"Same fret" technique

[nnnnnn]

Smoke on the water, once the great intro''s done there''s a series of triplets

This is getting off-topic, but note that they're not triplets, they're a mix of eighth notes and quarter notes.

 

[JimmyM]

Do whatever it takes to play it correctly. Use your own judgment.

 

[nilorius]

I think the fret tqnique is pretty the same on every body. The only thing i can meantion is that i pretty often use my thunb to a note on B string when the other closest fingers are busy playing different noten and i want them sounding all together.

 

[Ekulati]

It depends. There is no right or wrong way.

What comes before and after it? And what's the tempo? And is it low or high on the neck? All possible factors...

 

[Stevej66]

Thanks everyone, interesting reading.

Sorry NN, yes my mistake, just groups of three notes.

Steve, I'll give the fingertip thing a go and thanks for the images, they explain a lot. I'd never really considered one almost on top of the other, my little finger disappears underneath at the best of times so I've been trying to work on keeping it available, which this does while still having the room to fret it. And you're right about folk across the centuries doing it as well - Drake for example was commonly thought to have been playing bowls before the Armada, but historians now generally agree that he fired a few cannon, just plugged in and went straight into an early Medieval prototype of Smoke on the water.

 

[Lagado]

Rolling 4ths on the same finger offer muting possibilities. Rarely do I split the fingers unless necessary, especially on a fretless. Jaco, Rocco... to play a lot of their lines it's absolutely necessary. Rocco especially makes use of the muting.

It's not an easy technique to get fluid, it takes a while to get used to that touch and shifting it between strings.

 

[Lagado]

Practise the major and minor scale in 4th's, you'll see.

 

[brianrost]

I always use the same LH finger.

 

[Ewo]

I use the same finger, on single-note lines--the barre, IOW. I don't actually stop both notes at once; I roll the fingertip from string to string.

I'll occasionally use two fingers on chording, if I want both notes ringing at the same time.

 

[eddododo]

Hello everyone

Another beginners question please. What technique do you experienced players use for playing consecutive notes on the same fret but the next string up or down?

Let me give an example song. Smoke on the water, once the great intro''s done there''s a series of triplets - E3 A5 D5, plus some others further on like D3 A3 E1.

Even the world''s most positive motivator wouldn't be able to describe my fingers as anything other than stubby, fairly short and not very slender.

So far I have two main methods. Say I'm playing the ascending one above, fret E3 with the index then I try and play the two 5''s with second/third or third/fourth by aiming more for the middle to leave some space to crowbar the other finger nearer the fret where it should be. Sometimes it works but my fingers do seem to get a bit in the way of each other.

The other way is to try and position early, having done E3 try to cover both 5s with the same finger and use a rocking technique of my finger pad to transfer. Definitely get a quicker transfer that way but I do miss some notes doing it.

Look forward to your thoughts, thanks everyone and stay safe out there.

Steve

I have smallish hands, but they’re also beat up. are you young?

if you’re young I’d say work on every option so they’re all available.
If you’re older (I’m 31, YMMV lol) you want to find what works- I can’t really barre (one finger laid flat across several strings) consistently, so I tend to kind of spider my fingers around- for example if I need to go... I dunno.. like
G5 A7 D7 G7 G5 D7. I would go

G5(1) A7(2) D7 (3) G7(4) G5(1) D7(4)
1 2 3 4 being pointer middle ring pinky respectively. note that on that last D7 I open my hand back up to a ‘normal’ position, whereas on the climb my fingers are basically vertical to eachother

 

[Koshchei]

Hello everyone

Another beginners question please. What technique do you experienced players use for playing consecutive notes on the same fret but the next string up or down?

Let me give an example song. Smoke on the water, once the great intro''s done there''s a series of triplets - E3 A5 D5, plus some others further on like D3 A3 E1.

Even the world''s most positive motivator wouldn't be able to describe my fingers as anything other than stubby, fairly short and not very slender.

So far I have two main methods. Say I'm playing the ascending one above, fret E3 with the index then I try and play the two 5''s with second/third or third/fourth by aiming more for the middle to leave some space to crowbar the other finger nearer the fret where it should be. Sometimes it works but my fingers do seem to get a bit in the way of each other.

The other way is to try and position early, having done E3 try to cover both 5s with the same finger and use a rocking technique of my finger pad to transfer. Definitely get a quicker transfer that way but I do miss some notes doing it.

Look forward to your thoughts, thanks everyone and stay safe out there.

Steve

Interesting... I tend to do a rolling barre when I'm moving up a fourth or down a fifth (adjacent string, same fret). The effect is that as I shift pressure to the string I'm going to play, the rest of the finger mutes the note that just rang out, giving me a really clean transition. I use this technique when sweep picking sus4 chord shapes on a guitar as well.

Tangent: Muting is almost more important than making a note sound on bass guitar - the high mass strings really make it a super noisy instrument unless you're muting everything but what you want to hear.

 

[SteveCS]

Practise the major and minor scale in 4th's, you'll see.

You bet . Putting the barre down is one thing. Getting it out of the way is another thing altogether...

 

[mrcbass]

It's another one of those things that each of us manages as it fits ourselves and the situation. Work with both a bar approach (one finger over both strings) or individual fingers on strings. Coming from guitar, barring seemed to be my first approach, but I eventually found that I use two fingers most of the time for better control and less fret buzz. It gets harder to use two finger as you get up the neck, so for me, it's whatever I need to do to make the line work.

 

[Bushrod Johnson]

Do whatever it takes to play it correctly. Use your own judgment.

To endorse Jimmy; Just make it sound right (the way you want it to).

 

[red_rhino]

I also rake with my right hand, which is also a 'no no' according to some.

What exactly do you mean by "rake", and why is it considered a bad thing? (Just curious.)

In recent years I've been incorporating more upstroke into my finger style playing. By that, I mean taking advantage of how my finger is positioned underneath a string following a downstroke so that if the next note in the progression is going to be played on the same string as the previous note, my right hand is already to go. It's taken a bit to get it sounding even, as your extensor muscles are involved rather than your flexors. But from an economy of movement standpoint, it's been a game changer in some ways, and opened up some new approaches for me. It's also allowed me to incorporate more percussive style with more raking and ghosting.

 

[Thundertips]

Do you know this one? I learned it from a Paul McCartney Bass Line. Fret any note on the A string with your ring finger and then use your middle finger to fret the E string above on the same fret and you get the Root and fifth. You can go back and forth between the notes, anywhere along the A string, pumping the Root and Fifth. I think I got it from Strawberry Fields but you can hear the same riff in the Pre-Chorus of the Doors-Love Me Two Times.
I forgot about muting. To mute the notes so you only hear one at a time, lift you fingertips slightly on each note right after you play it.

 

[fishdreams]

I follow the the principle I was taught by a classical cellist: "jump" the same fingertip back and forth in the same position (with as short a distance as possible and minimal lifting of the finger. It's somewhere between a "roll" and a "jump". if the note is part of a high speed pattern, they'd do finger a under the finger, or barr-and-lift (flatten-and-lift the finger quickly).

Just practice in time, and as slow as possible. then speed up-slowly

 

[InhumanResource]

My teacher gets mad when i use one finger for both notes--he calls it a "special effect"--but it feels good and seems to work, and I've been doing it for years.

I was taught this way formally - I barre with one finger where possible (usually if it happens to be the index finger) and it's ok if the notes ring together a little bit in most situations.

 

[JoeWPgh]

One of the calisthenics I do is play across the fretboard with just my 1rst finger, then up a fret higher with my 2nd finger. Then my 3rd, etc. The idea is to hit the strings with the meat of your fingertips and not 'barr' them, while trying to stay as lagato as possible. In practice, I do not play this way at all. But I think it makes me more nimble when I have to move across the fretboard.

 

[byacey]

They way I was taught is to minimize unnecessary hand and finger motion as much as possible all the time, as it's wasted motion and effort. It's not a problem to rock the finger pad back and forth between strings; when you move to the next string, the pad of the finger mutes the previous sounding string.