It's kinda funny. We argue 124 v 1234, with many explaining that 124 is due to the traditions of the upright. What no one mentions that above the 12th on a string, upright players use T123. Surprise, surprise. You need all your fingers.
Very true Joe, but it is a side issue of function.
Again this is a DB technique due to the design and constraints of the instruments design. The fact is the Bass Guitar (BG) is seen as a development of DB not guitar.
DB design originates in the 15th century, with the materials available, to designs that were about the sound to size ratio of the pitch, but was its origins in Viola or violin?
Lower pitch needs thicker strings, thicker strings need more tension, more tension needs bigger and strong neck joints, bigger neck joints need a larger heal joint, larger heal joint needs a bigger body to fix to, and a larger body helps amplify and define a lower pitched sound.
So the techniques to play one develop from the need of the instrument, not the player. DB players would have had very similar physical similarities because they compliment the functionality needs to play the instrument, players that did not have these physical would be discouraged
from taking up the instrument and moved to another better suited.
This also saw players better suited to playing DB being encouraged to take it up, even players being switched to DB to fill a gap in an orchestra or ensemble.
Due to its size DB required the player to have the height, arm length, and hand size to handle the instrument, so the age of the player starting the instrument was older, because the older the player the bigger the player.
Through out its history the size of the strings and the tensions needed meant techniques develop to play the instrument as the music expanded and became more demanding.
The Simandl 124 is just one of these, it comes from an era of large instruments, no amplification, and overwound gut strings and targeted the players need.... not the instruments.
So it had a relevant use, but string development is tied very closely to what techniques need to be developed, the modern DB can use low tension steel strings with a core, this allows better tone producing and volume, it can be amplified in a number of ways, so it again can be EQ'd for tone or turned up for volume.
But with the development of the electric bas guitar came the opportunity for those not physically suited to playing bass to play bass guitar.
Those that were bass player just moved there techniques to it as it was heard to be a bass but seen as a guitar. In the early years of Fender basses in the 50's/60s and due to there popularity the electric bass was called a Fender bass rather than a bass guitar or electric bass, the name Fender was associated an over all concept of the instrument.
This led to trained experienced DB player switching and bring what they learned on a DB to the instrument, it also had guitarists bringing what the learned to the instrument. But the romantic idea of how a DB player who was a bassist developed over the practical idea of the guitarist playing bass guitar. More emphasis was being placed on the "bass" function of the instrument rather than the "guitar function of the instrument.
Ironic then that a pick was the preferred way to record and play for many, in fact the functionality of recording was a pick. There were exceptions to this, Jamerson was one, but why the single hook finger??....well any DB player will answer that.
The main difference in technique is 'plane'.
A DB is vertical to play (or up-right) and the guitar is more horizontal based. So in terms of how the hand can work are different, finger and thumb placement work more consistent in the vertical plane than the horizontal, because our own body design and body mechanics favour a vertical plane (evolution had use climbing up and down as the main function of our needs). The wrist, elbow and shoulder can hold and maintain vertical planes more consistent, the muscles that service this can do so with less strain, the closer our limbs are to our bodies the less strain is put on them.
The problem with bass guitar over guitar is the over all length, basses are longer to produce the tone, but that design was back when the technology did not exists that we have today to provide tone, but the romantic idea over came the practical idea.
Players seem to think that if a smaller scale bass is better suited to them then it in someway reduces their worth as a player.
It is like the old British Class System of lower, middle and upper class has developed with the reference being short, medium, and long scale.
If you play a short scale bass you are perceived to be lacking for some reason. This leads player to choose instruments ill suited to them and leads to taking longer to master the physical side of techniques and of course injuries.
Ask yourself this if you were 5'6" would you but a suit for a 6'6" person?
If the answer is no then why by a bass that does not fit and compliment your needs?
DB instruments have remained relatively un-changed since there inception in the 15th century, so they have had hundreds of years to allow the development of ideas and techniques. More has happened to this instrument in the last sixty odd years than ever happened in the centuries before because technology and function fuelled the need for change.
Bass guitar (BG) has only really seen its needs and functions change within the last twenty or so years. We are seeing the results of what those early long term players are suffering in the ways of injuries, so CTS, Rotor Cuff, Lower Back, Upper Back, Shoulder, hearing etc are there to examine, look for cause, and re-define techniques and use.
With the new technologies available, BGs are lighter, easier on the touch, better amps and pick ups means no need to pluck hard or strain for volumes, better strings mean better playing actions, and companies like, Torzal Guitars, bring radical new designs such as the 'Torzal Twist' to the fore.
But all this means nothing if you have a teacher or school that wants to remain entrenched in 'tradition' and not employ new ides and new teachings in music.
Science it seems will explore and develop new ideas, but when i visit music schools or collages there music department do not have a R&D programme.
They do not look at or explore that what they are teaching is viable, or if there is a better way, they only teach what they themselves were taught...whether it was right or wrong. There budgets do not allow for this, so it is the manufacturing industry does this work, but there job is to sell ideas that are profitable, not always functional.
So in the end whether you adopt a 1234 or a 124 use will be debated as futilely as French or German bow, pick or finger, gut strings or metal strings, roundwound or flatwound, standard DB or Cut away DB, Precison or Jazz, 4/4 or 3/4 size, short scale or long scale, five string over four string etc etc and so it will go on.
But the good player knows what works for them, the romantic notions of other or the promotional material of companies does not matter to them. As experience develops so does techniques and needs and as such so does the information we can draw on to study and compare.
Such information becomes valid, information that in playing BG there are many levels of functionality because there are many levels of physically demanding music. What we do accept now more than before is the idea of a floating thumb, straighter wrists, a neutral thumb, posture, strap thickness etc....all these things were not of importance in the past, but now are being understood more as to how they fit in with modern use and needs.
As i said in this debate 124 or 1234?
Look at it this way develop the less strenuous one first, tone, condition the hand to deal with it and you will find that the more original more strenuous one is not such an issue.
The only factor in this is time, so the art of playing or the romantic notion of playing comes in.
Can i play 1234 from the start....sure you can, but can you maintain it though out your life?......only you will answer that question and only you will carry the consequences of it.
Common sense is you just do not go and run a marathon because you can run, you develop the ability to cope better with the stress and strain running a marathon puts on you. You start easy and build into it.
See 124 as the easy and 1234 as the objective, mix and match them, 1234 is less strenuous the closer the frets are together.....funny that is also where the arm comes closer to the body, the hands joints better line up, the elbow come to the side, the whole body gets into a more relaxed and stronger position to cope.
Think, why is it more stressful in the lower reaches of a bass that is horizontal than one that is vertical?
The angle of the neck can be a big factor as can set up and instrument, so again 124 or 1234 only you can decide what is for you.
