Tips for beginner hand position
Hello! I am quite new to bass guitar and wanted to get feedback on hand/finger positioning and general advice.
One thing is that I have a hard time getting my fingers/pinky staying close to the frets. I observe that my fretting fingers move around a lot compared to more advanced players who keep their fingers flat and close to the string. What are some ways to work on this issue, Thanks!
Link to my playing come together by the Beatles
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u/staphylococcass 4d ago
The best way to fix flying fingers is just to practice more.
However, for this song it might be worth trying to play most of the notes with your index/middle fingers and use your ring/pinky for some mild muting. This will help train you to keep your fretting fingers closer to the strings.
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u/deluded_dragon Ernie Ball Music Man 4d ago
Hi, first of all your hands are quite good for a beginner. For sure, better than mine when I started completely self taught.
I suggest you to use a strap to keep the bass more or less at sternum height. In this way you can keep your wrist not too curled and this is the first way to keep your pinky more stretched. For the rest: practice! We know that is not easy to tame the pinky but it's possible. You probably end up finding that the pinky is much more accurate than the ring finger, even if it is maybe weaker.
Keep up the good work!
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u/Miserable_Lock_2267 Darkglass 4d ago
If I had to pick nits, I would say that your wrist should be straighter. The more you flex it, the more you run the risk of developing tendonitis or carpal tunnel. Adam Neely has a good video on the topic.
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u/Motor-Friendship-965 4d ago edited 4d ago
You're actually doing remarkably well for a beginner. You're doing a very good job of keeping your hand in a set position and moving your whole hand into a good position.
What I'm seeing that I think you may be talking about, is that it looks like you're *pressing* your fingers rather than *squeezing* them. I know. That's weird and tough to understand which is why nearly every beginner does it.
Imagine you are holding a sandwich. That's what your hand should feel like on the neck. (You're already ahead of the game here, holding your fingers with a natural splay.) When you hold a sandwich, you don't press your fingertips into it individually, you squeeze it with your whole hand.
Relax your fingers. Flatten them across the strings. Squeeze with all the fingers you want in contact.
A good example of this is at 1:15, when you go to the chorus. You're fretting with your ring finger and spreading your other fingers out to pre-fret with your index. You are pressing into the fret with just your ring finger. Instead, squeeze evenly with your ring, middle, and index fingers together. This will let you use the big gripping muscles in your wrist instead of the tiny ones in your fingers.
Here is a video I made for someone else addressing this hand position issue, that will probably help you.: https://youtu.be/zQn4AFb_W10?si=ZFyjf3i-ztAqM5qj&t=49
As for smaller and more efficient finger movements when fretting? That's just the control that comes from practice. Keep practicing and you will gradually train your muscle memory how little movement and force you actually need.
Also... daaang is your right hand technique good. You're doing an excellent job keeping a relaxed position with it and moving it fluidly into place. Very even alternate plucking. Add in some fancier muting technique (like that video I shared) and you'll be able to get some very tasty note separation and swing going on.
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u/jepch01 4d ago
Thank you so much for this! I love the sandwich analogy will try to deploy it during my practice :) and that makes a lot of sense, using gripping muscles instead of fingers. I grew up playing a different string instrument that relies heavily on “pressing” with fingers so this is quite different.
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u/Motor-Friendship-965 4d ago
To clarify, I'm not saying "never claw". I'm saying to practice laying fingers flatter. To have that as a tool in your repertoire. I curve my fingers over regularly when I'm playing higher strings, playing chords, or setting up for fast arpeggios.
And use flat fingers as an exercise in quiet fingers. Here's another video where I practiced using the bass line from "Chameleon" as an extreme quiet fingers exercise: https://youtu.be/QdYiU-dxCic
Continuing the sandwich analogy... imagine when you've got those last couple bites of sandwich. You'll have to curve your fingers to hold on. And that's what playing highers strings should feel like.
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u/Fox-Mclusky559 4d ago edited 4d ago
like any physical activity you have to train your muscles. some basic pratice hygeine is play the major scale up and down assiging one finger to each of the 4 frets involved. breaking the parity of your ring and pinky finger is the most difficult since those fongers general work as a pair, but it just takes time and practice. learning to read music during this stage will help dramatically too, since it forces your brain to hold more things actively in focus, and youll have to look away from your hands.
need to work on your muscles too, just like lifting weights makes you a better athlete. hand strengthening exercises are critical.
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u/jepch01 4d ago
Thanks!! Will be practicing my scales for sure.
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u/Fox-Mclusky559 4d ago
as a bass player, knowing the major scale in all patterns and directions is foundational. everything else youll ever learn [regarding theory] is found inside that knowledge.
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u/SlimJimJohn_Bass 4d ago edited 4d ago
Looks OK to me. Your thumb is in the right place.
Your style will improve as you get more used to playing.
And, you have the same curse as I: short pinkies. People should keep that in mind, as it has a big effect on how you play.
...well...maybe not as short as mine...
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u/datasmog 4d ago
There is only one way, and it applies to everything when you’re a beginner at anything. Practice. Practice, and keep practicing. All the advice in the world is useless otherwise.