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Lightness of touch

G

Geepers

Dec 24, 2022
932
3,250
#1
I saw a comment from a well known player (can’t remember who it was now) who said “you might think you’re playing light but you’re probably not playing light enough”. It intrigued me. I play with a pretty light touch but I wondered if I could be playing even lighter. So I experimented. I turned my amp up REAL loud - like to the point where if I played normal it would blow out the windows 😎 - which forced me to play with the lightest touch imaginable. I was stunned. The tone I was getting was sensational. It had a thump to it that I don’t normally get. Counter-intuitive, I know, but it’s true. Gary Willis always says “have your headroom in your fingers” and this is what he means. I’m a believer and will work now towards lightening my touch even more. Interested to hear from others who have gone down this path.
 
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#2
It's a playing philosophy I also try to adhere to -- but in my experience, real world situations often won't allow me to play with as light a touch as I'd want. With a well-dialed in in-ear mix, it's no issue. But whenever I have to use external monitors, there's always some kind of volume battle going on with drums or keys. "Just turn up" is not really a solution after we've already gone through soundcheck, the drummer is then going nuts all of a sudden and the keys player thinks we need more left hand in the mix than usual. I don't want to be the culprit that messes it up even further, but there's always a kind of "right hand creep" happening. So the headroom I'd try to keep in reserve just goes poof.
 
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#3
if you want to practice a lighter touch, put the action down on your bass, so hitting those notes with a force will buzz. it might be fun to play some while like this and see how light can you get.

also be warned that playing lighter may result in more noise, like finger noise, or hum from your bass, or accidentally pulling some string. all accidental sounds will be louder and you'll need some time to sort this out.

there's nothing wrong with playing light on an electric instrument, but how light you should be? depends. for me the threshold of touching too heavy is when I notice than on speed my fingers lose dexterity. the threshold of touching too light is when I cannot play lighter to produce a quieter sound. IOW, for me there's a sweet spot when it's comfortable to play and I have some headroom comfortably going both louder and quieter.

the other thing I'm chasing not to play too light or heavy is to balance different techniques, for some it's slapping or tapping, for me it's chording with three fingers on the right hand. basically, I want to sound with even volume when using different techniques, and fingerstyle is easiest to adjust for me, so I'm basically adjusting my fingerstyle loudness to the point it sounds even with the other ways I play, and set this level as a 'base' one.
 
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#5
Yup. Many bass and guitar tracks you hear on classic recordings were done with the gain and volume maxed out and the bassist in another room.

John Entwhistle is the guy to study for this technique. He played with a very light touch but also insanely loud and suffered hearing loss. By the end he apparently played by feeling the notes more than hearing them.

One needn’t go deaf to get this though.
 
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#8
I think it's just fine to play hard at times - bouncing the strings off the frets and making a bunch of clinks and clanks is, at times, just the thing - during the climactic part of a set of music, but definitely not the whole time. There is an inherent non-linearity that happens when the string is moving a lot = the relative distance to the pickups changes drastically, and unevenly between the portions of the string motion when it's moving towards and away from the pickups. Leaving out the rest of the Physics lecture, moving the strings a lot gives you access to a sound (added harmonics) you simply can't get by playing lightly. But yes, if you can't also play very quietly (and consistently) you're missing a big part of your dynamic range. It's not playing hard, it's not playing lightly - being able to do both well is a big part of what makes you a good bassist.
 
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#11
Like almost everything else, it is a matter of personal preference. There are plenty of great players who get great tone with everything from as light as possible a touch to a very heavy touch, and everywhere in between. For myself, I can appreciate the benefits of playing lightly, but it does not work for me as an all-the-time approach. For my own playing style and preferences, I find that a more moderate attack gives me the best sound and makes me feel as though I can most intuitively modify my dynamics by playing either more lightly or more heavily to deviate when appropriate.
 
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#13
I've also heard Pino Palladino and Sean Hurley say similar things.

I used to play with a heavy touch. I think part of it was being a fan of Flea and playing in a band with two guitarists cranking their Marshall half stacks when I first started.

I was trying out a bass in a store a few years ago and the store employee made a comment on how he'd never seen someone play as heavy as I did.

I've since then lighten my touch and let the amplifier do the heavy lifting.
 
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#15
The first Nashville guy I ever met, Michael Rhodes, was a big light-touch player. I've made a few half-hearted efforts to play light, but I confess, it's not my nature. I keep my volume a bit low because I tend to be aggressive with both hands. Rubbing the pot roast on my chest*, etc. Now that I start thinking about it, if I were to really work at it, I wouldn't need ibuprofen before a gig. Yes, I should really do this.
*
 
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#16
My bass teacher (decades ago) instilled in me to pluck hard. Hand a bit closer to the bridge, to get a solid attack to the note. and to have more harmonic content for a richer more complex tone. Before that I was wet-noodle handing notes between the pickup and the neck.

Perhaps it is time for me to experiment with a different approach.
 
#17
IMHO better to play in the Goldilocks zone. But what that really means is choosing the compromises that work best for you. My point is the amount of plucking force impacts a bunch of factors, and some of them work in opposite directions. I.E. you might have to give up a little of one desirable quality to get little more of different quality.

Turning up the amp to the point where I have a really light touch typically results in my stage volume being too loud. In my experience it's rarely reasonable for the bass to balance in the mix as we want. Most players want to be 6-10dB louder than other elements in the mix. Unfortunately there is usually not enough distance between players and their respective amps for everyone to get the desired 6-10dB. It's a natural tendency to play harder when you can't hear as well as you want. This can be overcome with discipline, but for me only partially. I basically have to adjust the amp for appropriate loudness at whatever plucking intensity I can limit myself to. This usually entails plucking somewhat harder than I want.

One possible way around the problem would to practice with a really low volume. That way you are not used to hearing as well as you want. This is something I don't do as practice is about the only time it's possible to really hear how nice the bass can sound.
 
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#19
darwin-bass said:
My bass teacher (decades ago) instilled in me to pluck hard. Hand a bit closer to the bridge, to get a solid attack to the note. and to have more harmonic content for a richer more complex tone. Before that I was wet-noodle handing notes between the pickup and the neck.

Perhaps it is time for me to experiment with a different approach.
Click to expand...
That does seem unusual. My bass teacher taught me the opposite.
 
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#20
Wasnex said:
IMHO better to play in the Goldilocks zone. But what that really means is choosing the compromises that work best for you. My point is the amount of plucking force impacts a bunch of factors, and some of them work in opposite directions. I.E. you might have to give up a little of one desirable quality to get little more of different quality.

Turning up the amp to the point where I have a really light touch typically results in my stage volume being too loud. In my experience it's rarely reasonable for the bass to balance in the mix as we want. Most players want to be 6-10dB louder than other elements in the mix. Unfortunately there is usually not enough distance between players and their respective amps for everyone to get the desired 6-10dB. It's a natural tendency to play harder when you can't hear as well as you want. This can be overcome with discipline, but for me only partially. I basically have to adjust the amp for appropriate loudness at whatever plucking intensity I can limit myself to. This usually entails plucking somewhat harder than I want.

One possible way around the problem would to practice with a really low volume. That way you are not used to hearing as well as you want. This is something I don't do as practice is about the only time it's possible to really hear how nice the bass can sound.
Click to expand...
For sure. The louder you play the louder your mistakes hum etc. praying with headphones is no fun
 

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