard]

Someone else who did that "chord"
View attachment 4202115

Not much ease, in playing a bunch of Es

I can tell, they're both trying to hide the pain

 

[ToneMonkey]

Any time your thumb hangs over the top, you’re fighting yourself. Very bad. A recipe for carpal tunnel issues.

 

[Wasnex]

Not much ease, in playing a bunch of Es

I can tell, they're both trying to hide the pain

Appears to be the same chord, but the two players use very different hand shapes.

Since a TAB was provided, I tried the shape on a Baby Taylor. I could barely reach the 8 frets from the E (5th fret) on the B string to (12th fret) on the high E string. Attempting to fully form the shape caused pain in several places including my wrist.

Full Disclosure: I am not a competent guitarist and haven't really even touched my guitars for quite awhile...but ouch!

 

[JW56789]

I'm dyed-in-the wool keep your thumb on the skunk stripe (or centerline of the back of the neck).

Having said that, I've seen lots of guys wrap their thumb over the top of the fingerboard . . . . . and play just fine, even if it looks weird to me.

I am also a big believer in keeping your hand parallel to your forearm, not bending mightily at the wrist, from my keyboard days, and seems to transfer to bass as well.

I s'pose hanging your thumb over the top of a 4-string (especially skinny necks like a Jazz Bass or Ric) can be done, but you may be in for quite an adjustment should you decide to play a noticeably wider five or six-string bass.

 

[chris_b]

+1 for thumb on the middle of the back of the neck. Let your fingers (1,2,4) fall naturally over a 2 fret range. When you need to play a note out of that range, move your whole hand. Don't stretch, move. As always, when you know the rules and can execute effortlessly, that's the point where you can bend them if you need to.

This Sharay Reed video is a good example. He only moves outside the 2 fret range to 3 frets further up around the 12th fret.

 

[WrapRough]

+1 for thumb on the middle of the back of the neck. Let your fingers (1,2,4) fall naturally over a 2 fret range. When you need to play a note out of that range, move your whole hand. Don't stretch, move. As always, when you know the rules and can execute effortlessly, that's the point where you can bend them if you need to.

This Sharay Reed video is a good example. He only moves outside the 2 fret range to 3 frets further up around the 12th fret.

Almost makes me wanna go to Church

 

[Thumpin6string]

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

In general, I agree, but there are some of the top players whose techniques are no where near by the book. The old saying that there are more then one way to skin a cat.

 

[Corigan]

Here is what I was talking about with bunny brunel and the thumb on the edge of the bottom of the neck. took awhile for me to adjust but it helped me out. ymmv.

 

[James Collins]

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
View attachment 4201791
and not acceptable for bass players?

Not that you can play like that for long. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to. Especially when you play above the 12th fret on classical guitar.

 

[Watchootognbout]

I have recently changed where I put my thumb and that has helped my position greatly. I used to be a mid back to high back kind of thumb guy. sometimes even over the top. I read bunny brunels bass book and he stated to keep your thumb on the very bottom of the back on the neck. Once I started doing this and the ping pong ball trick mentioned above, my positioning and fretting was much improved. I still slip back into old habits sometimes, but It has made a vast improvement in my playing.

This is especially helpful for us six string bass players when playing "way up in the ionosphere"

 

[James Collins]

This is especially helpful for us six string bass players when playing "way up in the ionosphere"
View attachment 4202522

The other thing you can do is bring your elbow down to straighten your left wrist a bit. I struggle with this when playing over the body of the guitar or stretching my fingers all the way out to cover more than 4 frets especially closer to the nut. You've also chosen the more classical position with the neck angled up which gives more dexterity to your left hand, but can make reaching the first fret harder for some people.

 

[Watchootognbout]

The other thing you can do is bring your elbow down to straighten your left wrist a bit. I struggle with this when playing over the body of the guitar or stretching my fingers all the way out to cover more than 4 frets especially closer to the nut. You've also chosen the more classical position with the neck angled up which gives more dexterity to your left hand, but can make reaching the first fret harder for some people.

....and this I do.

 

[James Collins]

....and this I do.View attachment 4202828

No doubt. Good positioning. I never see people mention it, but your pictures remind me of one of the things I hate about Fender Jazz/Precision basses and Telecaster/Stratocasters: the cutaway is too narrow and deep so when I play the upper frets, it's hard to bring my hand around in a way that lets me play comfortably.

 

[misterCRUSH]

I wrap my thumb around the top of the neck like in your first picture. Probably not correct, but it always has been that way for me. Plus it allows me to grab a note on the e string with my thumb, and on the g string with my ring finger, creating a little tenth type chord. Kind of a signature move for me.

 

[chris_b]

The bottom line is if what you are doing works well enough to get you to the level of an A List bass player, keep doing it.

For the rest of us mortals, the "rules" are there to help us. Like most, I dip in and out of the "rule book", but knowing good technique in any field of activity is usually a benefit.

 

[byacey]

This is a question of 'posture' - how you shape you hand and move it as a unit. Your posture should remain the same regardless of tempo or position. If your posture is being lost at tempo then you need to ingrain it more with exercises that target the deficiencies.

I can see from the pictures that your basic posture is flawed. Although the spatial relationship of your fingertips to the frets looks radically different between the two images, the basic flaw is present in both positions.

It is difficult to identify what your intended fingering 'method' is, but it is not important as the basic flaw will be present in both, for now, but I will assume 1-2-4. If so, then your first and second fingers are way too far behind the target frets. This means that you will be using far more fretting pressure in your left hand than is necessary. At tempo there will be insufficient time to get your fingers down with the force necessary to play a clean note. I suspect that your hand quickly gets tired? It is my suspicion that you are creating the additional force/pressure by contorting your hand in an attempt to get all the notes in. For the 1-2-4 fingering, your posture should position the 1st, 2nd and third fingers on the back edges of the frets, like this...
View attachment 4201264
For one-finger-per-fret, the posture should also position the fingertips at the back edges of the frets, like this...
View attachment 4201286
Try to practice this at slow tempo and only increase tempo once it is second nature. I would suggest putting the fingers in position, then releasing the pressure slowly until the string comes off the fret. Playing on the wire you will be surprised at how little force/pressure is required, compared to playing between the frets asyou currently are.

YMMV

You pointed out in your photos perfect examples of what I wanted to mention. I learned violin pedagogy, and was taught to never bend the fingers in a backwards arc as the original poster depicted in his photos. This creates undue strain in the fingers. Also, I play with the pad of my thumb under the neck which brings the neck off the palm of the hand and allows for more free movement. These two things will automatically correct your wrist angle.