What caused you to change your technique?

[dbsfgyd1]

Hearing what you played on a professional recording. It doesn't lie or make excuses. Can be a BIG wake up call on how you play, strings and sound in general. Live recordings ( Gigs ) can revel at lot, on playing to much / fast
or not holding the pocket with the drummer. Using a pick can change that Mojo on different types of music. Playing the neck with ur thumb vs the bridge with heavy fingers. A learning process that's endless.

RE: Gig Recordings

These are the best way to find out how effective you are as a musician. We record all gigs in both bands I’m in. CDs are passed out within a day or two for review. These really help the BLs decide on what to work on at rehearsal.

These recordings are also a great way to settle band disputes as grievances are no longer based on personal opinion, it’s a recorded fact.

Digital Pocket Recorders are not that expensive. I set mine up on a cheap camera stand my X-daughter-in-law was throwing out. The recorder threads on just like a camera. I just set it up between me and the drummer and pointed towards the monitor in front of the band.

Finally, if you really got guts, take videos with a good digital camera if you can find a safe place to set it up, like at a mixing console. The audio is acceptable, and the video really points out just how entertaining your significantly inebriated singer was, or the drummers girl friend throwing a beer at him for salivating at a babe dancing in the front wearing a very LBD.

 

[Funky Phantom]

When I was a kid, and just started playing, I never used my pinky on my fretting hand.
I played that way for a few years, until I learned The Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy.
It forced me to use my pinky. Now, when I hear stuff I played then, I can’t believe I was
able to play it! There’s no way I could do it now without my pinky!

 

[deckstirparnell]

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from playing 5-7 nights a week, every week for 18 years with my strap too high. Lowered it a couple of inches after surgery (both hands) and all has been good since then.

 

[aekisz]

Writing tunes on bass has caused me to see how much diversity of sound I can create with my fingers. So I do all kinds of things with fingernails, muting, double stops, etc to create some variety to my tone without resorting to pedals (right away). It’s all so my songs don’t sound all the same. I have yet to u see much flat picking though. I’ve tried, I just don’t care for it.

 

[31HZ]

Taking lessons from Dave LaRue in the 90's. His first instruction to me was "no raking," and it was revolutionary.

Thanks for that (though I had found similar exhortations of yours via searching on this topic). My 11yo son is about a month into playing bass and he is already raking, ha! I taught him a simple major scale, and his practice assignment this week is to play it with alternating only -- no raking.

To answer his sincere "why is this important?" questions, I offered my own observations about how hard it was to take automatically when alternating would facilitate speed and accuracy, but I'm not sure he sees it. Maybe I'll have him post up here.

 

[brianrost]

Was there some event that happened in your bass playing past that forced you to adjust your technique?

I had trouble playing come songs while others were effortless. I finally went to a teacher, played him the songs I was having issues with and asked him what was wrong. His answer was string muting and he taught me the floating thumb method.

I went back to him when I started seriously gigging on DB. After 2 gigs I knew I was in trouble and started studying proper DB technique.

 

[Koshchei]

Taking lessons from Dave LaRue in the 90's. His first instruction to me was "no raking," and it was revolutionary.

Amen to that! Raking has a musical place, but should not be part of a person's "core" technique because it only works one way.

 

[roccobass]

I started using Simandl fingering 124. At some point much of the music I was playing was very fast and technical, and it seemed obvious that using one finger per fret (OFPF) would be beneficial.
Adding strings required me to forget and relearn a lot of automated playing processes. It was very confusing at first to try and deal with the extra string, and it degraded my playing to some degree for an extended time. I would sometimes get lost on the finger board and not have a clue were I was. Early in the transition, it would take a few seconds to recover......

.....My advice. Start on whatever instrument you plan to end on; I.E. starting on 4-string with the idea of transitioning to 5-string or 6-string later, is a lot harder and frustrating than it sounds. A lot of people never successfully make the transition. If you want to eventually play 5-string or 6-string, better to start on whichever you want to play, rather than enduring a painful and unnecessary transition.

Throughout my career I also performed regularly on upright bass using Simandl fingering. I play both jazz and classical styles. I originally viewed upright and electric bass as similar in many ways, but now they seem like very different instruments. The way I play them each instrument requires a totally different system of fingering and shifts.

I agree. This is pretty much what I’ve been saying myself. I would also add different genres may require adjustments to technique(I.e: muting, slapping etc) as well as “where” you place your locomotive hand. Up by the neck for a more meatier sound or down by the bridge for a more metallic edge. Changing your strap level too affects technique. (I prefer it high. I get more dexterity). regarding the upright and fretless bass. Been primarily an electric fretted for 40 years. Both fretless and upright are different bass animals. They have helped my approach immensely. I am now more precise. Plus, it’s fun as well as a change of pace. That always good. One really major change was my ability to apply the fretless slide technique to my fretted and do it well.

 

[groooooove]

good teachers and necessity are the only things that drove my technical abilities forward.

 

[Jakeman]

Carpal tunnel is real, folks.

 

[Leonid Nidis]

I was a pick player mostly,got really good but finger style was bad(didnt know how bad).
I went to a teacher he asked me play fingerstyle...his reaction was basically face plam
We spent time working on that,sometimes i would just pluck one note changing angles and hitting with different finger area and listen to the difference it made.
Now I am happy with the sounds I can get from any bass.

 

[Valvehead]

When I started playing in the early nineties, I was a huge Les Claypool fan and taught myself Slapping, tapping, playing chords etc. All on a fretless.

But I always also was a big fan of Chris Squire's tone and playing.

It wasn't until some four or five years ago I finally taught myself how to use a pick properly and it has opened up a whole new world to me. Just wow. I come up with completely different lines now as the emphasis is more on melody. My vocabulary on the bass is now much larger.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

Many of us developed some bad technique as beginners. Some of us have cleaned up our act, so to speak.

Was there some event that happened in your bass playing past that forced you to adjust your technique?

Carpal tunnel issues followed by surgery. It shot me down for years. Once I was able to play again, I changed my hand angles, where the bass hangs, and now play with a much lighter touch.

 

[PWRL]

Tendinitis

 

[jnuts1]

I tore the ligaments in my plucking hand and could not open my index and middle finger. I could close my hand but not open it back up. I had to switch to a closed fist thumb, middle and index plucking but my hand is closed. very similar to Dominique dipiazza and Matt garrison. its taken years to become comfortable and its still not quite back to what my traditional 2 finger style used to be.

 

[bearfoot]

Recognizing that my hostile over-reaction to slap technique was borne of jealousy. I'd go on the typical rants about people in guitar stores, and cherry-picked examples of excessive slap - but never mention that I can't do it, and very much wanted to be one of the cool kids that could lay in a few bars of tasty slap to audience appeal.

I'd say it was the performer-audience relationship, at its core. Being in one of those moments (slap fill) that you know would please them greatly, and not being able to deliver. I'm still not particularly good at it, but wanting to scratch that itch took me on a journey that smashed a former plateau, and slapping ended up only a component of it.

 

[bassdude51]

A big changer for me was when I bought an MIJ '51 P Bass. I had no place to anchor my thumb because I was afraid of resting it on that frail little pickup and breaking it.

So the MIJ '51 taught me to use the floating thumb method which I now do with any and all basses. I rest my thumb on the E string until I have to use the E string and then I float my thumb and go back to resting on E after I am done. It's all automatic now and I don't even think about my hand or thumb.

 

[darwin-bass]

I have a few events.

1. Got an acoustic bass guitar. No pickup so I had to learn to float the thumb.
2. Transition to 5 string and learning to mute that pesky extra string.
3. Playing in a performance band (vs my normal worship band gig).
4. Learned some music theory.
5. Moved to guitar for a few years - Learned to play with a pick.
6. Recording and hearing yourself on playback. :-(

 

[iiipopes]

As a high school jazz band bassist, my tone was going plink, plink, plink. My band director showed me proper right hand technique derived from classical pizzacato, and well, the rest is history.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

Many of us developed some bad technique as beginners. Some of us have cleaned up our act, so to speak.

Was there some event that happened in your bass playing past that forced you to adjust your technique?

It wasnt a specific event that triggered me or anything that someone pointed out, its usually something I already know or that bugs me,like flying fingers. It's almost always my strive to get faster or to play easier. I remember in the very begining my teacher was very strict about alternating strokes( picking:up& down;and plucking: index& middle) I got ingrained into my playing, so it really bugs me when i see someone who doesnt or that has bad technique! yeah,I'm a technique snob! I also work on left hand technique too.I try not get too caught up in "fixing" things unless, they're things that are hindering my playing!