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Strap length. on your chest? or at your knees?
- Thread starter BHester93
- Start date
Yes, it differs.
Take a look at classical guitarists. They play with all 5 fingers, seated. The neck is held angled way up high, with the left foot on a raised footstool.
Or a cello. It is bowed, and occasionally plucked. It is nearly vertical. Or a double bass -- played with fingers, vertical.
Pick-played acoustics come from folk music -- strumming to back a vocalist. That's when guitars started to be held horizontally -- to facilitate strumming. Electric guitars evolved from folk guitars, since they were made to play simple, popular music. Strumming is easier than finger picking.
The electric bass may look sort of like an electric guitar, but it's not. It's not much for chords, like a strummed acoustic or electric guitar is. Just because the Fender bass was invented when rock guitar was becoming popular doesn't mean that it's played like a guitar.
Get those necks angled up high where they belong. Quit emulating guitards.
Or not
If turning my bass like that would make me as good as him, I'd change my style today.
Or not
At least he's not holding it horizontally!
I wonder if he plays that stand-mounted NXT in the background the same way.
Billy wears his bass high so he can show off his male camel toe in his spandex. Definitely does not look cool.
I think a good rule of thumb is that if people can see your nuts when you play, then your bass is too high.
If turning my bass like that would make me as good as him, I'd change my style today.
He's amazing! Never seen anything like that before!
I thought he said he wears it that way so it is in the same position sitting or standing..
You make a good point with respect to playing fingerstyle, but it seems to me that playing pickstyle is actually very much like strumming a guitar -- as far as the right hand position and motion is concerned -- so a more horizontal position makes sense for playing pickstyle. No?
The problem with pick playing on bass is that the area you strike (if you play at bridge) is way more to the right, it makes for an awkward angle. To me, at least, that is.
I can't speak from experience, but it would appear that, yes, the upside of using a horizontal bass position is that it is easier to play with a pick.
The downside of playing that way is that it sounds like you're playing a bass with a pick.
I agree that picking near the bridge feels awkward due to the angle, and doing so for long periods is probably a recipe for hand and/or wrist injury. Partly for these reasons I am trying to learn the oft-recommended Carole Kaye method for pickstyle, one aspect of which involves playing closer to the neck rather than near the bridge. This makes the angle feel much more natural, especially if the bass is positioned relatively horizontally and is not hung too low (the reason I brought up the issue in this thread).
Or not
OK. I gotta try this....
Interesting. Different. Fun. Did I mention different?
Hey whatever is comfortable for the wrists and playing is the best, and everyone's body mechanics are slightly different. The low slung basses always had that look like the guy is posing and playing with his dick though, kind of dorky. But hey if it works it works. Some genres that's a benefit I guess based on the responses here. And playing super high ala Toto in the 80's looks silly too, like wearing high water pants in front of the cool kids.
No matter what height you all play the bass, the girls are still going home with the singer and lead guitar player, lol.
No matter what height you all play the bass, the girls are still going home with the singer and lead guitar player, lol.
Or not
Haha, awesome, love it. If you look at his wrists it actually looks like a very comfortable way to play. I'd love to hear him describe how he came up with that approach, very unique. The epileptic Stevie Wonder schtick when he gets into it is pure 100% fonk greatness.
Agree with those who mention "comfort first". Whatever works for your specific and unique body/arms size and proportions.
Having said that - the thing that seems to be kinda universal:
- trying to minimize/avoid wrist bending.
I watched a video by Gary Willis, who is really great at many things, but among others - pays a lot of attention to the economical movement (watch him play - he makes flurries of notes, but his hands seem to barely move!). He positions his hands (esp right) so there is hardly any wrist bend at all. I tried his suggested experiment: start tapping your fingers (either hand) then gradually bend the wrist ; you may notice how tension starts creeping in. For me, the most natural feeling is when wrist is straight. Conclusion: that may be the ideal position for your wrists when you play.
Funny enough, when I started exploring this advice to extreme - I ended up with bass in position almost like an upright: almost vertical; that's where both my wrists were as close to straight as possible. (from some videos ive seen - thats how Mr Robert Trujillo of Metallica sometimes plays! Hmmmm...)
Having said that - the thing that seems to be kinda universal:
- trying to minimize/avoid wrist bending.
I watched a video by Gary Willis, who is really great at many things, but among others - pays a lot of attention to the economical movement (watch him play - he makes flurries of notes, but his hands seem to barely move!). He positions his hands (esp right) so there is hardly any wrist bend at all. I tried his suggested experiment: start tapping your fingers (either hand) then gradually bend the wrist ; you may notice how tension starts creeping in. For me, the most natural feeling is when wrist is straight. Conclusion: that may be the ideal position for your wrists when you play.
Funny enough, when I started exploring this advice to extreme - I ended up with bass in position almost like an upright: almost vertical; that's where both my wrists were as close to straight as possible. (from some videos ive seen - thats how Mr Robert Trujillo of Metallica sometimes plays! Hmmmm...)
