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Lightness of touch
- Thread starter Geepers
- Start date
IMHO it is best to play with sort of a medium touch that will allow you to go softer or louder.
Many years ago I took my bass to a luthier for a set up and some other work, and it came back with the lowest action I've ever seen.
After a few halfhearted attempts to play it I doubled down on my technique and made it work. I'm grateful for the experience. Since then I've been a light touch player, and better for it.
After a few halfhearted attempts to play it I doubled down on my technique and made it work. I'm grateful for the experience. Since then I've been a light touch player, and better for it.
It really depends on what one defines as "light as a feather" as well as on the sonic environment.
If one is familiar with the material being played, they would know whether to start at "piano" (soft) and work their way up or down depending on what the music calls for.
Generally speaking I honestly doubt that even those of us who prefer playing with a light touch would start any softer than "pianissimo" in order to be able to go one point softer if required.
My $0.02 only...
I still haven't but I am aware.
I played guitar since about 30 years ago, sadly not much in the last 15. In the first 7-8 years or so I was a typical guitar student who sighed when told by teachers to relax, because I thought I was already relaxing. (Note: relaxing is more general than "light touch" as it refers to the whole body, but the latter requires hand relaxation). The truth is that I was a decent guitarist but I was certainly heavy handed. Then I read stuff like the Principles of Correct Guitar Practice by Jamie Andreas and figured out better the meaning of being relaxed, which seriously made my playing a lot lighter. When you switch to a lighter touch, your first impression may be that you're losing control but I think that mostly reveals you've been playing stuff at the edge of your skills, and were compensating by "gripping harder" (like a newbie at driver's license lessons who grips the steering wheel with excessive force out of fear of losing control). Playing lighter kind of forced me to get my timing better, but once you fix that you're back in control and can then play harder and faster stuff thanks to the fact that light fingers are more free and not impeded by tension.
However it is natural that when you need to play again something at the edge of your skills, your hands want to tense again. I am still too new on bass and too eager to play more songs, and it's hard to say no to what bandmates propose to play (unless clearly out of my reach), so on bass I am still very frequently playing heavy handed just in order to keep up with songs I probably shouldn't play yet.
It does get better anyway if you put thoughts on it... A song we played that is hard for me is "Easily" by the RHCP. At the beginning I really had to play everything heavy to keep up with the speed. I have managed to lighten my touch quite a lot on the verse part by (1) trying different fretting options including open strings until I found the most comfortable for me, and (2) practicing in a loop changing the speed back and forth between maybe 70% and 100%. For reasons I can't explain it also seemed to help if I put away the songs for a few days without practicing. I still haven't managed to lighten down the chorus much because of big jumps and fingers stretching tensing me up during the arpeggios.
Another thing I’m observing as I work on lightening my touch: my two plucking fingers are starting to feel as if they’re just “hanging there” and not really doing anything at all. It’s slightly weird actually. There is no conscious effort at all yet they are doing the job all by themselve. This sort of thing spooks us I’ve decided because we start to see the frightening reality of our own potential. We start to see that our body can actually do stuff all by itself without us consciously inputting anything. Kenny Werner (“Effortless Mastery”) talks about this experience as watching your hands playing as if they belong to someone else. That’s exactly how it feels. I hear what others have said about lightening your touch too much so that you now have no headroom to go lighter if the music calls for it. I get that and it’s a valid concern although I do wonder if it’s more a theoretical problem than a real one in practice(?) Either way it’s a problem I’ll gladly deal with “if and when”. Right now my focus is just on getting my action as light as possible because just going through the process is teaching me a great deal about bass playing and about myself. Enjoying this! 
I’ve been working in lightening my touch, only to realize that both hands (actually the entire body) need to be relaxed. I lowered the action on my bass, and it’s helping. I might lower it some more.
I found the following article and it gave me a few things to think about. While it’s mostly about position shifting on the cello, the word “relaxed” shows up several times. Maybe someone else will find it helpful?
This thread has impacted my playing more than any other during my short time on TB. I owe a big “thank you” to everyone that has participated.
I found the following article and it gave me a few things to think about. While it’s mostly about position shifting on the cello, the word “relaxed” shows up several times. Maybe someone else will find it helpful?
This thread has impacted my playing more than any other during my short time on TB. I owe a big “thank you” to everyone that has participated.
Yes to both those points! Tension anywhere in the body - especially the shoulders for me - prevents me getting a really nice light touch. Regarding the low action: I’ve gone ultra low now (I play fretless) and it’s good because it forces me to play super light or I just get a whole lot of clank. Ultra low action + cranked amp + really soft hands (to the point that they feel like they’re not even doing anything) = nirvana
I wouldn’t say I abuse my strings, but I don’t have a really light touch either. But, I’m a firm believer in it’s your bass your art. by all means do/use what works best for you. It sounds like you found something useful and that’s a good thing.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
I should add that I play with a floating right thumb which I find helps create a very light touch in that hand.
I have adhered to this philosophy for all my playing time.
Apparently, it serves me well.
I play with a rather light touch, more so stroking the strings, with the outmost tip of my fingers/nails, in a slight inward light slapping motion, rather than really plucking/striking or pulling the strings.
This gives gives me a much richer tone, with an almost bell like attack, and actually sounds way more aggressive than the thud sound I get if I pluck harder with a larger portion of my fingers.
Gives me optimal dynamic control too, depending on the speed and force I stroke the strings with, but always only with the outmost tip of my fingers/nails.
One issue with this technique though is that I found the length is crucial for it to work, so that the length my nails have to be really specific, like exactly flush with the outmost tip of the fingers, so that what hits the string is both the outmost tip of my fleshy finger tip and the very tip/edge of the nail, too short or too long nails and my tone is ruined, respectively either getting thuddy or clacky, instead of clear and bell like.
This gives gives me a much richer tone, with an almost bell like attack, and actually sounds way more aggressive than the thud sound I get if I pluck harder with a larger portion of my fingers.
Gives me optimal dynamic control too, depending on the speed and force I stroke the strings with, but always only with the outmost tip of my fingers/nails.
One issue with this technique though is that I found the length is crucial for it to work, so that the length my nails have to be really specific, like exactly flush with the outmost tip of the fingers, so that what hits the string is both the outmost tip of my fleshy finger tip and the very tip/edge of the nail, too short or too long nails and my tone is ruined, respectively either getting thuddy or clacky, instead of clear and bell like.
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