Kinda a PSA because this has been helping me so much and I'm hoping it can help others.
I've been playing bass for almost 5 years now and just finished my first year in college studying jazz performance on bass. I'd been noticing for a long time (even before school), that I was a lot more inconsistent day to day in respect to performance ability than most other players I met and it frustrated me. It seemed depending on the day, I was gaining and losing control of certain licks concepts etc. despite the time put in. Looking for answers, I eventually realized something about my hands I had never really given much attention to. I always flaunted having dry palms because it prevented my neck from getting all gummy and gross, but I didn't realize another element of it was affecting me negatively. My fingertips are often dry and calloused, causing them to "stick" sometimes to the strings when I play fast, hindering my speed. Even over the last week, by just moisturizing the fingertips on my plucking hand, I am extremely consistent day to day, as I am not doing battle with the shape of my skin. Every time I sit down, my fingers always pass nicely through the strings and I have no issues whatsoever. Not sure what people's opinion is on this, but based on my success alone I would suggest anyone at least try it. As long as the stuff is only going on your fingertips and not all over your neck, I only see positive results to doing this every time I play ( I usually throw on another layer every hour or so).
I've been playing bass for almost 5 years now and just finished my first year in college studying jazz performance on bass. I'd been noticing for a long time (even before school), that I was a lot more inconsistent day to day in respect to performance ability than most other players I met and it frustrated me. It seemed depending on the day, I was gaining and losing control of certain licks concepts etc. despite the time put in. Looking for answers, I eventually realized something about my hands I had never really given much attention to. I always flaunted having dry palms because it prevented my neck from getting all gummy and gross, but I didn't realize another element of it was affecting me negatively. My fingertips are often dry and calloused, causing them to "stick" sometimes to the strings when I play fast, hindering my speed. Even over the last week, by just moisturizing the fingertips on my plucking hand, I am extremely consistent day to day, as I am not doing battle with the shape of my skin. Every time I sit down, my fingers always pass nicely through the strings and I have no issues whatsoever. Not sure what people's opinion is on this, but based on my success alone I would suggest anyone at least try it. As long as the stuff is only going on your fingertips and not all over your neck, I only see positive results to doing this every time I play ( I usually throw on another layer every hour or so).
