BASS LEFT-HAND TECHNIQUE. WARNING - POTENTIAL CRIPPLING IGNORANT IDEAS about Playing the Elec. Bass: Everyone once in awhile there seems to be ignorant people who are always coming up ways to make money. BASS TECHNIQUE: never let someone con you into using pressure rolls and/or finger-tip technique to try to use all 4 fingers on the Elec. Bass for rock, pop, soul, blues etc. types of playing. You never use fingertips to play the Elec. Bass, nor the 3rd finger to any great extent. Why? Because the 1st finger has its own ligament, 2nd finger has its own ligament system too (and for those who think the thumb is a finger, no its a thumb, not your 1st finger), but the 3rd and 4th finger share the same ligament structure system, they are tied together that way. The 3rd finger is a weak finger compared to the 4th finger which has the whole side of the hand working with it (for the Elec. Bass which requires much more strength and different technique than guitar fingering....which I find somewhat humorous anyway.....rock and blues guitarists dont use 1-2-3-4 that guitar players have always used pre-rock anyway). IOW, many ignorant people are still trying to figure out ways of making money using ignorant and harmful techniques that actually can cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (use of the 3rd finger which turns your wrist sideways is the direct cause)....its OK to use your 3rd finger and not get CTS, but only in rare occasions using with 4th finger, and also in fast Jazz patterns, and never in place of the 4th finger....octaves should always be played with 1 and 4 fingers. The 3rd and 4th fingers want to work together, dont ever go against that, you too can be crippled up with CTS and require surgery and/or worse, be crippled up from even using the computer, turning your wrist sideways (and/or grabbing the bass neck with your wrist, even worse). I just had one fellow from Japan wanting to sell me on his fingering....good lord, another ignorant Non-Educator person crippling up bass players, thats all we need. Read on: >>>>>>>>>>>Left hand fingering, thumb and wrist placement are very important to place correctly to avoid all tenonitis and potential CTS problems. In my over 44 years of teaching the bass, none of my former students (some of whom are legendary pros in their own careers) have suffered CTS and/or tendonitis and Ive never had those problems either. Its vital to place the hand and use the thumb, wrist and fingers correctly to avoid problems. You should not hurt at all to play, and this includes jazz soloing. Unless you have extra-large hands, this technique should work for you: look at your hand and notice that the thumb is to the side of the index (1st) finger. As you start to finger the bass, place the thumb sort of in the middle of the neck, pointing slightly towards the nut, slightly in back of the fret where the 1st finger is laying in back of, almost on the fret. This is the way your thumb and index finger are built on your hand too. As you play up the neck (up means up in sound, towards the bridges), your left thumb will naturally fall in back of the 1st finger more and more the other way, so that by the time youre playing on the 9th or 10th fret, the thumb is maybe 2 frets lower than your index finger. This keeps the balance of the left hand even and unstressed. If youre playing with your thumb in the middle of your hand, please change that form of playing. Its the wrong way to play elec. bass and in time will cause CTS and tendonitis in your wrist and arm - its unnatural and strains the hand, wrist and arm. While very large-handed people can sometimes finger the bass like a guitar (John Clayton was blessed with large hands and could easily and in a relaxed manner finger 1-2-3-4), most people have just normal to small hands and should start to finger the bass 1-2-4-4, sometimes assisting the 4th finger with the 3rd laying on top of it. The 3rd and 4th fingers share a ligament structure and as such the 3rd finger is your weak finger altho it is a long finger (this according to physical therapists, doctors, and chiros). Your 4th finger has the muscles on the side of your left hand to support it and the balance of playing the wide-fretted bass is fine between the 1st, 2nd and 4th fingers most of the time for rock (jazz is another picture, more on that later) with the thumb stationary, your fingers together and moving so your thumb pivots to allow that to happen - the strong, safest, fastest, and most-efficient way to play - its the natural way to play, utilizing the natural strength and dexterity of your left-hand and fingers. Practice going chromatically up the neck: O 1 2 4 4 while holding the thumb in the same position slightly behind the 1st fret, it will pivot to thrust the final 4th finger up -- Keep your left wrist hanging down naturally (dont force it down) from the neck, never grabbing the neck - that would eliminate any real use of your fingers to do it wrong like that. Take your fingers with you as a group, dont let that 1st finger lay down and stay there once youve played a note with it - take it with the rest of the fingers -- the upright bass fingering (and also the guitar fingering) doesnt work on the elec. bass which has its own fingering and hand position technique. Play with each finger individually while using the stationary thumb as your pivot. Your thumb is your home base (not your first finger) and the thumb will thrust the hand up while keeping your place on the neck. Do your chromatic exercise on every string 1-2-4-4-O of the next string etc. Now youre winding up on B on the G string. Change the position of your thumb and put the thumb slightly behind the 2nd fret (where your 1st finger will land while going down the neck) and finger from B on down 4-2-1-1, going past your thumb 1 fret, then O open G string. Dont move your thumb. Then on the D string finger the same thing: 4-2-1-1-O, then on the A string and E string, so forth. This gets you used to the slight pivoting action your hand should be doing going down the neck. There will be times youll use the 3rd finger in rock yes, like below the high Root jumping down a string on the same fret, to the 5th below (3rd and 4th fingers working together, like theyre naturally built) and a few other opportune times like that (playing Root with 1st finger, 5th with 3rd finger and on to the 10th with the 2nd finger on the G string, it all fits). You want to avoid (totally) the substituting of the 3rd finger for the 4th. NEVER play octaves with 1 and 3 fingers, always play octaves with 1 and 4, those are the correct fingers. You wont ever get hurt with this correct fingering and technique. You want to avoid using the 3rd finger playing rock, soul, pop etc., if you play with the 3rd finger, look at your wrist. You will find your wrist turning sideways to accomodate the habitual use of the 3rd finger (direct cause of CTS). This causes you to also use other muscles in your hand that you shouldnt be using, plus your hand and wrist will suffer consequences of doing this over and over and then after awhile, your arm and shoulder will be so involved with pain playing this way. Youre then setting up some bad chronic physical problems. Its best to use the natural strength of the thumb with the balance of the strongest fingers of your left hand: 1-2-4. Now when youre doing your arpeggios and some other kinds of light fingerings (the individual pressure of each finger is not playing quite as hard), its OK to use the 3rd finger, just never in place of the 4th tho. I always use the 3rd finger when playing bebop jazz soloing on the bass but carry the stance (continually) of the 1-2-4 as the total strength of the hand. I never use the 3rd finger a lot in the heavy playing of rock/funk patterns and soloing. Once in awhile you can use your fingers stretched out for a short time when playing fast rock patterns for a short time...usually you never play with stretched fingers (use your thumb pivot) sometimes in certain patterns sometimes yes, its OK for a short time to play with stretched fingers. Just keep in mind if you keep doing this long, then it will cause severe physical problems, tendonitis, etc.). Some teach terrible technique on some videos and DVDs, crippling techniques that have hurt players -- those people have suffered some things they will never tell you about, and those exercises are WRONG. I know musicians who have had surgeries, never to play again following those awful crippling techniques. You should never suffer any pain or cramping to play -- if you do, you are doing it wrong. Use your thumb as a pivot, and keep your fingers grouped together (they should be in their most-relaxed state then) as you play and youll easily play safely and have stamina and energy all night long then. Minimal warm-up is advised by pressing each finger against the left thumb for a few seconds before you play should be sufficient. You probably want a playing warmup too, try doing a diminished run or two on the neck. Actually,the pressing of each finger is enough tho to be safe physically with for good warmup. If youre coming in from cold snowy weather, warming up your hands with hot water also helps. Utilizing the thumb pivot is your most natural great left-hand technique which accesses more notes easily without the work out or losing your place on the neck. Try playing a whole pattern without shift, only taking advantage of long notes, rests, and shifting at the end (not during) the long pattterns. You can also take advantage of the occasional open string to gain time to shift too. Knowing when to shift is also very critical in playing smooth, having a lot of energy, without the work, and sounding good too. Knowing how to use your thumb as a pivot, have your fingering system together as well as your shifting moments together, makes sight-reading easy then. Sight-reading music is 1/2 knowing how to finger, and shift. In the key of C, play the notes of a C9 chord like this ---- R 5th b7 9th with this fingering: 1 4 1 4, taking your fingers with you when playing the 9th with the 4th finger as youre leaving the thumb in one spot (it will twist a little, thats pivoting), then the following notes on the G string: b7th 7th 8th 1-2-4. Play this a few times to get used to the pivoting. For those of you who dont know your chordal tones yet, the notes are (going up in sounds): C G Bb high D, then down to Bb B C. This should help you. Also, you can play the basic triad R 3 5 with the fingers 2 1 4 but youll slightly move back (without moving your thumb!) to get the 1st finger -- this becomes automatic, its OK to move down past your thumb a little, but you can move up many many frets while keeping your thumb stationary in its pivoting stance. You also keep your place very well with this technique while reading music. The player who moves his wrist and whole hand and thumb around continually without using the thumb as a pivot is working too hard, and over-using their hand, wrist, and arm extensively. There is no need for this. Just follow the above steps and youll be fine. With the extra-large hands, probably practicing fingering 1-2-4-4 also below the 5th fret would be a good idea. Then use the 1-2-3-4 in rock hard patterns above the 5th fret - this will fit your hand but be sure to use your thumb as a pivot regardless of the fingerings you use. It will not only save you from any physical problems but will extend your accurate playing, and subconciously open up more creativity ideas as your fingering-ear connections get going with this extended way of playing while avoiding needless physical problems. For any questions, please email me. Carol Kaye carol@carolkaye -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Added 8/9/06 The Electric Bass seems like a very easy instrument to play and it is for awhile. But...so many just pick up the bass and start playing it with no idea of the technique that they really need in order not to get hurt playing this big guitar...first of all, its not a guitar, even tho it has a neck with frets on it and sort of a shape like a guitar. The similarity ends there. The pressure it requires, plus the angle of the hand (dictated by the shape of the bass and long neck, all first designed by Feddy Tavares when he worked for Leo Fender in designing the first Fender Precision bass), plus the weight of the neck that continually has a gravity problem (most of the early necks were neck-heavy, pulling down all the time requiring you to hold them up = extra pressure), this will make someone play it at first with poor technique. You can get by with bad Left Hand technique if you only play 1-2 hours a week. But for everyone else, youll slowly start having aches pains and eventually suffer from either a nagging painful condition or worse, some tremendously bad physical problems because of bad playing techniques. Dont do it. Its so easy to get your playing technique in a correct way - you can easily learn not only the safe technique but its the fastest and most-efficient and easiest technique to learn. Do it right and youll never have problems- (unless you stand up and play with a heavy bass, thats another problem - nothing over 6 lbs doctors say but I think 8 lbs is OK. Sit down and play. Or get a lighter bass (the do sound good too!). Thankfully, most basses made lately have a more-balanced, if not perfect, neck so you dont have to expend much energy in holding up the neck. Most people think, including most of the current teachers out there, that you finger it like a guitar ie.: 1 finger per fret - wrong. Some teachers will erroneously put you through tortuous and wrong finger-stretching exercises which go against the way your left hand is built, causing tremendous crippling problems later on down the road. This can eventually even require you to have surgery....dont do it. Each finger has its own ligament EXCEPT the 3rd and 4th finger which share the same ligament structure. Dont try to stretch those fingers - youll hurt yourself. You can use them wisely with correct technique and fingering. First of all, be aware of how the 3rd and 4th finger are tied together in movement....this is the way your hand is - they sharing the ligament structure. Do not finger 1-2-3-4 on frets of the elec. bass (except maybe way up high past the 12th fret where your fingers really fit the frets without stretching). The size of the frets dicate a different fingering - do not put tension in your hand by stretching to play that neck...use fingering this way: 1-2-4-4 your 4th finger is actually stronger than your 3rd because it has the whole side of the hand to support it once you build up strength in all your fingers by pressing them individually against your thumb, the same strength you need to play on the bass neck. ALL carpal tunnel sufferers are/were people who fingered with their 3rd finger in place of the 4th finger - some to the point that they required wrist surgeries, and some of those never to play again. Look at your wrist when you finger with the 3rd finger, it turns sideways to accomodate the length of the finger, and that is the problem! Your wrist should remain flat, and not turn sideways in order to play the elec. bass neck.....That causes the carpal tunnel.....only in rare cases (like jumping down from the 4th to 3rd finger underneath on the same fret, root to 5th) can you use the 3rd finger safely. And of course, when youve gained in lessons and want to play jazz soloing which is very light in touch (no hard blues rock-funk playing), you can sometimes use 1-2-3-4, but never the 3rd finger in place of the 4th (always use your fingers 1 and 4 for octave playing). If you have extra-large hands yes, above the 8th fret you can safely start to finger 1-2-3-4 which fits the size of your hand.... Fingering and thumb-pivoting techniques are shown in-depth on the Bass DVD Course, the Music Reading DVD as well as also on the Teaching - Playing - Hangin DVD.....plus you can see pictures of the Left-Hand on pg. 2 of the Playing Tips pages (EDUCATION button on the website carolkaye ) also. Take your time and really get this technique which works with the bodys natural build and structure for excellent technique for safe, fast, and super-efficient ways of playing. Youll never get hurt, and youll play easily with the utmost speed and no-energy expense with the correct techniques. Just know that people who write books with unsafe terrible fingerings and non-pivots are not experienced teachers, nor have spent much time in the educational fields.....let alone be a top professional in live playing, or if they are, they have ghost-writers who dont know anything to teach you correctly. There are a couple of experienced players who wrote books with wrong fingers because they have extra-large hands and probably think everyone should finger like they do (wrong!). One well-known player even admitted to me he had someone write his book for him....hes got a few books out now, all written by someone else and of course everyone who follows his techniques is getting crippled up. Dont go along with the majority out there who teach technique wrong...youll pay for it with suffering and maybe even surgery. Ive taught over 5,000 students one-on-one and theyve had terrific playing careers, and none ever suffered from technique problems - as well as the 10s of 1,000s who follow the correct techniques from my tutors...others cant say that. Having the right strings helps too...the easy-playing dynamic powerful-sounding Thomastik Jazz Flats feel like silk and play easily for the greatest sounds and greatest response also. Be sure to get your Jazz flats at a huge discount (see ACCESSORIES in CATALOG on the website)....youll have the finest for years of trouble-free playing at the greatest of ease when you have both the correct playing techniques with the strings you love to play on and hear. -------------------------------------------------------------- May 2009. You only have a few fingerings marked in Games People Play in Elec. Bass Lines No 4....one message from an educator in the mid-west. An educator from out of state was seriously trying to reach me about position on elec. bass fingerings. I finally did get a chance to call her back as she has one prized student into Elec. Bass Lines No. 4 book and was having trouble with fingerings and especially, in her words position...and there were only a few fingerings in the book...... I had to explain to the teacher that no, you dont put *all* the fingerings down as then theyre looking at the fingerings and NOT the notes, and ...you dont need to put the fingerings of all the notes if the person has been trained in the correct fingering technique etc.etc.etc. and did the student have my Bass DVD Course course? no..... I also had to explain to the teacher that elec. bass is not with positions (she had to be thinking of the string bass, that you play the WHOLE neck, but yes, there are fingerings specifically to be used that are safe and predictable. She said she had all the best of the bass books out (she doesnt have my Bass Course at all, just a few books of mine) and yet couldnt figure out how to teach her student how to play Games People Play.....I stayed on the phone going over and over how critical it was to learn the proper fingering for the Elec. Bass (vs. Guitar, and vs. String - Upright Bass)...but she kept insisting that she needed positions for her student....oh well, I tried. I did have to remind her that all the so-called tutors on elec. bass out there are crap....and starting to lose patience at someone not really listening to me, I guess my bluntness wasnt gentle enough after the 10-15 minutes haggling on the phone...smile, maybe if I had said garbage instead of crap... ....I still dont know if she got it but hopefully with the information we sent her on the computer she might decipher what is true and what isnt true - if not I cant be concerned. I am posting this to say, it seems that bad and improper learning gets so ingrained, some cant handle the fact that what they learned to teach with is totally wrong, and will hurt the student, when its so easy to learn the proper and correct way to avoid not only injuries, but also to learn to play well, executing anything with ease, speed, efficiency and orthopedic and chiropractic approved to be the ONLY way to play the Electric Bass. The Fender Bass, mother of all basses, was designed and shaped in the start of the 1950s by a big large-framed man, Freddy Tavares (who worked for Leo Fender) - with the Fender Precision bass design, Freddy set the mode for the shape of the Elec. Bass. He set it on his left leg like a classical guitar and being 6 foot 4-5 inches was no problem for him.... he played 1 night a week, polka music, so you see he couldnt foresee the abilities of professional musicians using the Elec. Bass for other types of music playing. To see young men come to me for lessons and help when already crippled up and suffering greatly in their early 20s because they were taught the wrong left-hand technique on the Elec. Bass, which is common out there today with so many former guitarists, string bassists, and other naive people teaching wrongly, that is very sad to me. Theres no need to teach it wrong - its so easy to teach it correctly, but there again, theres many a naive and ignorant book writer, inexperienced teacher, inexperienced player trying to teach it like a guitar or a string bass, complete with strained stretched left-hand, and totally improper fingering....so much for those books - they are crap. It takes only 1 lesson from me and theyre so amazed as learning to finger correctly, using their left-hand correctly, immediatley cures up their crippling. DOING THE FINGERING CORRECTLY with the pivoting thumb is always the answer! And they go on their way, totally capable of playing their whole lives, fast, efficient and free of any pains or crippling while enjoying their musicians their WHOLE lives. No the Elec. Bass is NOT a string bass, played in positions...you dont use open strings on the Elec. Bass, it has better functions than the string bass for real notes, able to be heard too. The 2 are completely different instruments. Real music functions chordally, and you finger according to the chord (in general) and anyone can quickly learn the correct ways to use the left-hand and fingerings in order to play with speed, ease, efficiency, and correctly for hours each night....theres no need to suffer to play the Elec. Bass. As I explain to people, the Elec. Bass has its own successful technique, like no other instrument. I consider it totally criminal to see young musicians crippled up from the kinds of wrong and ignorant techniques so many so-called teachers try to teach the Elec. Bass with, when its so easy to do it right, just like sightreading too..........so many stick with old ways when the studio musicians way of sightreading is not only the quick-easy way, but the correct ways to learn how to sightread. Hopefully, teachers in the trenches will learn that maybe, just maybe they dont have it right and will learn to teach it correctly, including the all-important jazz theory which is necessary for learning pop music today. And Im proud to announce here that 100s of teachers out there using my materials, are doing just that, teaching technique correctly....hopefully we can have all young players playing without the fear of being crippled up from doing the thing they love to do: play music. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ L-H Fingerings worked: >>>>>>>>>You should use a fairly hard rubber ball to press the whole hand with (all the fingers at once) to put the balance back in the hand strength-wise as youve used that hand in a very wrong way for awhile - you need to undo that poor technique. This could help getting back the overall balance of strength again. If this continues to give you some problem however, please see a doctor on this, could be indicating something else that needs attending to (it might not be totally related to the bass and/or the past playing you did with the poor technique). Good luck, and happy that you have so vastly improved, its about time.....thanks for writing, Carol Kaye ---------- From: pe Carol... Just want to give an update. Earlier this year I had contacted you and corresponded with you concerning problems with my left hand..i.e. pain around the base knuckle of third finger and pains up into my left forearm, etc. You suggested I switch from the one finger-one fret left hand to the Symandel (sp?) method of reaching with the pinkey and backing it up with the third finger. I am still doing great, am playing alot more, with alot less pain! I find myself being able to relax while playing, now and am totally off of anti-inflammatories (was taking 800 mg of Ibuprofin as well as motrin). Thank you for your input...you have extended the career of this 60and 70s rocknroller for a little longer! By the way...my son (17 years old) is now playing in a jazz trio, a rocknroll band of his own and writing bass guitar solo compositions that are really mature pieces. It helps to have a composer in the family who loves the bass...you KNOW the bass guitar will get some sweet parts. Anyway...God Bless you...keep playing, and keep dishing out the advice. You are appreciated! P ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Carol, I just wanted to say THANK YOU!! I think youve saved my career. My thumb position was fine, and always has been thank God, but you were absolutely right about that 3rd finger. It does turn the wrist, and that was the SOLE problem! And the good news is, its not been nearly as difficult as I thought re-learning my LH technique. That number 3 still wants to join in sometimes, but for the most part Ive not had much trouble at all learning to use 1-2-4. And my forearm and hand pain are GONE! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Sincerely, Tony S ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Carol- Just wanted to tell you that in HOW TO DEVELOP ELECTRIC BASS PLAYING when you claimed that using the 3rd ring finger is a bad habit and that prolonged or consistent use would cause problems-YOU WERE RIGHT! Ive played both rock and jazz styles and utilized my 3rd finger extensively for 20+ years and after reading your tips IM A BELIEVER! I have pain in my left arm tendons from overuse of my weakest finger all these years. It took me a few minutes to get used to your fingerings and unlearn my traditional or ignorant ways. I have come to the conclusion that your method works better for ascending chromatically or back up the neck. I am a Bass and Guitar insrtuctor-so now Im gonna preach Carol Kayes Method to all my Bass students. Thank you so much for the continued creative inspiration youve had on me for so many years and so many killer basslines. Best Regards- Dave Instructor/Studio Musician/Bassist-Rainbow Bridge (a tribute to Jimi Hendrix) Heres a pic of me rocking out in my prime (mid to late 80s) at a college party. Do you see thtr absolutely horrid 3rd finger technique-ugly and bad for stamina!!!!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Carol, I got the info you sent on Saturday. While I cant say that I managed to follow it to the letter, I managed to pick up enough of it in time to help myself get through a couple of hours of jamming that night -- with NO PAIN!! I still need to retrain my fingers to get the fretting down pat given their new orientation, but Im working on it. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Steve
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:00:31 +0000
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