Smart Right Hand Fingering

You know, correct finger to use, though. Well, the thing is, is that you want to get it to where you don't have to think about it. Yeah, right. But it also is important to know that you don't have to alternate on every single thing you do. In fact, I don't, when I'm actually just really playing. If I'm going from, let's say, the G string to the D string to the A string to the E string. Mhm. Right, now I'm going to do the bottom four on my bass, just cause for kind of technical, you know, hand stuff, it sounds different, but my hands operate the same as yours do on a four-string bass. If I operate the four bottom strings of my bass, it's going to sound different, but the hands will operate the same. So if I go from, let's say, what would be your G string, if I do like a one-two-one-two, what I'm normally going to do is when I go to the A string I'm going to go a two-one-two-one, and then one-two-one-two, whatever I end up, when I rake down each time, because generally, when I play, as I go to the next string down, I just rake down to it. The point is, is that you want to develop the control to where, if you don't want to do that for some reason, that you're able to control it, which is why it's necessary to practice at first alternating on everything that you do, is just to get the control in. It's not that alternating on every single note you play is some huge significant thing, it's just something that you want to be able to turn on, right, you know, if you need to. No, that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. All right, so, you know, like I said, if you find yourself doing it, just like playing around a little bit and not alternating every time, and just, like, raking when you go from a higher string to a lower string, you know, if you rake down for that one time, it's perfectly okay. But you should be able to not do that if you want to, that's the thing. And that's why you also want to practice doing these exercises starting with different fingers, like, do an exercise with an alternation sequence of one-two-one-two-one-two, and then also do it with an alternation sequence of two-one-two-one. Yeah, that's really hard too, you know. Yeah, so that if you do get twisted up, it doesn't completely blow you out of the water. Right, so let's say if I'm doing four notes per string, now, are you going to, you said you're not adopting the floating thumb, is that correct? Correct. So you're not going to do that. Right, okay. So, but just as far as the alternation sequence goes, all right, it'll be one-two-one-two, then go the next string up, one-two-one-two, one-two-one-two, one-two-one-two, one-two-one-two, one-two-one-two, up and down several times like that. That's exercise number one, four notes per string. Then you want to go back and do it again, two-one alternation, and you notice I'm counting two-one-two-one and one-two-one-two by vocalizing this, this helps lock in your alternation. Two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one-two-one. Where's the right hand, is your arm resting on the bass? Yeah, it is. Oops, it is, sorry. Right, now I don't, you know, no matter what muting technique you use, keep that arm off the bass. That's like huge. I mean, I don't care if you play with your toes, keep your, okay, keep that arm off the bass, because you're putting pressure on those veins, taking blood out of the hand. That's just not going to help you at all. Gotcha. I know it's comfortable, but it's really. Yeah, right. Two-one. All right, now look at your fingers when you're playing a one-two alternation, do you notice some curve in your fingers, like a slight curve this way? Um, my fingers are mostly straight, I think. Okay, I guess, having a little bit of consistent curve in the fingers is good, it adds strength to the finger, because you don't want your joints to buckle backwards as they go over the string. Yeah, it's a little bit of a curve. Okay, so keep that as consistent as you can as you go from string to string. Okay, try not to reach, see, what you want to avoid is you don't want to have your hand in one place and end up reaching to the higher strings with the fingers. Mhm, okay. All right, try not to reach it, let the hand either move this way, okay. If you're going to do a fixed anchor and have your hand in one place, then let it move this way. If you're going to do a movable anchor, then just, you know, let it move like that. One thing about it is that, as you're pulling, keep your arm off the bass. Let's, I know, I just caught myself right before you caught it. Let that be something that we definitely do, all right. As far as the picking of the fingers, try to keep the finger joints from buckling backwards. Can you see this? I can. You know, like, if this were the string, right, and if my finger's picking the string, I don't want it to buckle backwards as it goes over the string, because the energy of that pull dissipates out of the joint. If you keep those joints stiff and let the fingers, or the strings, slide out from underneath the finger, because the joints of the fingers are stiff, then you're getting twice the power into the string with less effort. All right, so as you're doing this right-hand exercise stuff, minimize the amount of motion that the hands actually move, you know, I mean, regardless of what you're doing with the thumb, or fixed anchor, or whatever. Right, can you see my right hand clearly? I can. So notice that the fingers just almost look like they're just gliding over the top of the string, you know, touching them the whole way. Mhm, you see that? Yeah, I see it. I mean, it's just very little excess motion. Yeah, it's a very efficient motion. Yeah, cause as soon as you start going, yeah, you know, all that distance of going out that far and back down is going to cost you, timing-wise, when you start playing faster. Mhm.