If you go back to her original post and try to put your wrist in the same position IT'S GONNA HURT. What more need be said? I did, and it HURT.
DUH!
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Very new, and upset. Please help if you can.
- Thread starter MayaMorena
- Start date
DUH!
Listen to THIS guy, he actually has a clue. Thanks, great post. I can tell you are a great fan of .. uhm, .. uh.. authority?
I wish I had, or well, wish I didn't just have a clue, but actually also had the resolve.
Also definitely, as long as the authority is mine.
Final solution for the way!
Don't treat your pinky any different than any other finger. When you first started playing, your first 3 fingers were no doubt pretty clumsy and discombobulated, but you worked them and they got better. It is exactly the same for the little one. The more you work it, the better it gets. There are some exercises you can do to get it up to speed. Ask your teacher about them, or do a Google or Youtube search.
Cool to hear you decided to go for another teacher (not referring to the quotation above, but another of your posts).
Seems like he got the right attitude towards teaching.
Also if I were you, even if you are getting used to your new bass and it most likely will feel more comfortable to play on after a while, I would consider getting your old bass back, if you did indeed feel more at home with it.
There is a reason there is not just one brand of basses, and some basses just speak more to certain individuals, be it looks, tone or playabillity.
Playabillity, in my opinion, being the most important factor to take into consideration, since it will be relatively simple and with fairly uncomplicated interventions to modify your bass visually as well as it is not too hard or too big a procedure to install a new pair of pickups should the tone not be exactly what you desire from a bass, but relatively impossible to change the physics of the bass, how it feel in your hand, without major surgeries done to it.
In other words if you indeed still feel like your old bass was more comfortable to play for you, my advise would be to get it back as quick as possible.
Feeling at home on your instruments is a big part of the motivation to keep practicing and getting better.
And why settle for less?
Which leads me to your question:
Well, I guess you could get away playing with just 3 fingers, I mean Tony Iommi managed quite fine playing guitar even after he lost the tip of the middle and ring finger of his fretting hand.
Even seen a guy on YouTube that seems to do pretty well on bass with one arm.
I doubt there is something seriously wrong with your pinky though, in fact it is a quite normal condition, since most people doesn't really utilize their pinky much in their every day life.
However both it's motor skills and strength can be relatively easily trained up to function fully on par with the other fingers on your hand, so would be kind of a waste not doing so and take advantage of that extra resource when you got it just at hand, so to speak
Hence my advise is that you slowly begin to involve it in the rest of your fretting hand's decisions, and train it on the sideline as well, when not playing bass.
Wiggling your fingers back and forth in sort of a wave formation, if that makes any sense, you know, one by one successively move each of your fingers starting with your index finger, from touching your palm to straightening out fully and then your middle finger following kind of when your index finger is about midways up and so on, if you can picture that, despite me having a hard time explaining it properly, is a pretty good exercise for increasing coordination, strength, stamina and speed of you fingers.
Another important thing to do in order to keep your fingers and hands in shape when playing the bass, is to remember to do hand and finger warmup exercises and stretches, both after playing, but especially before engaging in practice.
There are some pretty good exercises floating around on the net, so just do a Google search and you shall find.
Personally I use some exercises especially minded for the hands and fingers I picked up from a Yoga book when I warm up, and they seem to work excellent.
Sorry, but can't be bothered explaining exactly what the exercises I use imply, as you saw how I struggled to describe the motor skills, speed, strength and stamina finger exercise, but as I said I am sure you can find something just as effective and useful if you do a Google search.
That's all I got for now I guess.
Rock on
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Taping the fingers together is an unusual practice technique, but you're not the first person I've heard of to do it. However, in my opinion, you are taping the wrong fingers together. Instead of taping your 2nd and 3rd fingers together, in my experience, it is more useful to tape the 3rd and 4th fingers together (ring and pinky). This is a better fit for the anatomy of the human hand. Our 3rd and 4th fingers have a hard time moving independently, so why not treat them as "buddies" and use them together as a unit, combine their strength? I think you will find, with this time-tested practice technique, you won't even need the tape, because the 3rd and 4th fingers want to stay together.
Here is an easy exercise to develop your 4th finger skill: pick a spot on the fretboard where your hand can comfortably reach 2 frets. Let's say for the sake of argument, 1st finger on the 5th fret (A on the E string) and 4th finger on the 4th fret (B on the E string). These are the only two fingers you need for the exercise. Your 2nd finger can relax, and allow your 3rd finger to move in support of the 4th finger if it wants to. Very slowly and relaxed, play fingers 1-4, 1-4, 1-4, 1-4 on each string, from the E string to the G string. So that's A-B, D-E, G-A, C-D or frets 5-7, 5-7, 5-7, 5-7. Now come back down from the G string to the E string: D-C, A-G, E-D, B-A. The force to fret the strings doesn't come from your fingers, hand, thumb, or wrist. It shouldn't feel like a squeezing, grasping, pinching, or clutching sensation. Rather, the small delicate muscles of your hand should stay relaxed, and the force to press the string down to the fret should come from large powerful muscles in your arm and shoulder.
Here's an experiment: we'll use two different techniques to open a kitchen or dresser drawer. First technique: Press your left elbow against your side, like your elbow is pinned to your rib cage. Extend your left hand, palm facing up, and grip the handle of the drawer with your fingertips. Try to open the drawer with a "curling" motion of your fingers and wrist, using the muscles of your forearm. Second technique: This time keep your fingers relaxed and your wrist straight. Allow your shoulder joint to pivot and your elbow to swing freely. Try to open the drawer by dropping your elbow, using the muscles of your shoulder. Big difference, right?
ps A common rookie mistake, that prevents the elbow from dropping down and puts tension in the wrist, is using the left hand to support the neck of the bass. You should be able to take away your left hand, and the bass does not "neck dive." If you are currently using your left hand to hold the bass in playing position, then you should experiment with the length of your strap, and your sitting/standing posture, so that the bass is fully supported without involvement from the left hand.
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Here's an experiment: we'll use two different techniques to open a kitchen or dresser drawer. First technique: Press your left elbow against your side, like your elbow is pinned to your rib cage. Extend your left hand, palm facing up, and grip the handle of the drawer with your fingertips. Try to open the drawer with a "curling" motion of your fingers and wrist, using the muscles of your forearm. Second technique: This time keep your fingers relaxed and your wrist straight. Allow your shoulder joint to pivot and your elbow to swing freely. Try to open the drawer by dropping your elbow, using the muscles of your shoulder. Big difference, right?
ps A common rookie mistake, that prevents the elbow from dropping down and puts tension in the wrist, is using the left hand to support the neck of the bass. You should be able to take away your left hand, and the bass does not "neck dive." If you are currently using your left hand to hold the bass in playing position, then you should experiment with the length of your strap, and your sitting/standing posture, so that the bass is fully supported without involvement from the left hand.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the great advice! I'm going to keep this all in mind as I practice. There is so much advice here, I can't quote it all, but I am taking it all in and loving it all.
Tuesday I'm back to my regular teacher, and I am going to tell him that I want to learn great technique, and more important I want to have fun! I'm 37 years old, there won't be an exam at the end. I'm too old to chase the dream of being a rock star anyways! I honestly just love the sound of the bass, so hopefully he keeps that in mind. If he doesn't there is always another teacher willing to take my money!
Now that I'm not playing with the Viola, neck diving is not an issue. I've promised myself if I keep up playing for a year I'm going to get the most beautiful bass, and price won't be an issue, but making sure it's perfect for me looks wise and ergonomically will be the only issue.
Right now I'm subscribed to some great youtubers as recommended by you all, and I'm taking it all in. I've got my metronome, I'm working slowly, in front of my full length mirror, in short sessions and I'm concentrating on technique. I've got a point form list of suggestions on here, book marked some videos.
In other words I'm feeling better about it. I just gotta keep it fun! I'm too old for this not to be fun. If I can't use my pinky despite all my best efforts, I'm not going to stress out about it. If I am never a virtuoso, that's okay too. I started this journey because my husband has been learning guitar, and while he plays well, he can't keep a beat so I thought I'd put myself in charge of the counting stuff.
I'm going to have a talk with my instructor about my goals as well. I think that might help a lot. I think he usually teaches children who have rich parents who want their kid to be the next great thing.
Again thanks a lot for all the help and input. Now I just need to be able to play longer than five minutes at a time. But I've got lots of time to play ten times a day until I can play longer. It's like anything, these muscles haven't been used much in the last decade since I put down the violin, and those strings are so light compared to the bass.
I'm probably going to have to post another post about finding a travel bass. I'm planning a super long holiday and I want to keep playing!
ps A common rookie mistake, that prevents the elbow from dropping down and puts tension in the wrist, is using the left hand to support the neck of the bass. You should be able to take away your left hand, and the bass does not "neck dive." If you are currently using your left hand to hold the bass in playing position, then you should experiment with the length of your strap, and your sitting/standing posture, so that the bass is fully supported without involvement from the left hand.[/QUOTE]
Taping the fingers together is an unusual practice technique, but you're not the first person I've heard of to do it. However, in my opinion, you are taping the wrong fingers together. Instead of taping your 2nd and 3rd fingers together, in my experience, it is more useful to tape the 3rd and 4th fingers together (ring and pinky). This is a better fit for the anatomy of the human hand. Our 3rd and 4th fingers have a hard time moving independently, so why not treat them as "buddies" and use them together as a unit, combine their strength? I think you will find, with this time-tested practice technique, you won't even need the tape, because the 3rd and 4th fingers want to stay together.
Here is an easy exercise to develop your 4th finger skill: pick a spot on the fretboard where your hand can comfortably reach 2 frets. Let's say for the sake of argument, 1st finger on the 5th fret (A on the E string) and 4th finger on the 4th fret (B on the E string). These are the only two fingers you need for the exercise. Your 2nd finger can relax, and allow your 3rd finger to move in support of the 4th finger if it wants to. Very slowly and relaxed, play fingers 1-4, 1-4, 1-4, 1-4 on each string, from the E string to the G string. So that's A-B, D-E, G-A, C-D or frets 5-7, 5-7, 5-7, 5-7. Now come back down from the G string to the E string: D-C, A-G, E-D, B-A. The force to fret the strings doesn't come from your fingers, hand, thumb, or wrist. It shouldn't feel like a squeezing, grasping, pinching, or clutching sensation. Rather, the small delicate muscles of your hand should stay relaxed, and the force to press the string down to the fret should come from large powerful muscles in your arm and shoulder.
Here's an experiment: we'll use two different techniques to open a kitchen or dresser drawer. First technique: Press your left elbow against your side, like your elbow is pinned to your rib cage. Extend your left hand, palm facing up, and grip the handle of the drawer with your fingertips. Try to open the drawer with a "curling" motion of your fingers and wrist, using the muscles of your forearm. Second technique: This time keep your fingers relaxed and your wrist straight. Allow your shoulder joint to pivot and your elbow to swing freely. Try to open the drawer by dropping your elbow, using the muscles of your shoulder. Big difference, right?
ps A common rookie mistake, that prevents the elbow from dropping down and puts tension in the wrist, is using the left hand to support the neck of the bass. You should be able to take away your left hand, and the bass does not "neck dive." If you are currently using your left hand to hold the bass in playing position, then you should experiment with the length of your strap, and your sitting/standing posture, so that the bass is fully supported without involvement from the left hand.
Thanks for the great advice! I'm going to keep this all in mind as I practice. There is so much advice here, I can't quote it all, but I am taking it all in and loving it all.
Tuesday I'm back to my regular teacher, and I am going to tell him that I want to learn great technique, and more important I want to have fun! I'm 37 years old, there won't be an exam at the end. I'm too old to chase the dream of being a rock star anyways! I honestly just love the sound of the bass, so hopefully he keeps that in mind. If he doesn't there is always another teacher willing to take my money!
Now that I'm not playing with the Viola, neck diving is not an issue. I've promised myself if I keep up playing for a year I'm going to get the most beautiful bass, and price won't be an issue, but making sure it's perfect for me looks wise and ergonomically will be the only issue.
Right now I'm subscribed to some great youtubers as recommended by you all, and I'm taking it all in. I've got my metronome, I'm working slowly, in front of my full length mirror, in short sessions and I'm concentrating on technique. I've got a point form list of suggestions on here, book marked some videos.
In other words I'm feeling better about it. I just gotta keep it fun! I'm too old for this not to be fun. If I can't use my pinky despite all my best efforts, I'm not going to stress out about it. If I am never a virtuoso, that's okay too. I started this journey because my husband has been learning guitar, and while he plays well, he can't keep a beat so I thought I'd put myself in charge of the counting stuff.
I'm going to have a talk with my instructor about my goals as well. I think that might help a lot. I think he usually teaches children who have rich parents who want their kid to be the next great thing.
Again thanks a lot for all the help and input. Now I just need to be able to play longer than five minutes at a time. But I've got lots of time to play ten times a day until I can play longer. It's like anything, these muscles haven't been used much in the last decade since I put down the violin, and those strings are so light compared to the bass.
I'm probably going to have to post another post about finding a travel bass. I'm planning a super long holiday and I want to keep playing!
wintremute
mediocrity at its finest
- Oct 16, 2014
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Here's an experiment: we'll use two different techniques to open a kitchen or dresser drawer. First technique: Press your left elbow against your side, like your elbow is pinned to your rib cage. Extend your left hand, palm facing up, and grip the handle of the drawer with your fingertips. Try to open the drawer with a "curling" motion of your fingers and wrist, using the muscles of your forearm. Second technique: This time keep your fingers relaxed and your wrist straight. Allow your shoulder joint to pivot and your elbow to swing freely. Try to open the drawer by dropping your elbow, using the muscles of your shoulder. Big difference, right?
ps A common rookie mistake, that prevents the elbow from dropping down and puts tension in the wrist, is using the left hand to support the neck of the bass. You should be able to take away your left hand, and the bass does not "neck dive." If you are currently using your left hand to hold the bass in playing position, then you should experiment with the length of your strap, and your sitting/standing posture, so that the bass is fully supported without involvement from the left hand.[/QUOTE
Thanks for the great advice! I'm going to keep this all in mind as I practice. There is so much advice here, I can't quote it all, but I am taking it all in and loving it all.
Tuesday I'm back to my regular teacher, and I am going to tell him that I want to learn great technique, and more important I want to have fun! I'm 37 years old, there won't be an exam at the end. I'm too old to chase the dream of being a rock star anyways! I honestly just love the sound of the bass, so hopefully he keeps that in mind. If he doesn't there is always another teacher willing to take my money!
Now that I'm not playing with the Viola, neck diving is not an issue. I've promised myself if I keep up playing for a year I'm going to get the most beautiful bass, and price won't be an issue, but making sure it's perfect for me looks wise and ergonomically will be the only issue.
Right now I'm subscribed to some great youtubers as recommended by you all, and I'm taking it all in. I've got my metronome, I'm working slowly, in front of my full length mirror, in short sessions and I'm concentrating on technique. I've got a point form list of suggestions on here, book marked some videos.
In other words I'm feeling better about it. I just gotta keep it fun! I'm too old for this not to be fun. If I can't use my pinky despite all my best efforts, I'm not going to stress out about it. If I am never a virtuoso, that's okay too. I started this journey because my husband has been learning guitar, and while he plays well, he can't keep a beat so I thought I'd put myself in charge of the counting stuff.
I'm going to have a talk with my instructor about my goals as well. I think that might help a lot. I think he usually teaches children who have rich parents who want their kid to be the next great thing.
Again thanks a lot for all the help and input. Now I just need to be able to play longer than five minutes at a time. But I've got lots of time to play ten times a day until I can play longer. It's like anything, these muscles haven't been used much in the last decade since I put down the violin, and those strings are so light compared to the bass.
I'm probably going to have to post another post about finding a travel bass. I'm planning a super long holiday and I want to keep playing!
I travel a lot. The best purchase I've made in years was the new short scale Fender Mustatang PJ. It's small, light (about 7 1/2 lbs) and sounds great!
It's not a question of authority, it's a question of what is known to work.Listen to THIS guy, he actually has a clue. Thanks, great post. I can tell you are a great fan of .. uhm, .. uh.. authority?
I am thinking I maybe should have gotten a short scale, although my hands are huge for a woman, up until now that has always been a point of shame for me actually. I was just happy to find a bass that had the strap that cleared my chest. If I can't get my fingers where they need to be I can always trade this bass in for another one. Unfortunately the people in the music store did as little work as possible in my search for a bass. As in they actively avoided helping me. At least I can trade the one I bought in for a loss. I'm beginning to understand their business model I think.
I was thinking that your hands are small, but if they are large, you are probably fine with a long scale, 34" bass. Tal Wilkenfeld does just fine with a standard jazz. In fact, you might look at some of her vids and dissect her technique; she uses a modified style where she uses both 3rd and 4th finger, and she plays a little flat-fingered, which makes sense for someone with smaller hands and shorter fingers. All of it is of course fine if that's what works. I seem to recall Tina Weymouth used a short scale, and there are a slew of folks suing shirt scale to good effect. Indeed, they are easier to play even for those of us with long fingers.
My own technique is a mishmash as well; it's an amalgum of Simandl, 1-finger-per-fret, and some of that guitar player pentatonic stuff. My thumb, however, is always on the back of the neck, never over the top. I do the claw/Simandl for the most part, but when I play funk and r and b, I play rather flat-fingered with the sides of my fingers muting the strings. But slap is a whole different thing because i want the strings to ring.
The point though, is to learn all of it properly so you can have option that keep your hands and wrists healthy while making great music.
My own technique is a mishmash as well; it's an amalgum of Simandl, 1-finger-per-fret, and some of that guitar player pentatonic stuff. My thumb, however, is always on the back of the neck, never over the top. I do the claw/Simandl for the most part, but when I play funk and r and b, I play rather flat-fingered with the sides of my fingers muting the strings. But slap is a whole different thing because i want the strings to ring.
The point though, is to learn all of it properly so you can have option that keep your hands and wrists healthy while making great music.
I know a clown who's a size 10 shoe and wears size 17.
Gotta have the right tools for the job.
Seriously. He's a real clown — does corporate events, kids shows; does juggling, stilt-walking, some magic...
Local female in the symphony has a big ol' bass; Linda Oh plays a regular-sized bass ... it's not the size of your instrument, it's how you use it — used in a safe ergonomic way and there won't be debilitating pain that makes the player give up the instrument altogether. Use a short-scale, use a long-scale — just use it in the most efficient time-proven way and if need be, you adapt that time-proven way to your own special needs if any.
Gotta have the right tools for the job.
Seriously. He's a real clown — does corporate events, kids shows; does juggling, stilt-walking, some magic...
Local female in the symphony has a big ol' bass; Linda Oh plays a regular-sized bass ... it's not the size of your instrument, it's how you use it — used in a safe ergonomic way and there won't be debilitating pain that makes the player give up the instrument altogether. Use a short-scale, use a long-scale — just use it in the most efficient time-proven way and if need be, you adapt that time-proven way to your own special needs if any.
Like most have said, you'll probably do fine with whatever bass you choose. I used a precision for over 40 years but then recently found that the medium scale (32 inch neck) fender jazz just feels better in every way. I wish I'd found one decades ago.
Sorry to overload you with more videos but I think that these ones are quite relevant to your situation...
Glad to hear that it's working out better for you.
Glad to hear that it's working out better for you.
Okay, so this is how I've got it down. My thumb in the back isn't "below the equator" but not wrapped around the top. I tried to follow the videos as best as I could. I'm still working to get my fingers to not look like a dying spider that has been crushed, but that will come. I have a video too, I've been taping myself a lot. I can't get all the fingers down at once all the time, but I can get the pinky in the action. Please be kind, I've only been doing this 6 days since my first lesson.
Any and all advice is welcomed! You guys are the best. Thanks in advance.
Okay, so how is my wrists and fingers? I'm working on getting my fingers on the strings at the same time, but for now it causes a horrible fret buzz unless I move lower on the neck.
I'd like to ideally keep my fingers down closer to the strings as well. I'm just happy I watched enough youtube videos to get my wrist somewhat straighter. I wish I could get that Scott guy to be my teacher. He's much less miserable than my teacher, and cuter.
That would be Binky Griptite...a phenomenal artist in his own right.
Okay, so how is my wrists and fingers? I'm working on getting my fingers on the strings at the same time, but for now it causes a horrible fret buzz unless I move lower on the neck.
I'd like to ideally keep my fingers down closer to the strings as well. I'm just happy I watched enough youtube videos to get my wrist somewhat straighter. I wish I could get that Scott guy to be my teacher. He's much less miserable than my teacher, and cuter.
It looks really a lot better than your starting pics. If your wrists feel comfortable and your thumb sits in the middle of the back of the neck and acts as your anchor to move your fingers you should do well. Fret buzz maybe due to not enough pressure on the string. As your fingers buildup strength you will find the buzz will happen less and less. Take your time, and welcome to the low end.
