I totally hear ya. Recently I've been running through modes almost every night because I got lazy for a few years and there are a couple default patterns that my hand ALWAYS tries to revert to lol. If I could do it all over again, I'd take care of this so much sooner.
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Picked the wrong bass or my hands need more training?
- Thread starter villarddefender
- Start date
Spanning is a good way to mess up your pinky. I did it once while playing quite fast on a 34" down by the headstock end of the fretboard.
Took ages to heal, had to play not using my pinky for quite awhile.
It was my own fault really. I actually read a post on TB by a guy that messed up his pinky doing the same thing.
I thought he was full of it, didn't believe him and tried it myself.....and lo and behold...
Took ages to heal, had to play not using my pinky for quite awhile.
It was my own fault really. I actually read a post on TB by a guy that messed up his pinky doing the same thing.
I thought he was full of it, didn't believe him and tried it myself.....and lo and behold...
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Hmm I wouldn't like to mess up my pinky though I think limiting the exercise to a month is reasonable
I found series of exercises for the Hands and Fingers and was wondering if they really help especially Exercise #1
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I agree. The reason I suggested starting at frets 8-12 is because its better for your body to learn a function fully before increasing the load. Bass workouts are no different from any other workout... proper form combined with the belief that slow and steady wins the race. Thats how you progress safely.
Just imagine somebody deciding that they want to deadlift 300lbs so they load up the bar and keep performing ugly attempts every day until their back gives out.... not gonna get anywhere doing it that way. They'd be better off using as little weight as possible until they have proper form programmed into their muscle memory.... THEN start adding weight steadily until they are at their goal.
Yeah moving around a bit in first position is really no big deal. You'll be fine.
I was told that using the 1-2-4 method on EB will cause blindness.
His friend and bandmate. He's not much more expensive than local lessons I've seen and I think you will get more out of it. Just a few lessons with him will help you correct any early bad habits.
Exactly.
OP: At some point as you move up the neck it will become comfortable to switch from 124 to 1234.
It's a little different from person to person and bass to bass, but eventually it becomes automatic.
I'm a couple inches shorter than you are, with medium sized hands, and my transition point is around the 5th fret, depending on what I'm playing.
Is your thumb perpendicular to the neck with the ball in the center or, is it wrapped around the neck as you would with a 6 string guitar? Look at hand positions for upright bass. When you transfer these to electric, things get much easier.
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They play short scale cause that's the sound in their heads!Noted
If we should never stretch then the people who get medium/small scale basses simply don't like to shift?
Question about the 124 technique
Let's say you're playing the chromatic scale and want to play notes from the 1st to 4th fret
Will it be:
1st fret: 1st finger
2nd fret: 2nd finger
3rd fret:3rd finger
4th fret: shift to use the 4th
OR
as the name implies 1-2-4 you don't use the 3rd finger
1st fret: 1st finger
2nd fret: 2nd finger
3rd fret: 4th finger (that is naturally on top of it)
4th fret: shift to use the 4th finger again
?
Thanks for the link
Ideally you should use one fret per finger because it makes best economy of movement.
When talking about finger exercises... the numbers are the numbers of your fingers as well as their coordinating fret.
So if you were working on a pattern of 1324.... you would do first finger 1st fret, third finger 3rd fret, second finger 2nd fret, fourth finger 4th fret.
Or just apply it to higher frets that are more comfortable for you. Think of it like a game of pool, the shot is important but equally as important is where the ball lands so you can line up the next shot. Thats the idea with using all four fingers.
love the analogy!
I like how nobody told me so far that I've picked the wrong bass but talked about a handy technique, their personal experience, how I could work on my stretching, joked around and even referred me to an awesome potential teacher (Anthony Wellington). You guys are awesome!
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I lent mine out before going all the way through it, but you may want to look at Verdine White's book "Playing the Bass Guitar" if you want an intro into playing with a 3-fret range.
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Usually it would be first, second, third and fourth together as if they were one finger, then shift up and use third and fourth again.
On some technical things it is good to be able to do 1234 fingering in that position, but in real terms it's rare to really need it.
One thing to look at with your bass is where it hangs. Even with the same scale length, some designs put the nut farther away from your body than others. And those are more difficult to do stretches like you're talking about on. For example a bass with a Les Paul or flying V shaped body would be a lot more difficult reach than one with a long upper horn that puts the front strap button at the 12th fret. (assuming you had both at about waist level)
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